Speech #920215959

The Morgan Cases (Nos. 847 and 877). These cases involve the same New York suffrage restriction discussed above. but the challenge here comes not in the form of a suit to enjoin enforcement of the state statute. but in a test of the constitutionality of a federal enactment which declares that "to secure the rights under the fourteenth amendment of persons educated in Americanflag schools in which the predominant. classroom language was other than English. it is necessary to prohibit the States from conditioning the right to vote of such persons on ability to read. write. understand. or interpret any matter in the English language." Section 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 4(e) declares that anyone who has successfully completed six grades of schooling in an "Americanflag" school. in which the primary language is not English. shall not be denied the right to vote because of an inability to satisfy an English literacy test.20 Although the statute is framed In genFootnotes at end of article. eral terms. so far as has been shown it applies in actual effect only to citizens of Puerto Rican background. and the Court so treats it. The pivotal question in this instance is what effect the added factor of a congressional enactment has on the straight equal protection argument dealt with above. The Court declares that since � 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment 30 gives to the Congress power to "enforce" the prohibitions of the Amendment by "appropriate" legislation. the test for judicial review of any congressional determination in this area is simply one of rationality. that is. in effect. was Congress acting rationally in declaring that the New York statute is irrational?