Chap 5 - Civil Rights

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5.

1-Roots of suffrage:1800-1890

-civil rights are the government-protected rights of individuals against arbitrary or discriminatory

treatment by govt or individuals

-The due process clause prohibits the government from depriving a person of life, liberty, or

property without due process of law. It is part of the 14th Amendment

-civil liberties are rights that we are born with and the govt has to protect them

-North became more and more industrialized as the south relied on slaves, Missouri applied for

admission as a slave state, Missouris admission would have weighted the senate in favor of

slavery and therefore opposed northern senators—- to resolve they passed the Missouri

compromise of 1820 which allowed the union to admit Missouri as a slave state and Maine was

carved out of a portion of mass to maintain balance

-Garrison and Frederick Douglas left the popular anti-slavery society because they saw women

as second-class citizens and shouldn't be allowed to vote so they went women didn't have the

right to divorce their husbands, keep their wages and inheritances and coulcouldn'te

In -1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia mott noticed how women were not much better off

than slaves and called a convention for women's rights, 300 men and women including Fredrick

Douglas attended– the Seneca falls convention in 1848

-attendees passed resolutions demanding the abolition of legal, economic, and social

discrimination toward women

-women's suffrage was the only one that failed to get unanimous approval

-Dredd Scott v Sanford supreme court case ruled that the Missouri Compromise was

unconstitutional, then the court added that slaves were not us citizens and could not bring suits in

the federal court


-Abraham lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation which allowed all slaves to be

automatically free on Jan 1, 1863, but it did not free all slaves, only in the confederacy, all were

free when the 13th amendment was passed

-the 13th amendment is one of the three civil war amendments that specifically bans slavery in

the us

-black codes are laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves passed by southern states

following the civil war

-an outrageous Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to invalidate some state black

codes, President Andrew Johnson vetoed but for the first time in history, congress overrode it

-14th amendment is another one of the three civil war amendments as it guarantees equal

protection and due process of the law to all citizens

-the equal protection clause is a part of the 14th amendment that guarantees all citizens receive

equal protection of the laws

-15th amendment also one of the three civil war amendments specifically enfranchised (right to

vote but not to women yet) newly freed male slaves

-national woman suffrage association made by Susan b Anthony and Elizabeth cady stanton

-civil rights act of 1875 which granted equal access to public accommodations such as theaters,

restaurants, and transportation and prohibited the exclusion of african americans from jury

service

-jim crow laws are laws enacted by southern states that required segregation in public schools,

theaters, hotels, and other public accomodations

-civil rights cases 1883 is name attached to five cases brought under the civil rights act of 1875,

in 1883 the supreme court decided that discrimination in a variety of public acconomdatons
could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private, not state,

discrimination

- Southern states used this to be racially neutral when it came to authorization for voting 1) poll

tax which is a tax levied in many southern states that had to be paid before an eligible voter

could cast a ballot, 2) some form of property-owning qualifications, 3)literacy tests

-these tests had an impact, by the late 1890s black voting dropped by 62%

0southerners added a grandfather clause which is voter qualification provision that allowed only

those citizens whose grandfather had voted before reconstruction to vote unless they passed a

wealth or literacy test

5.2: the push for equality 1890-1954

-known as the progressive era and was a concerted effort to reform political, economic, and

social affairs

-Plessy v Ferguson, Plessy sits in train and doesn't want to move, he's not treated equally because

he was asked to move train cars, is a supreme court case that challenged a Louisiana statute

requiring that railroads provide separate accommodations for blacks and whites. The court found

that separate but equal accommodations did not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th

amendment

-NAWSA merged and devoted to securing women's suffrage

-the new women's movement was called the suffrage movement and asked if African American

men could vote why can't they?-racist

-19th amendment gave women the right to vote 1917

-NAACP opted first to challenge the constitutionality of jim crow law schools

-amicus curiae-a friend of the court


-the Warren Court expanded civil rights, civil liberties, judicial power, and the federal power

in dramatic ways. It has been widely recognized that the court, led by the liberal bloc, has created

a major "Constitutional Revolution" in the history of United States- eisenhower regretted

appotining him

-brown v board of education is us Scotus decision holding that school segregation is inherently

unconstitutional because it violates 14th amendment guarantee of equal protection

-court proclaimed that separate but equal would no longer pass constitutional muster

5.3: the civil rights movement

-the court placed the enforcement of the ruling the brown v board of edu in the federal district

court judges

-in arkansas governor orval faubus did not stop the troops from segregating little rock high

school and don't allow the 9 african american students in, but the president sent federal troops to

protect the rights of those 9 students

-rosa parks, the local NAACP youth council adviser tried the segregated bus system after they

garnered support and gave speeches

-dec 1 1955 she made history whens he refused to leave her seat in from of the colored section to

make room for white male passenger with 0tb a seat and was arrested for violating alamzeb law

banning integration of public facilities then they boycotted public transportation, in 1956 a

federal court ruled that segregated bus system violated equal protection clause

-MLK launched southern chistain leadership conference and had a southern base and was rooted

more closely in black religious culture — reflected kings ideals on nonviolence protest
-feb 1 1960 few students at all black north carolina agricultural and technical college

participated in first sit in for civil rights–they went to local cafe and got coffee they were not

served but stayed until closing and more and more people did it until they were arrested

-student nonviolent coordination committee was formed and also became what were called

freedom rides and northern whites participated in their legal protests

-while SNCC sponsored sit ins and freedom rides mlk launched massive nonviolent

demonstrations in birmingham alabama thousands of blacks and whites marched to birmingham

to show solidarity and lots of violence was brought upon the protesters

-the shockign scenes convinced president JOhn F Kennedy to prompose important civil rights

legislation- civil rights act of 1964 was passed due to combination of all stated above, followed

the next year was the voting rights act of 1965

-in 1963 JFK requested that congress pass a law banning dicrimination in public

accommodations and MLK called for a march on washington then many heard his i have a

dream speech and determined national legislation was the only way for change to stick

-kennedy was assassinated before legislation had the chance to be voted on

-lyndon b johnson was vice then became president and made civil rights reform top priority

-civil rights act of 1964 was wide ranging legislation passed by congress to outlaw segregation in

public facilities and discrimination in employpment, education, and voting created the equal

employment opportunity commissions

-many southerners felt that the civil rights act of 1964 was unconstitutional because it went

beyond the scope of the constitution but the supreme court said it's conditionality is upheld due

to the commerce power in article 1 section2

-de jure discrimination is racial segregation that is a direct result of law or offical policy
-de facto discriminaiton is racial discrimination that results from practice private such as housing

rather than the law

-dicrimiantion of race, sex age and orgion is nto allowed when it came ot employment as

outlined in title VII of the act and business necsisty type tests used ot weed out african americans

and subjecting weight and height type requiments became illegal

5.4: the womans rights movement

-1961 JFK created the presidents commission on the status of women head is elenor roosevelt.

American women is a commission report writing in 1963 and the feminine mystique

-national orgization for women, NOW took closley after NAACP goal was to achieve passage of

an equal rights amendment to consition or broadened scope of the equal protection clause

-equal rights amendment stated that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or

abridged by the united states or any state on account of sex.”

-1973 roe v wade decieded that women were consituinally protected to temrinate a pregnency

-suspect classification category or class such as race that triggers the highest standard of scrutiny

from the scotus.

-strict scrutiny is a heighnted standard of review used by the scotus to determine the conditional

validity of a challenged practice

-males benefit from ERA but the courts upheld draft registration provisions for males only, state

statutory rape only for female victims, different requirments for chilfs aqquisition of citizenship

-equal pay act of 1963 legislation that requires comployers to pay men and women equal money

for same job.

-title IX is provision of the education amendments fo 1972 that cars educational institutions that

receive federal funds from discriminating against female students


5.5:other groups mobilize for rights

-as large numbers of immigrants from mexico and puerto rico entered the states they became a

source of cheap labor and pushed for rights in similar ways that african americans did with sit ins

and freedom rides

-mexican american legal defense and educational fund and has a 2.2 million dollar startup grant

for the ford foundation to force school disitricts to allocate more funds to schools with low

income minority populations

-MALDEF succeeds in persuading Congress to extend voting rights protections to Latinos a

decade after the 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed into law. The 1975 extension of the VRA

leads to the establishment of bilingual ballots and other efforts to ease disenfranchisement of

Latinos.

-indian americans are considered indian tribes a dinsicnt govts according to the us constitution

-during 18th and 19th century it isolated indians on reservations as it confiscated their lands and

denied them basic political rights

-dawes act of 1887 gave each indian family land within a reservation and mandating sending

their children to boarding school

-the native american rights find became the NAAVP of the american indian rights movement

-indians got billions in revenue due to use their land rights to host gamblign casinos across the

country

-indian tribes still found themselves in trouble w the dpe tof the interior over indian trust finds

which are to be paid for indians for th euse of thei lands


-asian and pacific island americans and the discrimination developed over time and in 1922 were

not white and not entilted to full citizenship and led to internment camps after the attack on pearl

harbor

-the us govt offered chinese immigrants the oppurtintity to apply for us citizenship and at the end

of the war truman extended it to filipinos ww2

-today myriad asaina nd pacfic island americans are the fastest growning minority group

-gays and lesbians have far higher houslhold incomes and educational levels then any othe

rminority group

-GLAD gay, lesbian advocates and defenders have won improtant legal victoeies concerning hiv

and aids, insuance policy survior benfits abd employment issues

-dont ask dont tell policy where the miltary would not longer ask gays if they were gay , and in

2010 it was ruled unconsituionla

-laurnce v texas allows homosexuals to live wihtout intervention of thw govt

-2008 courts in claifornia and ct and mass legalized same sex marriage

-americans with diablities act which defines a disabled person as someone with a physical or

metntal impairment that limits one or more life actviteies or who has a record of such impairment

-largest national nonprofit organization lobbying for expanded civil rights for the disabled os the

american association of people with disablityies.

5.6: civil rights and affriamtive action

-affirmative action is policies designed to give special attention or compensatory treatment to

memebers of a previously disadvantaged group

-For federal contractors and subcontractors, affirmative action must be taken by covered

employers to recruit and advance qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and
covered veterans. Affirmative actions include training programs, outreach efforts, and other

positive steps.

-eliminating oppression - as a justification for affirmative action programs. The Supreme Court

has upheld this idea in several cases, including Adarand Constructors v. Pena and Grutter v.

Bollinger

DUE PROCESS:

Rational basis- plaintiff Intermediate scrutiny Strict scrutiny (suspect class


probably won't win test)

Law must be a reasonable Law must be substantially Law must be the least
measure designed to achieve related to the achievement of restrictive means available to
a legitimate set purpose an important govt purpose achieve a compelling govt
purpose

Burden is on the plaintiff, not Sex disc; gender orientation Burden is a govt to prove I.
on govt R. M. begins w a presumption
that the law is
unconstitutional

Age ex. Driver's license, Ex. draft, child support and Racial discriminations,
voting, military service. custody fundamental rights- speech,
press, voting laws, etc
Religion alienage-
noncitizens

Supreme court cases:

Regents of the University of California v Bakke:


1978 Supreme Court case that held that a university's admissions criteria which used race as a
definite and exclusive basis for an admission decision violated the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It upheld affirmative
action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy.
However, the court ruled that specific racial quotas, such as the 16 out of 100 seats set aside for
minority students by the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, were
impermissible. Bakke was ordered admitted to UC Davis Medical School, and the school's
practice of reserving 16 seats for minority students was struck down. The judgment of the
Supreme Court of California reversed insofar as it forbade the university from taking race into
account in admissions.
Loving v. Virginia:
1967, was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled that laws
banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The case involved Mildred Loving, a woman of color, and her white husband Richard Loving,
who in 1958 was sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. Their marriage violated
Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized marriage between people classified as
"white" and people classified as "colored". The Lovings appealed their conviction to the
Supreme Court of Virginia, which upheld it. They then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,
which agreed to hear their case.
In June 1967, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in the Lovings' favor and
overturned their convictions. Its decision struck down Virginia's anti-miscegenation law and
ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. Virginia had argued that
its law was not a violation of the Equal Protection Clause because the punishment was the same
regardless of the offender's race, and thus it "equally burdened" both whites and non-whites. The
Court found that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause because it was based solely on
"distinctions drawn according to race" and outlawed conduct—namely, getting married—that
was otherwise generally accepted and which citizens were free to do.

Korematsu v. US:
(1944), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold the exclusion of
Japanese Americans from the West Coast Military Area during World War II.

In the aftermath of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the U.S. War Department to
create military areas from which any or all Americans might be excluded. Subsequently, the
Western Defense Command, a U.S. Army military command charged with coordinating the
defense of the West Coast of the United States, ordered "all persons of Japanese ancestry,
including aliens and non-aliens" to relocate to internment camps. However, a 23-year-old
Japanese-American man, Fred Korematsu, refused to leave the exclusion zone and instead
challenged the order on the grounds that it violated the (Fifth Amendment- due process
clause, inherent equal protection)
In a majority opinion joined by five other justices 6-3, Associate Justice Hugo Black held that the
need to protect against espionage by Japan outweighed the rights of Americans of Japanese
ancestry. Black wrote that "Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of
hostility to him or his race", but rather "because the properly constituted military authorities ...
decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry
be segregated from the West Coast" during the war against Japan.
The Korematsu opinion was the first instance in which the Supreme Court applied the strict
scrutiny standard of review to racial discrimination by the government; it is one of only a
handful of cases in which the Court held that the government met that standard. Korematsu's
conviction was voided by a California district court in 1983 on the grounds that Solicitor
General Charles H. Fahy had suppressed a report from the Office of Naval Intelligence that held
that there was no evidence that Japanese Americans were acting as spies for Japan. The
Japanese-Americans who were interned were later granted reparations through the Civil
Liberties Act of 1988. Chief Justice John Roberts explicitly repudiated the Korematsu decision
in his majority opinion in the 2018 case of Trump v. Hawaii.

Obergefell v. Hodges:
(2015) the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is
guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 5–4 ruling
requires all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Insular Areas to perform and recognize
the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of
opposite-sex couples, with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities.
After all district courts ruled for the plaintiffs, the rulings were appealed to the Sixth Circuit. In
November 2014, following a series of appeals court rulings that year from the Fourth, Seventh,
Ninth, and Tenth Circuits that state-level bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, the
Sixth Circuit ruled that it was bound by Baker v. Nelson and found such bans to be
constitutional. This created a split between circuits and led to a Supreme Court review.

Court deemed marriage as a fundamental right, therefore can't treat people differently based on
same-sex or opposite, and can't say one fundamental right negates another fundamental
right-marriage
Decided on June 26, 2015, Obergefell overturned Baker and requires all states to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to recognize same-sex marriages validly performed
in other jurisdictions.
Brown v. Board of Education:
(1954), equal protection clause of the 14th amendment the Court ruled that U.S. state laws
establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated
schools are otherwise equal in quality. The decision partially overruled the Court's 1896
decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which had held that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S.
Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that had
come to be known as "separate but equal". The Court's decision in Brown paved the way for
integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement, and a model for many future
impact litigation cases.[4]
The underlying case began in 1951 when the public school system in Topeka, Kansas, refused to
enroll local black resident Oliver Brown's daughter at the elementary school closest to their
home, instead requiring her to ride a bus to a segregated black school farther away. The Browns
and twelve other local black families in similar situations filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S.
federal court against the Topeka Board of Education, alleging that its segregation policy was
unconstitutional. A special three-judge court of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
rendered a verdict against the Browns, relying on the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson and its
"separate but equal" doctrine. The Browns, represented by NAACP chief counsel Thurgood
Marshall, then appealed the ruling directly to the Supreme Court.
In May 1954, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9–0 decision in favor of the Browns. The
Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal", and therefore laws that
impose them violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution. However, the decision's 14 pages did not spell out any sort of method for ending
racial segregation in schools, and the Court's second decision in Brown II (349 U.S. 294 (1955))
only ordered states to desegregate "with all deliberate speed".
In the Southern United States, especially the "Deep South", where racial segregation was deeply
entrenched, the reaction to Brown among most white people was "noisy and stubborn". Many
Southern governmental and political leaders embraced a plan known as "Massive Resistance",
created by Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd, in order to frustrate attempts to force them to
de-segregate their school systems. Four years later, in the case of Cooper v. Aaron, the Court
reaffirmed its ruling in Brown and explicitly stated that state officials and legislators had no
power to nullify its ruling.

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