The Rights Of Voting And The Fourteenth Amendment

When the Supreme Court intervened in the case of Bush v. Gore, they violated the Equal Protection Clause and changed the way we look at democracy.] There is presumably no other case that better paints a picture of the injustice the Supreme Court caused during the 2000 presidential election. Voting in America has developed throughout history. Originally, the Constitution did not specifically define who had the right to vote until the 14th and 15th Amendment in which specified, â€Å"the right of citizens of the United States to vote.† The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to â€Å"all persons born or naturalized in the United states,† including all African Americans. It also refuses to â€Å"deny to any person within its jurisdiction on the equal†¦show more content†¦The law in Florida declares that for counties to approve their election entries has to be submitted within a week of the election. So long as the counties could justify why their entries were late , they could be accepted. On the deadline of November 14, only Volusia had finished their manual recount while the other counties remained working. Each county presented justified reasonings as to why they were late given the circumstances, though Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State declared none of the written statements justified being late. On November 18th, 2000 Harris announced George Bush as the winner in the state of Florida. Various court decisions had been made about the Presidential Election in Florida, and the Florida Supreme Court 4-3 demanded a statewide recount. On December 9th, 2000 the United States Supreme Court voted a 5-4 stay on the Florida recount. The Supreme Court violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, stating â€Å"Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors..† (Article II,  § 1, clause 2) The Equal Protection Clause requires that voting rights will no t be infringed by protecting the act of voting or with unfair and unequal treatment after the votes have been cast. Because of this, the court felt the 14th Amendment was being violated when their was no structural way to determine voting decisions on a ballot. The Supreme Court stated it would be impossibleShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifthteenth Amendendments1493 Words   |  6 PagesThe Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments of The United States Constitution were important for implementing a total reconstruction of America and the blessings of of liberty to everyone that lived within the borders or our country. 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