Oregon v. Mitchell
| Oregon v. Mitchell | |
|---|---|
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| Argued October 20, 1970 Decided December 21, 1970 |
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| Full case name | Oregon v. Mitchell, Attorney General |
| Citations | 400 U.S. 112 (more)
91 S. Ct. 260; 27 L. Ed. 2d 272; 1970 U.S. LEXIS 1
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| Holding | |
| Congress may set requirements for voting in federal elections, but is prohibited from setting requirements in local and state elections. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Black |
| Concur/dissent | Douglas |
| Concur/dissent | Harlan |
| Concur/dissent | Brennan, White, Marshall |
| Concur/dissent | Stewart, joined by Burger, Blackmun |
| Laws applied | |
| Necessary and Proper Clause, U.S. Const. art. I § 2 and 4, art. II § 1, Enforcement Clauses of the 14th and 15th Amendments, Voting Rights Act | |
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Superseded by
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| U.S. Const. amend. XXVI (in part) | |
Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970) is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Congress could set voter age requirements for federal elections but not for state elections. The case also upheld Congress's nationwide prohibition on literacy tests and similar "tests or devices" used as voting qualifications as defined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Petitioner Oregon was the U.S. state of that name. Respondent Mitchell was John Mitchell in his role as United States Attorney General. Congress had passed an act requiring all states to register citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 as voters. Oregon did not desire to lower its voting age to 18, and filed suit on the grounds that the act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in favor for Oregon by a 5-4 vote, in that it found that while Congress could set requirements for voting in federal elections that it did not have the power to set the voting age for local and state elections.
Enforcement of this ruling would have proven to be problematic, since states not lowering the voting age to the age of 18 for state elections would have had to provide special federal-election only ballots to citizens between 18 and 20 voting in federal elections. States would have to maintain two sets of voting registries, one for those between the ages of 18 through 20 and another for those 21 and older.
This question became moot with the ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment the next year, which lowered the voting age to 18 for all elections in all states.
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