Ferguson v. Williams

KEADY, District Judge:

This case presents the basic question of whether Mississippi’s four-month registration requirement for voting in state and local elections as provided by its state constitution,1 and statute,2 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A second issue raised is whether this registration requirement abridges the right to vote of 18 to 20 year old Mississippi citizens in contravention of the Twenty-sixth Amendment.3

In their original complaint filed on July 8, 1971, plaintiffs began this suit as a class action only on behalf of Mississippi residents…