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Dred Scott vs Sanford
Dred Scott was considered a slave in Missouri. However, his master moved him to the state of Illinois and the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was illegal under the Missouri Compromise. After being moved back to Missouri, Scott filed for his freedom saying that he was a resident of a free state for a period of time. He lost in the Missouri court and then the federal court also ruled against him saying that no black man was considered a citizen under article III of the Constitution. -
13th Amendment
The 13th amendment made slavery and involuntary servitude illegal unless except in the case of punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed while Abraham Lincoln was president but not before faltering in the mostly democrat house of reps. While the amendment granted slaves their freedom, they didn't get the same freedoms and rights for decades to come. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment was ratified with the purpose of giving citizenship to all people born in the United States. This amendment gave all people equal protection under the law including slaves freed after the civil war. The 14th amendment is also important, because it recognizes other issues such as due process and the requirement of all states to follow the Bill of Rights. No one can be denied their life, liberty, or property without the process of law. -
15th Amendment
The 15th amendment prevents the restrictions on voters based on race and color. This amendment granted African Americans the right to vote but didn't stop southern states from creating more restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests. Due to this, the number of African American vote was significantly lower than the number of their eligible voters. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Louisiana enacted a law in which trains had to have separate cars for blacks and whites. Homer Plessy agreed to challenge the act and sit on a whites only car. He was considered black under the Louisiana law, but is really only 7/8 Caucasian. The railroad only agreed, because they could avoid some unnecessary costs of an extra car. When he refused to exit the car he was arrested. In trial, they decided that segregating the cars was against the 13th and 14th amendments. -
Nineteenth Amendment
The 19th amendment prevents restrictions on voters based on sex. This amendment gives woman the right to vote but they aren't placed on the same level as their male counterparts in the work force or in daily life. Despite the amendment having passed, women still face discrimination based on their sex. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This case had to do with the segregation of public schools based on race. In these cases, students had been denied the right to attend certain schools, because they were considered white. They argued that this violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. The court decided that facilities for minorities were not really considered equal and that segregating students based on race was unconstitutional. -
Poll Taxes
Poll taxes began as a legal way to keep black American citizens from voting even though the 15th amendment was already ratified allowing them to vote freely. Voters were required to pay a fee before they could cast a ballot. The only exemption to this rule was for poor whites only under the Grandfather Clause. This stated that if they had an ancestor who voted before the civil war, they didn't have to pay the fee. -
White Primaries
This was one of the many ways southern states would disenfranchise African Americans as well as other minorities. White primaries were the main elections to take place in southern states and only white voters were allowed to attend and participate. This made it difficult for minorities to find the right time and place to be able to vote. -
Affirmative Action
This is something that occurs when people belonging to groups that had previously suffered discrimination are favored in the work force, education, and even housing. This happens with minority groups such as African Americans and other minority races, homosexuals, disabled people, etc. President John F. Kennedy signed to ensure affirmative action would take place in important areas like work, school, and homes. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendment was ratified in order to get rid of high poll taxes when voting. The high cost was designed to keep people that they didn't want voting out of the polls. In this time period many people had to value feeding their families over voting. It was mostly southern states that adopted the poll tax in the late 1800's. When the amendment was established it meant that no one was too poor to vote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act made discrimination illegal on a basis of race, religion, national origin, and sex. These minority groups were to be allowed in the same places and have the same rights as groups from higher classes and were welcome in schools, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. that everyone else went to. This act also created the EEOC, equal employment opportunity commission, which prevents discrimination of these minority groups in the work force. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and it aimed to make voting rights more equal between races. Though black people could vote at the time, it was nearly impossible to do so due to literacy tests or outrageous fees given. This led to the Selma to Montgomery march over a bridge that ended to many casualties/injuries. Martin Luther King Jr. was at the head of the march and the cause. The Act ended with a larger black turnout for voting. -
Reed v. Reed
The case focuses on the Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment. Idaho had a law saying "males must be preferred to females" so when Sally and Cecil Reed both applied to be administrator of their late son's estate and it was granted to Cecil, Sally challenged the law in court. The unanimous decision said that the dissimilar treatment was unconstitutional and that they couldn't give decide solely based on the sex of each parent. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The original ERA was proposed by Alice Paul in 1923, however the original had to be edited for its ratification in 1972. The Equal Rights Amendment was designed to give equal rights to all American citizens no matter their sex. This is important for many reasons. It ended the unfair legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, etc.. Today, employment is also considered to be more equal including payment and work conduct. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke applied for UoC's medical program twice and was denied due to their affirmative action program that left spots open for minority of high standard. Bakke's GPA and test scores were higher than any of the minority students admitted, therefore they were being admitted solely based on their race and Bakke challenged this in court. It was decided that affirmative action was to be upheld and race was a factor allowed to be considered when considering admission to allow for diversity. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Micheal Hardwick was found by a Georgia police officer having a homosexual engagement in the privacy of his home. He was then charged with violating Georgia's statute of sodomy. After Hardwick challenged the statue in the Federal District Court, they then ruled that the statute was unconstitutional. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
This act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. This act works in places like the work force, public transportation, public accommodations, and communication and access to government programs and services. People with disabilities must be eligible for the same government aid as people without those limitations and they must have easy access to things in daily life like wheelchair ramps, etc. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Police who were looking into a weapons disturbance case, they entered into the house and saw John Lawrence and Tyron Garner who sexually engaged. They were arrested for same sex intercourse under the Texas law. The ruling was for them under the violation of the Due Process Clause under the 14th amendment. This is significant, because it entered the idea of protection of privacy into the court. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Groups of same-sex couples in several states sued their state government to challenge the constitutionality of their states' ban on same-sex marriages. It's decided that the due process clause of the 14th amendment guarantees the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects. Same-sex marriage must be legalized and recognized.
