WELCOME
Mrs. Seng
CIVIL RIGHTS AND
PUBLIC POLICY
The Constitution and Inequality
 Race, The Constitution, and Public Policy
 The Era of Civil Rights
 Getting and Using the Right to Vote

WHAT ARE CIVIL
RIGHTS?
Civil Rights refers to the positive
acts governments take to
protect against arbitrary or
discriminatory treatment by
government or individuals.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Constitution secures equal treatment under the
law for all citizens
 Civil rights guarantee that people are not
discriminated against by the government or by other
individuals on account of their race, religion, gender or
age
 Many legal and political battles have been fought to
extend civil rights to all groups of people in the United
States

THE CONSTITUTION
AND INEQUALITY
 The
original Constitution did not mention
equality

only white males were allowed privileges such as
voting rights
 The
Fourteenth Amendment first clarified the
concept of equality by ensuring that all
citizens must receive “equal protection of
the laws”
 The Supreme Court’s modern interpretation of
equality has brought civil rights to the
forefront of the political agenda
RACE, THE CONSTITUTION,
AND PUBLIC POLICY
The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery after the
Civil War
 The Fourteenth Amendment extended rights of
citizenship to former slaves
 In the 1876 election, Rutherford B. Hayes promised to
withdraw federal supervision of southern states in
exchange for their votes [Jim Crow laws]
 Plessy v. Furguson passes 1896

BROWN VS. BOARD OF
EDUCATION
1954 – overturned Plessy
 Asserted that segregation is unconstitutional
 Ordered the desegregation of public schools

BROWN VS. BOARD OF
EDUCATION
 Linda
Carol Brown, was not allowed to
attend a school four blocks from her house
because it was for white students.
 Instead, she had to walk twenty-one
blocks to the nearest all-black school.
BROWN VS. BOARD OF
EDUCATION
 The
NAACP argued that the
intellectual, psychological, and
financial damage that befell Black
Americans precluded any finding of
equality under the separate but equal
policy.
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT (1964)
Brought the cause of civil rights to the legislative as
well as judicial agenda
 Accomplished the following measures:






Outlawed racial discrimination in public places
Prohibited discrimination in employment
Withheld government funding from any school or
institution that practiced discrimination
Established the Equal Opportunity Commission to monitor
job discrimination
Granted the Justice Department the power to enforce civil
rights laws by suing institutions still practicing segregation
GETTING AND USING
THE RIGHT TO VOTE

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted African
Americans the right to vote


Southern states circumvented the law by instituting
literacy tests, which most ex-slaves could not pass
Southern states cited a grandfather clause to exempt
from literacy tests illiterate whites whose grandfathers
had been allowed to vote before 1860

This practice was found unconstitutional in Guinn v.
United States (1915)
GETTING AND USING
THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Smith v. Allwright (1944)

The Supreme Court outlawed the use of white
primaries to exclude African Americans from the
election process
GETTING AND USING
THE RIGHT TO VOTE

The Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)


Outlawed the use of poll taxes to prevent poor people from
voting
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to
prevent states from using any methods to
disenfranchise voters

The law provided for enforcement by allowing federal
registrars to oversee elections
WOMEN
Women were excluded also from the rights of equality
implied in the Constitution
 The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) granted women
the right to vote
 The Equal Rights Amendment (1923) was intended
to enforce full equality for women, who still were
discriminated against in such areas as employment


It was passed by Congress in 1972 but never ratified
REED V. REED (1971)
 For
the first time, the Supreme Court found a
law unconstitutional based on arbitrary
gender bias
 The Idaho Probate Code specified that "males
must be preferred to females" in appointing
administrators of estates.
 After the death of their adopted son, both
Sally and Cecil Reed sought to be named the
administrator of their son's estate (the Reeds
were separated).
 According to the Probate Code, Cecil was
appointed administrator and Sally
challenged the law in court.
WOMEN
 Civil
rights legislation barring discrimination
in the workplace applies to women as well as
to other minority groups, and it includes
employment opportunities, equal pay, and
pregnancy leave
 The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the
issue of comparable worth, which insists
that women be paid the same as men for jobs
that require the same skills
 Women are allowed to serve in all branches of
the military but cannot engage in ground
combat
ELDERLY
People over the age of 65 are now the largest
group of Americans
 Discrimination laws prevent employers and
universities from rejecting applicants because of
their age
 Congress also revoked the policy of mandatory
retirement

DISABLED PERSONS

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
protects disabled Americans against job
discrimination and requires employers to provide
“reasonable accommodations”
LGBT
Gay rights are protected by some laws but are hardly
advanced by the Supreme Court
 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy (Clinton) for the military
 The right to privacy also factors into debates over gay
rights
 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed under the Obama
administration

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
A policy that attempts to prevent discrimination
by forcing employers and universities to hire a
certain percentage of minority groups or to give
them compensatory preferential treatment
 Thoughts on affirmative action?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
A white student sued the university for admitting a lessqualified minority student so that the university could
fulfill its enrollment quota
 The Court ruled that race could be used as one factor by
which to choose applicants, but that enrollment quotas
were unconstitutional

CIVIL RIGHTS AND
PUBLIC POLICY
Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy
 Newly Active Groups under the Civil Rights
umbrella
 Affirmative action

WOMEN
Women were excluded also from the rights of equality
implied in the Constitution
 The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) granted women
the right to vote
 The Equal Rights Amendment (1923) was intended
to enforce full equality for women, who still were
discriminated against in such areas as employment


It was passed by Congress in 1972 but never ratified
REED V. REED (1971)
 For
the first time, the Supreme Court found a
law unconstitutional based on arbitrary gender
bias
 The Idaho Probate Code specified that "males
must be preferred to females" in appointing
administrators of estates.
 After the death of their adopted son, both Sally
and Cecil Reed sought to be named the
administrator of their son's estate (the Reeds
were separated).
 According to the Probate Code, Cecil was
appointed administrator and Sally challenged
the law in court.
WOMEN
 Civil
rights legislation barring discrimination
in the workplace applies to women as well as
to other minority groups, and it includes
employment opportunities, equal pay, and
pregnancy leave
 The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the
issue of comparable worth, which insists
that women be paid the same as men for jobs
that require the same skills
 Women are allowed to serve in all branches of
the military but cannot engage in ground
combat
ELDERLY
People over the age of 65 are now the largest
group of Americans
 Discrimination laws prevent employers and
universities from rejecting applicants because of
their age
 Congress also revoked the policy of mandatory
retirement

DISABLED PERSONS

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
protects disabled Americans against job
discrimination and requires employers to provide
“reasonable accommodations”
LGBT
Gay rights are protected by some laws but are hardly
advanced by the Supreme Court
 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy (Clinton) for the military
 The right to privacy also factors into debates over gay
rights
 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed under the Obama
administration

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
A policy that attempts to prevent discrimination
by forcing employers and universities to hire a
certain percentage of minority groups or to give
them compensatory preferential treatment
 Thoughts on affirmative action?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
A white student sued the university for admitting a lessqualified minority student so that the university could
fulfill its enrollment quota
 The Court ruled that race could be used as one factor by
which to choose applicants, but that enrollment quotas
were unconstitutional
