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AP GOVERNMENT CHAPTER 18:
EQUAL RIGHTS UNDER THE LAW
It took almost 200 years for the “all men” in the Declaration to expand
to include all races, all religions, and all women as well as men.
There is not reference to “equality” in the Constitution OR the Bill of
Rights.
The framers created a system of government designed to protect what
they called natural rights- or today known as human rights.
Natural Rights- the framers meant that every person has an equal right
to protection against arbitrary treatment and an equal right to the
liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. –The rights of ALL people.
Civil Liberties- is sometimes used more narrowly to refer to freedom of
conscience, religion, and expression.
Civil Rights- is used to refer to the right not to be discriminated against
because of race, religion, gender, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.
Constitution provides 2 ways to protect civil rights:
 1. Ensures that government officials do not discriminate against us.
 2. It grants national and state governments the power to protect
these civil rights against interference by private individuals.
EQUALITY & EQUAL RIGHTS
 Equality of Opportunity- the clearest expression in the Constitution. The
idea that regardless of race, ethnic origin, religion, and gender and
sexual orientation, you have an equal opportunity to achieve your
goals.
 Equality of Starting Conditions- some people are born into well-to-do
families, others in to poor or broken families. If we are to have equal
opportunity in a meaningful sense, special opportunities must be
provided for the disadvantaged through federal programs so that
everyone starts off on an even foot.
 Equality Between Group- in recent decades we have moved from
individual achievement to the concept of equality between different
groups- based on race, economics, etc. those who are
disadvantaged often emphasize economic and social factors that
exclude them from the mainstream- those who are advantaged often
try to maintain the status quo.
 Affirmative Action- action designed to overcome the effects of past
discrimination against minorities and women. Programs designed to
provide special help to people who have been disadvantaged due to
their group membership.
 Equality of Results- support for guaranteeing a minimum floor “safety
net” below which no one in society should be allowed to fall.
Americans tend not to support the idea that everyone should have
equal amounts of material goods- instead they think a person should
work hard and they will be rewarded.
THE QUEST FOR EQUAL J USTICE
Racial Equality
 After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments became part of
the Constitution- giving blacks the right to vote, become citizens, and
ending slavery.
 Still, white supremacy went unchallenged in the South. African
Americans were still forced to accept menial jobs for less pay, denied
educational opportunities and segregated.
 They were being lynched at an average of 1 every 4 days.
 During WWI A.A. began to migrate out of the rural South and into the
North- THE GREAT MIGRATION.
 This move shifted the racial composition of cities, and African
Americans’ vote became more important in national elections.
 By the 1930s they were using lawsuits to challenge segregation.
 1954- Brown v. Board of Education- ruled that separate but equal was
no longer acceptable and forced integration of public places and
schools.
 Even so, there was still widespread resistance to integration in the
South.
 December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks began the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
 Martin Luther King Jr.- preached through nonviolence using sit-ins,
freedom rides and other demonstrations.
 July 2, 1964- LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law forbidding
discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex. Or nationality.
 By the early 1970s the legal phase of the civil rights movement had
come to a close, but not the social one.
 1965- Watts riot in Los Angeles, Detroit riot in 1967, Rodney King in 1991
 Kerner Commission- appointed by LBJ to be an advisory commission on
civil disorders to investigate cause of riots, etc. they said that white
society created the ghettos and white institutions maintain it while
society condones it.
 Vietnam and Watergate started to divert people’s attention to other
matters.
Women’s Rights
 Battle for women’s suffrage was intertwined with that of the African
Americans.
 Seneca Fall’s Women’s Rights Convention- 1848- Susan B. Anthony,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, launched the women’s rights movement.
 Civil War brought the women’s movement to a halt, and then the
temperance movement took over people’s time.
 Women’s Suffrage- the right to vote. First victories came in Wyoming.
 Many southerners opposed the 19th Amendment because it gave
Congress enforcement power which may bring the feds to see if all
was being obeyed- and they would call attention to the denial of A.A.
rights.
 1920- 19th Amendment passed giving women the right to vote.
 Women could now vote, but were still denied equal pay and equal
rights.
 ERA- 1970s Equal Rights Amendment
 The courts have increasingly enforced the prohibition against sex
discrimination in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and expanded it to forbid
sexual harassment in the workplace.
 Anita Hill v. Clarence Thomas- 1991 judicial confirmation hearings.
 “glass ceiling”- idea that there is a see-through ceiling for corporate
women that they are not allowed to rise above because of their
gender.
 During the past 3 decades, the % of women graduating from colleges
and universities has outpaced that of men.
Hispanics
 Most Hispanics are bilingual. English may not be their first language,
which makes it difficult to find jobs, and move up the corporate ladder.
 Because of internal political differences not many Hispanics have
political power, and many are not registered to vote.
 Proposition 187- adopted by California in 1994 which denied medical,
educational and social services to illegal immigrants.
 California became the first state in which whites are a minority.
Asian Americans
 Describes approximately 10 million people from many different
countries and backgrounds.
 They are often the “model minority” because of their general success
in business and education.
 Japanese Americans- most in the West coast and passed laws denying
them the right to aliens to own land who were ineligible to become
citizens. Also put up with internment camps during WWII. Granted
$20,000 restitution to each living survivor in 1988.
 Koreans- faced discrimination as prosperous small businesspeople and
are often targets of the anger of poor people whose neighborhoods
they serve.
 Newest Asian arrivals are more than a million refugees from Vietnam,
Laos and Cambodia after Vietnam war.
Native Americans
 Almost half of the 2 million Native Americans live on or near a
reservation.
 Many are sovereign nations- they are a separate people with power to
regulate their own internal affairs, subject to congressional supervision.
 Native Americans are citizens of the US and of the states, in which they
live and have the right to vote.
 Those living off of reservations pay taxes and have same rights as other
Americans.
 Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of the Interior administer their
benefits.
 Most Americans are now aware that many Native Americans live in
poverty, suffer disproportionately from alcoholism, accidents, diabetes,
and pneumonia.
 Many reservations continue to experience 50%-60% unemployment.
EQUAL PROTECTION LAWS: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
 Equal protection clause- clause in the 14th Amendment that forbids
any state to deny a person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws. It is the major constitutional restraint on the power of
governments to discriminate against persons because of race, national
origin, or sex.
 Due Process Clause- 5th Amendment, puts the same restraints on the
national government.
 Equal protection clause applies only to the actions of governments,
not those of private individuals.
 The Constitution forbids unreasonable classifications.
 A classification is unreasonable when there is no relation between the
classes it creates and permissible governmental goals.
Constitutional Classifications & Tests
 How to distinguish between Constitutional & Unconstitutional
Classifications, Supreme Court has set up 3 tests:
 1. Rational Basis Test- traditional test to determine whether the law
complies with the equal protection requirement- places the burden
f proof on the parties attacking the law. They must show that the
law has no rational or legitimate governmental goals. Ex. State can
withhold unemployment benefits from those going to day school
(less likely to be available for employment) and give them to those
who go to night school.
 2. Suspect Classifications & Strict Scrutiny- the courts must be
persuaded that there is both a “compelling public interest” to justify
such a classification and no less restrictive way to accomplish this
compelling purpose. The court applies this test to SUSPECT
CLASSIFICATIONS- a class of people deliberately subjected to such
unequal treatment in the past or relegated by society to a position
of such political powerlessness as to require extraordinary judicial
protection. Classifications based on race or national origin are
always suspect.
 3. Quasi-Suspect Classifications & Heightened Scrutiny- burden is on
the government to show that its classification serves “important
governmental objectives.” Classifications based on gender are
subject to heightened scrutiny. If the government’s objective is to
protect members of one sex because they are presumed to suffer
from an inherent handicap or to be innately inferior- then that
objective is legitimate.
 4. Poverty & Age- Supreme Court rejected the argument that the
poor and the elderly should also be a protected classification,
though Congress has made it illegal for employers to discriminate
based on their advancing age.
 Fundamental Rights- those that are implicitly guaranteed by the
Constitution: ie. Right to travel, to vote.
Proving Discrimination
 Washington v. Davis- 1976 Supreme Court said that the 14th
Amendment guarantees equal laws, not equal results.
 Housing projects, etc. are not unconstitutional unless it can be shown
that they were adopted with the intent to discriminate against
minorities.
 Voting Rights Act of 1965- tests the legality of state voting laws and
practices by their effects rather than by the intentions of the
legislatures that passed them.
VOTING RIGHTS
 Under our Constitution, it is the states, not the federal government, that
regulate elections and voting qualifications.
 Article I, Section 4, gives Congress the power to supersede state
regulations as to the :”Times, Places and Manner” of elections for
representatives and senators.
 Congress, under Article II, Section 2, has power to set the date for
selection of electors, to set age qualifications and residency
requirements to vote in national elections, to establish a uniform day
for all states to hold elections for members of Congress and presidential
electors.
 Limitations on states’ power to set voting qualifications are contained
in the 14th Amendment, 15th, 19th and 26th.
Protecting Voting Rights
 Smith v. Allwright- 1944- the Court declared the white primary
unconstitutional (primary operated in the South by the Democratic
Party that, before Republicans gained strength, constituted an
election.
 Racial Gerrymandering- the drawing of election districts so as to ensure
that members of a certain race are a minority in the district. Ruled
unconstitutional and against the 15th Amendment in Gomillion v.
Lightfoot. 1960.
 Poll tax- 1964 the 24th Amendment outlawed a payment required as a
condition for voting.
 Officials seeking to deny African Americans the right to vote were
forced to rely on registration requirements- and often made them
guess the amount of gumballs in a jar, or other absurd demands.
 In many southern states literacy tests were used to discriminate against
African Americans- they required them to demonstrate that they
understood the national and state constitutions and were persons of
good character.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
 The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, but still there was discrimination
at the polls.
 Voting Rights Act of 1965- prohibits voting qualifications or standards
that result in a denial of the right of any citizen to vote on account of
race and color. States with a history of denying African Americans or
Hispanic citizens the right to vote must clear with the Department of
Justice changes in voting practice or laws that might dilute the voting
power of these groups.
 Shaw v. Reno –1993- Court ruled that although it was a legitimate goal
for state legislatures to take race into account when they drew
electoral districts in order to increase the voting strength of minorities,
they could not make race the sole or predominant reason for drawing
district lines.
 Majority-Minority Districts- a congressional district created to include a
majority of minority voters; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the
main factor in redistricting.
 States must provide for districts roughly proportional to the minority
voters’ respective shares in the voting age population.
EDUCATION RIGHTS
 Jim Crow Laws- state laws formerly pervasive throughout the South
requiring public facilities and accommodations to be segregated by
race; ruled unconstitutional.
 Plessy v. Ferguson- 1896- Supreme Court endorsed the view that
governmentally imposed racial segregation in public transportation,
and public education did not necessarily constitute discrimination if
“equal” accommodations were provided for the members of both
races.
The End of Separate but Equal: Brown v. Board of Education
 Brown v. Board-1954- Court reversed the Plessy doctrine and ruled that
“separate but equal” is a contradiction in terms and that
SEGREGATION ITSELF is DISCRIMINATION.
 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stipulated that federal dollars
under any grant program or project must be withdrawn from an entire
school or institution of higher education that discriminates on the basis
of race, color or national origin.
 School districts had to move from segregation to integration.
 Federal judges would supervise the school district to en sure they were
doing what was necessary if they failed to do it on their own initiative.
 Most African Americans continued to live in separate neighborhoodsmerely removing the legal barriers to integration did not by itself make
it happen.
 Federal courts mandated busing across neighborhoods to forcefully
mix black and white students.
 The Supreme Court sustained busing only if it was to remedy the
consequences of OFFICIALLY sanctioned segregation.
 De Jure Segregation- segregation imposed by law.
 De Facto Segregation- segregation resulting from economic or social
conditions or personal choice.
 The Supreme Court has started to restrict the role of federal judges to
restore control of a school district to the state and local authorities.
RIGHTS OF ASSOCIATION, ACCOMODATION, JOBS & HOMES
Association
 5th and 14th Amendments apply only to governmental action, not to
private discriminatory conduct.
 Justice William O. Douglas stated that the Constitution, “creates a zone
of privacy which precludes government from interfering with private
clubs or groups.”
 Families, churches, or private groups organized for political, religious,
cultural or social purposes are constitutionally different from large
associations organized along other lines.
 Boy Scouts of America v. Dale- 2999, Court held that the Boy Scouts
may exclude homosexuals because of the organization’s overall
mission.
Accommodations
 Commerce Clause- gives Congress the power to regulate interstate
and foreign commerce- to justify action against discriminatory
conduct by individuals based on sex, disability, age, ethnic origin,
race, color.
 Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorized the massive use of federal authority
to combat privately Imposed racial discrimination.
 Title II- makes it a federal offense to discriminate against any customer
or patron in a place of public accommodation because of race,
color, religion, or national origin.
 Title VII- made it illegal for any employer or trade union in any industry
affecting interstate commerce and employing 15 or more people to
discriminate in employment practices against any person because of
race, color, national origin, religion, or sex.
 Religious institutions such as parochial schools may use religious
standards.
 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission- EEOC- created to
enforce Title VII- seeks compliance and may seek judicial enforcement
of complaints against private employers.
 Class Action Suit- lawsuit brought by an individual or a group of people
on behalf of all those similarly situated.
 1965 presidential executive order required all contractors doing work
for federal government, including universities, to adopt and implement
affirmative action programs.
 Housing is the last frontier of the civil rights crusade, the area in which
progress is slowest and genuine change most remote.
 Restrictive covenants- a provision in a deed to real property prohibiting
its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial
enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
 1948- Supreme Court ruled restrictive covenants legally unenforceable.
 1968 Fair Housing Act- forbids discrimination in housing, excluding from
its protection small, privately owned boardinghouses. And forbids
owners to refuse to sell or rent to any person because of race, color,
religion, national origin, sex, or physical handicap or because a person
has children. It also covers efforts to deny loans to minorities.
 Voluntary segregation obviously still exists.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: IS IT CONSTITUTIONAL
 Affirmative Action- remedies to overcome the consequences of past
discrimination against African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans
and women.
 Opponents refer to it as reverse discrimination.
 Allan Bakke- a white male and top student and Minnesota and
Stanford, Vietnam Vet, applied in 1973 to the medical school of the
University of California at Davis- his application was rejected each year
while students with lower GPAs were admitted under the special
admissions program. After his second rejection, he brought suit in
federal court claiming he had been excluded because of his race,
which violated the Civil Rights Act
 University of California Regents v. Bakke- 1978- Supreme Court ruled the
CA plan unconstitutional, but also declared that affirmative action
programs are not necessarily unconstitutional. A state university may
properly take race and ethnic background into account as a “plus” as
one of several factors in choosing students in order to achieve a
diverse student body.
 Richmond v. Croson- 1989- Rehnquist Court struck down a regulation
by the city of Richmond requiring nonminority city contractors to
subcontract at least 30% of the dollar amount of their contracts to one
or more minority business enterprises.
 Rehnquist Court is opposed to the use of race as the SOLE criterion in
the drawing of electoral district lines.
 Hopwood v. Texas- 1996- Court struck down the University of Texas law
school’s affirmative action policy for admission of students.
 2002- 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, 5-4, upheld the University of
Michigan Law School’s program of promoting racial diversity in its
admissions.
California’s Proposition 209 & Other Plans
 1995- the Regents of the University of California voted to eliminate race
or gender as factors in employment, purchasing, contracting, or
admissions.
 Proposition 209- amended the state constitution to forbid state
agencies- including schools, colleges and universities- to discriminate
against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on
the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public
employment, public education, or public contracting, except where
necessary to comply with a federal requirement. It clearly forbids
universities and other state agencies to take race and gender into
account.
 Washington Initiative 200- same thing in state of Washington, abolished
preferential treatment in hiring and contracting.
 Public support for affirmative action as measured in public opinion polls
varies by race, social class, education, and life experience, but close
inspection suggests that whites and blacks are not separated by
unbridgeable gaps on the issue.
 People’s responses seem to depend to a significant degree on how
the survey question is put.
EQUAL RIGHTS TODAY
 As prosperous middle-class African Americans have moved out of inner
cities, the remaining underclass as they are coming to be called, has
become even more isolated from the rest of the nation.
 One of the difficulties is that as conditions have become better for
many African Americans and Hispanics, the less fortunate see
themselves as getting worse off; however most Americans see
conditions for minorities as improving.