Stone v. Stovall

MEMORANDUM OPINION

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge:

This class action challenges the constitutionality of state and city laws which restrict suffrage in bond elections to persons who have made available for taxation some item of real, personal, or mixed property.1 We believe the defendants 2 have failed to demonstrate that this diminution of the electorate is necessary to promote a compelling state interest and therefore declare the provisions attacked to be in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

I

On April 11, 1972, the city of Fort Worth, Texas, held a bond election…