Giles V. Harris - Aftermath

Aftermath

In Giles v. Teasley, Jackson Giles sought to meet some of the Court's grounds for its rulings, but his challenge was rejected. It was not until many years later that the Court would overturn Giles v. Harris in a series of cases which established that the right to vote was protected by the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and that federal courts have broad power to address deprivations of constitutional rights of citizens within states. After Federal civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s, it did in fact take several more years of Federal court oversight and Federal intervention and monitoring to ensure that African Americans were allowed to register to vote in the South. When Giles v. Harris was brought to the Supreme Court, some members of the Court (and the Executive Branch) did not conceive of exercising such powers years after Reconstruction had ended. However, the Legislative Branch had exercised such power up until the time of Giles v. Harris, as the House Elections Committee repeatedly refused to seat members reported elected by their states when it felt that the voting or registration process had been compromised. Since the excluded members were inevitably Democrats, partisan politics could play a role in these decisions; certainly such members were unseated only when Republicans held the majority in the House. After the decision, the Legislative Branch as well ceased unseating members because of these concerns.