Giles v. Harris

Giles v. Harris
Supreme Court of the United States
Submitted February 24, 1903 Decided April 27, 1903
Full case name	Jackson W. Giles, Appellant v. E. Jeff Harris, William A. Gunter, Jr., and Charles B. Teasley, Board of Registrars of Montgomery County, Alabama
Citations	189 U.S. 475 (more) 23 S. Ct. 639; 47 L. Ed. 909; 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1378
Case history
Prior	Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama
Holding
The Court refused to assist African Americans in Alabama who were being systematically denied the right to vote by a scheme set up by the all-white state legislature.
Court membership
Chief Justice Melville Fuller Associate Justices John M. Harlan · David J. Brewer Henry B. Brown · Edward D. White Rufus W. Peckham · Joseph McKenna Oliver W. Holmes Jr. · William R. Day
Case opinions
Majority	Holmes, joined by Fuller, White, Peckham, McKenna, Day
Dissent	Brewer, joined by Brown
Dissent	Harlan
Laws applied
U.S. Const., Amendments XI & XV

Giles v. Harris, 189 U.S. 475 (1903), was an early 20th-century United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld a state constitution's requirements for voter registration and qualifications. Although the plaintiff accused the state of discriminating in practice against black citizens, the Court found that the requirements applied to all citizens and refused to review the results "in practice," which it considered overseeing the state's process. As there was no stated intent in law to disenfranchise blacks, the Court upheld the state law.^[1]

The African-American educator Booker T. Washington secretly arranged for funding and representation for Jackson W. Giles in this lawsuit and the ensuing Giles v. Teasley (1904). He worked extensively behind the scenes to direct and raise funds for other lawsuits and segregation challenges as well.^[2]