Election Law

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Supreme Court decisions that discuss and analyze issues surrounding election law and the right to vote. This Volume covers cases spanning from 1946 to 1974. Volume II covers cases spanning from 1976 to 2010.Undeniably the Constitution of the United States protects the right of all qualified citizens to vote, in state as well as in federal elections. A consistent line of decisions by this Court in cases involving attempts to deny or restrict the right of suffrage has made this indelibly clear. It has been repeatedly recognized that all qualified voters have a constitutionally protected right to vote, Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, and to have their votes counted, United States v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383. In Mosley the Court stated that it is "as equally unquestionable that the right to have one's vote counted is as open to protection. . . as the right to put a ballot in a box." 238 U. S., at 386. The right to vote can neither be denied outright, Guinn v. United States, 238 U. S. 347, Lane v. Wilson, 307 U. S. 268, nor destroyed by alteration of ballots, see United States v. Classic, 313 U. S. 299, 315, nor diluted by ballot-box stuffing, Ex parte Siebold, 100 U. S. 371, United States v. Saylor, 322 U. S. 385. As the Court stated in Classic, "Obviously included within the right to choose, secured by the Constitution, is the right of qualified voters within a state to cast their ballots and have them counted . . . ." 313 U. S., at 315. Racially based gerrymandering, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339, and the conducting of white primaries, Nixon v. Herndon, 273 U. S. 536, Nixon v. Condon, 286 U. S. 73, Smith v. Allwright, 321 U. S. 649, Terry v. Adams, 345 U. S. 461, both of which result in denying to some citizens their right to vote, have been held to be constitutionally impermissible. And history has seen a continuing expansion of the scope of the right of suffrage in this country. The right to vote freely for the candidate of one's choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government. And the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise. Reynolds v. Sims, 377 US 533 (1964).