Civil Rights
What are Civil Rights?
• Civil Rights
– Policies designed to protect people against
arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by laws,
government officials or individuals.
• Includes protections from
– Racial Discrimination
– Gender Discrimination
– Discrimination based on age, disability, sexual
orientation and other factors
What are civil rights?
• Civil rights:
– Protect certain groups against discrimination
– Found in the Equal Protection Clause of the
14th Amendment
• Civil liberties:
– Constitutional protections for individuals
against government action
– Incorporated via the Due Process Clause of the
14th Amendment
What are Civil Rights?
• 14th Amendment guaranteed “equal
protection of the law” but was ignored for
nearly a century
• African Americans, denied access to
facilities, opportunities, and services
available to other groups, began the Civil
Rights Movement in the 1950s-60s.
Protected Class: Who & Why?
• Courts have said: There must be equal
opportunity and treatment under the law
• Courts judge whether differences in
treatment are reasonable.
• People protected from discrimination
include minorities, women, those over 40,
and the disabled.
• What do these groups have in common?
Classifications
• Courts have used a classification system to
determine if treating groups differently under the
law is justified
• Examples:
– When might it be OK to treat men and women
differently under the law?
– When might the law need to treat races differently?
– Is it just to treat disabled citizens differently under the
law?
Classifications
Classifications
• Strict scrutiny: racial classifications are inherently
suspect and are rarely, if ever, upheld as just
(difficult)
• Mid-level review: gender classifications are
allowed only if they have an important legislative
purpose (moderate)
• Rational basis test: Different treatment of other
groups may be reasonable if there is evidence of a
legitimate government purpose for it. (easy)
Race, the Constitution and Public
Policy
• No mention of equality in original
Constitution
• 14th Amendment first clarified the concept
by ensuring all Americans must receive
“equal protection of the laws”
Race, the Constitution and Public
Policy
• Dred Scott, 1857= Supreme Court decision that
upheld slavery
• 13th Amendment, 1865= outlawed slavery
• 14th Amendment, 1868=extended citizenship to
former slaves
– Includes Due Process & Equal Protection clauses
• 15th Amendment=black men right to vote
• Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 = separate but equal
doctrine established
Why was the Civil Rights
Movement Necessary?
• View A Time for Justice America’s Civil
Rights Movement clips
• Show parts 1 & 2
Challenging the Separate but
Equal Doctrine in Plessy
• Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 = separate but equal
doctrine established; Jim Crow laws OK in South
• NAACP develops legal strategy to challenge
Plessy / Separate but Equal
• Step 1: Attack obvious inequalities; these were
addressed in 1938–1948 cases
• Step 2: Showing that segregation creates
inequality in less obvious cases
• Step 3: declaring that separation is inherently
unequal - Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
• Background:
– Civil Rights leaders looked for a good case to
challenge Plessy
– Some facilities were unequal, but others less.
• In Topeka, Kansas, the school district had
gone out of its way to create equally funded
black schools.
• These were good schools
Brown v. Board of Education
• Unanimous Supreme Court opinion overturning
Plessy v. Fergusson (Separate but Equal
Doctrine)
• Segregation is unconstitutional because it violates
the Equal Protection clause of 14th Amendment.
• Segregation inherently creates a sense of
inferiority for African American students
• Brown decision marks the end of legal segregation
in U.S.
After the Brown Decision
• The Court ruled that desegregation must
proceed with “all deliberate speed.”
• But schools resisted; many whites fled to
private schools
• Congress withdrew aid to schools who
didn’t desegregate; Courts stepped in
• By early 1970’s, most schools were
integrated
Trying to end segregation…
• Through the courts and acts of Congress, the
federal government was able to remedy much of
the segregation in public places
• This is De jure segregation: by law
• But government can’t control other forms of
segregation…
• De facto segregation: in fact; in practice
– Where people live and who they associate with;
this still exists today
Desegregation v. Integration
• Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg (1971):
Remedies may include racial quotas,
redrawn district lines, and court-ordered
busing
• Inter-city busing could be authorized only if
both the city and the suburbs had practiced
segregation
• Busing remains controversial
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Prohibits discrimination in public places.
• Forbids discrimination in employment.
• Creates the EEOC (Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission).
• Withholds federal grants from
discriminating institutions (i.e. schools).
• Authorizes suits by the Justice Department.
Getting and Using the
Right To Vote
– Suffrage: The legal right to vote. This was a
key issue in the Civil Rights Movement
– Fifteenth Amendment: Extended suffrage to
African Americans
– Poll Taxes: Small taxes levied in order to vote.
– White Primary: Only whites were allowed to
vote in the party primaries.
– Literacy tests: Very difficult and technical;
average person couldn’t pass; kept blacks from
voting
Race, the Constitution, and
Public Policy
• Getting and Using the Right To Vote
– Smith v. Allwright (1944): ended white
primaries.
– Twenty-fourth Amendment: Eliminated poll
taxes for federal elections.
– Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections
(1966): no poll taxes at all.
– Voting Rights Act of 1965: Helped end formal
and informal barriers to voting. (End literacy
tests)
Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Helped end formal and informal barriers to voting.
• Ended literacy tests
• Southern states’ voting procedures are scrutinized
by national government
• Dramatically increases the number of African
Americans registered to vote
• # of African Americans elected to office increases
dramatically
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.
(1964)
• A hotel owner refused to rent rooms to
African Americans
• He claimed the Civil Rights Act of 1964
infringed on his rights as a private property
owner
• The Court upheld Congress’s authority to
pass the Civil Rights Act under the
Commerce Clause.
Race, the Constitution, and Public
Policy: Other Minorities
– Native Americans
• Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978): Court
strengthens self government by tribes
– Hispanic Americans
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Education
Fund
– Asian Americans
• Korematsu v. United States (1944): Court upheld
internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII
Quick Write: Civil Rights
How has the 14th Amendment been used to address
racial discrimination? Use at least TWO of the
following terms to support / explain your answer.
– 14th Amendment (cite the clause that applies to
civil rights)
– Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
– Brown v. Board of Education, 1954 (explain the
political significance of the Court’s decision)
– Civil Rights Acts and Movement
Gender-Based Discrimination
• The Battle for the Vote
– Nineteenth Amendment: Extended suffrage to
women in 1920
Gender-Based Discrimination
• Mid-level review versus strict scrutiny
• Court chooses a blend—somewhere
between suspect and highly suspect
• Arbitrary differences in treatment are NOT
allowed.
• Some gender-based differences, such as the
all-male draft, are allowed by courts
Sexual Harassment
• Sexual harassment that is pervasive and
creates a hostile work environment is a
form of gender discrimination illegal under
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Harris v. Forklift Systems, 1993 reinforces
this—workers aren’t required to prove
psychological damage to win
Sexual Harassment
• Quid pro quo: If sexual favors are required
as a condition for holding a job or for
promotion; employers are strictly liable
• Hostile environment: Creates a setting in
which harassment impairs a person’s ability
to work; employers are liable if they were
negligent
Affirmative Action
• Definition:
– A policy designed to give special attention to or
compensatory treatment to members of some
previously disadvantaged group.
• A move towards equal results?
• Regents of the University of California v.
Bakke (1978)
• Activity: Read Bakke case; look at current
cases
Gay Rights & the Constitution
• Mixed record in the courts
• Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) allows states to
ban homosexual relations
• 2000, Boy Scouts could exclude a gay man
from being an adult member because his
homosexuality violates the principles of the
organization
Gay Rights & the Constitution
• Romer v. Evans (1996): Colorado voters
adopted state constitutional amendment
making it illegal to protect persons based on
gay, lesbian or bisexual orientation; the
Court overturns
• Lawrence v. Texas (2003): The Court
overturned a Texas law banning sexual
conduct between same sex couples; violates
equal protection clause
The Americans With
Disabilities Act (1990)
• Requires employers to make reasonable
accommodations for disabled employees.
• Was an unfunded mandate
• This has given rise to two issues:
– What constitutes a disability?
– What is meant by a “reasonable”
accommodation?