Civil Rights Flashcards
Each American is granted fundamental civil rights under the Constitution. This deck examines these rights, the Constitutional guarantees, and the Supreme Court cases that have shaped the modern understanding of civil rights.
Define:
civil rights
Civil rights are those rights that are bestowed by the government on the people as opposed to civil liberties, which the citizens have by virtue of their citizenship.
Examples of civil rights include protection from discrimination based on race or gender and the right to privacy.
Describe:
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, a slave sued his master claiming that he’d been taken into a non-slaveholding federal territory and was thus free. The Supreme Court dismissed the case, holding that persons of African descent were not citizens under the Constitution and thus had no standing to sue.
As a corollary, Scott v. Sandford struck down the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional.
What test applies when the Supreme Court examines laws that infringe on a fundamental constitutional right (such as those found in the Bill of Rights), or when a law applies to a “suspect classification” (such as race or national origin)?
In these contexts, the Court employs a strict scrutiny standard. To meet the standard, the law or policy must:
- serve a compelling government interest
- be narrowly tailored to serve that interest
- be the least restrictive means to serve that interest
Although the Bill of Rights Amendments only applied to the federal government at the time they were written, what constitutional amendment applied the vast majority of them to state and local governments?
As decided in a number of Supreme Court cases, the Bill of Rights was applied (incorporated) to the states pursuant to the 14th Amendment.
For instance, in Mapp v. Ohio (1961), the Supreme Court incorporated the Fourth Amendment to the states.
The _____ _____ Clause of the 14th Amendment requires that the protection given by state law shall be equal to all citizens.
Equal Protection
Between the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 14th Amendment, Southern states had enacted black codes, which barred blacks from sitting on juries, forming contracts, or holding certain types of property. The Equal Protection Clause rendered these black codes unconstitutional.
Describe:
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Plessy v. Ferguson arose because a railroad provided separate passenger cars for black and white passengers, pursuant to Louisiana law. The Court held that providing “separate but equal” facilities was constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.
Beginning with Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court would later overturn the separate but equal doctrine.
Which Supreme Court case overturned the separate but equal doctrine as established in Plessy v. Ferguson?
The separate but equal doctrine was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In Brown, the Court held that separate educational facilities for black and white children violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit?
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred disrimination in all public accomodations (e.g. hotels and restaurants) based on race, color, religion, or national origin, and prohibited state and local governments from denying access to public facilities based on these same criteria.
Title VII of the act prohibited discrmination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Which piece of legislation established extensive federal oversight over elections?
Extensive federal oversight of elections was established in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Historically, Southern states had used literacy tests to prevent blacks from voting. The act outlawed this practice.
It also required states with a history of voting discrimination to submit all changes in voting practices to the Department of Justice for clearance before they were implemented.
What type of tax was prohibited by the 24th Amendment, which was ratified in 1964?
The 24th Amendment prohibits poll taxes. A poll tax is a tax that is required to be paid prior to voting and was commonly used to disenfranchise blacks in the South.
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prevents discriminatory practices in _____.
housing
Specifically the act prohibits discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, and national origin. The act was amended in 1974 to prohibit gender discrimination and in 1988 to extend protections to families with children and disabled persons.
Define:
affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to overt policies to ensure that educational opportunities and employment are offered to minorities and women.
Affirmative action occassionally takes the form of a quota system. The Supreme Court struck down a University of California system that reserved a certain number of seats for minorities in Regents v. Bakke (1978) and a system that awarded extra admissions points to minorities in Gratz v. Bollinger (2003).
Describe:
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
In Regents v. Bakke, the University of California had reserved 16 out of 100 places for incoming minority medical students and accepted lower admissions standards for those students. The Court held that while affirmative action systems were constitutionally permissable, race-based quota systems were not.
Describe:
Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
In Grutter, the Court reviewed the University of Michigan’s law school admissions policy, which considered race as one of a number of factors in the admissions process. The Court held that the race-concious admissions process did not equate to a quota system and was thus constitutionally permissable.
Women gained the right to vote in national elections by the passage of which amendment?
The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, prohibited discrimination in voting on the basis of sex. Prior to the amendment’s passage, a number of states had extended the franchise to women.
