Myers v. Anderson, 238 U.S. 368 (1915), was a United States Supreme Court decision that held Maryland state officials liable for civil damages for enforcing a grandfather clause. Grandfather clauses exempted voters from requirements such as poll taxes and literacy tests if their grandfathers had been registered voters, and were largely designed to exempt white voters from restrictions intended to disenfranchise former black slaves and their descendants.[1] Despite striking down the Maryland law as discriminatory, the court noted that economic discrimination in the form of property requirements should be presumed to be "free from constitutional objection."[2]
| Myers v. Anderson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued November 11–12, 1913 Decided June 21, 1915 | |
| Full case name | Charles E. Myers and A. Claude Kalmey, Plffs. in Err., v. John B. Anderson; Charles E. Myers and A. Claude Kalmey, Plffs. in Err., v. William H. Howard; Charles E. Myers and A. Claude Kalmey, Plffs. in Err., v. Robert Brown |
| Citations | 238 U.S. 368 (more) 35 S. Ct. 932; 59 L. Ed. 1349 |
| Holding | |
| 182 F. 223 affirmed | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinion | |
| Majority | White |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XV | |
Myers was a companion case to Guinn v. United States (1915),[3] which struck down an Oklahoma grandfather clause that effectively exempted white voters from a literacy test, finding it to be discriminatory and a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Mahoney, Dennis J. (January 1, 2000). "Guinn v. United States 238 U.S. 347 (1915)". Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Cengage. Retrieved October 24, 2023 – via encyclopedia.com.
- ^ Keyssar, Alexander. "The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States," Basic Books, 2000, p. 108.
- ^ Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915).
External links
edit- Text of Myers v. Anderson, 238 U.S. 368 (1915) is available from: CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress OpenJurist