Supreme Court Overturns 18-Year-Olds’ Right to Vote

An amendment giving 18-year-olds the vote had been added to the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 1970.

The Supreme Court, however, in Oregon v. Mitchell, ruled on this day that Congress did not have the power to set the voting age for the states.

The Twenty-sixth Amendment finally lowered the voting age to 18 on July 5, 1971.

Learn more: Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (2015)

Learn about the history of the right to vote: Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000)

Topics: Twenty-sixth Amendment, U.S. Supreme Court / Index: Oregon v. Mitchell / No Comments