We the people

Civil Liberties Timline

  • Dred Scott v. Sandford

    Dred Scott v. Sandford
    The Dred Scott Case in Missouri. The United States Supreme Court supported slavery in US territory in its 1857 ruling that shocked the country, rejected black citizenship as legal in the US, and ruled the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional.
  • 13th amendment

    13th amendment
    Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime of which the party has been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
  • 14th Amendment

    14th Amendment
    No State shall enact or carry out any legislation that restricts the rights or privileges of US citizens; no State shall rob anyone of their life, liberty, or property without due process of law; and no State shall refuse to any person within its borders the equal protection of the laws.
  • 15th Amendment

    15th Amendment
    The United States and any State are not allowed to restrict or deny US citizens their right to vote due to their race, color, or previous servitude.
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Plessy v. Ferguson
    165,000 or so outcomes (0.52 seconds)
    A significant 1896 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court known as Plessy v. Ferguson established racial segregation as constitutional under the "separate but equal" principle. The incident that gave rise to the case occurred in 1892 when Homer Plessy, an African American train passenger, refused to sit in a car designated for Black people.
  • 19th Amendment

    19th Amendment
    The United States or any State may not restrict or deny a citizen's ability to vote because of their sexual orientation. By passing the necessary laws, Congress shall have the authority to enforce this article.
  • White Primaries

    White Primaries
    White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    In this landmark judgment, the Supreme Court declared racial segregation of students in public schools to be unconstitutional. It overturned the "separate but equal" tenet established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case and marked the end of officially sanctioned racial segregation in American schools.
  • Poll Taxes

    Poll Taxes
    Citizens had to pay a fee to vote. This prevented any poorer people from being able to vote at the time if they couldn't afford the poll tax.
  • 24th Amendment

    24th Amendment
    The United States or any State may not deny or restrict a citizen's ability to exercise their right to vote in any primary or other election for president or vice president, electors for president or vice president, or for a senator or representative in congress on the grounds that they failed to pay a poll tax.
  • Civil Rights Case of 1964

    Civil Rights Case of 1964
    Prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin, racial or ethnic origin, or color of one's skin.
    This civil rights act's provisions prohibited discrimination in hiring, promoting, and firing on the basis of sex in addition to race.
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Voting Rights Act of 1965
    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a significant piece of federal legislation that forbids racial discrimination in voting in the United States. The President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law.
  • Affirmitive Action

    Affirmitive Action
    Affirmative action is a collection of policies intended to end illegal discrimination against candidates, address the effects of such discrimination in the past, and foresee future instances of such discrimination. Candidates can be looking for professional employment or admittance to a school of higher learning.
  • Reed v. Reed

    Reed v. Reed
    When both candidates for estate administrator were equally qualified, a man had to be chosen over a woman, according to an Idaho legislation that was later declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1971.
  • Bakke v. Regents of the University of California

    Bakke v. Regents of the University of California
    In the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, the Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that a university's admissions requirements that used race as a specific and exclusive basis for an admission decision were unconstitutional under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • Equal rights Amendment

    Equal rights Amendment
    The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first put out in Congress in 1923, three years after the 19th amendment was ratified, in an effort to guarantee complete equality for women. It aims to eliminate the disparities in the law that exist between men and women with regard to divorce, property, employment, and other issues.
  • Bowers v. Hardwick

    Bowers v. Hardwick
    According to this ruling, a state is not prohibited from criminalizing private sexual activity between same-sex partners.
  • Americans with Disabilities Act

    Americans with Disabilities Act
    The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forbids discrimination against anyone who have a disability in a number of settings, including employment, public accommodations, transportation, communications, and access to state and local government services and programs.
  • Motor Votor Act

    Motor Votor Act
    Congress created the "motor voter statute" in 1963 to make it simpler for Americans to register to vote. According to the law, states must permit voter registration by mail, at state offices that assist the disabled or the poor, and when a person registers for a driver's license.
  • Lawerence v. Texas

    Lawerence v. Texas
    Revoked the sodomy prohibition across the US, legalizing same-sex relationships in every State and US territory.
  • Obergfell v. Hodges

    Obergfell v. Hodges
    In a landmark decision, the United States Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment requires all states to recognize all marriages that were legally performed outside of their borders and to authorize weddings between same-sex couples.