GOPO Ch. 5 Civil Rights Definitions

Civil Rights

Policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals.

Equal Protection Clause

Part of the Fourteenth Amendment emphasizing that the laws must provide equivalent “protection” to all people.

Inherently Suspect

The Sup. Court has ruled that racial and ethnic classifications are this. Courts presumes that those classifications are invalid and uphold them only if they serve a “compelling public interest” and there is no other way to accomplish the purpose of the law.

Intermediate Scrutiny

Classifications based on gender receive this. The courts presume them to be neither constitutional nor unconstitutional. A law that classifies people. on gender must bear a substantial relationship to an imp. gov. purpose, a lower threshold serve a "compelling pub. interest”.

Reasonableness

The Court has ruled that to pass constitutional muster, most classifications must only be this. This means a classification must bear a relational rela. to some legit. gov. purpose. Courts defer to rule makers, typically legislatures. Anyone who challenges classifications has the burden of proving that they are not this but arbitrary.

Dred Scott V. Sanford

The 1857 Supreme Court decision ruling that a slave who had escaped to a free state enjoyed no rights as a citizen and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories.

Thirteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.

Jim Crow Laws

After the 1876 elec. of Rutherford B. Hayes, fed. troops were pulled out of the South and Southern States imposed these segregationist laws on Af. Amers. The name of this was the name of a stereotypical Af. Amer. in the 19th cen. minstrel song. These relegated Af. Amers. to seperate pub. facilities, seperate school systems, and even sep. restrooms. Much of what these mandated were common practice in the North.

Civil Rights Cases

1883. It held that the 14th Amend. didn’t prohibit racial discrimination by private businesses or individuals.

Plessy V. Ferguson

An 1896 Supreme Court decision that provided a constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that a Louisiana law requiring “equal but separate accommodations for white and colored races” was constitutional.

Brown V. Board Of Education

The 1964 Supreme Court decision holding that school segregation is inherently unconstitutional because it violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. This case marked the end of legal segregation in the United States.

De Jure Segregation

“By law” segregation. Not all racial segregation is this. Sometimes the distinction between this and defacto segre. has been blurred by past official practices.

De Facto Segregation

“In reality” segregation. Sometimes the distinction betw. de jure segre. and this has been blurred by past official practices.

Civil Rights Act Of 1964

The law making racial discrimination in public accommodations illegal. It forbade many forms of job discrimination. It also strengthened voting rights.

EEOC

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Created by the Civ. Rights Act of 1964 to monitor and enforce protections against job discrim.

Voting Rights Act Of 1965

A law designed to help formal and informal barriers to African American suffrage. Under the law, hundreds of thousands of African Americans registered to vote, and the number of African American elected officials increased dramatically.

Suffrage

The legal right to vote, extended to African Americans by the Fifteenth Amendment, to women by the Nineteenth Amendment, and to 18 to 10 year olds by the Twenty Sixth Amendment.

Fifteenth Amendment

The Constitutional Amendment adopted in 1870 to extend suffrage to African Americans.

Grandfather Clause

Oklahoma and other Southern States used this that exempted persons whose grandfathers were eligible to vote in 1860 from taking literacy test to vote. This exemption didn't apply to grandchildren of slaves, but did allow illiterate whites to vote. Was blatantly unfair and unconstitutional, the Sup. Court said in the 1915 decision Guinn v. US.

Poll Taxes

Small taxes levied on the right to vote. These were used by most Southern states to exclude African Americans from voting.

White Primaries

Primary elections from which African Americans were excluded, an exclusion that, in the heavily Democratic South, deprived African Americans of a voice in the real contests. The Supreme Court declared these unconstitutional in 1944.

24th Amendment

This amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited poll taxes in fed. elecs.

Native American Rights

Earliest inhabs. of the continent, oldest minority group. 6.6 mil. people identify as at least part this. History of poverty, discrim., and exploitation experienced by these long. For generations, US policy promoted westward expansion of their lands. Gov. isolated them on reservations, depriving them of land and rights. With Dawes Act of 1887, fed. gov. turned to forced assimilation, sending chil. off to boarding schools off the reservations, often against will of families, and banning tribal rituals and langs. 1924 Cong. made them citizens of US and gave them right to vote. 1946 Cong. established the Indian Claims Act to settle claims against the gov. related to taken land. Today, still have high poverty and ill health, almost ½ live on reservations. They know the gap betw. pub. policy regarding discrim. and realization of policy. Civ. Rights Move. of the 1960s made more favorable climate for them to guarantee rights. The Indian Bill of Rights adopted as Title II of Civ. Rights Act of 1968, applying the Constitution’s Bill of Rights to tribal govs. Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez strengthened tribal pow. of members and furthered self-gov. Progress came through activism. They used courts to protect rights, also retaining access to sacred places. Sometimes conflicts with majority.

Hispanic American Rights

Now largest minor. group. 55 mil., 17% of pop. Texas and SW Amer. subjected to discrim. and worse. 500000 served during WWII, but faced discrim. upon return. Hernandez v. Texas (1954) extended protection against discrim. to them. Many used Civil Rights Move. tactics. 5200 elected officials in US are this.

Asian American Rights

Fastest growing minor. group. Faced discrim. for 100 years before 1960s. Was egregious during WWII when US gov. but more than 100000 of Japanese descent in internment camps. Authorized as constitutional by Korematsu v. US. Cong. since authorized reparations. Policy changes of Civ. Rights Move. has uplifted them.

Korematsu V. US

A 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld as constitutional the internment of more than 100000 Americans of Japanese descent in encampments during World War II.

Arab American Rights

3.5 mil. of these in US. Since 9/11, bias has increased against them. Also experienced discrim. in employment, housing, edu., and access to pub. accommodations and facilities.

Seneca Falls Declaration

July 19, 1848, 100 men and women signed this. Patterned after the Dec. of Inde., it proclaimed, “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward women, having in direct object the estab. of an absolute tyranny over her.” Charlotte Woodward only signer to see right to vote for women.

Nineteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1920 that guarantees women the right to vote.

Social Feminists

Many suffragists had defended the vote as basically an extension of the maternal role into pub. life, arguing that a new era of pub. morality would emerge when women could vote. These were in tune with prevailing attitudes.

Equal Rights Amendment

A constitutional amendment originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972, stating that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state an account of sex.” Despite public support, the amendment fell short of the three-fourths of state legislatures required for passage.

Reed V. Reed

The landmark case in 1971 in which the Supreme Court for the first time upheld a claim of gender discrimination.

Craig V. Boren

The 1976 ruling in which the Supreme Court established the “intermediate scrutiny” standard for determining gender discrimination.

Pregnancy Discrimination Act Of 1978

This act made it illegal for employers to exclude pregnancy and childbirth for women’s sick leave and health benefit plans.

Title IX

This of the Education Act of 1972 forbids gender discrim. in federally subsidized edu. programs (which includes almost all colleges and unis.), including athletics.

Sexual Harassment

The US EEOC defines that as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature… when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affect and indi’s. employment, unreasonably interferes with an indi’s. work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.” 1986 Sup. Court articulated that this is so pervasive as to create a hostile or abusive work environment is a form of gender discrim., which is forbidden by the 1964 Civ. Rights Act. No single fact is required to win this case under Title VII. Workers not required to prove environment so hostile. Employers responsible for preventing and eliminating this. School districts can also be sued.

Age Discrimination

Employers have refused to hire peop. over certain age sometimes. 1967, this in Employment Act banned some kinds. 1975 Cong. denied fed. to institutions that discrims. against those over 40. Age classifications fall under standard review.

Americans With Disabilities Act

A law passed in 1990 that requires employers and public facilities to make “reasonable accommodations” for people with disabilities and prohibits discrimination against these individuals in employment.

Lawrence V. Texas

In this 2003 Sup. Court case, the Court overturned Bowers v. Hardwick when it voided a Texas anti-sodomy law on the grounds that such laws are unconstitutional intrusions on the right to privacy.

Affirmative Action

A policy designed to give special attention to or compensatory treatment for members of some previously disadvantaged groups.

Regents Of The University Of California V. Bakke

A 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a state university may weigh race or ethnic background as one element in admissions but may not set aside places for members of particular racial groups.

Grutter V. Bollinger

In this 2003 case, the Sup. Court upheld the Uni. of Michigan law school’s use of race as one of many factors in admission. They found that the school’s use of race as a plus in the admission process was narrowly tailored an that the school made individualistic, holistic reviews of applicants in a non mechanical fashion.

Gratz V. Bollinger

In this 2003 Sup. Court case, the Court struck down the Uni. of Michigan’s sys. of undergraduate admission in which every applicant from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group has automatically awarded 20 points of the 100 needed to guarantee admission. They said that the sys. was tantamount to using a quota because it made the factor of race decisive for virtually every minimally qualified, underrepresented minority applicant.