Neal v. Delaware

Neal v. Delaware, 103 U.S. 370 (1881), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the Fifteenth Amendment invalidated provisions of state constitutions limiting suffrage to whites, and other privileges restricted to voters cannot be restricted based on race.

Neal v. Delaware
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued Mar. 21-22, 1881 Decided May 2, 1881
Full case name	Neal v. Delaware
Citations	103 U.S. 370 (more)
Holding
The Fifteenth Amendment invalidated provisions of state constitutions limiting suffrage to whites, and other privileges restricted to voters cannot be restricted based on race.
Court membership
Chief Justice Morrison Waite Associate Justices Nathan Clifford · Samuel F. Miller Stephen J. Field · Joseph P. Bradley Ward Hunt · John M. Harlan William B. Woods
Case opinions
Majority	Harlan, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Waite
Concurrence	Field
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XV

Description

The Delaware Constitution restricted voting to "free white male citizens, of the age of twenty-two years and upwards." Delaware law restricted jury participation to its voting population. Accordingly, Delaware considered only white people for its trial of Neal, a Black man accused of rape. That jury convicted Neal.

The Supreme Court vacated Neal's conviction and invalidated that portion of the Delaware Constitution, saying it was "beyond question" that the Fifteenth Amendment required that result.

External links

• Text of Neal v. Delaware, 103 U.S. 370 (1881) is available from: Cornell Findlaw Justia