United States v. Anthony - Significance, The Almighty Vote, Preparation For Trial, The Trial, The Supreme Court Looks At Women And The Fourteenth Amendment

United States v. Anthony - Significance

Was one of the first in a series of decisions--including two rendered by the full Supreme Court--which found that Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution did not expand or protect women's rights, an interpretation which remained unchanged for almost 100 years. United States v. Anthony and several related cases in the 1870s grew out of women's attempts to gain full rights of …

United States v. Anthony - Further Readings

United States v. Anthony - The Almighty Vote

One of those who voted in 1872 was Susan B. Anthony. Before registering in Rochester, New York, she had consulted Judge Henry R. Selden, who agreed that Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment should entitle women to suffrage; she carried his written opinion with her and threatened to sue the registrars if they failed to take her oath. They complied. Anthony and 14 female companions were registered …

United States v. Anthony - Preparation For Trial

Since women were not allowed to testify in their own defense in the mid-nineteenth century, Anthony tried to present her side of the story to prospective jurors before the trial, scheduled for 13 May, began. She gave the same speech in all 29 postal districts of her county: "Friends and Fellow-Citizens, I stand before you under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last president…

United States v. Anthony - The Trial

The trial opened before Judge Ward Hunt on 17 June 1873. U.S. District Attorney Richard Crowley presented the government's case: "Miss Susan B. Anthony . . . upon the 5th day of November, 1872, . . . voted . . . At that time she was a woman." Beverly W. Jones, one of the inspectors under indictment for registering Anthony, testified that he had indeed registered her and that he had received ballot…

United States v. Anthony - The Supreme Court Looks At Women And The Fourteenth Amendment

In 1873, the Supreme Court heard the case of Myra Bradwell, who claimed that her Fourteenth Amendment rights were abridged by Illinois' law prohibiting women from the practice of law. The Court found that her rights had not been violated since " . . . the right of females to pursue any lawful employment for a livelihood (the practice of law included)" was not "one of the privileges and immunities …

United States v. Anthony - Suffrage

Though considered fundamental to political equality and representative government, suffrage, the right to vote, has been difficult to achieve by many in the United States. Originally, only free white men with property held the right. The first women's rights convention, convened in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, made suffrage their primary goal. In 1869 two national advocacy organizations formed.…