Guinn v. United States
United States Supreme Court
238 U.S. 347 (1915)
- Written by Galina Abdel Aziz , JD
Facts
Oklahoma amended its state constitution to require a voter to “be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma” unless the voter was able to vote under any government before January 1, 1866. The United States passed the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the denial of suffrage to any citizen based on race, color, or previous conditions of servitude. In 1910, Black citizens were denied their right to vote in the Oklahoma general election based on the amendment to the state constitution. The United States prosecuted election officers in Oklahoma for unlawfully, willfully, and fraudulently conspiring to deprive certain Black citizens of their right to vote in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. The lower court certified certain questions to the United States Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (White, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
