Today's Constitutional Amendment of the Day is Amendment XXIV, which prohibits States from collecting a "poll tax" for federal elections. Twenty-Four states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax."

Amendment 24, which was 100 years overdue, was passed largely because of the Civil Right's movement of the 1960s. The general premise is that the government should not regulate the basic rights of American citizens. As with any government regulation, taxation or otherwise, comes the infringement of freedom. For those of you who don't know, many states implemented poll taxes after the Civil War. It was a useful tool to keep poor blacks from voting. Upon the Amendment's ratification in 1964, there was a great number of people that were able to vote for the very first time in their lives.