Chapter 15 - Civil Rights: Equal Rights Under the Law
De Facto Segregation
Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions or personal choice.
In what year was the 19th Amendment passed and what did it entail?
1. 1920 2. Women's suffrage
What is a suspect classification and which of the three tests does to the SCOTUS apply to them?
1. A test used to subject people to unequal treatment or to make them politically powerless. 2. Strict Scrutiny
What is the Chinese Exclusion Act and when was it repealed?
1. An act from 1882 that limited Chinese immigration and made it impossible from immigrants already in the U.S. to become citizens. 2. 1943
What are examples of things that are NOT fundamental rights?
1. Housing 2. Welfare benefits
Until which point was the basic right of citizenship not a given constitutional protection?
1868, with the passing of the 14th Amendment.
What did Title VII cover?
That employers or trade unions affecting interstate commerce, and employing 15 or more people couldn't discriminate in employment practices.
What are some strategies that have been used to keep African-Americans from voting?
1. Poll taxes 2. Literacy Tests 3. Intimidation 4. Violence 5. Biased Registration Requirements
In the case of Romer v. Evens, which of the three SCOTUS tests was used to make the decision and what was it?
1. Rational Basis 2. They struck down an amendment to the Colorado state constitution which barred sexual orientation as a protected category in anti-discrimination laws.
What are the three tests used by the Supreme Court to distinguish between constitutional and unconstitutional classifications?
1. Rational Basis Test 2. Strict Scrutiny Test 3. Heightened Scrutiny Test
Until the 1950s, it was illegal in some states for blacks and whites to do what?
1. Ride in the same train cars 2. Attend the same schools 3. Attend the same theaters 4. Be born in the same hospitals 5. Drink from the same fountains 6. Be buried in the same cemetaries Etc.
What is the EEOC and what does it do?
1. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 2. Enforces Title VII
What is the NAACP-LCF and what does it do?
1. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - Legal Defense Fund 2. The part of the organization established to challenge segregated educational facilities.
What is the USCIS and what can it or any state federal court do?
1. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 2. Grant citizenship
What are some things that may be withheld from aliens?
1. Welfare 2. Employment as officers, teachers, and probation officers.
What is "qui pro quo" sexual harassment and since when has it been illegal?
1. When an employer requires sexual favors from a person as a condition of employment. 2. 1986
What was "Operation Wetback" and when did it begin?
1. Where hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants were deported. 2. 1954
What percentage of all Native Americans live on or near reservations today?
20% of the 3 million currently in the U.S.
White Primary
A Democratic Party primary in the old "one-party South" that was limited to white people and essentially constituted an election; ruled unconstitutional in Smith v. Allwright (1944).
Due Process Clause
A clause in the Fifth Amendment limiting the power of the national government; a similar clause in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits state governments from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Equal Protection Clause
A clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that forbids any state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. By interpretation, the Fifth Amendment imposes the same limitation on the national government. This clause is the major constitutional restraint on the power of governments to discriminate against persons because of race, national origin, or sex.
Majority-Minority Disctrict
A congressional district created to include a majority of minority voters; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the main factor in redistricting.
What was the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1957?
A law which made it a crime to intimidate or threaten African Americans exercising their right to vote.
Class Action Suit
A lawsuit brought by an individual or a group of people on behalf of all those similarly situated.
Naturalization
A legal action conferring citizenship on an alien.
Literacy Test
A literacy requirement some states imposed as a condition of voting, generally used to disqualify black voters in the South; now illegal.
Restrictive Covenant
A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
What is a fundamental right?
A right that is explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution.
Rational Basis Test
A standard developed by the courts to test the constitutionality of a law; when applied, a law is constitutional as long as it meets a reasonable government interest.
Strict Scrutiny Test
A test applied by the court when a classification is based on race; the government must show that there is a compelling reason for the law and no other less restrictive way to meet the interest.
What was the Indian Removal Act of 1830?
An act that forced Indians to move west and southwest from the eastern part of the U.S.
What is California Proposition 187?
An adopted proposition from 1994 that denied medical, educational, and social services to illegal immigrants.
What is the approximate unemployment level on many reservations?
Around 50-60%
Heightened Scrutiny tests are administered on which types of cases?
Cases whose classification serve "important governmental objectives".
Dual Citizenship
Citizenship in more than one nation.
Busing of students following the decision was done only in response to which type of segregation?
De Jure Segregation
Congress has used its power to tax to prevent what?
Discrimination based on ethnic origin, race, sex, disability, and age.
What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbid?
Discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or nationality.
Racial Gerrymandering
Drawing election districts so as to ensure that members of a certain race are a minority in the district; ruled unconstitutional in Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960).
What is more common for people in America who are citizens in other countries that don't have the right of expatriation?
Dual citizenship
In what periods of time are the rights and liberties of citizens tested the most?
During times of war
What was the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson?
That government-imposed segregation in public transportation, and school, wasn't necessarily discrimination if everyone had equal provisions.
What is the "understanding of equality on which we have the greatest consensus?"
Equality of opportunity regardless of race, ethnic origin, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.
True or False. The Supreme Court has been very open to the idea of expanding the 14th Amendment to protect against sex discrimination.
False, contrarily it has been very reluctant to do so
True or false. Affirmative action is a widely accepted practice across the United States.
False, it is quite controversial with many in disagreement with whether or not it should be allowed.
What does equality of results mean?
Guaranteeing that there is a minimal point below which no person should be allowed to drop.
Which presidents following WWII fought were identified with civil rights?
Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson
In the case of Fisher v. Texas, what was at issue?
Her civil rights
Since 1980, while segregation for blacks has declined, it has increased for who?
Hispanics and Asians
What was the Ten Percent Plan in the Texas legislature?
If you finished in the top 10 percent of your high school class, you were guaranteed admission to any of the state's public universities.
Despite segregation having been found unconstitutional, what took a long time for many schools afterwards?
Integration
Civil Rights
The rights of all people to be free from irrational discrimination such as that based on race, religion, sex, or ethnic origin.
Why do so few complaints arise concerning housing discrimination?
It can be so subtle sometimes that the victims may not notice it.
What was the Naturalization Act of 1906?
It made it impossible for Asian-Americans to become U.S. citizens.
What was the decision of Gratz v. Bollinger?
It ruled in favor of Gratz as the school's application process was too "narrow" and didn't include any individual consideration.
What is the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and was it passed?
It was meant to extend protections against age discrimination to state employees, but was stopped by the Supreme Court.
What was the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention (1848)?
It's considered as the event which launched the women's movement for rights.
Is age a suspect classification?
No
If a person performs discretionary actions, is it in violation of the Constitution?
No, but it may violate state laws.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reversed which case?
Plessy v. Ferguson since "segregation was in itself, discrimination".
The 14th and 24th Amendments eliminated what?
Poll taxes
In addition to stopping African-Americans from voting, literacy tests sometimes prevented who else from voting?
Poor white people
In 1948, the Court made ____ legally unenforceable.
Racial or religious restrictive covenants
What was the monumentally important decision made in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka?
Racially segregated public schools were decided to be unconstitutional and prohibited it.
Affirmative Action
Remedial action designed to overcome the effects of discrimination against minorities and women.
Opponents of affirmative action sometimes call the practice what?
Reverse Discrimination
De Jure Segregation
Segregation imposed by law.
Jim Crow Laws
State laws formerly pervasive throughout the South requiring public facilities and accommodations to be segregated by race; ruled unconstitutional.
Poll Tax
Tax required to vote; prohibited for national elections by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) and ruled unconstitutional for all elections in Harper v. Board of Elections (1966).
Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states what?
That is is a federal offense to discriminate against any customer or patron in a place of public accommodation because of race, ethnicity, religion, or color. (Hotels, motels, interstate restaurants, etc.)
What was the decision of Shaw v. Reno?
That states could draw electoral districts to empower minorities, but that it couldn't be the only criteria for drawing state lines.
What was the result of the case of Korematsu v. United States?
That under a threat of national security, congressional and military judgement of disloyalty and segregation could not be rejected.
Which Amendments were passed in the years immediately following the Civil War?
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
Which event briefly halted the women's movement in the 1800s?
The Civil War
Despite the fact that some people are not citizens of this country, many of their rights are still protected by what?
The Constitution
What was the decision of University of California Regents v. Bakke?
The Court ruled the school's plan unconstitutional as it had set a quota from which whites were excluded solely on the basis of race.
What was the ruling on the case of Lawrence v. Texas?
The Court stopped a Texas ban on homosexual sodomy.
Natural Rights
The rights of all people to dignity and worth; also called human rights.
What occurred in the Slaughter-House Cases?
The Supreme Court outlined key differences and privileges between U.S. citizens and state citizens.
Commerce Clause
The clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8 , Clause 3) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.
How was Grutter v. Bollinger different from the Gratz case?
The law school was different from the undergraduate program as it involved more individual consideration through holistic review and wasn't as "mechanical" a process.
What is the Enemy Alien Act of 1798 and what does it entail?
The president may detain and expel citizens who are of a country with which we are at war.
Women's Suffrage
The right of women to vote.
Right of Expatriation
The right to renounce one's citizenship.
During which period of time did African Americans move out of the South an into northern cities (and in the process made much social gains)?
The two World Wars and the Great Depression
What is so important about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Ac of 1965?
They are essential to securing civil rights protections.
Heightened Scrutiny Test
This test has been applied when a law classifies based on sex; to be upheld, the law must meet an important government interest.
True or False. You can appeal a denial of citizenship.
True
What was decided in the case of Smith v. Allwright?
White primaries were declared unconstitutional.
