Race, Gender, and Affirmative action

Question 1

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Answer 1

1. Persons of African descent cannot be, nor were ever intended to be, citizens under the U.S. Const. Plaintiff is without standing to file a suit.
2. The Property Clause is only applicable to lands possessed at the time of ratification (1787). As such, Congress cannot ban slavery in the territories. Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional.
3. Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from freeing slaves brought into federal territories.

Question 2

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Answer 2

The “separate but equal” provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.

Question 3

Brown v. Bd. Of Education (1954)

Answer 3

“Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal”

-overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which held “separate but equal” public facilities, including public schools in the United States.

Question 4

Bolling v. Sharpe (1954)

Answer 4

Racial segregation in the public schools of the District of Columbia is a denial to Negro children of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

Question 5

Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

Answer 5

The Court decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial and national groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Question 6

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

Answer 6

University of Michigan Law School admissions program that gave special consideration for being a certain racial minority DID NOT violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 7

Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)

Answer 7

A state university’s admission policy VIOLATED the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because its ranking system gave an automatic point increase to all racial minorities rather than making individual determinations.

Question 8

Regents of the University of California v Bakke

Answer 8

Held that a university’s use of racial “quotas” in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school’s use of “affirmative action” to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances