Smith v. Allwright (1944)

History

In this case, Lonnie E. Smith, an African American citizen of Harris County, Texas, brought suit against the election judges of the 1940 Democratic primary for his precinct after they refused his right to participate in the election solely because of his race. Specifically, Smith alleged that this action violated his constitutional rights, as guaranteed by Article I and the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Seventeenth Amendments to the Constitution. The district court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the relief sought by Smith by relying on Grovey v. Townsend, a 1935 Supreme Court case that found that a Texas county clerk's refusal to furnish an absentee ballot in a primary election to an African American was not a violation of the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment, as a primary was not state action. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Smith v. Allwright, and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, as an attorney for the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, argued on behalf of Smith for the case.

At the outset of its decision, the Supreme Court provided the background of the Democratic Party of Texas, which had resolved in 1932 that only white Texans who were qualified to vote were eligible for membership in the party and, therefore, entitled to vote in its primaries. Furthermore, the Supreme Court explained that the Texas Supreme Court had deemed the Democratic Party of Texas to be a voluntary association. The Harris County precinct judges based their arguments on these facts, claiming that the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Seventeenth Amendments did not apply to primaries, because primaries were “political party affairs” and not state affairs. In doing so, the judges heavily relied upon the Supreme Court's earlier decision in Grovey v. Townsend.

Although the Supreme Court recognized that “Texas [was] free to conduct her elections and limit her electorate as she may deem wise,” it also found that the state could not do so if it violated the U.S. Constitution. The court proceeded to find that the right to vote in a primary, “like the right to vote in a general election, is a right secured by the Constitution.” In expanding upon this statement, the court stressed that the Fourteenth Amendment provides equal protection under the law for all people and that the Fifteenth Amendment provides constitutional protection for the right to vote, regardless of race or color.

Thurgood Marshall, representing the NAACP, argued this case in favor of Lonnie E. Smith in 1944. Marshall was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 until 1991. He was the first African American justice.

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