Ian’s Legal Fact of the Week 3/13/17: The Twenty-Fourth Amendment

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment restricts the federal government and the states from requiring a poll or other tax in order to vote in federal elections. It was approved by Congress in August of 1962, and ratified by the states in January 1964. At that time, five states — Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi — still had poll taxes used to disenfranchise African-American and poor white voters. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that any poll taxes, for any level of state or federal elections, was unconstitutional as per Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966).

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