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Difficulty: MediumConstitutional Amendments and Voting Rights

An election board in a state county implements a new procedure requiring female voter registration applicants to provide notarized copies of their marriage licenses or divorce decrees, while male applicants face no similar requirement. Which of the following constitutional provisions would be the primary basis for a legal challenge against this procedure?

  1. The Nineteenth AmendmentAnswer
  2. B
    The Tenth Amendment
  3. C
    The Fifteenth Amendment
  4. D
    The Twenty-Fourth Amendment

Answer

The Nineteenth Amendment
The correct answer is the Nineteenth Amendment. This amendment explicitly guarantees that the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex. Because the county's policy imposes a special procedural burden only on female applicants, it constitutes an abridgment of the right to vote on the basis of sex.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the nature of the policy and the group affected.
The policy creates an additional procedural hurdle (providing notarized marriage or divorce documents) that specifically targets women and does not apply to men.
Understanding the discriminatory classification helps determine which constitutional provision governs the situation.
2
Evaluate the relevant voting rights amendments and federalism principles to find the matching restriction.
The Nineteenth Amendment states that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex, which directly addresses gender-based distinctions in voting access.
Applying the correct constitutional amendment to the scenario identifies the Nineteenth Amendment as the primary legal basis for the challenge.

Key Concept

Constitutional Amendments and Voting Rights
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Topics

Constitutional Amendments and Voting Rights

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