The Fifteenth Amendment is the last of the three Civil War Amendments,1 adopted in response to the end of the American Civil War with the intent to grant the federal government additional powers to address the lingering remnants of slavery.2 The Fifteenth Amendment addresses the right of suffrage,3 providing in Section 1 that the right of U.S. citizens to vote may not be abridged by the government “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 4 The Supreme Court recognized as early as 1872 that although the Civil War and responsive Amendments may have been primarily focused on “African slavery,” the protections granted by that text were not limited to those “of African descent.” 5 Describing this provision simply shortly after its adoption, the Supreme Court said “[i]f citizens of one race having certain qualifications are permitted by law to vote, those of another having the same qualifications must be.” 6 The Court early on also struck down a state law that, although it contained “no word of discrimination on account of race or color,” had the effect of “inherently” making a prior condition of servitude “the controlling and dominant test of the right of suffrage.” 7

Unlike the guarantees in the original Bill of Rights, the Fifteenth Amendment expressly constrains both “the United States” and “any State” from abridging these rights.8 The Fifteenth Amendment, with the other Civil War Amendments, thus helped to “fundamentally alter[ ]” the “balance of the pressures of localism and nationalism” by making “civil rights a national concern.” 9 Further, while Section 1’s prohibitions are “self-executing,” 10 Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment gives Congress the additional power to pass laws to enforce this guarantee.11 As the Supreme Court explained in a 2009 opinion, “[t]he first century of congressional enforcement of the Amendment, however, can only be regarded as a failure.” 12 Although federal laws were adopted to enforce the Amendment shortly after ratification, enforcement was “spotty and ineffective,” 13 and ultimately those early laws were “repealed with the rise of Jim Crow.” 14 Finally, Congress adopted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, discussed in more detail in a subsequent essay.15

Footnotes

1

See Intro.3.4 Civil War Amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments). These are sometimes also known as the Reconstruction Amendments.

2

See, e.g., Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36, 67–68, 71 (1872).

3

See id. at 71 (noting that former slaves were “denied the right of suffrage” even after the abolishment of the institution of slavery).

4

U.S. Const. amdt. XV, § 1.

5

Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. at 71–72. See also Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U.S. 495, 499 (2000) (holding that a law limiting the right to vote for certain state trustees to “Hawaiians” violated the Fifteenth Amendment); id. at 512 (saying the Amendment “goes beyond” its original objective and “grants protection to all persons, not just members of a particular race” ).

6

United States v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214, 218 (1875).

7

Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347, 364–65 (1915). This case is discussed in Amdt15.S1.2 Grandfather Clauses.

8

U.S. Const. amdt. XV, § 1.

9

Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 61 (1971) (Douglas, J., dissenting); see also Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 490 (1989) (plurality opinion) ( “The Civil War Amendments themselves worked a dramatic change in the balance between congressional and state power over matters of race.” ).

10

Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347, 363 (1915).

11

U.S. Const. amdt. XV, § 1.

12

Nw. Austin Mun. Util. Dist. No. One v. Holder, 557 U.S. 193, 197 (2009).

13

See South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 310 (1966) (discussing the Enforcement Act of 1870).

14

Nw. Austin, 557 U.S. at 197.

15

Amdt15.S2.2 Federal Remedial Legislation.