Legal, Political, Ethical Dimension Midtrm
Legal, Political, Ethical Dimension - Week 5 Midterm
1. Question : TCO B. After the 2010 fall election, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) decides to take matters into its own hands. During the lame duck session, they pass a new "Elections Are Free Act" that requires single people who make more than $75,000/year or married couples who make more than $150,000/year to provide a copy of their tax return to their local county officials before being allowed to register to vote. The return must prove that they have paid at least 15% of their total income in taxes or they are not allowed to register to vote. List two bases under which someone impacted by this law could argue to have the law overturned.
Student Answer: 1) For this case I see this is unconstitutional. There are violation of the First Amendment discrimination and unlawful poll tax. An example can be this same scenario of Harper v. Virginia. These are suits by Virginia residents to have declared unconstitutional Virginia's poll tax. The right to vote in federal elections is conferred by Art. I, § 2, of the Constitution (United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 314-315), the right to vote in state elections is nowhere expressly mentioned. It is argued that the right to vote in state elections is implicit, particularly by reason of the First Amendment, and that it may not constitutionally be conditioned upon the payment of a tax or fee. 2)A State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth nor to paying or not paying this or any other tax. This restrains the States from fixing voter qualifications which invidiously discriminate. An example is the Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 370, the Court referred to "the political franchise of voting" as a "fundamental political right, because preservative of all rights.They conclude that "A
1. Question : TCO B. After the 2010 fall election, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) decides to take matters into its own hands. During the lame duck session, they pass a new "Elections Are Free Act" that requires single people who make more than $75,000/year or married couples who make more than $150,000/year to provide a copy of their tax return to their local county officials before being allowed to register to vote. The return must prove that they have paid at least 15% of their total income in taxes or they are not allowed to register to vote. List two bases under which someone impacted by this law could argue to have the law overturned.
Student Answer: 1) For this case I see this is unconstitutional. There are violation of the First Amendment discrimination and unlawful poll tax. An example can be this same scenario of Harper v. Virginia. These are suits by Virginia residents to have declared unconstitutional Virginia's poll tax. The right to vote in federal elections is conferred by Art. I, § 2, of the Constitution (United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 314-315), the right to vote in state elections is nowhere expressly mentioned. It is argued that the right to vote in state elections is implicit, particularly by reason of the First Amendment, and that it may not constitutionally be conditioned upon the payment of a tax or fee. 2)A State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth nor to paying or not paying this or any other tax. This restrains the States from fixing voter qualifications which invidiously discriminate. An example is the Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 370, the Court referred to "the political franchise of voting" as a "fundamental political right, because preservative of all rights.They conclude that "A