Chapter 7: Our Enduring Constitution Social Science

Issues over slavery Originally, freedom and citizenship were not granted to enslaved Africans because the Southern economy needed free labor in order to continuously grow their cash crops Constitution Framers tried to make slavery sound acceptable, but were with the Northerners in despising it As new states were brought into the Union, the issue of slavery constantly came up The key was whether the new state would be a slave state or free state The Missouri Compromise split the country into slave states and free states, which made the conflict even worse in the long-run

Abolishing slavery The Supreme Court Case of Dred Scott v. Missouri was thought to be the end of the slavery debate Dred Scott traveled with his slaveholder to Illinois and Wisconsin, free state, and upon returning to Missouri, he argued that his residences in those free states made him free The court ruled in favor of the slaveholder, saying that the Constitution said slaves were property and could be taken anywhere The fight for abolition of slavery continued, going as far as the Civil War After the North won, the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, was passed in 1865

African Americans and the Right to Vote Even though slavery was banned, African Americans were not seen as citizens, primarily because the Bill of Rights protected citizen’s rights instead of giving citizen’s rights The Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868, gave African Americans, along with naturalized citizens, their citizenship, and took that power away from the states The Fifteenth Amendment, passed in 1870, gave African Americans suffrage, or the right to vote, but declaring that states could not deny citizens their right to vote The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, passed in 1964, made poll taxes, or taxes for voting, illegal, which benefited many poor African Americans Even with these amendments, it took more that 100 years to end discrimination against African Americans

Women and the Right to Vote Many carried on the traditional views of women that existed for centuries Thought that women belonged in the home, that their main job was to take care of the family, and that they could not handle responsibilities, like voting By the late 1800’s, views on women began to change with women taking on more jobs and being active in social affairs Supporters of women’s suffrage, or suffragists, began to gain public attention and support by politicians A proposal for an amendment failed to be accepted from 1878 to 1918, until the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, passed in 1920

Youth and the Right to Vote In recent years, the voting age was 21 years old, but after youths as young as 18 served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, support for a lower voting age came Congress passed a law in 1970 lowering the voting age for national elections to 18, but advocates wanted the age to include all elections The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, passed in 1971, lowered the voting age for all elections to 18 years old This amendment is just another example of how the people, along with a strong voice and support, can change laws

The Roles of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court has two major roles: Overturning a decision: can overturn a decision made by a previous court case or by an amendment being added that changes, removes, or adds a constitutional principle Interpreting a principle using equal protection, or that people must be treated fairly, but it does not mean that everyone must be treated in exactly the same way

Plessy v. Ferguson After the Fourteenth Amendment, many states passed laws requiring segregation, or separation of black and whites in public places In 1896, Homer Plessy argued that being required to leave a “whites only” railroad car in Louisiana violated his equal protection rights The Supreme Court ruled that the segregation laws in Louisiana did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, as long as everything was “separate, but equal” As the years went on, more and more cases of segregation came about

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka In 1954, a controversial court case involving de-segregating school came about Linda Brown, an African American student, lived 7 blocks from a school, but was not permitted to attend because it was a “whites-only” school Her parents thought that she should be able to attend her neighborhood school With evidence from Thurgood Marshall arguing that separate schools made African Americans feel inferior and whites feel superior, the court ruled that all schools be de-segregated and that Plessy v. Ferguson be overturned

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke During the 1960’s, the government passed “civil rights laws” to ensure that discrimination against African Americans would not happen again One law required companies to take affirmative action, or steps to counteract the effects of past racial and female discrimination, towards the hiring process The affirmative action clause of civil rights laws went to another Supreme Court case Allan Bakke, a white applicant to the University of California at Davis medical school, was repeatedly denied admittance, even though other minority applicants with lower grade point averages were admitted The Supreme Court decided that the university could not discriminate against white applicants, but the university could use race as a consideration towards an applicant if it wanted to promoted a more diverse student body

Phillips v. Martin Marietta The affirmative action clause has also been challenged in regards to womens’ rights issues Ida Phillips was applying for a job at Martin Marietta, a defense contractor They denied her a position because she had two children in pre-school, and they thought that more of her time would be spent with the children rather than with the company Phillips took the case to court, stating that men were not asked the same questions she was regarding children The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phillips, saying there can not be one hiring process for men and another for women.