Myers v. Anderson

Myers v. Anderson, 238 U.S. 368 (1915), was a United States Supreme Court decision that held Maryland state officials liable for civil damages for enforcing a grandfather clause. Grandfather clauses exempted voters from requirements such as poll taxes and literacy tests if their grandfathers had been registered voters, and were largely designed to disenfranchise former black slaves and their descendants.[1] Despite striking down the Maryland law as discriminatory, the court noted that economic discrimination in the form of property requirements should be presumed to be "free from constitutional objection."[2]

Myers v. Anderson
Argued November 11–12, 1913
Decided June 21, 1915
Full case nameCharles E. Myers and A. Claude Kalmey, Plffs. in Err., v. John B. Anderson; Charles E. Myers and A. Claude Kalmey, Plffs. in Err., v. William H. Howard; Charles E. Myers and A. Claude Kalmey, Plffs. in Err., v. Robert Brown
Citations238 U.S. 368 (more)
35 S. Ct. 932; 59 L. Ed. 1349
Holding
182 F. 223 affirmed
Court membership
Chief Justice
Edward D. White
Associate Justices
Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr.
William R. Day · Charles E. Hughes
Willis Van Devanter · Joseph R. Lamar
Mahlon Pitney · James C. McReynolds
Case opinion
MajorityWhite
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XV

Myers was a companion case to Guinn v. United States (1915),[3] which struck down an Oklahoma grandfather clause that effectively exempted white voters from a literacy test, finding it to be discriminatory and a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[1]

References
  1. Mahoney, Dennis J. (January 1, 2000). "Guinn v. United States 238 U.S. 347 (1915)". Encyclopedia of the American Constitution.  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  2. Keyssar, Alexander. "The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States," Basic Books, 2000, p. 108.
  3. Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915).
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