Chapter 6
Civil Rights
AP U.S. Government and Politics
Important Terms
• Civil Rights- The rights of people to be treated
without unreasonable or unconstitutional
differences (Usually denied on racial, ethnic, or
gender lines.)
• Suspect classifications- Classifications of people
on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
• Strict scrutiny- A Supreme Court test to see if a
law denies equal protection because it does not
serve a compelling state interest and is not
narrowly tailored to achieve that goal.
The History
• In 1942, only 30 percent of whites thought
black and white children should attend the
same school.
• In 1956 (2 years after Brown v. Board of
Education), only 49 percent.
• Jim Crow laws
• Denied rights even after passage of 13th,
14th, and 15th Amendments
The Fourteenth Amendment
• How do you read it?
– Broadly, “equal protection of the laws” means
the Constitution should be regarded as colorblind.
– Narrowly, equal protection can mean blacks
and whites have fundamental legal rights in
common, but they can otherwise be treated
differently
Supreme Court in the late 1800s
• The Supreme Court took the narrow view
• 1880- West Virginia law requiring juries to
be made up of only white malesUnconstitutional
• 1883- Unconstitutional for Congress to
prohibit racial discrimination in public
accommodations such as hotels
• What is the difference?
Plessy v. Ferguson
• Homer Adolph Plessy violated a Louisiana law
requiring that blacks and whites had to ride in
separate cars on railroad trains
• Arrested, convicted, appealed to Supreme Court
• Said the law violated the 14th Amendment
• SCOTUS said the equal protection clause
guaranteed political and legal, but not social
equality
• “Separate but equal facilities” are constitutional
because if “one race be inferior to the other
socially, the Constitution of the United States
cannot put them on the same plane.”
Separate-but-equal Doctrine
• SCOTUS applied this to schools in Cumming v.
Richmond County Board of Education.
– Georgia community could close a black high
school while keeping the white school open
because blacks could always go to private
schools
• To fight this doctrine, the NAACP was
established in 1909.
– Lobbied Congress
– Published grievances in The Crisis, a
magazine edited by W.E.B. DuBois
– Biggest role was in the courtroom
NAACP’s Legal Strategy
• First, persuade the Supreme Court to declare
unconstitutional laws creating schools that were
separate but obviously unequal
• Second, persuade it to declare unconstitutional
laws supporting schools that were separate but
unequal in ways that weren’t so obvious
• Third, persuade the Supreme Court to rule
racially separate schools to be inherently
unequal and therefore unconstitutional.
The Legal Strategy Played OutFirst Step
• 1938- SC rules that a black student must be
admitted to all-white law school in Missouri
because no black law school of equal quality
existed in the state
• 1948- All-white University of Oklahoma law
school required to admit a black student even
though the state planned to build a black law
school later. Education must be equally
available to be equal.
– Could still be separate. The student was
required to attend classes in a section of the
state capitol, roped off from other students
where she could meet with professors
The Legal Strategy Played OutSecond Step
• 1950- Student at Texas law school was
admitted to the all-white school, but placed
in a separate building.
• The Supreme Court unanimously said this
was unconstitutional because imposing
racially based barriers on the black
students at the law school having access
to professors, libraries, and other students,
created unequal educational opportunities.
The Legal Strategy Played OutThird Step
• BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION
– Supreme Court rules 9-0 that “separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal”
– Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson
– The case said segregated education is bad
because it “has a detrimental effect upon the
colored children” by generating “a feeling of
inferiority as to their status in the community”
that may “affect their hearts and minds in a
way unlikely to ever be undone”
– Conclusion was supported by a reference to
social science studies of the apparent impact
of segregation on black children.
Civil Rights in Congress
• To get anything achieved in Congress with
civil rights, you had to convince the people
something needed to be done (sway
public opinion)
– Sit-ins
– Freedom rides
– Montgomery Bus Boycott
– All of these are forms of civil disobedience.
Breaking the Deadlock in
Washington
• Four things happen to break the
Congressional deadlock on civil rights
• 1. Public opinion was changing
• 2. Violent reactions by whites in the South
to black demonstrators were shown vividly
on television (Attack dogs and fire hoses
being used on African-Americans
marching peacefully.
Breaking the Deadlock in
Washington
• 3. JFK’s assassination helped build
support for LBJ to get passage of a strong
civil rights bill as a type of memorial to JFK
• 4. The 1964 elections sent a huge
Democratic majority to the House and
maintained the Democratic margin in the
Senate (Northern Democrats could
outvote southerners in the House.)
Major Civil Rights Laws
• 1957- Federal Crime to try to prevent a
person from voting in a federal election.
Creation of Civil Rights Commission
• 1960- Attorney General can appoint
federal “referees” to gather evidence about
African-Americans being denied the right
to vote.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Barred discrimination on the basis of race, color,
religion, or national origin in restaurants, hotels,
lunch counters, gasoline stations, movie
theaters, stadiums, arenas, etc.
• Attorney general can bring suits to force the
desegregation of public schools on behalf of
citizens
• Outlawed discrimination in hiring, firing, or
paying employees on the grounds of race, color,
religion, national origin, or sex.
• Discrimination is barred in any activity that
receives federal assistance.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Authorized federal examiners in elections
• Suspended the use of literacy tests and
other devices to prevent African
Americans from voting.
More Civil Rights Acts
• 1968- Banned discrimination in sale or rental of
most housing. (Excludes private owners who sell
or rent homes without using a realtor.
• 1972- Sex discrimination prohibited in education
programs receiving federal aid.
• 1988- If any part of an organization receives
federal aid, no part of that organization may
discriminate on the basis of race, age, sex, or
physical handicap.
Women and Equal Rights
• 1908- Muller v. Oregon- Supreme Court upholds
Oregon law limiting female laundry workers to a
10 hour workday.
• “The two sexes differ in structure of the body, in
the functions to be performed by each, in the
amount of physical strength, in the capacity for
long-continued labor, particularly when done
standing…the self-reliance which enables one to
assert full rights, and in the capacity to maintain
the struggle for subsistence. This difference
justifies a difference in legislation and upholds
that which is designed to compensate for some
of the burdens which rest upon her.
Women and Equal Rights
• 1920- Passage of the 19th Amendment
• Following World War II and the writing of
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan,
Congress passed new laws that prohibited
discrimination on the basis of sex in
employment and in schools or universities
receiving federal funds.
Supreme Court and Women’s
Rights
•
Two standards the SC had to choose between:
– Reasonableness standard
• When the government treats some classes of
people differently, the different treatment must be
reasonable and not arbitrary. (Statutory rape
laws)
– Strict scrutiny standard
• Some instances of drawing distinctions between
groups are inherently suspect
The Supreme Court adopted a middle line between
the two standards.
Examples of Illegal Discrimination
• States cannot set different ages at which men
and women legally become adults
• States cannot set different drinking ages for men
and women
• Women cannot be barred from jobs by arbitrary
height and weight requirements
• Employers cannot require women to take
mandatory pregnancy leaves
• Girls cannot be barred from Little League
baseball teams
Illegal Discrimination
• Businesses and service clubs cannot
exclude women from membership
• Though women as a group live longer than
men, an employer must pay them monthly
retirement benefits equal to those received
by men
• High schools must pay coaches of girls
and boys sports the same amount
• Important cases on pg. 138
Decisions Allowing Differences
Based on Sex
• A law that punishes males but not females for
statutory rape is permissible; men and women
are not “similarly situated” with respect to sexual
relations
• All-boy and all-girl public schools are permitted if
enrollment is voluntary and quality is equal
• States can give widows a property tax
exemption not given to widowers
• The navy may allow women to remain officers
longer than men without being promoted
Important discrimination cases
• 1976- Craig v. Boren
– Sex discrimination can only be justified if it serves
“important governmental objectives” and be
“substantially related to those objectives”
• 1981- Rostker v. Goldberg
– Congress may require men, but not women to register
for the draft without violating the due-process clause
of the Constitution
• 1996- U.S. v. Virginia
– The state may not finance an all-male military school.
– The state could not just provide an all-female training
course at another college
– The state must supply an “exceedingly persuasive
justification” for excluding females from enrollment
Sexual Harassment (pg. 139)
• Sexual harassment can take two forms
– Illegal for someone to request sexual favors
as a condition of employment or promotion.
– Illegal for an employee to experience a work
environment that has been made hostile or
intimidating by a steady pattern of offensive
sexual teasing, jokes, or obscenity
EMPLOYERS can only be held liable for the
harassment if they were negligent- knew
about the hostile environment and did nothing
to change it.
Privacy Rights
• States have traditionally been given police
powers: effecting laws to promote health, safety,
and morals
• 1965- Griswold v. Connecticut
– States cannot prevent the sale of
contraceptives because doing this invades the
“zone of privacy.”
– Privacy not mentioned in the Constitution, but
the Court argued it can be the penumbras
(shadows) cast off by different parts of the Bill
of Rights
1973- Roe v. Wade
• The right to privacy is broad enough to
encompass a woman’s right to choose
whether or not she can terminate a
pregnancy.
• First trimester- unfettered right to abortion
• Second trimester- states may regulate
abortions, but only to protect the mother’s
health
• Third trimester- states might ban abortions
Other Abortion Cases
• Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)
– Allowed states to ban abortions from public hospitals.
Doctors may test to see if fetuses are viable.
• Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
– Roe v. Wade upheld, but certain restrictions are
allowed. Pennsylvania case (pg. 140)
• Gonzales v. Carhart (2007)
– Federal law may ban forms of partial birth abortion
Affirmative Action
• Equality of results vs. equality of
opportunity
• Making sure people achieve the same
result or giving people an equal chance to
succeed?
• What does it mean to give people an equal
chance to succeed?
• Do people in this country have an equal
chance to succeed?
Affirmative Action
• Programs that are designed to help
increase minority participation in
institutions by taking steps to appoint more
minority members.
– This is not just minorities. Women are
included in affirmative action programs as
well, in some cases.
Two Competing Views
• You can only overcome racism and sexism by
taking race and sex into account when creating
remedies. Life is a race, and everyone must be
brought to the same starting line (Or the finish
line?)
• It is wrong to give minorities and women
preferential treatment over other groups. This is
reverse discrimination. The Constitution should
be color-blind and gender-neutral.
Important cases with affirmative
action
• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
(1978)- Diversity is a legitimate goal that can be
pursued by universities by taking race into
account. BUT, quotas are unconstitutional
• Look at the general standards on pg. 144
• Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger
(2003)- University of Michigan cases
• Undergraduate affirmative action policy struck
down and law school policy upheld
Affirmative Action
• Adarand case (Colorado)
– Any discrimination based on race must be
subject to strict scrutiny.
– To serve a compelling governmental interest,
any racial preference will have to remedy a
clear pattern of past discrimination
Gay Rights
• Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
– (5-4) decision that found that there was no reason in
the Constitution to prevent Georgia from having a
sodomy law
– There is a right to privacy, but that is designed simply
to protect “family, marriage, or procreation”
• 1996- Colorado state constitutional amendment that
says gays cannot have specific legal protection given to
racial and ethnic minorities declared to violate equal
protection clause
• Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
– State law may not ban sexual relations between
same-sex partners
Gay Rights
• U.S. v. Windsor (2013)
– Windsor was denied her inheritance from her wife
under federal law, and had to pay $363,000 in estate
taxes.
– Section 3 of Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is
unconstitutional "as a deprivation of the liberty of the
person protected by the Fifth Amendment.“
– The Constitution prevented the federal government
from treating state-sanctioned heterosexual
marriages differently than state-sanctioned same-sex
marriages
• In Kentucky- Bourke v. Beshear, Love v. Beshear
Gay Rights
• Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)
– Boys Scouts may ban gays from its
membership
– PRIVATE organization