## Facts

- Herbert N. Carrington entered the U.S. Army in 1946 from Alabama.
- In 1962, while on active duty, he moved to El Paso, Texas, intending to make Texas his permanent home.
- He purchased a home in El Paso where he lived with his family, operated a small business there, paid Texas property taxes, and registered his automobile in Texas.
- Although stationed at White Sands, New Mexico, he commuted daily from his El Paso home.
- Texas conceded that Carrington was domiciled in Texas and would be eligible to vote but for his military status.
- Texas Constitution art. VI, § 2 and Texas Election Code art. 5.02 limited an active-duty servicemember’s voting eligibility to the county of residence at the time of entering active duty.
- Texas courts construed these provisions to permanently bar servicemembers who moved into Texas during service from becoming Texas voters while they remained in the armed forces.

## Issues

1. Whether the Equal Protection Clause permits Texas to categorically deny the franchise to active-duty servicemembers who move into Texas during service, even if they are bona fide Texas residents.
2. Whether a state may use military status as a proxy for nonresidence rather than applying neutral, generally applicable residence requirements.

## Decision

- The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Texas.
- The Court held that Texas may impose reasonable residence requirements for voting.
- The Court held that Texas may not deny the ballot to a bona fide resident solely because the person is a member of the armed forces.
- The Court concluded that the Texas constitutional and statutory scheme, as construed, violated the Equal Protection Clause by excluding an entire class of otherwise qualified residents.

## Legal Principles

- States have broad authority to set voting qualifications, but that authority is limited by the Equal Protection Clause.
- A state may employ neutral, nondiscriminatory residency rules to ensure voters are bona fide residents.
- A state may not “fence out” a class of bona fide residents from voting based on status or assumed voting tendencies.
- A blanket exclusion triggered by military status is unconstitutional when it operates to deny otherwise qualified residents the right to vote.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Texas could not categorically bar active-duty servicemembers from voting in Texas when they were bona fide residents; the state must rely on reasonable, neutral residency requirements rather than a status-based exclusion.


Carrington v. Rash, 380 U.S. 89 (1965)