U.S. Supreme Court

In 1872, Virginia Minor, the president of the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, adopted a confrontational strategy to secure the right of women to vote. Like several other prominent supporters of women’s suffrage of the day (most notably, Susan B. Anthony), Minor registered to vote in the 1872 presidential election. Reese Happersett, a registrar of voters in Missouri, denied her request because she was not a male citizen of the United States, and, therefore, ineligible to vote under state laws. Minor sued Happersett because she alleged that his actions violated her constitutional right to vote as a citizen of the United States. The case was eventually appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the reasoning of Minor and her lawyers, thereby demonstrating that a separate constitutional amendment would be...