Illiterate people may be intelligent voters. Yet in our society where newspapers. periodicals. books. and other printed matter canvass and debate campaign issues. a State might conclude that only those who are literate should exercise the franchise. While this decision looked only to that portion of the North Carolina statute which called for a literacy test and did not address itself to the requirement that it be in the English language. it is appropriate in case of individuals literate only in a foreign language. Citizens trained in a language other than English in Americanflag schools are no different than children born in the United States who are taken from this country in their childhood and who return later. literate only in a language other than English. If the proponents are to be consistent. must they not allow such persons to vote. also?
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literacy test