Making the Case for a Third Reconstruction Based on the State of Voting Rights in America

power to vote. 3 Shelby County signified the start of this second retrenchment in voting rights in 2013, and Brnovich solidified it eight years later.Given the patterns and lessons from the post-Civil War Reconstruction and Second Reconstruction in the mid-twentieth century, this Comment argues that the current state of voting rights indicates that this country requires a Third Reconstruction to bring America closer to its founding ideals.The United States of America began with the idea of a representative democracy and equality for all citizens, 4 yet the foundational documents of this nation protected the horror of chattel slavery and failed to explicitly guarantee all citizens the right to vote. 5 During the Founding era, most state legislatures only granted White, land-owning men the right to vote.6 It is essential to understand the cycles of progress and setbacks in the fight for racial equality in the right to vote throughout our country's history.The right to vote is the basis for the rest of democracy; it is fundamental.7 It provides citizens the ability to hold their government accountable and structurally confers equality among citizens where one person equals one vote.8 The ability to choose elected officials who truly represent the values, interests, and goals of the people in turn shapes every other aspect of our lives and forms the basis from which our other rights derive.And once the right to vote is conferred on some people, equal protection 3 Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013); Brnovich v. Democratic Nat'l Comm., 141 S. Ct. 2321 (2021).This author notes that it is the practice of the Seton Hall Law Review to capitalize all races.4 Kramer v. Union Free Sch.Dist., 395 U.S. 621, 626 (1969) ("This careful examination is necessary because statutes distributing the franchise constitute the foundation of our representative society.Any unjustified discrimination in determining who may participate in political affairs or in the selection of public officials undermines the legitimacy of representative government.").5 U.S. CONST.art.I, § 2 (apportioning three-fifths of the number of slaves to the total number of state residents for representation purposes); U.S. CONST.art.I, § 9 (forbidding any Congressional regulations on the transatlantic slave trade until at least 1808); U.S. CONST.art.IV, § 2 (granting slave owners the right to recapture fugitive slaves from anywhere in the nation).6 The Founders and the Vote, LIBR.OF CONG., https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/right-to-vote/the-founders-and-the-vote(last visited Nov. 15, 2023).7 Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 561-62 (1964); see also Kramer, 395 U.S. at 626 (analyzing the right to vote under the same strict scrutiny afforded to other fundamental interests).8 Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 558.

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