Chapter 6: Civil Rights Flashcards
Civil Rights/ Civil Liberties
Civil Rights serve to protect a certain group from discrimination, while civil liberties serve to protect people as a whole from the government.
What view of the 14th amendment did the courts originally take?
the narrow view
Plessy v. Ferguson
- Adolph Plessy was arrested for refusing to sit in the black section of a train. The Supreme Court ruled that while the 14th amendment guaranteed black people political/legal equality, it did not protect social equality. Separate-but-equal.
What was the NAACP?
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Fought a battle in the courts and in congress (but first in the courts), and published stuff in W.E.B du Bois’s newspaper “The Crisis”
What steps did the NAACP try to use to stop the separate-but-equal shit?
- Court to rule obviously unequal situations unconstitutional
- Court to rule subtly unequal situations unconstitutional
- Court to rule separate but equal unconstitutional
Step 1 of NAACP in Courts
1938: Lloyd Gaines had to be admitted to a law school in missouri bc no black school of equal quality existed
1948: Ada Lois Sipuel had to be admitted to a law school in oklahoma bc no black law school of equal quality existed.
Both were kept away from white students
Step 2 of NAACP in Courts
Herman Sweatt’s case changed the Court’s mind: keeping black students roped off from other students was unconstitutional
Step 3 of NAACP in Courts
Brown v. Board of Education. 1954. Ruled the separate-but-equal doctrine unconstitutional.
Implementation of Brown
In 1955 the Court decided it would give local courts the power to implement the decision “with all deliberate speed”. Some places just refused. Paratroopers/national guard in Little Rock Central High School.
Rationale behind Brown
The Court chose not to use the 14th amendment so that they could issue a unanimous decision. Instead, they cited a social study that showed that segregation had an adverse effect on black children.
Korematsu v. United States
- Upheld Roosevelt’s executive order which ordered Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Protection of America over Civil Rights.
De jure versus de facto segregation
De jure: by law. Illegal today. Explicit.
De facto: as a result of something else. Legal. Surreptitious.
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
- Banned a “freedom of choice” plan for New Kent schools, suggesting that schools must be actively integrated.
Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education
- Approved busing and re-drawing district lines as a way of integrating schools.
What should school districts conform to?
- To violate the constitution, the school system must have engaged in discrimination. The plaintiff must show an intent to discriminate on the part of the system.
- The existence of segregated schools in areas w/ histories of segregation shows intent to discriminate.
- Remedies can include busing, quotas, and redrawing of district lines
- Not every school must reflect its whole system
Regents of University of California v. Bakke
- The quota-like ban Bakke’s admission was unconstitutional, but diversity was a legitimate goal that could be pursued by taking race into account. Race can be a factor, but it should not be the deciding factor.
Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger
- Numerical benefits cannot be used to admit minorities into college, but race can be a “plus factor” in making those decisions. U Michigan.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibited discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodation, outlawed bias in federally funded programs, and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Allowed federal registrars to register votes and outlawed literacy tests and other discriminatory tests in voter registration
The Equal Pay Act
- Made it illegal to base and employee’s pay on race, gender, religion, or national origin.
What is the standard relating to discrimination on the basis of something other than race?
The reasonableness standard. It’s less than the strict scrutiny standard, but a standard.
Illegal types of discrimination against women
Different ages become adults, different ages to buy beer, no arbitrary height and weight requirements, no mandatory pregnancy leaves, employers must pay same monthly retirement.
Legal types of discrimination against women
Laws that punish men/women disproportionately for statutory rape, widow property-tax exemptions now given to widowers, female navy officers remain officers for longer w/ out promotion
Rostker v. Goldberg
- The Court ruled that Congress could decide to draft men but not women (congress had already barred women from combat roles)
