Morse v. Republican Party of Va., 517 U.S. 186, 46 (1996)

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Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)

Opinion of Stevens, J.

that our evaluation of congressional action "must take into account its contemporary legal context." Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 698-699 (1979); see also Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran, 456 U. S. 353, 381 (1982).

Our holding in Cannon, that Title IX of the Education

Amendments of 1972 created a private right of action for victims of discrimination in education, relied heavily on the fact that during the 1960's the Court had consistently found such remedies notwithstanding the absence of an express direction from Congress. 441 U. S., at 698; see also id., at 718 (Rehnquist, J., concurring). Indeed, Cannon cited and relied on our earlier decision in Allen v. State Bd. of Elections, 393 U. S. 544 (1969), holding that private parties may enforce § 5 of the Voting Rights Act, to show that Congress acted against a "backdrop" of decisions in which implied causes of action were regularly found. See 441 U. S., at 698, and nn. 22-23. The Voting Rights Act itself was passed one year after this Court's decision in J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U. S. 426 (1964), which applied a highly liberal standard for finding private remedies.

In Allen we made two observations about § 5 that apply as forcefully to § 10. We noted that "achievement of the Act's laudable goal could be severely hampered . . . if each citizen were required to depend solely on litigation instituted at the discretion of the Attorney General." 393 U. S., at 556. The same is surely true of § 10.41 Second, we attached significance to the fact that the Attorney General had urged us to find that private litigants may enforce the Act. Id., at 557, n. 23. The United States takes the same position in

41 In a footnote we observed that a private litigant could always bring suit under the Fifteenth Amendment, but it was the inadequacy of just those suits for securing the right to vote that prompted Congress to enact the statute. See 393 U. S., at 556, n. 21. Similarly with respect to a poll tax, the fact that a suit might be brought directly under the Twenty-fourth Amendment is not a reason for declining to find a statutory remedy.

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