BERNARD R. RILEY, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
CARL HOLMER, SUPERVISOR OF REGISTRATION, DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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A married eighteen-year-old male sought to register to vote, relying on a state statute that removed the civil disabilities of non-age for married males. The Florida Supreme Court held that while the emancipation statute removed civil disabilities, the state constitution's explicit age requirement for suffrage supersedes statutory removal of disabilities, preventing married minors from voting.
Marriage does not confer voting rights on a male minor in Florida because the state constitution explicitly limits suffrage to male citizens twenty-one years of age. Although the legislature may remove civil disabilities of married minors through statute, it lacks power to modify constitutional qualifications for suffrage. When a special constitutional provision addresses a specific subject matter, it supersedes a general statutory provision.
“Our statute as here quoted for the removal of the disabilities of married male minors appears to have been designed to remove all the civil disabilities imposed by reason of minority but as to the right to vote it is ineffective because Section 1 of Article VI of the constitution in defining the qualifications to vote among others,limits the right of suffrage to male citizens twenty-one years of age.”
Establishes that although the emancipation statute removes civil disabilities, it does not affect the constitutional voting age requirement.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceBernard Riley, an eighteen-year-old married male, petitioned for a writ of mandamus against the Dade County Supervisor of Registration to compel his r…
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— Plaintiff in Error, being a married male minor of the age of eighteen years, exhibited his petition in mandamus against the Defendant in Error as supervisor of Registration of Dade County, Florida, to require that he (petitioner) be permitted to register as a prerequisite to vote in the primary and general elections to be held in 1930. A demurrer to the alternative writ was sustained and the writ dismissed. Writ of error was taken to that judgment.
This suit was brought on the theory that the fact of his marriage emancipated the petitioner from the disability of non-age in so far as it relates to the right of suffrage. In this situation, the sole question presented here for our consideration is whether or not, under the law of this state, marriage has the effect of removing the infirmity of nonage from a male minor and making him eligible to vote.
For the relief sought, Plaintiff in Error relies on Section 3962 Rev. Gen. Stats, of 1920 (Section 5881 Comp. Gen. Laws of 1927) which is as follows:
“The disability of non-age of all male minors who are married, who have been married, or who may hereafter become married, is hereby removed, and that hereafter all such persons are hereby authorized to assume the management of their estate, to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, and to do and perform any and all acts, matters and things that he could do if he were twenty-one years of aged’
Under our law, both males and females are minors till they reach the age of twenty-one years. Beekman v. *940Beekman, 53 Fla. 858, 43 So. R. 923. This was the common law rule. To what extent the disability of minority may be removed depends on statutory and constitutional provisions. 31 C. J., 986. It is competent for the legislature to regulate the age of minority or majority and it may prescribe a different age for the two sexes. In some states, the emancipation statutes by reason of marriage seem' to have the effect of removing all the disabilities of non-age as though the one affected had attained the age of majority. Row v. Caldwell, 145 La. 853, 83 So. R. 43; Hays v. Bowdoin, 159 Ala. 600, 49 So. R. 122; White v. Latimer, 12 Tex. 61, 31 C. J. 986.
Our statute as here quoted for the removal of the disabilities of married male minors appears to have been designed to remove all the civil disabilities imposed by reason of minority but as to the right to vote it is ineffective because Section 1 of Article VI of the constitution in defining the qualifications to vote among others,limits the right of suffrage to male citizens twenty-one years of age. Article XIX of .the Federal constitution in effect extends the right of suffrage to females without reference to age as to either, that being a matter left for the state to determine. Section 215, Rev. Gen. Stats, of 1920 (Section 248 Comp. Gen. Laws of 1927) effectuated the provisions of Section 1 of Article VI of the constitution. Where the constitution in terms prescribes qualifications for suffrage the legislature is powerless to modify these qualifications. McCreary on Elections, (3rd Ed.) Section 11.
But the plaintiff in error contends that this conclusion is overcome by the provisions of Section twenty-one' of Article III of the constitution which authorizes the legislature to enact general laws “relieving minors from legal disabilities.” The answer to this contention is that *941Section 21 of Article III of the constitution has reference to general disabilities of minors while Section 1 of Article VI is a special provision dealing with the right of suffrage. A special constitutional or statutory provision treating a specific subject matter will generally supersede and overcome a general provision treating the same subject.
It follows that the judgment below must be and is hereby affirmed.
Affirmed.
Whitfield, Ellis, Strum and Buford, J. J., concur.
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Fla. Power & Light Co. v. Bridgeman, 133 Fla. 195 (Fla. 1938)…ts claim that this is a misjoinder of parties and that the married daughter was no longer a “minor” at the time that she “maintained” the suit under the authority of the above quoted statute. This Court held in Riley v. Holmer (1930), 100 Fla. 938, 131 So. 330: “Under our law both males and females are minors until they reach the age of twenty-one years. Beekman v. Beekman, 53 Fla. 858, 43 So. 923. This was the Common Law Rule. To what extent the disability of minority may be removed depends on statutory…
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Thomas v. State Ex Rel. Cobb, 58 So. 2d 173 (Fla. 1952)…n 1 of Article VI, as limited by Section 4 of Article VI, prescribes the qualifications of electors, and this court, in State ex rel. Landis v. County Board of Public Instruction of Hillsborough County, 137 Fla. 244, 188 So. 88, and Riley v. Holmer, 100 Fla. 938, 131 So. 330, has held that the Legislature cannot place restrictions on the qualifications of electors that will prohibit those qualified under constitutional provisions to vote in elections authorized by the Constitution. The Legislature is powerl…
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Bowden v. Carter, 65 So. 2d 871 (Fla. 1953)…r a majority of the nominees of such party”. It is universally recognized that where the constitution prescribes the qualifications for suffrage, the legislature is powerless to modify such qualifications. This court has so held in Riley v. Holmer, 100 Fla. 938; 131 So. 330. It has also held that the effect of section 6 of Article VI is to provide for secrecy of the voting ballot and applies to party primary elections as well as general elections. State ex rel. Smith v. Anderson, 26 Fla. 240, 8 So. 1; Stat…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Beekman v. Beekman, 53 Fla. 858 (Fla. 1907)