Fifteenth Amendment

Introduction

The Fifteenth Amendment provides: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Section 2 grants Congress the power to enforce the amendment through appropriate legislation. Ratified in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was the third of the Reconstruction Amendments, following the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery) and the Fourteenth Amendment (establishing birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection).

The Fifteenth Amendment was intended to enfranchise African American men following the Civil War, completing the constitutional revolution begun by the earlier Reconstruction Amendments. However, the amendment’s promise was effectively nullified for nearly a century through violence, intimidation, and discriminatory laws — including literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and white primaries — that systematically excluded African Americans from the franchise in many states.

Adoption and Ratification

The Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870. The amendment was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments and reflected the Republican Party’s commitment to protecting the voting rights of newly freed African Americans. The amendment’s ratification required approval by three-fourths of the states, including several Southern states whose Reconstruction governments supported ratification.

The amendment did not grant an absolute right to vote; it prohibited only discrimination on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. States remained free to impose other qualifications for voting, including literacy requirements, property ownership, and poll taxes, provided these qualifications did not discriminate on racial grounds. This limitation created a loophole that would be exploited for decades.

The Grandfather Clause and Other Evasions

Following Reconstruction and the end of federal enforcement in 1877, Southern states enacted a variety of measures designed to disenfranchise African American voters while nominally complying with the Fifteenth Amendment. The grandfather clause exempted from literacy and property qualifications anyone whose grandfather had been eligible to vote before 1867, effectively allowing illiterate whites to vote while excluding African Americans whose ancestors had been enslaved.

In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Supreme Court struck down Oklahoma’s grandfather clause as a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. The Court recognized that the grandfather clause was a transparent attempt to evade the amendment’s prohibition on racial discrimination. However, the decision had limited practical effect, as states continued to employ other discriminatory devices.

Literacy tests required voters to demonstrate reading ability, often administered in a discriminatory manner by white registrars. Poll taxes required payment of a fee to vote, disproportionately affecting African Americans and poor whites. White primaries excluded African Americans from participating in Democratic Party primaries, which effectively determined election outcomes in the one-party South. The Supreme Court invalidated white primaries in Smith v. Allwright (1944) as state action violating the Fifteenth Amendment.

Section 2 Enforcement and the Voting Rights Act

Section 2 grants Congress the power to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment through appropriate legislation. Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) under this authority, which became the most effective civil rights legislation in American history. The VRA prohibited literacy tests and other discriminatory voting practices, required covered jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to obtain federal preclearance before changing voting laws, and authorized federal election observers.

The VRA’s preclearance formula in Section 4(b) applied to jurisdictions that had used a test or device and had low voter registration or turnout. The coverage formula was initially effective in combating discrimination, and the VRA dramatically increased African American voter registration and political participation.

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court invalidated the coverage formula of Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, holding that the formula was based on decades-old data and no longer reflected current conditions. Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion acknowledged that voting discrimination continues but held that the extraordinary measure of federal preclearance must be justified by current, not historical, patterns of discrimination.

The decision effectively suspended the preclearance requirement, as Congress has not enacted a new coverage formula. Following Shelby County, several states enacted voting restrictions that had previously been subject to preclearance review, including voter identification laws, restrictions on early voting, and limitations on registration drives. The decision sparked debate about the continued need for federal voting rights protections and the appropriate scope of congressional enforcement power under the Fifteenth Amendment.

Modern Fifteenth Amendment Issues

The Fifteenth Amendment continues to generate litigation concerning voting discrimination, including challenges to voter identification laws, redistricting plans that dilute minority voting strength, and felon disenfranchisement laws that disproportionately affect racial minorities. While Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits voting practices that result in racial discrimination, the Supreme Court has limited its reach in decisions such as Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021).

Racial gerrymandering claims under the Equal Protection Clause and Section 2 of the VRA challenge redistricting plans that intentionally dilute minority voting power. In Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama (2015) and Allen v. Milligan (2023), the Court addressed the standards for evaluating racial gerrymandering and vote dilution claims, reaffirming that the VRA continues to require that majority-minority districts be created where certain conditions are met.

Conclusion

The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits racial discrimination in voting, establishing a constitutional commitment to equal access to the franchise. While the amendment was broadly evaded for nearly a century through discriminatory devices, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — enacted under the amendment’s enforcement power — finally made the amendment’s promise a reality. The Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County removed key enforcement mechanisms, creating new challenges for voting rights in the twenty-first century. The Fifteenth Amendment remains a vital constitutional protection against racial discrimination in voting, but its effectiveness depends on continued congressional enforcement and judicial vigilance.