![handle is hein.journals/sidbarc113 and id is 1 raw text is: COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW
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VOL. 113 JANUARY 16,2013 PAGES 1-8
RECOGNIZING RACE AND THE ELUSIVE IDEAL OF
RACIAL NEUTRALITY
David A. Strauss*
Response to: Justin Driver, Recognizing Race, 112 Colum. L. Rev. 404 (2012).
I
In 1960, Louisiana enacted a statute requiring that the race of any
candidate for office be listed on the ballot opposite the candidate's name.' In
Anderson v. Martin,2 the Supreme Court had no difficulty declaring that statute
unconstitutional. The Court said that the case had nothing whatever to do with
the right of a citizen to cast his vote for whomever he chooses and for whatever
reason he pleases or to receive all information concerning a candidate .... 3
The problem, the Court said, was that by directing the citizen's attention to
the single consideration of race or color, the State indicates that a candidate's
race or color is an important-perhaps paramount-consideration in the
citizen's choice, which may decisively influence the citizen to cast his ballot
along racial lines.4 The Court also rejected the argument that the statute is
nondiscriminatory because the labeling provision applies equally to persons
of all races.5 [W]e view the alleged equality as superficial, the Court said.6
Race is the factor upon which the statute operates and its involvement
promotes the ultimate discrimination which is sufficient to make it invalid.7
The decision in Anderson v. Martin was obviously right. In context, the
Louisiana law was part of a system of racial discrimination against African
Americans, as the Court recognized when it declared the alleged equality to
be superficial.8 Beyond that, it seems very problematic for a state, in any
Gerald Ratner Distinguished Service Professor of Law, the University of Chicago.
1. See Andersonv. Martin, 375 U.S. 399, 401 (1964).
2. Id. at 404.
3. Id. at 402.
4. Id.
5. Id. at 403.
6. Id. at 404.
7. Id.
8. Id.; see also id. (Obviously, Louisiana may not bar Negro citizens from offering
themselves as candidates for public office . . . . And that which cannot be done by express
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