American Federal Government
• Today’s Agenda
– Civil Rights
Sometimes Government Isn’t the Problem
• Civil Rights
– legal or moral claims that citizens are entitled to
make upon government
• Question: Should government attempt to
ensure equality of opportunity or equality of
outcome?
• Current issues:
– affirmative action
– protections for various groups from
discrimination (minorities, women,
gays/lesbians)
That’s it, I’m dropping this course with all the
court cases
• The Fourteenth Amendment, “Equal
Protection of the Laws,” and the Post-Civil
War Struggle for African-Americans
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–
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–
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The Slaugtherhouse Cases (1873)
U.S. v. Reese (1876)
De jure segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
The “black codes,” Jim Crow laws,
impediments to voting, separate schools
• white primaries, poll taxes, literacy tests,
political parties considered “clubs”
You should of at least heard of this case
• Desegregation in Education
– Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
– Brown v. Board of Education II (1955)
– Little Rock, 1957
• Busing and de facto v. de jure segregation
– Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County
Schools (1971)
– Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
Notice it wasn’t the Hippies that
accomplished any of this
• The Civil Rights Movement, 1960s – Martin Luther King and civil disobedience
– President Lyndon Johnson & “Great Society”
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• 24th Amendment (1964)
• Economic Opportunity Act (1964)
• Voting Rights Act (1965)
• Fair Housing Act (1968)
Civil Rights/
Affirmative Action
• Definition of Affirmative Action:
– government policies or programs that seek to
redress past injustices against specified groups
by making special efforts to provide members
of the groups with access to educational and
employment opportunities
– temporary measures vs. institutionalized
programs?
– greater inclusion or increased “group” conflict?
– “reverse” discrimination?
Civil Rights/Affirmative Action
Views on University Admissions
80
75
Percent
60
60
40
40
25
20
0
Preferential
Treatment
Extra Effort
Oppose
Favor
Source: James Kuklinski et al.,
American Journal of Political Science, 1997, pp. 402-419.
Schools enjoy court
• Higher Education
– Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
(1978)
– Grove City College v. Bell (1984)
– Civil Rights Restoration Act (1988)
– Hopwood v. Texas (1996)
– California Proposition 209
– President Clinton: “Mend it, don’t end it”
Employers like Courts too
• Employment and other issues
• Richmond v. Croson (1989)
• Adarand v. Pena (1995)
– Employment
• Johnson v. Transportation Agency of Santa
Clara County (1987)
• Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Piscataway v. Taxman (1997)
Women dig the black robe…that’s why
they go to court
• Women
– Voting
• Minor v. Happersett (1875)
• 19th Amendment (1920)
– Sex-based discrimination
• Equal Rights Amendment
• U.S. v. Virginia (1996)
[Virginia Military Institute]
Gays and Lesbians like all types of
courts
• Gays and Lesbians
– Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
– Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the
military
– Romer v. Evans (1996)
– The Defense of Marriage Act (1996)
– Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
Everyone goes to court
• Voting Rights
– Voting Rights Act (1965)
– racial gerrymandering & “descriptive
representation”
– Shaw v. Reno (1993)
• North Carolina’s 12th District:
The I-85 Corridor
Gerrymander…then
Gerrymandering…now
• North Carolina’s 12th District