Supreme Court of the United States
Hunter v. Underwood
April 16, 1985471 U.S. 222
Summary
The Court held that Alabama Constitution Article VIII, §182 violated the Equal Protection Clause because its enactment was substantially motivated by an intent to disenfranchise Black voters and would not have been adopted absent that discriminatory purpose. The Court applied the mixed-motive framework under which proof of discriminatory purpose shifts the burden to the provision's defenders to show that the same law would have been enacted without that purpose. The Court affirmed the judgment requiring registration of otherwise qualified members of the plaintiff class. Justice Powell took no part in the decision.