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Full-Text Articles in Law
Aliens And Equal Protection: Why Not The Right To Vote?, Gerald M. Rosberg
Aliens And Equal Protection: Why Not The Right To Vote?, Gerald M. Rosberg
Michigan Law Review
A constitutional right of at least some aliens to vote does not seem to me at all unthinkable. Throughout much of the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth, aliens enjoyed the right to vote in a great many states. The states that extended the franchise to aliens plainly did not believe that they were acting under constitutional compulsion. But given our present understanding of the mission of the equal protection clause, much can now be said in defense of such a constitutional right. My purpose here is to outline the case that might be made for the right of …
Wilkins V. Bentley: Getting Out The Student Vote In Michigan, Michigan Law Review
Wilkins V. Bentley: Getting Out The Student Vote In Michigan, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The right to vote is one of the most precious constitutional rights. The Supreme Court has described it as preservative of all rights, a fundamental matter in a free and democratic society, and a bedrock of our political system. Justice Black once stated, "No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live." It supports not only the individual's personal interest in self-government, but also the collective societal interest in broadly based consensual representation. The magnitude of these …
Segregation In Public Education: The Decline Of Plessy V. Ferguson, Paul G. Kauper
Segregation In Public Education: The Decline Of Plessy V. Ferguson, Paul G. Kauper
Michigan Law Review
In the landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson decided in 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States gave its sanction to the "separate but equal" doctrine in the interpretation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. More particularly, the Court held that a state statute requiring racial segregation in railway service did not result in a denial of the equal protection of the laws. This decision did not go unchallenged. Kentucky-born Justice John Harlan remonstrated in a dissenting opinion of extraordinary force. Crying out like a lone voice in the wilderness he predicted that the judgment declared …