Civil Rights
Jamie Monogan
University of Georgia
September 9, 2015
Objectives
By the end of this meeting, participants
should be able to:
• Distinguish civil rights from civil liberties.
• Identify major civil rights policies the
president, the courts, and Congress
adopted.
• Identify the civil rights and civil liberties
protected explicitly and implicitly by the Bill
of Rights.
Civil Rights and Liberties
• Civil rights:
– Allow individuals to participate in government
– Ensure all individuals receive due process
and equal treatment under the law
– Grant freedom from oppression
• Civil liberties
– Freedom from government interference in
certain individual actions
CONCEPT MAP
Liberties
Rights
ensure
ensure
that
freedom
claims from
uponimproper
government
government
are
fulfilled, and that people are treated fairly and equally.
interference.
Constitutional Provisions for
Rights and Liberties
• Bill of Rights
• Civil War Amendments
– 13th, 14th, 15th
• New voting groups
– 15th, 19th, 24th, 26th
• Judicial interpretation
– 9th Amendment and Privacy
Rights and Liberties Failures
•
•
•
•
•
Alien and Sedition Acts
Slavery and African Americans
Jim Crow era
Immigrants
Japanese internment
Court Legitimacy
• Courts can protect against “tyranny of the majority” but
must rely on elected branches for enforcement
• Unpopular decisions are rare
– School prayer
– School desegregation
• Courts have also failed to uphold rights
– Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
• Major rulings of the Civil Rights Movement:
– Smith v. Allwright (1944)
– Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
– Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
• Overruled Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Civil Rights Movement
• Main focus: African
American rights
• Particularly unjust laws
in southern states
• Key laws:
– Civil Rights Act (1957)
– Civil Rights Act (1960)
– Civil Rights Act (1964)
– Voting Rights Act (1965)
Women’s Suffrage Movement
Assignments
• Chapter 4 concept map exercise, due tonight
at 11:59pm.
• Login to ELC to complete.
• Friday: Bullock & Gaddie, Chapter 9.
• Monday: Kollman, pp. 117-135.
• Wednesday: First Exam.
• For next semester: POLS 4510
– Public Opinion and American Democracy
– MWF 3:35-4:25
Additional Material
Supreme Court Responses to
Discriminatory Laws
• Strict scrutiny
– Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, national
origin
– Law is unconstitutional unless a compelling state interest and
least intrusive means
• Intermediate scrutiny
– Discrimination based on sex
– Law must advance an important government objective and be
substantially related
• Rational basis test
– Discrimination based on income
– Law must show a reasonable link between means and goal
(i.e., means testing a program)
Gay Rights
• Some cities and states now ban discrimination based on
sexual orientation
• Same-sex marriage and civil unions
– Civil rights of marriage
– Religious values
– Full faith and credit clause
• Defense of Marriage Act of 1996
• Military service
– Outright ban until 1993
– “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (1993–2010)
– Repealed in 2010
Affirmative Action
• Attempt to redress past wrongs
– University admissions, federal contracts,
state and city jobs
• Increases diversity
• Reverses discrimination?
• Court rulings have been mixed
– Regents v. Bakke (1978)
– Bollinger cases (2003)
– Fisher v. University of Texas (2013)