Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Civil Rights Timeline Cases
Civil Rights Timeline Cases
Cases
African-American and other
minorities, women,
homosexuals
Dred Scott Case(1857)
• Rosa Parks
– NAACP local youth coordinator in Alabama
• Alabama bus boycotts led by King
• Brown and Brown II
• New groups formed
– Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) with Martin Luther King – used
nonviolent civil disobedience
– Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) whites and blacks
A Toddle House in Atlanta has the distinction of being occupied during a sit-in
by some of the most effective organizers in America when the SNCC staff and
States and cities are individually banning the use of affirmative action
policies.
• Recent polls suggest the majority (around 75%) do not approve of this
policy anymore. Most African-Americans support this policy however.
Women’s Rights Cases
Overview of Women’s Rights
20th century
• Many concerns of the African-American community
were reflected in women’s rights movement
– Access to voting (resolved with 19th amendment)
– Fair juries with women included (many states did not
mandate females be on juries)
– Access to educational institutions and treatment in those
institutions (curriculum and after school activities)
– Equal treatment in hiring and pay
• Concerns specific to wemen -Access to
contraceptives and other reproduction rights
Overview of Women’s Rights
20th century
• 19th amendment – states can’t deny women the right to vote
• 1960’s – A new focus on the status of women in the US from
several high profile publications.
– 1963 Report American Women documented pervasive
discrimination against women in all walks of life.
– 1963 The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan caused many
women to rethink their roles in society
• Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act covered discrimination based on
gender.
– When the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission failed to
enforce this law, the feminist interest group NOW was formed.
– NOW fashioned itself after the NAACP. Its two goals?
• Equal rights amendment
• Judicial decisions that created equality
Supreme Court Cases
• Originally the Supreme Court case did not
apply the equal protection clause of the
14th amendment to gender discrimination.
• Finally in 1971 it did with the case Reed vs
Reed.
Reed v Reed
(1971)
• Idaho law stated males are preferable to females
in settling estates of deceased children.
• Question: Does Idaho law violate 14th
amendment equal protection law?
• Ruling: Yes. Unanimous decision. First time
gender was applied to equal protection clause
of 14th amendment.
Equal Rights Amendment
• Passed Congress in 1972 by large margins. States
had 10 years to ratify it.
• Within a year 22 states voted in favor of it.
• Roe v Wade happens in 1973 and stalls it.
• 35 states ended up ratifying it (needed 38)
• Rokster case in 1981 further stalls it.
• Never got 38 states to ratify it within the 10 year
limit.
• A new ERA has been introduced every year since.
Roe v Wade (1973)
• See other lessons on this
• Women’s right to control her body is ruled
as a protective right by SC
Standards of Review Under the Equal
Protection Clause of 14th Amendment.
• See Table 6.1 in new text for more details
• Lowest Level – minimum rational standard
– Age, wealth, mental retardation, sexual orientation
• Intermediate Standard – Does classification serve an
important gov’t objective and is it substantially related to those
ends
– Gender
• Strict Scrutiny – Is the classification necessary to accomplish
a permissible state goal? Is it the least restrictive way to reach
that goal?
– Race, alienage, and national origin(suspect classification), fundamental
freedoms such as speech, religion, assembly, press (strict scrutiny)
Craig v Boren (1976)
• Background- Oklahoma passed a law that
allowed a low alcohol beer could be sold to
18 year-old women but men had to be 21.
• Ruling- Selling this beer to men and women
at two different ages was unconstitutional as
it served no legitimate state goal. Created
new review standard for gender
discrimination – “intermediate review”.
Rostker v. Goldberg (1981)
• Background- In 1980 Jimmy Carter reactivated
the registration of draft and wanted women
included. Congress went against his wishes
regarding women. Men challenged the decision
of Congress to not include women.
• Question: Did the MSSA's (Military Selective
Service) gender distinctions violate the Due
Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment?
Rostker v. Goldberg
• Ruling: 6-3 The Court found that men and
women, because of combat restrictions on
women, were not "similarly situated" for the
purposes of draft registration. The Court also
upheld Congress's judgment that the
administrative and military problems that would
be created by drafting women for noncombat
roles were sufficient to justify the Military
Selective Service Act.
Important laws Involving Gender
Equity
• Equal Pay Act 1963
• Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964
– Prohibits discrimination by private and public
employers
– Include sexual harassment as discrimination
• Title IX
– Bars educational institutions who receive
federal funds from discriminating based on
gender.
Gay Rights Cases
Boys Scouts of America v Dale
(2000)
• Background: Dale was an Eagle Scout and
scout master who was also a gay rights activist.
The scouts took away his eagle scout status and
membership. Dale sued the Scouts saying they
violated a New Jersey law banning
discrimination based on sexual orientation in
public accommodations. New Jersey’s Supreme
Court ruled in favor of Dale. Boys Scouts
requested the Supreme Court hear the case.
Boys Scouts of America v Dale
(2000)
• Question: Does the application of New Jersey's
public accommodations law violate the Boy
Scouts' First Amendment right of expressive
association to bar homosexuals from serving as
troop leaders?
• Ruling: In a 5-4 ruling, the court said yes and
sided with Boy Scouts saying that private
organizations have the right to determine who
is in their group. They have the right to
expressive association.
Lawrence v Texas (2003)
• Background: Police responded to
“neighbors’” reports of gunshots at the home of
two men -Lawrence and Garner. Police forced
their way in to their home and found them to be
“getting busy.” They were arrested under Texas
sodomy laws. Lawrence and Garner sued Texas
over the law for which they were arrested.
• Questions: Does the Texas sodomy law
violate the 14th amendment due process clause?
Lawrence v Texas (2003)
• Ruling: 6-3 Yes. There is no legitimate state
interest that is justified by the law which invades
the privacy of adults in their own home. It
denies adults of their due process. It overturned
a related ruling from 1980’s on the same subject
(Bowers v Hardwick)
• States (around 14 still had them) had to get rid
of sodomy laws.
Garner on left,
Lawrence in middle,
and their lawyer on the
right
Disability Case Example
Tennessee v Lane (2003)
• Background: Lane, a disabled person who needs a
wheel chair, was unable to access the court room in the
state court house in TN. He sued TN for not being
compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act .
State of TN said they could not be sued under the
immunity doctrine of the 11th amendment.
• Question: Did the Americans with Disabilities Act
violate the sovereign immunity doctrine of the
11th Amendment when, based on Congress's
14th Amendment enforcement powers of the
Due Process clause, it allowed individuals to sue
states for denying them services based on their
disabilities?
Tennessee v Lane
• Ruling: 5-4 Individuals with disabilities can sue
the states for equal access to fundamental rights
such as access to court rooms- especially if the
accommodation can be reasonably be done. In
this case – put in an elevator.