Civil Rights: The struggle for equal rights / Chapter 6
What is the difference between civil rights and civil liberties?
Which amendments play a key role in the area of civil rights?
1- The Equal Protection Clause and Constitutional standards of Review: 207-209
Does the “Equal Protection Clause” require that all laws deal with everyone in
precisely the same fashion?
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The three standards of review used by the Court for determining what sorts of
discrimination require what sorts of remedies?
 Should the strict scrutiny test be applied to all claims of discrimination?
Why or why not?
--- What is the Suspect classification doctrine?
2- Racial Equality: Civil Rights Laws and Constitutional Amendments:190- 204.
Despite the Civil War, the promise of equality guaranteed to African Americans by
the Civil War Amendments failed to become a reality.
-- What were the historical, social and legal factors that made it difficult for
African American to achieve equal treatment?
a- Supreme Court interpretation of the 14th amendment: The Slaughterhouse case
(1873)- The civil rights cases (1883)- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)- Brown v.
Board of Education.
b- Southern states practices: Black codes- Jim Crow laws- literacy tests- poll tax.
c- Congress and the President.
--What tactics were used to bring about an end to segregation and racial
discrimination?
a- Fighting “de jure” discrimination: NAACP (1910) and litigation- The Civil
Rights movement: - Court’s d ecision in Brown v. Board of education 1954Federal laws: 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting rights act.
b- Fighting “de facto” discrimination: What attempts has the government made
to overcome “de facto” discrimination? Why have these attempts been so
controversial?
Govt. policies for correcting de facto discrimination:
-- School integration policies for rectifying racial imbalance in re-segregated schools.
-- Affirmative Action as a remedy to the wealth gap between minorities and whites.
p: 221-222.
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a- School Segregation on the Rise: a new study from The Civil Rights Project of
Harvard University shows that segregation continued to intensify throughout the
1990s. “Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation,” by
Gary Orfield
b- The Wealth Gap:
Go To Brandeis University institute on assets and social policy:
http://iasp.brandeis.edu
Search for : Racial wealth gap Increases fourfold, May 2010.
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 Does equal treatment of unequals perpetuate inequality?
Which is more important liberty or equality? If there is a conflict between
liberty and equality, which one should prevail?
When past denial of rights creates unequal starting points, should govt. take
additional steps to ensure equal opportunity?
What kind of steps are acceptable to remedy discrimination and who should bear
the cost?
Other racial groups seeking the protection of laws: Hispanics, Native Americans,
Asians.
Women’s rights.
New comers to the civil rights arena: gays and lesbians, disabled people,
undocumented immigrants, the elderly.
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