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30 Fordham L. Rev. 93 (1961-1962)
A Consideration of the History and Present Status of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment

handle is hein.journals/flr30 and id is 109 raw text is: A CONSIDERATION OF THE HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF SECTION 2 OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT GEORGE DAVID ZUCKERMAN* Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But vwhen 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 twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any vay abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of reprezentation 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.' S ECTION 2 of the fourteenth amendment- has been much of an enigma in American constitutional history. Thaddeus Stevens, in reporting the fourteenth amendment to the House of Representatives, referred to the second section as the most important in the article.3 It was regarded by Representative George Miller of Pennsylvania as the cornerstone of the stability of our government. The apportionment problem that was resolved by section 2 was the first feature of the * Mlember of the New York Bar. 1. U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 2. 2. The Eighty-fifth Congress was successful in enacting the first major civil rights legislation in more than eight decades. Civil Rights Act of 1957, 71 Stat. 634, as amended, 5 U.S.C. § 295-1 (195S), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1343, 1S61 (195S), 42 UT.C. §§ 1971, 1975, 1975a-e, 195 (1958) (Supp. II, 1959-1960). It was also responsible for encouraging greater crutiny of constitutional provisions in a search for additional means of protecting the rlghts and privileges of American citizens. As a result of this search a bill was introducA by Senator lcNamara of Michigan calling for the creation of a joint congreccional committee to implement section 2 of the fourteenth amendment by providing for a reduction in congressional representation from states where the right to vote is dcnied or abridged. The bill was first introduced in the form of an amendment to H.R. 6127, Sth Con,-, Ist Sess. (1957), which later became the Civil Rights Act of 1957. See 103 Cong. Rca. 12519 (1957). It was defeated, 103 Cong. Rec. 13460 (1957), but later introduced in the same session as a separate bill, S. 2709, SSth Cong., Ist Sess. (1957). See 103 Con-. Rcc. 13703 (1957). Senator McNamara's bill v.as again introduced in the Eighty- ixth Conrcc. S. 1034, 36th Cong., 1 st Sess. (1959), and notwithstanding that it w.as never enacted it has been of great value in calling attention to the language of the second section of the fourteenth amendment. Although the bill wxas not reintroduced in the Eighty-evcnth Con- gress, Senator McNamara has indicated that he may very well introduce it again as a bill or as an amendment at such time as it appears the Senate vll hea working on civa rights legislation. Letter From Senator McNamara to 'Fordham Law Review, Sept. 11, V161. 3. Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. 2459 (1365-1366). 4. Id. at 2510.

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