1. Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy Updated with 15 th Edition Edwards/Wattenberg/Lineberry

2. Introduction Civil Rights  Definition: policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals Today, equality debates center on three types of discrimination  Racial Discrimination  Gender Discrimination  Discrimination based on age, disability, sexual orientation and other factors

3. Two Centuries of Struggle Conceptions of Equality  Equal opportunity: same chances  Equal results: same rewards The Constitution and Inequality  Equality is not in the original Constitution, nor is it in the Bill of Rights  First mention of equality in the 14 th Amendment: “…equal protection of the laws”  One of the “Civil War Amendments” along with 13 and 15

4. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy The Era of Slavery  Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)  Case concerns a slave brought into free territory and whether or not he should be free  Decision: Slaves had no rights, they were classified as “chattel”  Invalidated Missouri Compromise, said Congress had no power to ban slavery in the Western territories The Civil War brought about certain changes  The Thirteenth Amendment: Abolition of Slavery  Fourteenth Amendment: Citizenship, Due Process, Equal Protection  Fifteenth Amendment: Black suffrage

5. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy The Era of Reconstruction and Resegregation  Jim Crow or segregational laws  Relegated African Americans to separate facilities, school systems, even restrooms

6. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Plessy v Ferguson (1896)  Legally justified segregation through “separate but equal” ruling  Homer Plessy was 1/8 black  Challenged Louisiana state law  Supreme Court validated the idea of Separate facilities for the races 1941 Executive Order outlawed discrimination in defense industries 1948, Truman desegregated the Armed Services

7. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy The Era of Civil Rights  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas(1954)  Case was brought to court by the NAACP  Wanted the SC to rule on whether segregated schools were inherently unequal and therefore a violation of the EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE of the 14 th Amendment  Overturned precedent set by the Plessy decision (end of separate but equal)  School segregation inherently unconstitutional  Integrate schools “with all deliberate speed”  Busing of students solution for two kinds of segregation:  de jure, “by law”  de facto, “in reality”

8. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy

9. The Era of Civil Rights (continued)  Civil Rights Act of 1964  Made racial discrimination illegal in hotels, restaurants, and other public accommodation (Interstate Commerce)  Forbade employment discrimination based on race  Created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to protect against job discrimination  Provided for withholding grants from state and local governments that practiced racial discrimination  Justice Dept authorized to initiate lawsuits to desegregate schools and facilities

10. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Getting and Using the Right to Vote  Suffrage: the legal right to vote  Fifteenth Amendment: extended suffrage to African Americans (last of the Civil War Amendments)  Many attempts were made by states to circumvent the 15 th Amendment  Poll Taxes: small taxes levied on the right to vote (outlawed by the 24 th Amendment – 1964)  Grandfather Clause: exempted people whose grandfathers were eligible to vote in 1860 from having to take literacy tests (found unconstitutional in 1915)  White Primary: Only whites were allowed to vote in the party primaries (declared unconstitutional in 1944)

11. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Getting and Using the Right to Vote  Voting Rights Act of 1965: helped end formal and informal barriers to voting; sent federal registrars to make sure black people in the South could register and vote

12. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Other Minority Groups  Asian Americans  Korematsu v. United States (1944) Supreme Court UPHELD the internment of the Japanese in camps during WW2

13. Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy The Battle for the Vote  Nineteenth Amendment: extended suffrage to women in 1920 The “Doldrums”: 1920-1960  Laws were designed to protect women, and protect men from competition with women.  Equal Rights Amendment first introduced in Congress in 1923  Equal Rights Amendment fails ratification by states (1982)

14. Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy Women in the Workplace  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned gender discrimination in employment. Wage Discrimination and Comparable Worth  Lily Ledbetter v Goodyear - ruled against Ledbetter in her case of gender discrimination  Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009) Women in the Military  Only men may be drafted  Both men and women can now serve in ground combat. Sexual Harassment  Prohibited by Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964

15. Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella Civil Rights and People with Disabilities  Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990  Requiring employers and public facilities to make “reasonable accommodations” for those with disabilities  Prohibits employment discrimination against the disabled

16. Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella Gay and Lesbian Rights  Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)  Lawrence v. Texas (2003)  Overturned Bowers  Private homosexual acts are protected by the Constitution  Gay marriage  Many state constitutions amended to prohibit practice  The Defense of Marriage Act (1996) – In Section 3 of DOMA federal government defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, thus denying same-sex couples the same federal protections as heterosexual couples (Social Security survivor benefits, immigration rights, family and medical leave, tax filing as a married couple, etc)

17. Gay Rights at the Supreme Court Windsor v US (2013)  ACLU represented Edie Windsor (83 years old) in suing the federal government for $363,000 in estate taxes she was forced to pay after the death of her partner, Thea Spyer. They were married in Canada in 2007 after a 40 year relationship. Because of DOMA, the federal government did not recognize their marriage.  In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of DOMA

18. Gay Rights at the Supreme Court Hollingsworth v Perry (2013)  California’s Proposition 8, passed in 2009, was a citizen initiative that stripped same-sex couples of the right to marry, after the California Supreme Court had legalized same sec marriage in 2008  In 2010, a judge found Prop 8 to be unconstitutional and discriminatory. Supporters of Prop 8 appealed the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the 9 th Circuit  The Court of Appeals agreed that Prop 8 “serves no purpose…other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California”  June 2013 the US Supreme Court struck down Prop 8, restoring the freedom to marry for Californians

19. Affirmative Action Definition: a policy designed to give special attention to or compensatory treatment of members of some previously disadvantaged group In education  Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)  Racial set asides unconstitutional; no more quotas  Race could be considered in admissions  Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Gratz v Bollinger  Race could be considered a “plus” in admissions

20. Understanding Civil Rights and Public Policy Civil Rights and Democracy  Equality favors majority rule.  Suffrage gave many groups political power. Civil Rights and the Scope of Government  Civil rights laws increase the size and power of government.  Civil rights protect individuals against collective discrimination.

21. Summary Racial minorities and women have struggled for equality since the beginning of the republic. Constitutional amendments and civil rights legislation guarantee voting and freedom from discrimination. Civil rights have expanded to new groups.