Equality and Civil Rights

1
Equality and Civil Rights

• Civil liberties freedoms guaranteed to the
  individual requiring federal restraint
• Tension freedom order
• Civil rights powers privileges that are
  guaranteed by government to individuals in groups
  and which cannot be taken away by government or
  any other source
• Tension equality freedom

2
Equality and Civil Rights

• Origins of concern lay in pattern of
  discrimination against African Americans, even
  after 13th-15th Amendments
• We discriminate all of the time, but we hope the
  discrimination is based on appropriate criteria
  rather than on race, sex, ethnic origin, etc.

3
Overview of Race Discrimination

• Declaration of Independence We hold these truths
  to be self-evident, that all men are created
  equal
• Constitution contained 3 references to slavery
• Article I, Sect. 2 Representatives and direct
  taxes shall bedetermined by adding3/5ths of all
  other persons
• Article I, Sect. 9 The migration and importation
  of persons.shall not be prohibited prior to the
  year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed
• Article III, Sect. 2 No person held to service
  or labor in one statebe discharged from such
  service or labor

4
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1861-1865Civil War fought in part over slavery
• 1865 13th Amendment prohibited slavery
• 1868 14th Amendment extends citizenship to all
  persons born or naturalized in U.S. no state
  shall deprive any person of life, liberty or
  property without due process of law...nor deny to
  any person ... equal protection of the laws
• 187015th Amendment extends voting rights to all
  citizens and prohibits denial on basis of race,
  color, or prior condition of servitude

5
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 13th-15th Amendments authorized Congress to
  enforce amendments with legislation
• 1875 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act
  prohibiting discrimination in public places
  (inns, trains, etc.)
• 1876 Supreme Court ruled that freedom of assembly
  was not protected by 14th Amend. and that 15th
  Amend. did not guarantee vote (only stipulated
  reasons that could not be used to deny the vote)

6
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1876 Presidential election between Republican
  Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
  was contested Southern Democrats conceded in
  exchange for removal of federal troops from
  southern states
• Hayes kept promise and removed troops social
  patterns of segregation restored
• 1877 Georgia introduced the poll tax

7
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1883 Supreme Court found Civil Rights Act
  unconstitutional Congress could only correct
  state laws that discriminated against blacks
• Private associations are off limits (set own
  rules)
• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court upheld
  state laws imposing racial segregation in public
  facilities and established the doctrine of
  separate but equal
• 1899 separate but equal doctrine applied to
  public schools

8
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1909 W.E. B. DuBois others founded NAACP
• 1938 Supreme Court ruled that Lloyd Gaines had
  to be admitted to Missouris (all white) law
  school as a comparable school for blacks did not
  exist
• 1947 President Truman ordered desegregation of
  the armed services
• 1954 Brown v. Bd. of Education Supreme Court
  ruled that separate but equal had no place in
  education attacked principle at core of equal
  protection clause

9
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up bus seat in
  Montgomery, Alabama and city boycott organized
• 1957 Martin Luther King, Jr. organizes So.
  Christian Leadership Conference advocates civil
  disobedience
• 1963 King delivers I have a dream speech in
  Washington, D.C. http//www.stanford.edu/group/Kin
  g

10
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1964 Congress passed Civil Rights Act
• Private lodgings, restaurants, sports arenas,
  etc. cannot discriminate on the basis of race
• Employers of 15 or more people cannot
  discriminate on the basis of race (applied to
  state and local governments in 1972)

11
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1964 Civil Rights Act challenged Supreme Court
  rules in Katzenbach v. McClung that commerce
  clause enables Congress to regulate interstate
  commerce and, thus, to make racial discrimination
  illegal in any business participating in commerce
• 1964 24th Amendment banned poll taxes
• 1965 President Johnson issues Executive Order
  11246 required affirmative action by government
  contractors to redress discrimination

12
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1968 Fair Housing Act banned discrimination in
  housing
• 1968 Riots broke out in 168 cities protesting
  King assassination

13
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1969 Supreme Court orders desegregation of
  public schools immediately
• 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Cnty Schools
  Supreme Court identifies remedies such as busing,
  racial quotas, pairing school districts to
  achieve integration distinguishes between de
  jure and de facto segregation

14
Segregation

• De Jure segregation
• Comes about because of legislation or court
  decisions (acts of government)
• De Facto segregation
• Comes about from different social or economic
  circumstances

15
Affirmative Action

• Establishes remedies to overcome past
  discrimination
• Raises question whether outcome is related to
  opportunity
• Raises question whether to focus on historical de
  jure segregation only
• Opponents charge Reverse Discrimination
• Court has equivocated as public opinion shifts

16
Equality and Civil Rights

• Equality of Opportunity each person has the same
  opportunity to succeed in life
• Equality of Outcome government to design
  policies to redistribute wealth and status so
  that economic and social equality is achieved
• Equality of outcome was originally conceived to
  be a temporary adjustment to compensate for
  historical pattern of discrimination against
  African Americans

17
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1974 Milliken v. Bradley limits busing to school
  districts with history of discrimination
• 1976 Regents of U. C. Davis v. Bakke Supreme
  Court considered reverse discrimination and found
  racial quotas unconstitutional but allowed race
  to be one of several factors in admission
• 1979 and 1980 Affirmative Action plans in
  employment upheld later restricted to narrow
  area where history of discrimination proven

18
Overview of Race Discrimination

• 1995 Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena placed
  restriction on affirmative action in highway
  contracts
• 1996 California passed Proposition 209
  prohibiting affirmative action in employment and
  college admissions throughout the state

19
Equal Protection of the law

• Supreme Court has established different standards
  for evaluating discrimination in state laws
• Rational basis (lowest level)
• Heightened scrutiny (middle level gender)
• Strict scrutiny (suspect classes including race,
  ethnic origin, religion)

20
Hispanics

• 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended
  Mexican-American War and guaranteed citizenship
  and land rights to Mexican-Americans
• Social practices ignored treaty despite
  participation of Hispanics in military efforts
• Mexican American Legal Defense (MALDEF) Cesar
  Chavez are examples of civil rights efforts
• Focus has been on legislative districts and
  gaining representation in state legislatures
  Congress

21
Native Americans

• Historically, Native Americans were concentrated
  in tribes with which the Federal Government had
  treaties treaties complex but also abrogated
• U.S. government accused of genocide--deliberate
  elimination of a population
• Native Americans were not granted U.S.citizenship
  until 1924
• Native Americans Rights Fund (1970) has sought
  recognition of tribes and fishing, land other
  rights--may conflict with water rights in
  California

22
Disabled Americans

• 1990 Americans with Disability Act requires
  access to public buildings and make other
  accommodations in employment. Act covers
  physical and mental disabilities as well as AIDS

23
Gays and Lesbians

• Rights are largely determined by state laws
• U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to
  interfere
• Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) Supreme Court upheld
  Georgia statute prohibiting sodomy, even in
  privacy of ones own home
• Hawaii Supreme Court (1993) found that equal
  protection of the laws extended to homosexual
  marriages although constitution amended in 1998

24
Gays and Lesbians

• Congress (1996) passed Defense of Marriage Act in
  response to Hawaii Supreme Court decision
• Article IV, Sect. 1 of U.S. Constitution
  stipulates Full faith and credit shall be given
  in each state to the public acts, records, and
  judicial proceedings of every other state.
• Congresss action exempted homosexual marriages
• Romer v. Evans (1996) found Colorados law
  invalidating local ordinances supporting
  homosexuals unconstitutional

25
Womens Movement

• 1908 Supreme Court upholds Oregon law limiting
  number of hours women can work
• 1920 19th Amendment passed allowing women to
  vote
• 1923 Equal Rights Amendment proposed
• 1963 Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for equal
  work, where equal work is defined as same job

26
Womens Movement

• 1964 Title VII of Civil Rights Act prohibits
  discrimination in employment on basis of race,
  color, religion, national origin and sex
• 1972 ERA passes Congress
• 1982 ERA dies, lacking ratification of 3 states
• race suspect class requires compelling state
  interest
• sex requires only important state interest