Abstract
One hundred and fifty years ago, in the wake of the ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments, the United States Supreme Court decided Minor v. Happersett. In Minor, the Court ruled Missouri could continue to deny women the right to vote based on their sex. The decision was simply reasoned. In the absence of clear constitutional text requiring Missouri to provide the right to vote to women or proof that the right to vote was a right of citizenship, Missouri had no obligation to allow women to vote. Some states had banned women citizens from voting since the country’s founding. Missouri had done so since its admission to the union. The Minor Court ruled nothing had occurred in the wake of the Civil War that compelled Missouri to end the practice. The Reconstruction Amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments ratified in the wake of the Civil War—may have triggered constitutional change, but not enough to require women’s suffrage. . .
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Recommended Citation
Chambers, H. L. (2025). Minor v. Happersett, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and the Supreme Court's Refusal to Reconstruct America. Washington University Law Review, 102(6), 1691.