YOUTH QUAKE

OREGON V. MITCHELL 400 U.S. 112 (1970) DOES A FEDERAL LAW ALLOWING 18-YEAR-OLDS TO VOTE INFRINGE ON STATE POWERS?

Never before and never since have American legislators been as eager to change the U.S. Constitution. The 26th Amendment, which gave 18-year-olds the right to vote in all elections, underwent ratification by the requisite three-quarters of states in 1971 in just three months and eight days.

The previous record—set in ratifying the 12th Amendment, mandating separate Electoral College votes for president and vice-president—was six months and six days in 1804, when the nation had only 17 states.

That rapidity did not reflect widespread agreement that 18-year-olds should have the vote; many still worried that teens were too inexperienced., a Supreme Court decision that threatened chaos at the polls unless a constitutional amendment overrode it. The irony is that the decision, while controlling, reflected the constitutional interpretations of just one of nine justices: Hugo L. Black.