Primary elections must be open to voters of all races, holding unconstitutional the white primary. Decided April 3, 1944. Opinion of the Court: Stanley Forman Reed → go there Dissenting: Roberts. Applied: the Fifteenth Amendment → go there Topic: Discrimination based on race and ethnicity. Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. It overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set their internal rules, including the use of white primaries. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to delegate its authority over elections to parties in order to allow discrimination to be practiced. This ruling affected all other states where the party used the white primary rule. Wiki link