Minor v. Happersett

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Minor v. Happersett

Argued February 9, 1874
Decided March 29, 1874


Full case name:	Virginia Minor v. Reese Happersett

Citations:	88 U.S. 162; 22 L. Ed. 627; 1874 U.S. LEXIS 1354; 21 Wall. 162

Prior history:	Error to the Supreme Court of Missouri

Holding

The Court held that voting is not a privilege of citizenship.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Morrison Waite
Associate Justices: Nathan Clifford, Noah Haynes Swayne, Samuel Freeman Miller, David Davis, Stephen Johnson Field, William Strong, Joseph Philo Bradley, Ward Hunt

Case opinions

Majority by: Waite
Joined by: unanimous

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875), was a United States Supreme Court case appealed from the Supreme Court of Missouri concerning the Missouri law which ordained "Every male citizen of the United States shall be entitled to vote."

Virginia Minor, a woman, alleged that the refusal of Reese Happersett, a registrar for the State of Missouri, to allow her to register to vote was an infringement of her civil rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

[edit] Decision

The Supreme Court of Missouri upheld the Missouri voting legislation saying that the limitation of suffrage to male citizens was not an infringement of Minor's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The United States Supreme Court affirmed and upheld the lower court's ruling on the basis that the Fourteenth Amendment does not add to the privileges and immunities of a citizen, and that historically "citizen" and "eligible voter" have not been synonymous. Since the United States Constitution did not provide suffrage for women, the Fourteenth Amendment did not confer that right. The court's decision had nothing to do with whether women were considered persons or not under the Fourteenth Amendment; the court ruled that they were clearly persons and citizens. It rested solely on the lack of provisions within the Constitution for women's suffrage.