Mr. Tuccillo
Chapter 5
AP Government
Civil Rights and Public Policy
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to understand how civil rights have been used to extend more
equality to groups that historically have been subject to discrimination.
2. Students will be able to analyze different interpretations of equality, such as equality
of opportunity contrasted with equality of results.
3. Students will be able to identify provisions of the Bill of Rights that have implications
for equality.
4. Students will be able to explain how the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of “equal
protection of the laws” has been applied to the idea of equality.
5. Students will be able to indicate how the equal protection clause has become the
vehicle for more expansive constitutional interpretations over the last 100 years.
6. Students will be able to examine how the Supreme Court has used different levels of
judicial scrutiny for racial, ethnic, and gender classifications.
7. Students will be able to explain how the Supreme Court provided a constitutional
justification for segregation in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
8. Students will be able to summarize the reasoning of the Court in the 1954 case of
Brown v. Board of Education and use this case to show the Court set aside its earlier
precedent in Plessy v. Ferguson.
9. Students will be able to determine how the distinction between de jure and de facto
segregation has sometimes been blurred by past practices.
10. Students will be able to explain how sit-ins, marches, and civil disobedience were
used as key strategies of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
11. Students will be able to understand the significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
and explain why efforts for the civil rights legislation were finally successful in the mid1960s.
12. Students will be able to trace the attempts of southern states to deny African
Americans the right to vote even after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.
13. Students will be able to identify the major public policy milestones in the movement
toward gender equality.
14. Students will be able to determine the ways in which Americans with disabilities
have become the successors to the civil rights movement.
15. Students will be able to explain why gay and lesbian activists may face the toughest
battle for equality of any of America’s minority groups.
16. Students will be able to evaluate the opposing positions of those who favor
affirmative action and those who claim that these policies simply create reverse
discrimination.
17. Students will be able to analyze how the important democratic principles of equality
and individual liberty may actually conflict with each other.
18. Students will be able to determine how civil rights laws increase the scope and power
of government.
I. Two Centuries of Struggle
A. most American favor equality in the abstract, but the concrete struggle for
equal rights has been our nation’s most bitter struggle
B. Civil Rights: policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or
discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals
C. Discrimination occurs with a lot of groups
1. racial, gender, age, disability, and sexual preference
2. the fight for equality affects all Americans
D. philosophically, the struggle for equality involves defining what it means;
constitutionally, it involves interpreting laws; politically, it often involves power
E. Conceptions of Equality
1. when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he did not
really believe that everyone was equal
2. most people felt equality meant that everyone had equality of
opportunity – everyone should have the same chance
3. American society does not emphasize equal results or equal rewards
a. few think that everyone should earn the same salary or have the
same amount of property
F. Early American Views of Equality
1. few colonists were eager to defend slavery, and the delegates at the
Constitutional Convention did their best to avoid facing the tension
between slavery and the principles of the Declaration of Independence
2. women’s rights got even less attention than slavery
3. Richard Bland, a Virginian lawyer, was in the minority when he spoke
of equality during the American Revolution
G. The Constitution and Inequality
1. the delegates created a plan for government, not guarantees of
individual rights
a. the word equality does not even appear in the original
Constitution
b. the Bill of Rights does not even mention equality; it does
however, have implications for equality in that it does not limit the
scope of its guarantees to specified groups within society
2. the first and only place in which the idea of equality appears in the
Constitution is in the Fourteenth Amendment
a. 14th Amendment: prohibits states from denying anyone “equal
protection of the laws”
3. What does equal protection of the laws mean? – laws must provide
equivalent “protection” to all people
a. the full force of this amendment was not felt until 100 years
later when it was finally used to assure rights for disadvantaged
groups
b. Strauder v. West Virginia, 1880: Supreme Court invalidated a
law barring African Americans from jury selection, however, the
Court refused to extend the amendment to remedy more subtle
kinds of discrimination
4. over the last 100 years the equal protection clause has become the
vehicle for more expansive constitutional interpretations
a. the Court has established three levels of scrutiny, or analysis, to
determine whether a particular form of discrimination is
permissible
1. the Court has ruled that most classifications that are
reasonable (that bear a rational relationship to some
legitimate governmental purpose) are reasonable
a. the person who challenges these classifications
has the burden of proving them arbitrary
2. the Court has also ruled that racial and ethnic
classifications are inherently suspect and are presumed to
be invalid and are upheld only if they serve a “compelling
public interest” and there is no other way to accomplish the
purpose of the law
a. in this case the burden of proof is on the state
3. classifications based on gender fit somewhere between
these two extremes; they are presumed neither to be
constitutional nor to be unconstitutional
a. gender classifications must bear substantial
relationship to an important legislative purpose
II. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy
A. throughout American history, African Americans have been the most visible
minority group in the United States
B. three eras delineate African American’s struggle for equality in America
1. the era of slavery: beginnings of colonization through 1865
2. the era of reconstruction and resegregation: ~1865 – 1953
3. the era of civil rights: ~1954 through the present
C. The Era of Slavery
1. during the slavery era, any public policy of the slave states or the
federal government had to accommodate the property interests of slave
owners
2. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857: Supreme Court decision ruling that a
slave who had escaped to a free state enjoyed no rights as a citizen and
that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories
a. Chief Justice Taney said that a black man, slave or free had no
rights under a white man’s government
b. this decision invalidated the Missouri Compromise
3. Thirteenth Amendment: amendment passed after the Civil War that
forbade slavery and involuntary servitude
D. The Era of Reconstruction and Resegregation
1. after the Civil War, Congress imposed strict conditions on the former
confederate states before they could be readmitted to the Union
a. many African-American men held state and federal offices
during the 10 years following the Civil War
2. as soon as Reconstruction ended and the Southern states regained their
power, they imposed Jim Crow laws, or segregation laws, on AfricanAmericans
a. they required African-Americans to use separate public
facilities, schools, restrooms, etc
b. segregation was also occurring in the North
3. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896: Supreme Court decision that provided a
constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that a Louisiana law
requiring “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored
races” was not unconstitutional
a. in subsequent decisions the courts paid more attention to
“separate” than they did to “equal”
4. some progress for equality was made in the first half of the 20th century
when the Supreme Court and the President began to prohibit a few of the
most egregious practices of segregation
a. Guinn v. United States, 1915: bans the grandfather clause
b. 1941: executive order forbids discrimination in defense
industries
c. Smith v. Allwright, 1944: decision bans all-white primaries
d. 1948: executive order by Truman desegregating the armed
forces
e. Sweatt v. Painter, 1950: finds the “separate but equal” formula
generally unacceptable in professional schools
E. The Era of Civil Rights
1. during the period leading up to the civil rights movement, segregation
was legally required in the South (de jure (by law)) and sanctioned in the
North (de facto (in reality))
2. Brown v. Board of Education, 1954: Supreme Court decision holding
that school segregation in Topeka, Kansas, was inherently unconstitutional
because it violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection
a. the case marked the end of legal segregation in the U.S.
b. the Supreme Court used Brown to set aside its earlier precedent
of Plessy v. Ferguson
c. in 1955 the Court ordered lower courts to proceed with “all
deliberate speed” to desegregate public schools
1. desegregation moved very slowly until the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 was passed, which denied federal funds to
schools that were still segregated
2. Courts allowed busing students to balance schools
racially ( upheld in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg
County Schools, 1971)
a. courts do not have the power to order busing
between districts
4. the civil rights movement organized both African Americans and
whites to end the policies and practices of segregation
a. the movement began in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give
up her seat in a Montgomery, Alabama bus
1. her arrest led to a boycott led by a local minister, Martin
Luther King, Jr.
b. sit-ins, marches, and civil disobedience were key strategies of
the civil rights movement, which sought to establish equal
opportunities in the political and economic sectors and to end
policies that put up barriers between people because of race
c. civil rights activists faced tough times, murder, police dogs,
abuse
d. the goals of the civil rights movement appealed to the national
conscience
5. as a result of national conscience, the courts, the civil rights movement,
and the increased importance of African-American voters, the 1950s and
1960s saw a marked increase in public policies seeking to foster racial
equality
a. these policies included voting rights, access to public
accommodations, open housing, and nondiscrimination in many
other areas of social and economic life
6. Civil Rights Act of 1964: the law the made racial discrimination
against any group in hotels, motels, and restaurants illegal and forbade
many forms of job discrimination
a. also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) to monitor and enforce protections against job
discrimination
b. withheld federal funds and grants to organizations and
governments that practiced racial discrimination
c. strengthened voting rights legislation
d. authorized the U.S. Justice Department to initiate lawsuits to
desegregate public schools and facilities
7. Voting Rights Act of 1965
8. the Open Housing Act of 1968 took steps to forbid discrimination in
the sale or rental of housing
9. by the 1980s, few, if any, forms of racial discrimination were left to
legislate against
F. Getting and Using the Right to Vote
1. the early United States limited suffrage to mostly property-holding
white males
a. Suffrage: the legal right to vote
2. Fifteenth Amendment, 1870: extended suffrage to African Americans
a. full implementation of this amendment did not occur until one
hundred years later
3. states developed ingenious methods of circumventing the 15th
Amendment
a. grandfather clause: exempted persons whose grandfathers were
eligible to vote in1860 from taking literacy tests in order to vote;
the exemption obviously did not apply to grandchildren of slaves
1. declared unconstitutional in Guinn v. U.S., 1915
b. poll taxes: small taxes levied on the right to vote, that often fell
due at a time of year when poor African-American sharecroppers
had the least cash on hand
a. declared void by the 24th Amendment in 1964
b. declared unconstitutional in state elections in Harper v.
Virginia State Board of Elections, 1966
c. white primary: one of the means used to discourage AfricanAmerican voting that permitted political parties in the heavily
Democratic South to exclude African Americans from primary
elections, thus depriving them of a voice in the real contests
a. declared unconstitutional in Smith v. Allwright, 1944
d. many areas of the South employed voter registration tests or
literacy tests in a discriminatory manner; some of these tests
checked for an understanding of the Constitution
4. Voting Rights Act of 1965: a law designed to help end formal and
informal barriers to African-American suffrage
a. prohibited any government from using procedures that denied a
person the vote on the basis of race or color
b. federal election registrars were sent to areas that had long
histories of discrimination, and many African Americans were
registered in Southern states as a direct result
c. also the number of African Americans who held public office
increased as a result of this act
1. in 1965, only 70 African Americans held public office
in the 11 Southern States
2. by the early 1980s, more than 2,500 African Americans
held elected offices in those same states
3. there are currently about 12,000 African-American
elected officials in the U.S.
G. Other Minority Groups
1. the civil rights laws that African-American groups pushed for have
benefited members of other minority groups such as American Indians,
Asians, and Hispanics
2. the United States is moving toward a minority majority, when minority
groups will outnumber Caucasians of European decent
3. Native Americans
a. they are the oldest minority group in America
b. there are ~2 million in the U.S. today
c. they were not made citizens until 1924
d. Indian Claims Act 1946: this act settled the financial disputes
arising from lands taken from the American Indians
e. today most Native Americans live in poverty and ill health,
almost half on or near a reservation
f. Indian Bill of Rights was adopted as Title II of the Civil Rights
Act of 1968
1. this applied most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights
to tribal governments
g. groups such as the American Indians Movement (AIM) and
Native American Rights Fund (NARF), 1971 – have helped to gain
rights for Native Americans
h. Native American rights to run businesses denied by state law
and to avoid taxation on tribal lands have made running gambling
casinos a lucrative option for Indians
1. this has irritated both those who are opposed to
gambling and those who are offended by the tax-free
competition
i. Ben Nighthourse Campbell was elected in Colorado in 1992 –
the first Native American elected to Congress
4. Hispanic Americans
a. this group will soon displace African Americans as the largest
minority group (they compose about 10% of the population)
b. the first major efforts to help this group started in the mid-1960s
c. inspired by the efforts of African Americans they used similar
tactics and also formed the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Education Fund (MALDEF) in 1968 to help argue their cause in
court
d. Cesar Chavez was important in their struggle for equal rights by
leading the United Farm Workers
e. Hispanics benefited from the Voting Rights Act of 1965
1. there are now ~ 6,000 elected Hispanic officials in the
U.S.
f. poverty, discrimination, and language barriers continue to
depress Hispanic voter registration and turnout
5. Asian Americans
a. this groups is the fastest-growing minority group
b. prior to the civil rights acts of the 1960s they suffered from
discrimination in education, jobs, housing, as well as restrictions
on immigration and naturalization
c. during World War II, more than 100,000 people of Japanese
decent were place in relocation centers or internment encampments
d. Korematsu v. United States, 1944: Supreme Court decision
that upheld as constitutional the internment of more than 100,000
Americans of Japanese descent in encampments during World War
II
e. today, Americans of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese,
and other Asian cultures have assumed prominent positions in U.S.
society
III. Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy
A. the first women’s rights activists were products of the abolitionist movement
B. The Battle for the Vote
1. for a long time the legal doctrine of coverture deprived married women
of any identity separate from that of their husbands; wives could not sign
contracts or dispose of property
2. Seneca Falls Convention organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton
a. in 1848 - 100 men and women signed the Seneca Falls
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
b. this was the beginning of the movement that would culminate in
the ratification of the 19th Amendment (1920), which gave women
the right to vote
1. Charlotte Woodward was the only signer of the Seneca
Falls Declaration who lived to vote for the president in
1920
2. some Western states had already given women the right
to vote
3. the battle for women’s suffrage was fought mostly in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led by women like Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony
C. The “Doldrums”: 1920-1960
1. the feminist movement seemed to lose rather than gain momentum
after winning the vote
a. some say it is because the right to vote was the only goal that
the feminist agreed on
2. many suffragist accepted the traditional role of women
3. state laws tended to reflect traditional family roles – limiting women’s
work opportunities so that they could concentrate on their duties in the
home
4. Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): a constitutional amendment
written by Alice Paul, originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and
passed by Congress in 1978 – it wanted to give equality to women under
the law
b. most people saw the ERA as a threat to the family
c. it was never ratified, failing 3 states short
D. The Second Feminist Wave
1. the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s attracted many
female activists
2. groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW and the
National Women’s Political Caucus were organized in the 1960s and
1970s
3. in the 1970s the Court began to take a closer look at gender
discrimination
a. Reed v. Reed, 1971: Supreme Court for the first time upheld a
claim of gender discrimination
1. the Court applied the 14th Amendment
b. Craig v. Boren, 1976: Supreme Court decision where the Court
determined that gender classification cases would have a
“heightened” or “middle level” of scrutiny
1. the courts were to show less deference to gender
classifications than to more routine classifications, but
more deference than to racial classifications
4. the Supreme Court struck down many laws and rules for discriminating
on the basis of gender
5. many of the litigants in cases raising constitutional questions about
gender discrimination have been men seeking equality with women in
their treatment under the law
a. for example in terms of alimony payments, nursing schools
E. Women in the Workplace
1. as conditions have changed, public opinion and public policy demands
have also changed
a. traditional family roles of men and women are becoming a thing
of the past
b. the civilian labor force for women in ~64 million compared to
~74 million men (that is 60% of adult women)
c. there are 30 million female-headed households
d. ~66% of American mothers who have children below school
age are in the labor force
2. Congress has made some important progress in the area of employment
a. the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned gender discrimination in
employment
b. in 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) was given the power to sue employers suspected of illegal
discrimination
c. Title IX of the Education Act of 1972 forbade gender
discrimination in federally subsidized programs, including athletics
d. the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, made it illegal for
employers to exclude pregnancy and childbirth from their sick
leave and health benefits plans
e. three of the most controversial issues that legislators will
continue to face are wage discrimination, the role of women in the
military, and sexual harassment
F. Wage Discrimination and Comparable Worth
1. traditional women’s jobs often pay much less than men’s jobs that
demand comparable skill
a. median annual earnings for full-time women workers are only
three-fourths those of men
2. the Supreme Court has remained silent so far on the issues of
comparable worth
a. Comparable Worth: the issue raised when women who hold
traditionally female jobs are paid less than men for working at jobs
requiring comparable skills
G. Women in the Military
1. women have served in every branch of the armed services since World
War II
a. originally in separate units, but now part of the regular service
2. women make up 11% of the armed forces (14% of the army), and
compete directly with men for promotion
3. Congress opened all the service academies to women in 1975
4. two important differences between the treatment of men and women
persist in the military
a. first, only men must register for the draft when they turn 18
b. second, statutes and regulations also prohibit women from
serving in combat
1. policy and practice are not always the same because in
the Persian Gulf War women piloted helicopters at the front
and some were taken as prisoners of war
2. women are now permitted to serve as combat pilots in
the navy and air force and to serve on navy warships
a. they are still not permitted to serve in ground
combat units in the army and marines
H. Sexual Harassment
1. sexual harassment can occur anywhere, but may be especially prevalent
in male-dominated occupations such as the military
2. the Supreme Court has said that sexual harassment that is so pervasive
as to create a hostile or abusive work environment is a form of gender
discrimination, which is forbidden by the 1964 Civil Rights Act
3. Harris v. Forklift Systems, 1993: the Supreme Court held that no
single factor is required to win a sexual harassment case under Title VII of
the 1964 Civil Rights Act – the law is violated when the workplace
environment “would reasonably be perceived, and is perceived, as hostile
of abusive”
4. Faragher v. City of Baton Raton, 1998: Court made it clear that
employers are responsible for preventing and eliminating harassment at
work
5. Oncale v. Sundower Offshore Services: the Court has made it clear that
sexual harassment laws also prevent sexual harassment by people of the
same gender
6. Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education: Court has said school
districts can be held liable for sexual harassment in cases of student-onstudent harassment where the school district has knowledge and is
deliberately indifferent to it
7. behavior that was once viewed as simply male high jinks is now
recognized as intolerable
IV. Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella
A. four recent entrants into the civil rights arena are aging Americans, young
Americans, people with disabilities, and homosexuals
B. Civil Rights and the Graying of America
1. people in their 80s make up the fastest-growing are group in this
country
2. many employers refused to hire people over a certain age; also many
graduate schools rejected applicants in their 30s on the grounds that their
professions would get fewer years, and thus less return out of them
3. since 1967, Congress has passed several laws that ban various types of
age discrimination
4. Civil Rights Law of 1975; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
was amended in 1978 to raise the compulsory age of retirement to 70 (it
has now been phased out altogether)
5. the Court did uphold a law in 1976 forcing police officers to retire at 50
C. Are the Young a Disadvantaged Group, Too?
1. young people have often suffered from inferior treatment under the law
2. there are obvious difficulties in organizing a “children’s right
movement”, but there have been instances of young people who are
successful in asserting their rights
a. Walter Polovchak, 12 year old who refused to return to the
Ukraine with his parents
b. a 12 year old boy in Florida divorced his family so his foster
parents could adopt him
D. Civil Rights and People with Disabilities
1. Americans with disabilities have suffered from both direct and indirect
discrimination
a. throughout most of American history, public and private
buildings have been unfriendly to the impaired
2. the first rehabilitation laws were passed in the 1920s, mostly to help
veterans of World War I
3. the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, twice vetoed by Nixon as being too
costly, added disabled people to the list of Americans protected from
discrimination
a. the law defines inaccessible environment as a form of
discrimination
b. wheelchair ramps, grab bars on toilets, and Braille signs have
become common features of American life
4. the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 entitled all
children to a free public education appropriate to their needs
5. American with Disabilities Act of 1990: a law passed in 1990 that
requires employers and public facilities to make “reasonable
accommodations” for people with disabilities and prohibits discrimination
against these individuals in employment
6. determining who is disabled has generated controversy
a. questions have been raised over whether AIDS victims are
handicapped and thus entitled to protection
1. the Supreme Court said yes in 1998
7. some people get upset at new regulations to protect or accommodate
the handicapped because of the costs
E. Gay and Lesbian Rights
1. gay and lesbian activists may face the toughest battle for equality
a. few positive stereotypes are commonly associated with
homosexuals
b. homosexual activity is illegal in some states, and homosexuals
often face prejudice in hiring, education, access to public
accommodations, and housing
2. homophobia (fear and hatred of homosexuals) has many causes, and
homosexuals are often seen as safe targets for public hostility
a. some religions condemn homosexuality
3. of particular concern to the gay community is the AIDS virus, which
has an especially devastating effect on male homosexuals
4. Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986: decision that allowed states to ban
homosexual relations
5. other rulings have allowed the exclusion of homosexuals in the armed
forces and permitted allowing states to prohibit homosexuals from
receiving protection against discrimination
a. in 2000, the Court allowed the Boy Scouts to ban homosexuals
from being members
6. gay activists have won some victories
a. seven states and more than 100 communities have passed laws
protecting homosexuals against some forms of discrimination
b. the state of Hawaii recognizes gay marriages
c. most colleges and universities now have gay rights
organizations on campus
d. Romer v. Evans, 1996: Court voided a state constitutional
amendment approved by the voters in Colorado that denied
homosexuals protection against discrimination
e. in 1993, President Clinton announced the new “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell” policy for the armed forces
V. Affirmative Action
A. Affirmative Action: a policy designed to give special attention to or
compensatory treatment of members of some previously disadvantaged group
1. affirmative action involves efforts to bring about increased
employment, promotion, or admission for members of such groups
2. the goal is to move beyond equal opportunity (in which everyone has
the same chance of obtaining good jobs, for example) toward equal results
(in which different groups have the same percentage of success in
obtaining those jobs)
3. numerical quotas that ensure that a portion of government contracts,
law school admissions, or police department promotions go to minorities
and women are the strongest and most controversial form of affirmative
action
4. the federal government mandated that all state and local governments,
as well as each institution receiving aid from or contracting with the
federal government, adopt an affirmative action program
B. some groups have claimed that affirmative action programs constitute “reverse
discrimination”
1. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 1978: Supreme
Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less
qualified individuals solely because of their race
a. they did not say, however, that such affirmative action policies
and the use of race as a criterion for admission were
unconstitutional, only that they had to be formulated differently
b. the Court said that the university could not set aside a quota of
spots for a particular group
2. United Steel Workers of America, AFL-CIO v. Weber, 1979: Court
said that a voluntary union-and-management-sponsored program was not
discriminatory because of the Kaiser Aluminum Company’s special
training program was intended to rectify years of past employment
discrimination at Kaiser
3. Adarand Construction v. Pena, 1995: decision holding that federal
programs that classify people by race, even for an ostensibly benign
purpose such as expanding opportunities for minorities, should be
presumed to be unconstitutional
a. such programs can survive only if they are “narrowly tailored”
to accomplish a “compelling governmental interest”
b. this decision did not void affirmative action programs, but it did
limit their potential impact
4. in other cases, the Court has ruled that public employers may use
affirmative action plans to counter under-representation of women and
minorities , but the Court has also ruled that affirmative action does not
exempt recently hired minorities from traditional work rules such as the
“last hired, first fired”
5. there is little support from the general public for programs that set aside
jobs or have quotas for members of minority groups
a. people get especially upset when less qualified people get hired
or admitted to educational or training programs
6. Proposition 209, 1996: voters in California banned state affirmative
action programs based on race, ethnicity, or gender in public hiring,
contracting, and educational admissions
VI. Understanding Civil Rights and Public Policy
A. Civil Rights and Democracy
1. Democracy is often in conflict with itself: both equality and individual
liberty are important democratic principles, but they may conflict with
each other
2. equality tends to favor majority rule, but equality threatens individual
liberty in situations where the majority wants to deprive the minority of its
rights
3. majority rule is not the only threat to liberty
a. politically and socially powerful minorities have suppressed
majorities as well as other minorities
1. women have almost always outnumber men
2. during segregation, African-Americans outnumbered
whites in many Southern states
4. even when they lacked the power of the vote, both African Americans
and women made many gains by using other rights (such as the First
Amendment freedoms) to fight for equality
B. Civil Rights and the Scope of Government
1. civil rights laws increase the scope and power of government
a. these laws place both restrictions and obligations on individuals
and institutions
b. they tell individuals and institutions that there are things they
must do and other things they cannot do
c. Libertarians and those conservatives who want to reduce the
size of government are uneasy with these laws
1. they are sometimes hostile towards them
2. civil rights is an area in which increased government activity in
protecting basic rights can lead to greater checks on government by those
who benefit from such protections