Civil Rights AP Government

14th Amendment The Fourteenth Amendment is the only Amendment that references equality. The amendment forbids the states deny anyone equal protection of law. Civil rights are policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials and individuals

Scott v Sanford The case of Scott v Sanford took place when a slave was brought into a territory where slavery did not exist. Scott sued stating that since slavery was not legal where he no lived, he should be allowed to go free. http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1856/1856_0/

The Decision The Supreme Court made the following decision: All blacks in the United States were not citizens and therefore could not sue. Congress has no power to ban slavery in the western territories These decisions stood until the end of the civil war with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment which ended slavery

Jim Crow After Reconstruction the south instituted many Jim Crow laws that were used to segregate black and whites. The Supreme Court held the belief that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit racial discrimination by private businesses and individuals

Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 The case of Plessy v. Ferguson involved the precedent of separate but equal Homer Plessy was 1/8th African American. He decided to sit in the white only car of a train. Plessy was then arrested and placed in jail for violation of segregation laws http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1895/1895_210

The Decision It was ruled that as long as the separate facilities were equal, you could legally separate people based upon race

Sweatt v Painter (1949) In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School and was rejected because he was black When Sweatt asked for the Courts to overrule his admission the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1949/1949_44

The Decision In a 9-0 decision, it was ruled that Sweatt must be admitted to the universities law school The Court stated that the facilities and the instruction in a “law school for Negroes” would be unequal to that of the already established law school The Court also said that separation from the majority of law students harmed a black student’s abilities to compete in the legal arena

Brown v. Board of Education 1954 The case of Brown v Board of Education took place in 1954 and argued that segregation in schools was unfair They stated that inequality existed in the condition of school buildings, curricula, teacher qualifications, and teacher salaries http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/

The Decision This case overturns the precedent of separate but equal. In a unanimous decision it was declared that “separate is inherently unequal” Brown v Board is a case that would be classified as activist

Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1970) In 1970, nearly 14,000 black students attended schools that were either all black or more than 99% black. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the debate looked at whether it was for the Court to oversee and produce remedies for state imposed segregation http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1970/1970_281

The Decision In a 9-0 decision, the Court mandated that the desegregation of these schools needed to occur. The Court came up with the following four point plane 1. remedial plans were to be judge by effectiveness, and the use of mathematical rations or quotas were legitimate “starting points” for solutions 2. predominantly or exclusively black schools required close scrutiny by court 3. non-contiguous attendance zones, as interim corrective measures, were with the courts’ remedial powers 4. no rigid guidelines could be established concerning busing of students to particular schools

Civil Rights The Civil Rights act of 1964 helped to curtail many of the racial discriminatory processes that existed during the time period. The act accomplished the following: It made racial discrimination illegal in hotels, motels, restaurants, and other places of public accommodation Forbade discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to monitor and enforce protections against job discrimination Provided for withholding federal grants from state and local governments and other institutions that practice racial discrimination Strengthened voting rights legislation Authorized the U.S. Justice Department to initiate lawsuits to desegregate public schools and facilities

Heart of Atlanta Motel v US After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which forbade racial discrimination by places of public accommodation, the Heart of Atlanta Motel refused to allow black customers to rent a room The Court was tasked with determining if the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went beyond their Constitutional authority to regulate interstate trade

The Decision In a 9-0 decision, the Court ruled that the Commerce Clause allows Congress to regulate local incidents of commerce It also ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was Constitutional as well.

Voting Rights Voting Rights were another issue within the African American Community Suffrage, or the right to vote, was limited to free, property-holding white males. Poll taxes, literacy tests, all white primaries and grandfather clauses were all used to discriminate against African Americans voting. Guinn v United States (1915) made grandfather clauses unconstitutional, Smith v Allwright (1944) made all white primaries unconstitutional, The 24th Amendment (1964) outlawed poll taxes The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited any practice used to discriminate in voting practices

Affirmative action Affirmative action involves efforts to bring about increased employment, promotion, or admission for members of groups who have suffered from discrimination. The goal is to move beyond equal opportunity towards equal results A landmark cases involving Affirmative Action was Regents of the University of California v Bakke Bakke had alleged that due to Affirmative Action he was being discriminated against because he was white. Bakke’s test scores were far superior to those minorities being admitted to the program under the Affirmative Action program It was ordered that Bakke be admitted to the school, but did not forbid UC from admitting individuals based upon their race.

Hispanics Hispanics have struggled with many of the same issues of equality that African Americans have had issues with throughout our country's history Issues regarding including educational funding, equal representation in juries and immigration policy have had major impacts on the Hispanic community. The case of Hernandez v Texas (1954) allowed Hispanic's to sit on juries for the first time in over 25 years. In the case of Plyler v Doe (1982), the Supreme Court established a ruling that stated withholding educational funds for illegal immigrant students was a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Women’s Rights Women's rights activists have existed in the United States since the abolitionist movement of the Civil War era. The 19th Amendment, passed in 1920, gave women the constitutional right to vote for the first time in American history. One of the first place where women fought for the right to vote was at the Seneca Falls convention. It was here where women declared that the tyranny of men over women needed to end and that equality needed to given to women.

ERA The Equal Rights Amendment attempted to further the cause of female equality. The ERA challenged the idea that women could not complete the same work of men and stated that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The amendment ultimately failed.

Inequality of Law In the case of Reed v Reed (1971), it was determined that any gender-based classification violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. This was the first time a law was deemed unconstitutional on the basis of gender discrimination

The elderly One group that has tried to hold on to their rights in this changing work is the elderly People 65 and older make up about 37 million people in the American population That is 12% of the American population Many of the hot button issues regarding the elderly revolves around Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid These programs account for a huge percentage of the American budget and only appears to be an increasing expenditure. The elderly American population is also dealing with age discrimination in the work place.

People with disabilities The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 strengthened the protection for Americans with disabilities The ADA requires employers and administrations of public facilities to make “reasonable accommodations” and prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities.

Gay and lesbian Homophobia, or fear and hatred of homosexuals- has caused many issues within the United States There have been many ruling against the civil rights of Homosexuals The case of Bowers v Harwick allowed states to ban homosexual relationships. (this was later overturned by Lawrence v Texas, 2003) The Supreme Court also allowed the Boy Scouts to ban homosexuals from their organization because it violated their principles. This was in the case of the Boy Scouts v Dale. There have been recent success in the fight for gay civil rights Recently the “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” policy was struck down in the military In the case of Romer v Evans (1996) a state constitutional amendment was struck down after it tried to legalize discrimination against gays