Beare v. Smith

SINGLETON, District Judge.

For many years prior to the decision in United States v. Texas, 252 F.Supp. 234 (W.D.Tex.1966), aff’d, 384 U.S. 155, 86 S.Ct. 1383, 16 L.Ed.2d 434 (1966), Texas required its residents to pay an annual poll tax as a prerequisite to their voting in Texas elections. In the wake of that decision declaring the poll tax to be constitutionally impermissible, the legislature of Texas proposed, and the people ratified, an amendment to the Texas Constitution, providing for an nual registration of Texas voters. 1 This suit attacks the constitutionality of that provision on the…