Read the scenario.It is November of 1920. Across the country, people are voting in the first presidential election since the passage of the 19th Amendment. Two sisters named Hettie and Elizabeth are excited to become the first women in their family to vote. However, when they arrive at the polling place, they discover that they have to pay a tax to vote. Another woman in the line, who is African American like the sisters, also has to pay a tax. However, the White women waiting to vote do not have to pay. Unable to afford the tax, Hettie and Elizabeth are prevented from voting.
Read the passage on the 14th Amendment.The 14th Amendment was one of three Reconstruction amendments passed after the Civil War. Section 2 of the amendment overturns the three-fifths rule for determining state representation in the US House of Representatives. It also declares that states cannot deny voting rights to male citizens 21 and older unless they have participated in a crime. The voting restriction was meant to punish Confederates for rebelling in the Civil War. However, states have used the restriction to prevent people convicted of crimes from voting. These laws have affected African Americans and Latinos unfairly.
What is one way the 14th Amendment protects individual rights?
How many members of Congress must approve a proposal to begin the amendment process?
The 15th Amendment protects the right to vote based on which category?
The purpose of the Equal Rights Amendment is to guarantee equal rights for all citizens
Read the 24th Amendment.The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.–24th Amendment
Which amendment extended the right to vote to African American men?
Read remarks by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the majority opinion for the Obergefell v. Hodges case. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry.[T]he right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty. Same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry. Baker v. Nelson is overruled. The State laws challenged by the petitioners in these cases are held invalid to the extent they exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.–Anthony M. Kennedy, June 26, 2015
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