Civil Rights

GOV 30 Fall 2010

Equal Protection Clause

“No state shall…deny to any person within its

jurisdiction the equal protection of the

laws.”

-Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Fourteenth Amendment

white primary

Civil Rights Cases

1883

state action

private action

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

“our Constitution is color-blind.”

-Justice Harlan

Percentage of African Americans Living Outside South by Decade, 1910 to 1997

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Year

Per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

1912 1920 1928 1936 1944 1952 1960 1968 1976 1984 1992 2000

Year

Per

cen

tage

Bla

ck D

eleg

ates

Democrats Republicans

Percentage of Delegates to Republican and Democratic National Conventions Who Are African American

Warren’s opinion in Brown (1954):

“To separate from others of similar age and

qualifications solely because of their race

generates a feeling of inferiority as to their

status in the community that may affect their

hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be

undone.”

Civil Rights Act (1964)

Voting Rights Act (1965)

de jure segregation

de facto segregation

Milliken v. Michigan

(1974)

Burger for the Millikin Majority

“Without an inter-district violation and inter-

district effect, there is no continuous wrong calling

for an inter-district remedy.”

“The lower courts, in calling for metropolitan-

wide desegregation were trying to produce “the

racial balance which they perceived as desirable.”

But the Constitution “does not require any

particular racial balance.”-Justice Burger

Marshall, in dissent

“Under a Detroit only decree, Detroits’ schools will

remain racially identifiable….Schools with 65 percent

and more Negro students will stand in sharp and

obvious contrast schools in neighboring districts with

less than 2 percent Negro enrollment. Negro students

will continue to perceive1616 their schools as

segregated educational facilities and this perception

will only be increased when whites react to a Detroit-

only decree by fleeing to the suburbs to avoid

integration.”

Segregation in the U.S. and the South, 1970 and 2000

0.46

0.27

0.17

0.55

0.45

0.09

0.33

0.08

0.23

0.3

0.12

0.16

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

OverallDegree of

Segregation

Segregationwithin

Districts

SegregationbetweenDistricts

OverallDegree of

Segregation

Segregationwithin

Districts

SegregationbetweenDistricts

Se

gre

ga

tio

n I

nd

ex

of

Wh

ite

s a

nd

No

n-W

hit

es

1970 2000

U.S. Overall Southern States

Bakke v. U. C. California, Davis (1978)

“The special admissions program is undeniably a

classification based on race and ethnic

background. To the extent that there existed

a pool of…minority applicants to fill the 16 special

admissions seats, white applicants could compete

only of 84 seats in the entering class, rather than

the 100 open to minority applicants.”

-Justice Lewis

Powell

Minority dissent in Bakke

“Davis’ articulated purpose of remedying the

effects of past societal discrimination is sufficiently

important to justify the use of race-conscious

admission programs where there is a sound basis

for concluding that minority underrepresentation

is substantial and chronic, and that the handicap of

past discrimination is impeding access of

minorities to medical school.”

- Dissenting Minority Opinion

Percentage of Whites and Blacks that answered yes to the following questions:

“Do you favor affirmative action programs that promote black employment…”

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Per

cen

t in

Fa

vo

r

Whites Blacks Whites Blacks

“but do not contain

quotas?”

“by requiring businesses to hire a specific number

or quota of blacks?”

Michigan Affirmative Action Cases:

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)Law School: O’Connor says diversity ok (5-4 decision)

Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)College. Rehnquist says quotas or mindless point

system not ok (6-3 decision)

“With prestige to persuade, but not

physical power to enforce, and with a

will for self preservation, the Court

generally follows, it does not lead,

changes taking place elsewhere in society.”

-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Three Topics

1.Right to Vote

2.Right to Equal Treatment before Law

3.Right not to be Sexually Harrassed

But when the right to vote at any election . . . is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States. . . ,

Fourteenth Amendment

National American Women's Rights Association (NAWRA)

Minor v. Happersett(1875)

States Granting Women's Suffrage before Congressional Passage of 19th Amendment in 1919

STATE YEAR SUFFRAGE GRANTED VOTES IN E.C. % OF TOTAL E.C. VOTE

WY 1890 3 1%

CO 1893 7 2

ID 1896

UT 1896 13 3

WA 1910 20 4

CA 1911 33 6

AZ 1912

KS 1912

OR 1912 51 10

IL 1913 80 15

MT 1914

NV 1914 87 16

ND 1917

OH 1917

IN 1917

RI 1917

NE 1917

SD 1917 149 28

MI 1918

OK 1918 174 33

19th Amendment (1920)

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied . . . on account of sex.

“It is in the very nature of ideas to grow in self-awareness, to work out all their implications over time. . . . The very content of the great caluses of the Constitution, their coverage, changes.”

John Agresto

Smith Amendment to the

Civil Rights Act of 1964

National Organization for Women(NOW)

Equal Rights Amendment(ERA)

The law constitutes “individual gender-based

discrimination. . .” that is in fact “a denial of

equal protection of the laws in violation of the

Fourteenth Amendment.”

- Craig v. Boren (1976)

Suspect Classification Requiring Special Scrutiny (Military Defense Considerations)

Race: YesGender: No

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson(1986)

Statutory Interpretation

Court says: Psychological damage must be proven.

Harris v. Forklift Systems(1993)

The Smith Amendment. .

“comes into play before harassing conduct

leads to a nervous breakdown.”

-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

“Gender discrimination exists whenever

it is more difficult for a person of a

particular gender to perform well on

a job.”

-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Palin and Biden on Roe, Federalism, Right to Privacy, Constitutional Interpretation:

http://www.cbs.com/thunder/player/thunder.php?pid=kmbZJiBysEZaxIgmdRiNHdo6IMUVVQB6

Broad or Narrow Definition of Equal Rights

Wards Cove v. Antonio (1986)

Americans with Disabilities Act (1991)

Garrett v. University of Alabama (2001)

Changes in Black and White Participation in Presidential Elections, By Region

40

50

60

70

80

1964 1972 1980 1988 1996

Year

Per

cen

tage

Vot

ing

Northern Whites Southern Whites

Northern Blacks Southern Blacks

Percentage saying rivil rights is the most important problem

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971

Year

Per

cent

age

Evaluation of Civil Rights as Country’s Most Important Problem:

The judicial power shall not be

construed to extend to any suit

against one of the United

States by citizens of another

state.

(11th Amendment)

Recent/Upcoming Primaries and Caucuses

February 19 - Hawaii caucus (D),

Washington (D). Wisconsin

March 4 - Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont

March 8 - Wyoming caucus (D)

March 11 - Mississippi

April 22 - Pennsylvania

May 6 - Indiana, North Carolina

May 13 - Nebraska, West Virginia

May 17 - Hawaii caucus (R)

May 20 - Kentucky, Oregon

May 27 - Idaho

June 3 - Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota

Obama

Share

Clinton

Share

Female Voters 43% 50

Male Voters 50 42

Voters with Income

< $50,000

43 50

Voters with Income

> $50,000

49 44

Obama

Share

Clinton

Share

African Americans 82% 16

Whites 39 52 White Protestants 38 53 White Catholics 33 61 White Males 45 44 White Females 34 58Hispanics 33 66

Union Workers 42 51

Non-Union Workers 47 47

Percent African

American

Percent Hispanic

Median White

Income

Percent Union

Weighted Average of Remaining Contests 10.5% 8.9% $41,368 10.5%

Weighted Average of Past Contests 9.4 14.9 48,149 11.9

Civil Rights Lecture

GOV 30 Fall 2010

Substantive Due Process

“The enumeration in the Constitution,

of certain rights, shall not be construed

to deny or disparage others retained

by the people.”

-The Ninth Amendment

Lochner v. New York

Lochner Reasoning by Justice Holmes dissenting

“It is settled by various decisions of this

court that state constitutions and state laws

may regulate life in many ways...

A Constitution is not intended to embody a

particular economic theory...It is made for

people of fundamentally differing views.”

Griswold v. Connecticut

Roe v. Wade

“In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Court held a

Connecticut birth control law unconstitutional.

The Griswold decision can be rationally understood only

as holding that the Connecticut statute substantively

invaded the liberty that is protected by the Due Process

Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Several decisions of this court make clear that

freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and

family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due

Process Clause….That right reasonably include the right

of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her

pregnancy.”

-Justice Potter Stewart for the majority

“While the court’s opinion quotes from the dissent of Mr. Justice Holmes in Lochner v. New York, the result it reaches is more closely attuned to the

majority opinion... in that case.The decision here to break pregnancy into three

distinct terms and to outline the permissible restrictions the state may impose in each one partakes more of judicial legislation than it does of a determination of the intent of the drafters of the 14th Amendment.

The states have had restrictions on abortion for at least a century.”

-Justice William Rehnquist

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania

v. Pennsylvania

O’Connor on Stare decisis

“Where…the Court decides a case in such a way as to resolve the sort of intensely divisive controversy reflected in Roe…the promise of constancy, once given, binds its maker for as long as the power to stand by the decision survives and the understanding of the issue has not changed so fundamentally as to render the commitment obsolete.”

-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

“Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today. It ought not to remain binding precedent.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy

Public Opinion on Gay Rights Has Changed as Gay and Lesbian Political Activism Increased

0

20

40

60

80

100

1977 1982 1987 1992 1997

Year

Per

cent

Say

ing

Hom

osex

uals

"Sh

ould

Hav

e E

qual

Rig

hts"

1982: First state equal rights law

1992: First major fundraising for presidential campaign

1993: Debate on gays in the military

1996: Congress passes law denying federal recognition of gay marriages

Source: Rivkin & Welch, “HAS SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IMPROVED ACADEMIC AND ECONOMIC OUTCOMES FOR BLACKS?”

0-5% 6-25% 26-75% 76-95% 96-100%

1968 62 8 17 12 2

1980 30 14 44 12 1

1988 28 15 44 12 1

2000 31 19 40 9 1

United States Percentage of blacks who are in schools where whites

constitute…