ON THIS DAY IN 1872, SUSAN B. ANTHONY WAS ARRESTED FOR ILLEGAL VOTING: She took the position that the recently-ratified Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause gave all women the right to vote. The argument went like this: Women had always been citizens.   The Fourteenth Amendment made it clear that no citizen should be denied the privileges or immunities of citizenship, so that conferred on women the right to vote.

On Election Day, to her surprise, she was permitted to cast a ballot. Her victory was, however, short-lived. Two weeks after the election she was arrested. Her predicament made news around the world.

Despite her argument about the significance of the Fourteenth Amendment, she was convicted and fined $100 (which she never paid). Meanwhile, in Missouri, Virginia Minor had also attempted to register to vote, but had been refused. She launched her own lawsuit also citing the Fourteenth Amendment. In Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875), the Supreme Court rejected the argument, holding that while women were citizens within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, citizenship alone did not confer the right to vote.

At that point, the women’s suffrage movement changed its strategy and began to advocate a constitutional amendment specifically focused on a woman’s right to vote. Meanwhile, out on the Western Frontier, where women were scarce, the women’s suffrage movement was succeeding. Among other things, it was thought to be a way to attract more women.  By the turn of the century, women in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Colorado had the vote.