Also known as: 15th · fifteenth amendment · 15th amendment · Fifteenth Amendment · 15th Amendment
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An amendment to the United States Constitution that prohibits the United States or any state from denying or abridging the right of citizens to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Its enforcement clause empowers Congress to enact appropriate legislation to carry out that prohibition.
Congress enacts a statute requiring only states identified by discrimination findings from litigation completed over forty years ago to obtain federal approval before altering candidate filing procedures. Clerk Dana Riley in one of those states challenges the requirement. The coverage formula rests solely on the stale data and provides no current evidence of ongoing racial discrimination in voting.
Congress passes a law imposing preclearance on voting changes in states with documented racial barriers to registration. State election officials challenge the conditions. The statute responds to documented disparities but must remain congruent and proportional to actual Fifteenth Amendment violations under the enforcement power.
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A state redistricting commission draws district lines that connect minority neighborhoods while splitting rural counties. Affected voters allege that race predominated in the drawing of the lines. The plan must be examined to determine whether it denies or abridges the right to vote on account of race under the Fifteenth Amendment.
A state maintains separate polling locations and procedures for different racial groups. Minority voters challenge the arrangement as impairing their ability to cast ballots. The scheme is tested against the Fifteenth Amendment prohibition on racial discrimination in the exercise of the franchise.
A federal regulation bars individuals convicted of certain misdemeanors from participating in local election oversight boards on account of race. Affected citizens argue the restriction burdens protected voting rights. The regulation is evaluated for consistency with Fifteenth Amendment voting guarantees.
A state imposes an annual fee as a condition of registering to vote that falls disproportionately on racial minorities. Low-income minority citizens who cannot afford the fee bring suit. The requirement is examined to determine whether it denies the right to vote on grounds prohibited by the Fifteenth Amendment.
Congress may enact appropriate legislation to enforce the amendment's prohibition on racial discrimination in voting. Such legislation must be remedial and respect principles of equal state sovereignty when it imposes different burdens on different states.
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A coverage formula violates the amendment when it subjects only some states to preclearance requirements based on decades-old data without current evidence of discrimination. Equal sovereignty principles require extraordinary justification tied to present conditions.
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Congress may regulate private actors whose conduct frustrates the right to vote free from racial discrimination when the legislation is designed to prevent such discrimination and is reasonably adapted to that end under the enforcement clause.
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…shall be filed not later than the 10th day before the date on which such election is held and shall be complete as of the 15th day before the date of such election; except that any such report filed by registered or certified mail must be postmarked not later than the close of the 12th day before the date of such…