New Court Appointments

Presidents Kennedy and Johnson appointed loyal liberal Democrats to the Court, jurists who shared Chief Justice Warren’s vision of the Court as an activist institution at the vanguard of social reform. Among Johnson’s nominees was Thurgood Marshall, longtime special counsel to the NAACP and a distinguished advocate before the Court in key civil rights cases. Marshall became the first African American justice to serve on the Court.

The Liberals Take Charge

The strength of the liberal voting bloc was demonstrated in a series of decisions upholding the due process rights of alleged subversives. Fishing expeditions masquerading as legislative investigations were held unconstitutional on the ground that they served no legitimate legislative purpose. That HUAC had been thoroughly discredited by 1965 can be attributed in large measure to the Court’s exposure of its worst abuses. The Court similarly dealt a fatal blow to political witch hunts at the state level.

Twenty-Third Amendment

The Twenty-Third Amendment gives the inhabitants of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections. It authorizes the District to appoint the number of presidential electors to which it would be entitled if it were a state. The number of electors cannot exceed the number of electoral votes cast by the least populous state.

Revolution in Civil Rights

During the 1960s, civil rights activists threw themselves into campaigns for racial justice with renewed vigor. Sit-ins, freedom marches, and demonstrations were held throughout the nation under the charismatic leadership of such activists as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Warren Court supported the movement by desegregating public facilities and finally striking down antimiscegenation laws as unconstitutional. It also protected the right of civil rights demonstrators to engage in peaceful protest.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment prohibits the use of poll taxes as a voting qualification in federal elections. It also authorizes Congress to enforce the prohibition with appropriate legislation. In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), the Supreme Court extended the ban on poll taxes to state elections as well.

Congressional Action on Civil Rights

Congress passed a series of laws bringing to bear the resources of the federal government to protect civil rights. A Commission on Civil Rights was established with authority to investigate racial discrimination in suffrage, and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division became more active in prosecuting offenses. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited both public and private racial discrimination, along with discrimination in public accommodations. It established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to deal with compliance in employment practices, and imposed tight controls on the use of literacy tests in elections.

The Court and Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Predictably, the constitutionality of the public accommodations provision of the 1964 Civil Rights act was challenged in a series of cases before the Supreme Court. The Court upheld the provision as a legitimate exercise of Congress’s commerce power. The Court would later use the public accommodations provision to overturn state trespass convictions in sit-in cases.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended literacy tests in any state where the attorney general found that more than 50% of persons of voting age had not registered or voted in the last presidential election. Federal examiners would be appointed to supervise elections in the offending states, and voting laws could not be changed without the approval of the attorney general. All provisions of the law were upheld in a series of challenges during the 1960s.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., set the stage for further civil rights legislation. The 1968 Civil Rights act prohibited racial and religious discrimination in the sale or rental of housing in dwellings with five units or more. The measure was upheld under the Thirteenth Amendment as a legitimate exercise of Congress’s power to eliminate all incidents of slavery in the United States. According to the Court, the denial of housing to people on the basis of race or religion denoted servile status incompatible with the amendment.

Immigration Act of 1965

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system that had governed immigration policy since 1924, replacing it with a system based on immigrants’ skills and family ties with citizens or residents of the United States.