Chapter 5: Equal Rights: Struggling Toward Fairness Flashcards
What are equal rights (civic rights)?
The right of every person to equal protection under the laws and equal access to society’s opportunities and public facilities
What clause in the 14th amendment forbids any state to deny equal protection of the laws to any individual within its jurisdiction that was ratified into the 14th amendment after the civil war in 1868?
What court case in 1896 was ruled to not violate the amendment but it really did?
The equal protection clause
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) - where separate and unequal treatment of african americans such as segregation from white buses, restaurants, and schools.
How did the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) lead to substainial judicial intervention on behalf of African Americans and set precedent for extened equal protection of other groups?
Linda Carol Brown, a black child from Topeka, Kansas, was denied admission to an all white elementary school that she passed every to her black school that was much farther than the white school.
The supreme court, unanimously, said that the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause declared that segregation of public schools were inherently unequal. Many southern state citizens disagreed with the decision.
What supreme court cases are regarded as the supreme court’s most important decisions?
Marbury v. Madision (1803) McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Schenck v. United States (1919) Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
What court case ubheld the busing of children out of their neighborhoods for the purpose of achieving racially integrated schools?
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Board of Educaiton (1971)
When was forced busing ended in Seattle and Louisville school systems?
2007
True or False?
As a result of white flight to private and suburban schools and the end of racial busing, America’s schools have become less racially diverse. In fact, America’s schools are now more racially segregated than they were when busing started?
True
What is the reasonable-basis test?
A test applied by courts to laws that treat individuals unequally, may be deemed constitutional if its purpose is held to be reasonably related to a legitimate government interest; assumed unconstitutional unless no sound rationale argument for the law is made; not suspect category
What is an example of the reasonable basis test?
21 year olds legally being able to drink alcohol but 20 year olds can’t
The ____ amendment’s ________ - ____________ clause does not require government to treat all groups or calsses of people ________ in all circumstances.
14th; equal-protection clause; equally
What does the reasonable basis test apply to? not apply to?
Applies to age and income
Doesn’t apply to race, ethnicity or gender
The supreme court decided that race and national origin are _________ ________________ that are laws that classify people differently on the basis of race or ethniciy which are assumed to have discrimination as their purpose.
Suspect classifications
What does the strict-scrutiny test assume about the law?
What does it apply to?
That the law is unconstitutional unless the government can provide a compelling argument for it; assumed unconstitutional in absence of overwhelming justification.
Race and Ethnicity
In ________ _ ___________ - _______________ ________ _________ __ _____________ (1971), the supreme court upheld the _________ of children out of their neighborhoods for the purpose of achiveing __________ _______________ __________.
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Board of Education; busing; racially integrated schools
What does the Intermediate scrutiny test apply to?
How do laws fare in the almost suspect category for the Intermediate scrutiny test?
Gender
Laws are assumed unconstitutional unless the law a clearly compelling and justified purpose or argument.
Even though suspect classifications appeared implicitly in earlier cases like the Brown case, for what case did the court choose to use the actual words?
Loving v. Virginia (1967)
What was the conflict in Loving v. Virginia (1967) between Richard Loving - white man, Mildred Jeter - African American and Native American woman, and the state of Virginia?
Richard Loving and Midred Jeter went to Washington D.C to get married and returned to Virginia where their home was invaded by police and they were arrested, based on Virginia’s argument that the ban of interracial marriage didn’t violate the equal-protections clause because the penalty for both Loving and Jeter was the same.
How did the Supreme court rule in Loving v. Virginia (1971)?
Against the State of Virginia, stating that the Virginia law was against the principle of equality at the heart of the 14th amendment; that the virginia law was based on racial discrimination and that any action like that was unconstitutional
What category were gender classifications placed in the 1970’s by the Supreme court when women asserted more forcefully for their rights?
The Supreme court put it into the intermediate (almost suspect) category; held that men and women could be treated differently if the policy in question was greatly related to the achievement of “important government objectives”. Scrutinized but constititutionally valid if government could show it.
How did the court uphold gender classification in the intermediate (almost suspect) category in the Rostker v Goldberg (1980) case?
Male-only draft registration laws served the objective of excluding women from involuntary combat duty.
What was a leading case in the supreme court’s striking down of gender-based law in 1996 related to VMI?
United States v. Virginia (1996) - invalidated male-only admissions policy of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), stating that Virginia failed to provide a persuasive argument for the policy.
How old was the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)?
157 years old
Did the 14th amendment prohibit discrimination by the government and private parties?
It prohibited government discrimination but not discrimination by private parties - because of this, private parties would openly discriminate
What did the 1964 Civil Rights Act legislation entitle all persons to and prohibit of medium-size and large firms along with government?
Entitled all persons to equal access to public accommodations; prohibited discrimination on basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin in hiring, promotion, wages of employees of medium-size and larger firms.
What few forms of job discrimination were still lawful under the 1964 Civil Rights Act?
Church-related school could take religion into account in hiring teachers
What did the 1964 Civil Rights Act aim to change?
The fact that the 14th amendment prohibited discrimination by the government but not by private parties.
Where did the Civil Rights Act proved more effective? less effective?
More effective in reducing discrimination in access to public accommodations; less effective in reducing job discrimination - harder to prove happened
What amendment gave Black American’s the right to vote?
Did racial voting barriers exist after the ratification?
The ratification of the 15th amendment in 1870
Yes
Ratification of the 24th amendment in ____ outlawed the ____ ___ - fee individuals paid in order to register to vote. What was also banned due to the ratification?
1964; poll tax; literacy tests
What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibit? Was the impact immediate?
Discrimination in voting and registration - immediate impact on Black American participation - in south by 20 percent
When did the Supreme court declare that whites-only primary elections were unconstitutional?
Mid-1940’s
What did the provision (Section 4) of the Voting Rights Act include?
Ability to determine which states and counties were subject to federal oversight - like are’s use of various devices keeping Black citizens from voting.
What did the preclearance provision (Section 5) of the Voting Rights Act require of designated states and counties?
To obtain permission from federal officials before making changes like redrawing electoral districts or altering registration requirements
What provision of the Voting Rights act did the supreme court invalidate in 2013?
The Section 4 provision of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) - majority held that the formula for ID states and counties subject to federal oversight was based on “obsolete statistics” and congress had to update it so it could be applied.
