The Legal Basis of Civil Rights The Civil

The Legal Basis of Civil Rights The “Civil War amendments” to the Constitution are an important basis for civil rights protection in the United States. �� The 13 th Amendment abolished slavery. �� The 15 th Amendment guaranteed voting rights for black men. �� Most directly, the 14 th Amendment provides the basis for national government protection of rights Movement towards change �� NAACP, legal defense fund �� Thurgood Marshall – will become an associate justice for the Supreme Court �� Use of the courts to push for change �� Shelley v. Kraemer �� Sweatt v. Painter �� Brown v. Board of Education

The Fourteenth Amendment Just as the 14 th Amendment was the basis for the selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights, interpretations of its equal protection clause similarly are the basis of many of the debates of civil rights. Equal protection clause: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ” Civil Rights Concerning Civil Rights… �� Supreme Court’s decision in the 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases circumscribed the importance of the 14 th Amendment �� Argued that the Amendment was aimed at forbidding the laws that had been used against slaves and other African Americans prior to the Civil War

Civil Rights Struggle In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine and the practice of separation on the basis of race as “inherently unequal. ” After Brown, states could no longer use race as a factor in discrimination in law and the court would apply its strict scrutiny standard to any case related to racial discrimination. Civil Rights after Brown �� Schools are slow to desegregate �� De facto- segregation as a custom or tradition �� De jure- segregation as a law �� Busing of children �� Voting Rights �� Poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries �� Racial gerrymandering – voting districts that are drawn to benefit one political group over another 24 th amendment eliminates poll tax(1964)

Universalization of Civil Rights Building on the successes of the African American civil rights movement, other groups pressed to make rights protections “universal. ” The 1964 Civil Rights Act protected: �� Voting rights �� Access to public accommodations �� Ensuring the desegregation of public schools �� Outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, and gender Civil Rights after 1964 �� Any discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or national origin must meet strict scrutiny �� Government must have a compelling state interest �� Least Burdensome Alternative must be used to achieve that interest

Equal Protection-Extended �� Building on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, women’s efforts to end gender discrimination, particularly in employment practices, fed the growth of the Women’s movement and organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW). �� (ERA) Equal Rights Amendment �� Modeling the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, Latinos and Asian Americans established similar legal strategies through the Mexican. American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and the Asian Law Caucus. �� Benefiting from the advances of the Civil Rights Movement, Native Americans pressed for more rights protections in the 1960 s and 1970 s. �� AIM – American Indian Movement �� Disabled Americans established their own legal defense funds in the 1970 s, became increasingly active in protests/demonstrations, and pressed for their own equal access to public facilities achieving a significant victory in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Civil Rights A Brief Timeline �� Slavery, Missouri Compromise �� Dred Scott (1856) �� Civil War �� Post Civil War Amendments �� Reconstruction, (1877) Compromise, Jim Crow �� Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Jim Crow legal… �� Brown v. Board of Education (1954) �� Civil Rights Act of 1964 �� Voting Rights Act of 1965 affirmative action defined: government policies or programs that seek to redress past injustices against specified groups by making special efforts to provide members of these groups with access to educational and employment opportunities.