Suffrage – Age

Summarizing the history of the Amendment and its place in the politics of the Second Reconstruction and discussing judicial decisions interpreting the Amendment immediately after it was ratified. Arguing that the Twenty-Sixth Amendment should serve as an independent source of a substantive right to vote. Proposing a standard under the Amendment that draws on both modern right-to-vote and Equal Protection doctrines.

Summarizing the history of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in detail and challenges claims made about its original intent. Noting that Courts have struggled with how to interpret the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and contending that claims of intentional discrimination should be evaluated under the Supreme Court’s framework in Arlington Heights. Arguing that the Amendment’s text, rather than its history, supports this interpretation.

Considering whether the Twenty-sixth Amendment should be read back into the Fourteenth Amendment to prohibit age discrimination in civil rights.

Arguing that the Twenty-Sixth Amendment is conventionally understood as part of a pattern of narrowly tailored amendments responding to particular problems but that this narrow reading misses two key points: first, that it was deliberately modeled after the Reconstruction Amendments insofar as it has a broad enforcement clause; second, that the Amendment was drafted after debates over what it means for Congress to have enforcement power and that these debates need to inform the Amendment’s construction.

Analyzing the history and development of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in the context of divergent legal interpretations of free speech on college campuses. Arguing that the abrogation of student speech rights, which the Court recognized as permissible due to in loco parentis, ends at age 18.

Noting that the legislative history of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment indicates that lawmakers viewed college students to be at least as well-informed as the rest of the electorate. Discussing the Amendment’s legislative history to argue that 18-year-olds are presumptively adults.

Analyzing the validity of residency requirements passed in the wave of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment’s ratification. Concluding that students can only be subject to residency limitations that are also imposed on all other new voting registrants. Arguing that the Twenty-Sixth Amendment requires college students to be able to register to vote locally.

Discussing two cases interpreting the Twenty-Sixth Amendment soon after its passage to highlight the difficulties that exist when 18-year-olds have severed parental ties or live on college campuses full-time.