Christopher Rosario Civics/American GovernmentDr.
Moore10 January 201826th Amendment & Youth’s Right to Vote The minimum age to drink alcohol is 21. That seems familiar to most people in the states. What some people don’t know is that before the 26th amendment 21 years old was originally the minimum voting age.
This amendment is responsible for our right to vote at the age 18 or older. With an amendment, there is a history behind them that led them to ratification to the constitution. Two main causes for this amendment to be ratified was Vietnam War and the Oregon v. Mitchell case. During the Vietnam War, there was a lot of backlash from the young people in America. This was caused by the drafting age being lowered from 21 to 18 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. There was the logic behind this backlash from young people.
They were risking their lives for this country and not being able to vote for leadership and not having a say wasn’t fair. A common slogan during this ordeal was “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” (Anonymous). This slogan was used by the young people of America in protest to get the voting age lowered to 18. In the middle of open careful thinking of the 1970 expansion of the Voting Rights Act, Senator Ted Kennedy argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment enables Congress to pass national enactment bringing down the voting age. In the 1966 choice of Katzenbach v. Morgan, the Supreme Court has decided that “if Congress acts to support/judge as correct the fourteenth Change by passing a law announcing that a sort of state law badly mistreats a particular class of people, the Supreme Court will give the law a chance to stand if the judges can ‘see a reason for Congress’ actions”. In Oregon v.
Mitchell (1970), the Supreme Court thought about the voting-age arrangements Congress added to the Voting Rights Act in 1970 were protected. The Court struck down the arrangements that built up 18 as the voting age in state and nearby decisions. In any case, the Court maintained the arrangement set up the voting age as 18 in government races. The choice brought about states having the ability to keep up 21 as the voting age in state and nearby decisions, yet being demanded to build up separate voter moves with the goal that voters in between 18 and 20 years of age could vote in federal elections.
Works CitedHistory.com Staff. “The 26th Amendment.” History.com, A Television Networks, 2010, www.
history.com/topics/the-26th-amendment.”The 26th Amendment.” US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, history.
house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/37022. “Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Dec. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Oregon_v.
_Mitchell. “Things to Do in DC — Visit the Vietnam War Memorial.” Things to Do in DC — Visit the Vietnam War Memorial, Nonpartisanpedicab, 15 Mar. 2015, nonpartisanpedicab.com/things-to-do-in-dc-visit-the-vietnam-war-memorial/.
