Chapter 5
Civil Rights and Public Policy
Introduction
Civil Rights: policies designed to protect
people against arbitrary or discriminatory
treatment by government officials or
individuals
 Racial Discrimination
 Gender Discrimination
 Discrimination based on age, disability,
sexual orientation and other factors

Conceptions of Equality

DOI
◦ “all men are created equal”
◦ Political and legal equality and equal of
opportunity
◦ U.S. political culture does not support
economic equality
Conceptions of Equality

Constitution
◦ Neither the Constitution nor the Bill of
Rights use the word equality
◦ Fourteenth Amendment
 “equal protection of the laws”
 Equal Protection Clause has played key role in
struggle to provide civil rights
Conceptions of Equality

Supreme Court
◦ Government can classify persons and groups
 18 to vote
 21 to buy liquor
◦ Strict Scrutiny
 Race and ethnicity
 “compelling public interest” to discriminate
Conceptions of Equality
Struggle for Racial Equality
 The
Era of Slavery
◦ Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
 Slaves had no rights.
 Invalidated Missouri Compromise
◦ The Civil War
Struggle for Racial Equality
Struggle for Racial Equality

The Era of Reconstruction
◦ Thirteenth Amendment
 Abolish slavery
◦ Fourteenth Amendment
 Citizenship
 Due process and equal protection
◦ Fifteenth Amendment
 African American male suffrage
Struggle for Racial Equality
Struggle for Racial Equality
Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
◦ Upheld the constitutionality of “equal
but separate accommodations”
◦ “separate but equal”
 Jim Crow laws
 Relegated African Americans to
separate facilities

Struggle for Racial Equality

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
 Overturned Plessy
 Separate but equal violates Fourteenth
Amendment
 School segregation inherently
unconstitutional
 Integrate schools “with all deliberate speed”
◦ Busing of students solution for two kinds of
segregation:
 de jure, “by law”
 de facto, “in reality”
Struggle for Racial Equality

Civil Rights Act of 1964
◦ Senate invoked cloture to end a filibuster that
lasted 83 days
 Made racial discrimination illegal in hotels,
restaurants, and other public accommodation
 Forbade employment discrimination based on race
 Created Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)
 Strengthened voting rights legislation
Struggle for Racial Equality
Brown v. Board of Education
and the Civil Rights Act of
1964 have generated
numerous MCQs
 Brown used the equal
protection clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment to
reverse Plessy.


The Court used the interstate
commerce clause of the
Constitution to uphold the
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Struggle for African American
Voting Rights

Methods of Disenfranchising
◦ Poll taxes
◦ Literacy tests
◦ Exclusion from primaries (white
primary)
◦ By 1960, only 29% of eligible African
Americans were registered to vote.
61% of whites were registered.
Struggle for African American
Voting Rights

Eliminating the poll tax
◦ Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)
prohibited poll taxes in federal
elections
◦ In 1966 the Court eliminated poll
taxes in state elections
Struggle for African American
Voting Rights

Voting Rights Act of 1964
◦ Outlawed literacy tests and other
practices
◦ Provided federal oversight of
registration
◦ Significantly improved registration rates
 1965: only 70 African Americans held
office in 11 Southern states.
 Today over 5,000 do.
Struggle for African American
Voting Rights
 Racial
Gerrymandering
◦ Shaw v. Reno (1993)
 Strict scrutiny for congressional
districts
 Use of race as the “predominant
factor” in drawing districts should
be presumed unconstitutional
Women’s Struggle for Civil Rights
 Citizens, but
no political rights
 Male-dominated society and culture
 Denied educational and career
opportunities
Women’s Struggle for Civil Rights
 Seneca
Falls Convention
 Suffrage
◦ Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
◦ Congress passed in 1972
◦ Failed in the states
Women’s Struggle for Civil Rights
 Other
milestones
◦ Equal Pay Act of 1963
 Equal pay for equal work
◦ Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Prohibited gender discrimination
◦ National Organization for Women
(NOW)
 Challenge discrimination in the
workplace
Women’s Struggle for Civil Rights
 Other milestones
◦ Reed v Reed (1971)
 Laws that classify people on the basis of sex
must be reasonable and not arbitrary
◦ Title IX
 Educational institutions receiving federal
funds cannot discriminate against women
Affirmative Action
 Policy
requiring federal agencies,
universities and most employers to
take positive steps to remedy the
effects of past discrimination
◦ Race, ethnicity and sex
Supporters


Needed to makeup for
past injustices.
Increasing the number
of minorities and
women in desirable
jobs is an important
social goal.
Critics


Creates reverse
discrimination that
unfairly penalizes
members of the
majority group.
Laws and policies
should promote equal
opportunity, not equal
results.
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action

Regents of the University of California v.
Bakke (1978)
 Racial set asides, quotas, are unconstitutional
 Race could be considered in admissions

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)


Race could be considered a “plus” in admissions, but
quota remain illegal
Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)
◦ Point system that awards points for race is tantamount
to a quota system.
Affirmative Action is a
controversial issue that has
generated a number of test
questions.
 The Supreme Court has
consistently ruled quotas
illegal.
 The Court has ruled that race
can be one of many factors.

Other Minority Groups
◦ Native Americans
 Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978)
◦ Hispanic Americans
 Mexican American Legal Defense and
Education Fund
◦ Asian Americans
 Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Felícitas and
Gonzalo Méndez
This photograph shows students from Lincoln
Elementary School for “Mexican” children in
Orange County, California, 1930s.
Sylvia Mendez, daughter of Felicitas and
Gonzalo Mendez, integrated a former “White
School” in Orange County as a young girl.
Newly Active Groups


Civil Rights and the Graying of America
◦ Age classifications not suspect category, but
fall under rational basis test.
Civil Rights and People with Disabilities
◦ Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
 Requiring employers and public facilities to
make “reasonable accommodations” for
those with disabilities
 Prohibits employment discrimination against
the disabled
Newly Active Groups

Gay and Lesbian Rights
◦ Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
◦ Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
 Overturned Bowers
 Private homosexual acts are protected by
the Constitution
◦ Gay marriage
 Many state constitutions amended to prohibit
practice
◦ Overturn of DADT
Understanding Civil Rights and
Public Policy
 Civil
Rights and Democracy
◦ Equality favors majority rule.
◦ Suffrage gave many groups political
power.
Understanding Civil Rights and
Public Policy
 Civil
Rights and the Scope of
Government
◦ Civil rights laws increase the size
and power of government.
◦ Civil rights protect individuals
against collective discrimination.
Summary
 Racial
minorities and women have
struggled for equality since the
beginning of the republic.
 Constitutional amendments and civil
rights legislation guarantee voting
and freedom from discrimination.
 Civil rights have expanded to new
groups.