Speech #920180459

In other words. the Constitution. as Interpreted in the case of South Carolina against Katzenbach. is adjudged. in effect. to provide that Congress has the right to make as many different varieties of States as there are varieties of anxious people. Well. I thought that decision was pretty bad. but that same act contained a provision that outlawed the literacy test of the State of New York. which required that any person. to be qualified to vote in any election. Federal or State. in New York. shoud be literate in the English language. and so. to enfranchise people who spoke Spanish who had come from Puerto Rico. Congress put an amendment in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which nullified the State literacy test of New York. which had been adjudged valid by the courts. and which was shown by the case of Lassiter against Board of Electors of Northampton County. N.C.. to be in perfect compliance with the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Congress not only did that. but it established another law in place of the New York literacy test. which New York clearly had the right to establish under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment because it applied in like manner to all the people in New York. The court held that Congress not only could nullify a valid law of the State. but that it could pass a law to take its place. which Congress was forbidden to pass by the second section of the first article. the first section of the second article. and the 17th amendment. That was going pretty far.