The Missing Right?: The Explicit Right to Vote and the Constitution

This resource is an Inquiry Pack to accompany the Suffrage Timeline on LegalTimelines.org, which explores the history of voting rights in the United States, from its early influences to constitutional amendments and landmark Supreme Court cases.

Built around primary sources from the Library of Congress and other collections, this Inquiry Pack facilitates a deep dive into an important aspect of the history of suffrage and voting rights in the United States.

Each Inquiry Pack includes a background reading, several primary sources (documents, articles, images), discussion questions about the sources, an inquiry question, and an inquiry extension question.

This pack includes the following components:

• Introduction: Do Americans Have an Explicit Right to Vote?
• The Founders’ Conflicting Views
• Would an Amendment Really Work?
• The Supreme Court’s Conflicting Views
• A Proposed Amendment
• Inquiry Question: Should the Constitution be amended to guarantee an explicit right to vote?
• Inquiry Extension Question: Research state legislation enacted over the last five years that added restrictions to voting, then review one or more recently proposed constitutional amendments for the right to vote. Explain which state voting restrictions would be disallowed by this amendment and which restrictions might still be allowed.
• Inquiry Question Graphic Organizer