ABSTRACT
In Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 US 641, the US Supreme Court upheld the power of Congress to forbid state English-language literacy tests for voting. In Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections, 360 US 45, in contrast, the Court had held that a fairly applied literacy test did not violate the Constitution. Justice John Marshall Harlan had joined the Court in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 US 301, upholding other provisions of the Voting Rights Act. He agreed that congressional judgments regarding constitutional meaning were entitled to great respect in the courts. He contended that under Marbury v. Madison, 5 US 137, the substantive meaning of constitutional provisions lay ultimately with the judiciary, not Congress, which had authority only to "enforce," not determine, the Fourteenth Amendment's meaning. Section 4(e), unlike provisions of the Voting Rights Act upheld in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, and had been added to the legislation during congressional floor debate.
