W ELCOME Mrs. Seng C IVIL R IGHTS AND P UBLIC P OLICY The Constitution and Inequality Race, The Constitution, and Public Policy The Era of Civil Rights.

W ELCOME Mrs. Seng

C IVIL R IGHTS AND P UBLIC P OLICY The Constitution and Inequality Race, The Constitution, and Public Policy The Era of Civil Rights Getting and Using the Right to Vote

W HAT ARE C IVIL R IGHTS ? Civil Rights refers to the positive acts governments take to protect against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government or individuals.

C IVIL R IGHTS The Constitution secures equal treatment under the law for all citizens Civil rights guarantee that people are not discriminated against by the government or by other individuals on account of their race, religion, gender or age Many legal and political battles have been fought to extend civil rights to all groups of people in the United States

T HE C ONSTITUTION AND I NEQUALITY The original Constitution did not mention equality only white males were allowed privileges such as voting rights The Fourteenth Amendment first clarified the concept of equality by ensuring that all citizens must receive “ equal protection of the laws ” The Supreme Court’s modern interpretation of equality has brought civil rights to the forefront of the political agenda

R ACE, THE C ONSTITUTION, AND P UBLIC P OLICY The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery after the Civil War The Fourteenth Amendment extended rights of citizenship to former slaves In the 1876 election, Rutherford B. Hayes promised to withdraw federal supervision of southern states in exchange for their votes [Jim Crow laws] Plessy v. Furguson passes 1896

B ROWN VS. B OARD OF E DUCATION 1954 – overturned Plessy Asserted that segregation is unconstitutional Ordered the desegregation of public schools

B ROWN VS. B OARD OF E DUCATION Linda Carol Brown, was not allowed to attend a school four blocks from her house because it was for white students. Instead, she had to walk twenty-one blocks to the nearest all-black school.

B ROWN VS. B OARD OF E DUCATION The NAACP argued that the intellectual, psychological, and financial damage that befell Black Americans precluded any finding of equality under the separate but equal policy.

C IVIL R IGHTS A CT (1964) Brought the cause of civil rights to the legislative as well as judicial agenda Accomplished the following measures: Outlawed racial discrimination in public places Prohibited discrimination in employment Withheld government funding from any school or institution that practiced discrimination Established the Equal Opportunity Commission to monitor job discrimination Granted the Justice Department the power to enforce civil rights laws by suing institutions still practicing segregation

G ETTING AND U SING THE R IGHT TO V OTE The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted African Americans the right to vote Southern states circumvented the law by instituting literacy tests, which most ex-slaves could not pass Southern states cited a grandfather clause to exempt from literacy tests illiterate whites whose grandfathers had been allowed to vote before 1860 This practice was found unconstitutional in Guinn v. United States (1915)

G ETTING AND U SING THE R IGHT TO V OTE Smith v. Allwright (1944) The Supreme Court outlawed the use of white primaries to exclude African Americans from the election process

G ETTING AND U SING THE R IGHT TO V OTE The Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) Outlawed the use of poll taxes to prevent poor people from voting Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent states from using any methods to disenfranchise voters The law provided for enforcement by allowing federal registrars to oversee elections

W OMEN Women were excluded also from the rights of equality implied in the Constitution The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) granted women the right to vote The Equal Rights Amendment (1923) was intended to enforce full equality for women, who still were discriminated against in such areas as employment It was passed by Congress in 1972 but never ratified

R EED V. R EED (1971) For the first time, the Supreme Court found a law unconstitutional based on arbitrary gender bias The Idaho Probate Code specified that "males must be preferred to females" in appointing administrators of estates. After the death of their adopted son, both Sally and Cecil Reed sought to be named the administrator of their son's estate (the Reeds were separated). According to the Probate Code, Cecil was appointed administrator and Sally challenged the law in court.

W OMEN Civil rights legislation barring discrimination in the workplace applies to women as well as to other minority groups, and it includes employment opportunities, equal pay, and pregnancy leave The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the issue of comparable worth, which insists that women be paid the same as men for jobs that require the same skills Women are allowed to serve in all branches of the military but cannot engage in ground combat

E LDERLY People over the age of 65 are now the largest group of Americans Discrimination laws prevent employers and universities from rejecting applicants because of their age Congress also revoked the policy of mandatory retirement

D ISABLED P ERSONS The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 protects disabled Americans against job discrimination and requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations”

LGBT Gay rights are protected by some laws but are hardly advanced by the Supreme Court “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy (Clinton) for the military The right to privacy also factors into debates over gay rights “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed under the Obama administration

A FFIRMATIVE A CTION A policy that attempts to prevent discrimination by forcing employers and universities to hire a certain percentage of minority groups or to give them compensatory preferential treatment Thoughts on affirmative action?

A FFIRMATIVE A CTION Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) A white student sued the university for admitting a less- qualified minority student so that the university could fulfill its enrollment quota The Court ruled that race could be used as one factor by which to choose applicants, but that enrollment quotas were unconstitutional

C IVIL R IGHTS AND P UBLIC P OLICY Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy Newly Active Groups under the Civil Rights umbrella Affirmative action