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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott previously a slave in Missouri moved to a Illinois from 1833-1843. After going back to Missouri Scott made a case for his freedom stating his residence in free territory made him a free man under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Supreme Court decided the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment, treating Scott as property, not as a person. -
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. In the aftermath of the Civil War. Freeing an eighth of the U.S population. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in many states but it was an act of war, making it an unformal law. Unlike the 13th amendment which completely abolished slavery in the United States. -
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment means no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. It's important because it was one of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era establishing equal rights for all. -
Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth amendment wanted to protect the voting rights for black men after the Civil War. Immediately after ratification, African American took to the polls voting and running for office. Within a few years of the amendment numerous discriminatory practices were used to prevent Black citizens from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South. -
Jim Crow Era
The Jim Crow Era also known as the disenfranchisement laws was a list of laws that came after the Civil War to keep society racial segregated. Black codes were strict local and state laws that detailed when, where and how formerly enslaved people could work, and for how much compensation. These codes came immediately after the ratification of the thirteenth amendment to abolish slavery. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act, which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. Homer Plessy (A seven-eighths white male) agreed to challenge this act by sitting in the whites only section Plessy was technically a black man. When Plessy was told to vacate the whites-only car, he refused and was arrested. -
Nineteenth Amendment
The nineteenth amendment makes it illegal to deny the right to vote to any citizen based on their sex, which effectively granted women the right to vote. On November 2 of that same year, more than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time. This amendment began the conversion of what else women can do. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Plaintiff Oliver Brown sued the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied by Topeka’s all-white elementary schools. The verdict was that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Integrating schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers regarding local and state leveling preventing African Americans from voting. Tactics like literacy tests, discriminatory voting practices or violence was used to discourage black voters. But under this act it makes all discriminatory practices of any peoples illegal and implements proper security to protect all voters. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action is when we use procedures to eliminate harmful discriminating behavior or actions in society while maintaining a equal and fair environment for all. -
Reed v. Reed
A Idaho Probate Code specified that "males must be preferred to females" in appointing administrators of estates. After the Reed's adopted son passed away both wished to be named the administrator of their son's estate but as they were divorced according to the Probate Code, Cecil was appointed administrator. The court unanimous decision that the law's dissimilar treatment of men and women was unconstitutional. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment guaranteed protection against sexual discrimination for women under the law. A few years after the ratification of the 19th amendment. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)was proposed in an effort to secure full equality for women. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
In the case of the University of California v. Bakke the university used race as a definite and exclusive basis for an admission decision. This violates the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The verdict was a 8-1 decision ruling that a university's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
A homosexual couple was prosecuted while engaging in the act of consensual homosexual sodomy with another adult in the bedroom. Georgia arrested the boys for violating a Georgia statute that criminalized sodomy. The couple challenged this idea in court resulting in a verdict stating the divided Court found that there was no constitutional protection for acts of sodomy, and that states could outlaw those practices. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities from discrimination. Prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places to ensure their safety and opportunity in society. It also created the the division of American Disabilities which ensures fair opportunities of the disabled. -
Motor Voter Act
The motor voter law was a bill passed by congress in 1963 to make it easier for Americans to register to vote. The law allowed voters to vote via mail. It also enabled a way for voters to vote while also renewing their license. -
Lawrence v. Texas
After officers response to a call regarding weapons disturbance, Houston police entered John Lawrence's apartment and saw him and another adult man, Tyron Garner, engaging in consensual sexual act. They were tried in court for deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute. The verdict resulted in a 6-3 opinion stating that the Texas statute makes it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct violates the Due Process Clause. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Groups of same-sex couples sued their relevant state agencies in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee to challenge the constitutionality of those states' bans on same-sex marriage or refusal to recognize legal same-sex marriages. The court resulted in a 5-4 majority. The Court held that the Due Process Clause the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects, and that analysis applies to same-sex couples in the same manner as it does to opposite-sex couples.
