1804
Twelfth Amendment: Election of the President and Vice President
Electors cast separate ballots for President and Vice President.
Source: National Archives
Who could vote. Who stood equal before the law.
Fairness has no single number, so Constilumen doesn’t invent one. Instead it traces two things the record can show precisely: which barriers to voting the Constitution removed, and how the promise of equal protection was read, narrowed and widened over time.
The franchise, in six amendments. Each one a barrier removed.
The original Constitution left voting qualifications largely to the states. These amendments took specific grounds for denying the vote off the table nationwide.
An amendment states a guarantee. Whether it was honored in practice is a separate question, and the decisions and laws below show how long some took to enforce.
- 1870Amendment 15Race, color or previous condition of servitude
- 1913Amendment 17Senators chosen by voters, not state legislatures
- 1920Amendment 19Sex
- 1961Amendment 23Residence in the District of Columbia, for President
- 1964Amendment 24Failure to pay a poll tax, in federal elections
- 1971Amendment 26Age, for citizens eighteen and older
Voting and elections. 17 entries.
Amendments, decisions and laws about who votes, how districts are drawn and how elections are decided.
1870
Fifteenth Amendment: Race and the right to vote
The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Source: National Archives
1875
Minor v. Happersett
No. Citizenship did not carry the right to vote, and states could limit suffrage to men.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1913
Seventeenth Amendment: Direct election of senators
Senators are elected directly by the people of each state, replacing election by state legislatures.
Source: National Archives
1920
Nineteenth Amendment: Women’s right to vote
The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.
Source: National Archives
1924
Indian Citizenship Act
Grants citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. Some states continue to bar Native Americans from voting until 1957.
Source: Library of Congress
1961
Twenty-third Amendment: Electors for the District of Columbia
Gives the District of Columbia electors in presidential elections, no more than the least populous state.
Source: National Archives
1962
Baker v. Carr
Yes. Apportionment claims under the Equal Protection Clause can be decided by the courts.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1964
Reynolds v. Sims
Yes. Equal protection requires districts of substantially equal population: one person, one vote.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1964
Twenty-fourth Amendment: Poll taxes
The right to vote in federal elections may not be denied for failure to pay a poll tax or other tax.
Source: National Archives
1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Bans literacy tests and other devices used to deny the vote on account of race, and requires covered jurisdictions to obtain federal approval before changing voting rules.
Source: National Archives
1970
Oregon v. Mitchell
No, though it could for federal elections. The split result led directly to the Twenty-sixth Amendment.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1971
Twenty-sixth Amendment: Voting age of eighteen
The right of citizens eighteen years of age or older to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of age.
Source: National Archives
2000
Bush v. Gore
No. The recount’s varying standards violated equal protection, and there was no time to conduct one that complied.
Source: Opinion of the Court
2013
Shelby County v. Holder
No. The coverage formula in Section 4(b), based on decades-old data, was unconstitutional.
Source: Opinion of the Court
2022
Electoral Count Reform Act
Amends the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to state that the Vice President’s role in the count is ministerial and to raise the threshold for objections to a state’s electors.
Source: Congress.gov
2024
Trump v. Anderson
No. States may not enforce Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates; that responsibility rests with Congress.
Source: Opinion of the Court
Equal protection. 18 entries.
From the Reconstruction amendments through the decisions and civil rights laws that defined what equality under law requires, including measures that restricted it.
1865
Thirteenth Amendment: Abolition of slavery
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime of which the party has been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States.
Source: National Archives
1866
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Passed over President Andrew Johnson’s veto. Declares people born in the United States to be citizens and guarantees equal rights to make contracts, sue, and hold property.
Source: U.S. House of Representatives
1868
Fourteenth Amendment: Citizenship, due process and equal protection
Everyone born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen; no state may deny any person life, liberty or property without due process of law, or the equal protection of the laws.
Source: National Archives
1873
Slaughter-House Cases
No. The Privileges or Immunities Clause protects only rights of national citizenship, a narrow set, leaving most civil rights to the states.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1882
Chinese Exclusion Act
Suspends immigration of Chinese laborers and bars Chinese immigrants from naturalization. Extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902; repealed in 1943.
Source: National Archives
1883
Civil Rights Cases
No. The Fourteenth Amendment reaches state action, not private conduct, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875’s public accommodations provisions were unconstitutional.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1886
Yick Wo v. Hopkins
Yes. A law fair on its face but administered with an unequal hand denies equal protection, and the guarantee covers non-citizens.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1896
Plessy v. Ferguson
No. Separate accommodations that were equal did not violate equal protection. Justice Harlan dissented: “Our Constitution is color-blind.”
Source: Opinion of the Court
1948
Executive Order 9981
President Truman orders “equality of treatment and opportunity” in the armed services without regard to race, beginning the desegregation of the military.
Source: National Archives
1954
Brown v. Board of Education
Yes. “In the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
Source: Opinion of the Court
1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin in public accommodations, employment and federally funded programs.
Source: National Archives
1965
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Ends the national-origin quota system and replaces it with preferences based on family ties and skills.
Source: Public Law 89-236, 79 Stat. 911
1967
Loving v. Virginia
No. Such bans violate both equal protection and due process; marriage is a fundamental freedom.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1968
Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)
Signed a week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing.
1978
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Fixed racial quotas were unlawful, but race could be considered as one factor in admissions.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1988
Civil Liberties Act of 1988
Congress formally apologizes for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and provides $20,000 in redress to each surviving person who was detained.
Source: National Archives
1990
Americans with Disabilities Act
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public services, public accommodations and telecommunications.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
2023
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard
Yes. Both programs were unlawful; applicants may discuss how race affected their lives, but must be treated as individuals.
Source: Opinion of the Court
Read the hard cases. Both sides of each vote.
Every decision page links to the full opinion, including the dissents.