A state's conditioning of the right to vote on the payment of a fee or tax violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Decided March 24, 1966 (argued 1966). Opinion of the Court: William O. Douglas → go there Dissenting: Black, Harlan. Applied: the Fourteenth Amendment → go there Topic: Voting and redistricting. Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court found that Virginia's poll tax was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eleven southern states established poll taxes as part of their disenfranchisement of most blacks and many poor whites. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1964) prohibited poll taxes in federal elections; five states continued to require poll taxes for voters in state elections. By this ruling, the Supreme Court banned the use of poll taxes in state elections. Wiki link