Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections

Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued May 18 – May 19, 1959 Decided June 8, 1959
Full case name	Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections
Citations	360 U.S. 45 (more) 79 S. Ct. 985; 3 L. Ed. 2d 1072
Case history
Prior	Appeal from the Supreme Court of North Carolina
Subsequent	Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited use of literacy tests
Holding
A State may use a literacy test as a qualification for voters provided it is applied equally to all and is not intended to discriminate; it is part of its broad powers to determine the conditions under which the right of suffrage may be exercised.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas · Tom C. Clark John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr. Charles E. Whittaker · Potter Stewart
Case opinion
Majority	Douglas, joined by unanimous
Superseded by
Voting Rights Act of 1965

Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections, 360 U.S. 45 (1959), was a case challenging the constitutionality of the rule of Northampton County, North Carolina requiring potential voters to pass a literacy test to vote, appealed from the Supreme Court of that state.