Richardson v. Ramirez

Richardson v. Ramirez
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 15, 1974 Decided June 24, 1974
Full case name	Viola N. Richardson v. Abran Ramirez et al.
Citations	418 U.S. 24 (more) 94 S. Ct. 2655, 41 L. Ed. 2d 551; 1974 U.S. LEXIS 84
Case history
Prior	Ramirez v. Brown, 9 Cal.3d 199 (1973). Appeal from the Supreme Court of California
Subsequent	Ramirez v. Brown, 12 Cal. 3d 912 (Cal. 1974)
Holding
Disenfranchising convicted felons beyond their sentence and parole does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Stewart, White, Blackmun, Powell
Dissent	Marshall, joined by Brennan; Douglas (Part I–A)
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974),^[1] was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 6–3, that convicted felons could be barred from voting beyond their sentence and parole without violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Such felony disenfranchisement is practiced in a number of states.