Kramer v. Union Free School District
United States Supreme Court
395 U.S. 621 (1969)
New York Education Law § 2012 limited voting in certain school-district elections to residents who either owned or leased taxable property in the district, or were parents or had custody of children enrolled in local public schools, even though such residents were otherwise fully eligible to vote in state and federal elections. Morris Kramer (plaintiff), a childless man who neither owned nor leased taxable property, sued Union Free School District (defendant), alleging § 2012 denied him equal protection. A three-judge district court panel upheld the statute as constitutional and dismissed his complaint, and Kramer appealed directly to the Supreme Court.
Whether a state statute that denies the right to vote in school-district elections to some district residents who are otherwise qualified to vote by age and citizenship violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.