Civil Rights

Civil Rights
Constitution: Does not speak directly to the equality issue (ie: slaves or women) Equal Protection Guarantee (14th Amendment)
Equal Protection Clause
No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.

But wait...
Laws already treat people differently:
Tax laws and income Acceptable because the inequities are not arbitrary or unreasonable or related to public need.
According to the Supreme Court.

But wait...
Suspect Classification
Classification of individuals that is subject to especially strict scrutiny for violations of civil rights. Race, religion and national origin
Post-9-11 and plane screenings of Arab-Americans and people of Middle Eastern origin. (Can't do.)

We'll examine civil rights largely in the context of historical development (mostly race).

Legal Analysis of Equal Protection Claims

What is equal protection? Standards of review
Rational basis (sexual preference, income level) Intermediate Scrutiny (gender) Strict Scrutiny (race, religion)

Slavery and the Civil War

Abolitionist Movement Dred Scott v. Sanford
Missouri Compromise was deemed unconstitutional. Congress could not ban slavery nor could northern states.

Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th amendments

Post-Civil War Developments

Reconstruction Early Civil Rights legislation Jim Crow laws (poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries) Plessy v. Ferguson decision (separate but equal)
Plessy was 1/8 black Louisiana forced blacks and whites ride separate train cars. Guaranteed legal and political equality, but not socially equality.

Desegregation
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Linda Brown sought to attend a neighborhood white school. Court overturned separate but equal. District courts oversee implementation with all deliberate speed and then at once. Move was slow; requiring federal troops (ie: Little Rock)

Desegregation or Integration
What does an Unseparate school look like?
Does a school just need to allow people to choose their school or must it actually contain a certain racial balance?

De Jure segregation: By law unconstitutional De Facto segregation: residency, district lines, etc. Court ruled that there must be diversity in school even if choice dictates otherwise. Recently there has been a move away from busing toward attending the nearest school.

Campaign in Congress
Congress begins to move because of 4 factors:
Public opinion shifts Peaceful demonstrators were shown being brutalized Kennedy assassination 1964 landslide election.

Voting Rights Act (1965)

Minorities have had the right to vote (technically) since the Civil War amendments. Jim Crow laws prevented it. Court cases and laws began to strike at these, finalized in the Voting Rights Act. Targeted at sending federal workers to oversee registration to ensure these provisions were followed.

Women's Suffrage Movement

14th amendment: Early interpretations (equal protection clause)
Court allowed gender discrimination early on.

Suffrage Movement 19th amendment (1920) Later Women's Rights Movement

Equal Rights Amendment Came within 3 states of passage.

Still, no strict scrutiny standard for gender discrimination.

Women's Rights and Abortion

Roe v. Wade (1973) struck down state laws banning abortion based on the right to privacy found in the Griswold case. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
Did not overturn Upheld waiting periods, parental consent and required information alternatives.

Abortion, Precedent and Legal Decision-Making

Legal Model
Facts of the case, law, precedent and the constitution

Attitudinal Model
Legal rationalizations of ideologically-based decisions.

Equality and Civil Rights

Goal is to guarantee equal protection. What does that mean?
Equality of Results
Affirmative action

Equality of Opportunity
Reverse discrimination: does leveling the playing field mean biasing against others?

Does equality mean treating other people differently to get equal rights or treating people the same to give equal opportunity (but unequal results)?