GRANDFATHER CLAUSE
A portion of a statute that provides that the law is not applicable in certain circumstances due to pre-existing facts.
Grandfather clauses, which were originally
intended to prevent black people from voting,
were named for provisions adopted by the con-
stitutions of some states. Such amendments
sought to interfere with an individual’s right to
vote by setting forth difficult requirements. For
example, common requirements were owner-
ship of a large amount of land or the ability to
read and write portions of the state and federal
constitutions. The name grandfather clause arose
from the exceptions that were made for veterans
of the Civil War. If the veterans were qualified to
vote prior to 1866, their descendants were also
qualified. Thus, in effect, if a person’s grandfa-
ther could vote, he could vote without further
restrictions.
These statutes accomplished precisely what
was intended, since nearly all slaves and their
descendants were disqualified from voting
because they could not satisfy the statutory
requirements.
In the 1915 case of Guinn v. United States,
238 U.S. 347, 35 S. Ct. 926, 59 L. Ed. 1340, the
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES exam-
ined a GRANDFATHER CLAUSE that was added to
the Oklahoma constitution shortly following its
admission to the Union. The 1910 constitutional
amendment required that prospective voters
pass a literacy test in order to qualify to vote.
However, anyone who was entitled to vote on
January 1, 1866, or any time earlier under any
form of government, or who at that time lived in
a foreign country, was exempt from satisfying
the literacy test requirement. The lineal descen-
dants of such exempted persons also were
exempt from such a requirement. In reality, the
amendment recreated and perpetuated the very
conditions that the FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
was intended to destroy, even though race was
never mentioned as a voter qualification.
The Court held that the clause was in viola-
tion of the Fifteenth Amendment, which states
that “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 condition of servitude.”Okla-
homa argued that states had the power to set
forth voter qualifications. Therefore, the statute
in controversy did not violate the Fifteenth
Amendment since race was not mentioned as a
voter qualification. The Supreme Court was in
agreement that states have the right to deter-
mine who is qualified to vote; however, they are
permitted to do so only within constitutional
limits. The limit that proscribes consideration of
the race of voters extends to sophisticated as well
as simpleminded discrimination, and equality
under the law cannot be based upon whether a
person’s grandfather was a free man.
Oklahoma undertook to change its law fol-
lowing this decision. The revised statute said
that everyone who was able to vote as a result of
the grandfather clause automatically continued
to be eligible and those who had been denied
VOTING RIGHTS were given twelve days in 1916
to register to vote. If they were out of the county
where they resided or if they were prevented
from registering by sickness or unavoidable cir-
cumstances, they were given an additional fifty
days in 1916 to register. After that time black
persons who tried to register to vote were turned
away, since the time to register outside the
grandfather clause had ended in 1916.
In the 1939 case of Lane v. Wilson, 307 U.S.
268, 59 S. Ct. 872, 83 L. Ed. 1281, the Supreme
Court rejected Oklahoma’s new scheme, calling
it another example of an attempt by a state to
thwart equality in the right to vote regardless of
race or color. The Court ruled that the proposed
remedy, in the form of such a limited registra-
