Race and rights

Question 1

African Americans make up approximately what proportion of the US population?

Answer 1

12%

Question 2

What proportion of the US population will Hispanics make up by 2050?

Answer 2

One third.

Question 3

What did the 13th Amendment do?

Answer 3

Made slavery unconstitutional.

Question 4

Which Amendment contains the “equal protection” clause? Give two prominent cases in which it has been used.

Answer 4

14th; Brown v Board of Education of Topeka 1954 (segregation in schools) and Obergefell v Hodges 2015 (gay marriage).

Question 5

Why is the 14th Amendment’s promise of citizenship for “all persons born or naturalised in the US” problematic for some?

Answer 5

Because in theory it confers citizenship on US-born children of illegal immigrants.

Question 6

The 15th Amendment guaranteed what?

Answer 6

The right to vote to all citizens.

Question 7

Together, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments are known as what?

Answer 7

The Reconstruction Amendments.

Question 8

What was the key ruling in Plessy v Ferguson 1896?

Answer 8

That the doctrine of “separate but equal” was not unconstitutional.

Question 9

Give the years (all 1960s) of the two Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act

Answer 9

1964, 1968, and 1965.

Question 10

Give three requirements of the Civil Rights Act 1964.

Answer 10

1. More difficult for states to use ploys such as a literacy test as a prerequisite for being allowed to vote.
2. Barred discrimination in public accommodation, inc hotels and restaurants.
3. Allowed the federal govt to withhold funding from state or local govt programmes that were discriminatory.

Question 11

How many members of Congress are from ethnic minority backgrounds?

Answer 11

130

Question 12

Which President first secured the black vote for the Dems, and through which group of policies?

Answer 12

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR); the New Deal.

Question 13

What percentage of African Americans voted Democrat in a) 2008 and b) 2016?

Answer 13

95, 88.

Question 14

What percentage of Hispanics voted Democrat in 2016?

Answer 14

66.

Question 15

Who was the first black member of the Cabinet, when was he appointed, to which post, and who holds it now?

Answer 15

Robert Weaver, 1966, Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson.

Question 16

In 2013, of whom did Obama say “… could have been me”?

Answer 16

Trayvon Martin.

Question 17

Regents of the University of California v Bakke 1978 said the university’s practice of reserving 16 of its 100 medical school places for non-whites violated which part of which amendment?

Answer 17

The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Question 18

After which case did Sandra Day O’Connor say that affirmative action must be “narrowly tailored”, and what did Bill Clinton say about it?

Answer 18

Adarand v Pena 1995; “mend it don’t end it.”

Question 19

Gratz v Bollinger 2003 said the University of Michigan’s affirmative action-based admission programme was:

Answer 19

“Too mechanistic.”

Question 20

Grutter v Bollinger 2003 said that the University of Michigan Law School’s admissions policy was fine, because:

Answer 20

it offered a more individualised approach when considering applicants’ racial profile.

Question 21

In Grutter v Bollinger 2003, how did Clarence Thomas describe racial diversity programmes?

Answer 21

“The faddish slogan of the cognoscenti.”

Question 22

In Grutter v Bollinger 2003, what hope did Sandra Day O’Connor express?

Answer 22

That affirmative action would no longer be needed in such cases in 25 years.

Question 23

According to Chief Justice Roberts, the best way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to: (and in which case did he say it?)

Answer 23

stop discriminating on the basis of race; Parents Involved v Seattle School District 2007.

Question 24

Who famously wrote an amicus brief in Fisher v Texas 2016, and on which side?

Answer 24

Obama; University of Texas.

Question 25

Samuel Alito described Fisher v Texas 2016 as what?

Answer 25

“Affirmative action gone berserk.”