14TH AMENDMENT
… No state shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
the citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction of
the equal protection of the laws.
EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW
•
The right of all persons to have the same access to the law and courts, and to be
treated equally by the law and courts, both in procedures and in the substance of
the law.
•
The most famous case on the subject is Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
(1954) in which Chief Justice Earl Warren, for a unanimous Supreme Court, ruled
that "separate but equal" educational facilities for blacks was inherently unequal
and unconstitutional since the segregated school system did not give all students
equal rights under the law.
•
It will also apply to other inequalities such as differentials in pay for the same
work or unequal taxation. The principle is stated in the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution: "No State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws."
LOVING V. VIRGINIA
LOVING V. VIRGINIA (1967)
• In 1958, it was a crime in Virginia and 15 other states for a white person to
marry a black person.
• Richard and Mildred Loving married in Washington, D.C. and tried to
return to their home state of Virginia.
• They were arrested and sentenced to 1 year in jail for getting married if they
stayed in Virginia. The ACLU took their case.
• In 1967, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the law was unconstitutional
EDIE & THEA
WINDSOR V. UNITED STATES (2013)
•
Edie Windsor was forced to pay almost $400,000 in federal estate taxes when her
beloved spouse, Thea Spyer, died in 2009. They’d been together for 44 years, and
were legally married. If “Thea” had been “Theo,” Edie would not have had to pay
any estate taxes.
•
Edie challenged the “Defense of Marriage Act” that caused this disparity. Passed
by Congress in 1996, DOMA treated the marriages of straight people one way and
the marriages of gay people another way. Edie thought this was discrimination that
the U.S. government could not justify.
•
In a historic civil rights ruling this June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that DOMA
was unconstitutional, and that the federal government cannot discriminate against
married lesbian and gay couples in determining federal benefits and protections.
NYPD’S STOP & FRISK PROGRAM
NYPD’S STOP & FRISK PROGRAM
•
New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street
interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that black
and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of
these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers
have been completely innocent.
•
In 2012, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 532,911 times
473,644 were totally innocent (89 percent)
284,229 were black (55 percent)
165,140 were Latino (32 percent)
50,366 were white (10 percent)
STOP & FRISK RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
•
Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, found that the Police Department resorted to
a “policy of indirect racial profiling” as it increased the number of stops
in minority communities. That has led to officers’ routinely stopping
“blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were
white.”
•
Judge Scheindlin declared that the NYPD’s general stop-and-frisk
practices have violated the civil liberties and constitutional rights of all
New Yorkers, citing the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, which
protect individuals against unlawful searches and seizures and
guarantee equal protection under the law. She ordered the appointment
of a monitor to implement broad reforms.
STOP & FRISK RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
• The Judge emphasized what she called the “human toll of
unconstitutional stops,” noting that some of the plaintiffs
testified that their encounters with the police left them feeling
that they did not belong in certain areas of the city. She
characterized each stop as “a demeaning and humiliating
experience.”
“No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he
leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life.”