SECTION 2.

APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATION.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the sev eral States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twentyone years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

SECTION 3.

CERTAIN PERSONS DISQUALIFIED FROM HOLDING OFFICE.'

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

The purpose of this section was to create a disability to be made operative by legislation of Congress. The prohibition did not take effect on the day of its adoption so as to vacate all offices and make all official acts by disqualified persons after that day void.2

The expression "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" implies a voluntary effort to assist in insurrection or rebellion, and acts done under compulsion of force or of a well-grounded fear of bodily harm do not come within the operation of this provision. The fact that a candidate had previously served in the 1 Griffin's Case, Chase, 364, Fed. Cas. No. 5815; Powell v. Boon, 43 Ala. 469.

2 Griffin's Case, Chase, 364, Fed. Cas. No. 5815.

8 United States v. Powell, 65 N. C. 701.

Participation in insurrection or rebellion, and giving aid to enemies, as disqualification of Senators and Representatives, see notes, ante, pp. 59, 60.

Confederate army, but not voluntarily, does not render nim ineligible. The acceptance of the office of clerk in a court of a state in rebellion does not disqualify, but it has been held that a person who acted as sheriff in such a state before and during the Rebellion was disqualified."

The courts of a state will enforce the provisions of an act of admission prohibiting persons barred by this article from holding office in the state.7

4 Privett v. Stevens, 25 Kan. 275.

5 Hu 'speth v. Carrigues, 21 La. Ann. 684.

6 Worthy v. Barrett, 63 N. C. 199.

7 State ex rel. v. Watkins, 21 La. Ann. 631.

SECTION 4.

PAYMENT OF PUBLIC DEBT NOT TO BE QUESTIONED REBEL DEBTS NOT TO BE ASSUMED.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

SECTION 5.

ENFORCEMENT OF PROVISIONS.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this Article.

Amendment, proposed 16th June, 1866; declared ratified 28th July,

1868.

The federal government should exercise all the powers it has for the protection of the rights of its citizens, and wherein the states do not conform their laws to the requirements of this amendment, Congress is authorized to enforce it by suitable legislation.2 But while the amendment was designed to prevent state invasion of equal civil rights, and authorizes Congress to adopt appropriate legislation for correcting the effects. of prohibited state laws, it does not authorize direct legislation for the protection of civil rights; corrective legislation is contemplated. It has reference to state action exclusively, and not to any action of private individuals; accordingly, sections 1 and 2 of the Civil Rights Act prohibiting the denial of equal accommodations in inns, theaters and conveyances, on account of color, is unconstitutional. The power of Congress to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment is sufficient to justify the enactment of Revised Statutes, section 641, providing for the removal to federal courts of prosecutions against persons denied equal civil rights.5

1 United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 549, 23 L. ed. 588.

2 United States v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629, 1 S. Ct. 601, 27 L. ed. 290.

3 Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 15, 18, 3 S. Ct. 18, 27 L. ed. 835; Green v. Elbert, 63 Fed. 309.

4 Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 18, 3 S. Ct. 18, 27 L. ed. 835.

5 Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 312, 25 L. ed. 664; California v. Chue Fan, 14 Saw. 578, 42 Fed. 865.

Notes on Constitution-47

ARTICLE XV.

ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

SECTION 1.

RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO VOTE.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condi tion of servitude.

The Fifteenth Amendment brings the right of United States citizens to vote within the protection of Congress.1 The right of suffrage, however, is not coextensive with citizenship of the United States,2 and this amendment was not designed to confer the right upon anyone. It left the power to determine the qualifications of voters with the several states. The power of Congress to legislate at all upon the subject of voting at state elections rests upon this amendment, and can be exercised only when a qualified voter is denied the right to vote because of race, color or previous condition of servitude, and it is to

1 United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 218, 23 L. ed. 563; United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 543, 23 L. ed. 588.

2 Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 178, 22 L. ed. 627.

3 Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 178, 22 L. ed. 627; United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 217, 23 L. ed. 563; In re Lockwood, 154 U. S. 117, 14 S. Ct. 1082, 38 L. ed. 929.

4 Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 178, 22 L. ed. 627; United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 217, 23 L. ed. 563; United States v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629, 1 S. Ct. 601, 27 L. ed. 290; Le Grand v. United States, 12 Fed. 527; In re Appointment of Supervisors, 52 Fed. 257; Gougar v. Timberlake, 148 Ind. 47, 62 Am. St. Rep. 494, 46 N. E. 341, 37 L. R. A. 644; Boyd v. Mills, 53 Kan. 604, 42 Am. St. Rep. 310, 37 Pac. 18, 25 L. R. A. 486.

5 United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 218, 23 L. ed. 563; Ex parte Perkins, 29 Fed. 906.