Section 2 of the Fourteenth amendment provides for Representation as it is Apportioned to the Congress and to be for the States and to provide for no denial including the Executive, judicial and legislatures; or in any way abridged:
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3 of the Amendment provides the exceptions. Other than "non taxpaying Indians"- certain classes were barred or disqualified for public office.
: Section 3. No one shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
By the time of Harper, many of the Reconstruction period objections ( "he was a confederate') had been codified by the State's legislatures. The right of Women came by Amendment and granted women full political equality. Progressive measures replaced the "confederate disqualifications"-. "laws relating to primaries and elections do not confer the rights of qualified persons to become candidates, but merely regulate the exercise of such right in an orderly way. (Manning v. Young , 210 Wis. 588, 247 NW 61 (1933).
The majority opinion in Morrison write: The fourteenth amendment prohibits a state from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; but this adds nothing to the rights of one citizen as against another. It simply furnishes an additional guaranty against any encroachment by the States upon the fundamental rights which belong to every citizen as a member of society
The rights of the State are "limited"- by the Amendment X itself. And by other portions of the Constitution and the power of Congress over elections. That power of Congress like that of interstate commerce 'is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations other than are prescribed in the Constitution.' . . . That power can neither be enlarged nor diminished by the exercise or non- exercise of state power. . . . It is no objection to the assertion of the power to regulate interstate commerce that its exercise is attended by the same incidents which attended the exercise of the police power of the states. . . . Our conclusion is unaffected by the Tenth Amendment which . . . states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered.''--Chief Justice Stone, 312 U.S. 100, 114, 123, 124 (1941).
When the state district court judge ruled candidate Gould " disqualified the candidate and removed his name from the ballot," he did more than add additional qualifications not present in the creating document for the office-- the state constitution. He applied a standard from which he and other state officers are prohibited: a test or device.
It is a fundamental prohibition of constitutional proportion. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election . . . shall not be denied or abridged . . . by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. Amendment XXIV (1964)
But just as significant is that the matter was as provided statutes governing elections brought to the state Supreme Court. The fees paid, upon the state question:
that the district court had added additional qualification to the language and meaning of the state's constitution and that the name would be placed on the ballot.
When reason had to be, it was void. The concept that a state Court judge could elevate a partial excerpt of a reference of case and so change not only the voting rights of the minority and but also a change of the constitution of the state is unacceptable. That a review required of the consequences of such a decision is denied is outrageous conduct. It defies a true meaning of due process and substitutes additional denial of due process.
Due process is best defined in one word--fairness. Throughout the U.S.'s history, its constitutions, statutes and case law have provided standards for fair treatment of citizens by federal, state and local governments. These standards are known as due process. When a person is treated unfairly by the government, including the courts, he is said to have been deprived of or denied due process.
The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the deprivation of liberty or property without due process of law. A due process claim is cognizable only if there is a recognized liberty or property interest at stake. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569 (1972).
Negligence and arbitrarily applied procedures in the state's challenge process are further compounded by the State supreme abdication of review. Arbitrary procedures and the failure to provide adequate safeguards in that phase of the election process
are contrary to the very principles of judicial review and the sanctity that the laws of the Constitution and state constitution are superior.
