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Dred Scott v Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri until he escaped to live in Illinois and the Louisiana Territory (both places where slavery was illegal). When he returned to Missouri, he was once again enslaved. He sued on the basis that he was a free man after living in free territories. He lost his case; the SCotUS said that because his ancestors were imported over, he wasn't even really a citizen of the United States and couldn't even sue. -
13th Amendment
This amendment says that slavery is illegal everywhere within the United States. This was one of the "Civil War Amendments." It was the first of three amendments to be ratified directly after the war. -
14th Amendment
This amendment gives everyone born in the United States US citizenship. It also changes the 3/5 compromise to ensure that all Black people are counted as whole people in the population. This gives the South more representatives. -
15th Amendment
This amendment gives voting rights to all citizens of the United States. It states how the right to vote cannot be taken away based on color or race or previous enslavement. Even though this amendment tries to protect Black voting rights, states still worked around that with their Jim Crow laws. -
Plessy v Ferguson
Homer Plessy, a black man, sat in a whites-only train car. When he was asked to move, he refused and was arrested. He challenged the segregation of train cars on the basis of that the Separate Car Act in Louisiana violated the Fourteenth Amendment. He lost his case, the SCotUS said that segregation does not imply inferiority. -
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws were laws that were aimed at segregating white and black people. This period of laws lasted from after Reconstruction up until the civil rights movements in the 60s. Some examples would be the literacy tests, Separate Cars Act, and "separate but equal" rulings. -
19th Amendment
This amendment extends voting rights to women. It says the right to vote cannot be denied based on sex. Suffragists had been campaigning for this amendment for years by the time this amendment was finally passed. -
Brown v Board of Education
This was the case that desegregated schools across America. Brown argued that segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment; however, in a previous ruling, the Supreme Court had ruled that things can be "separate but equal." In this case, the Supreme Court decided that segrated things are inherently unequal and simutaneaouly overturned Plessy v Ferguson and integrated schools. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This was a landmark civil rights law. It outlaws discrimination on all levels based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This act is applicable in the hiring, firing, and promoting processes. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act aimed to outlaw many discriminatory practices used by states to prevent minorities voting. It was a major win for the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s; however, especially in the past few years, more and more laws have been passed on the state level that want to make voting harder for people. This act outlaws racial discrimination in voting. -
Reed v Reed
A law in Idaho stated that males must be preferred to females when settling estates. A divorced couple was fighting over who gets their son's estate, and it automatically went to the male. The woman sued, and the Supreme Court ruled the Idaho law unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection clause of the fourteenth amendment -
Equal Rights Amendment
While this amendment was passed by the Senate, not enough states approved it. It would have ended all legal distinctions between women and men in the government, (hopefully) ending discrimination against both women and men. It is still trying to be passed to this day. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is something essentially tries to reverse or make up for racism. It can take the form of preferring to hire minorities, setting aside spots to be filled by minorities, or just favoring minorities in general. It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; race can be considered as a factor when making decisions, but it cannot be the only factor used when making the decision. -
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
This was a case that made affirmative action unconstitutional. Allan Bakke was twice denied a seat in med school at the University of California; some spots were specially reserved for minority members (even though Bakke's test scores were higher than all of them). Bakke claimed he was excluded solely on the basis of race. The Supreme Court sided with Bakke and said that affirmative action violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Bowers v Hardwick
Bowers was observed by a police officer engaging in consensual sodomy. He was arrested because Georgia, like many states, had laws making sodomy illegal. The Supreme Court upheld Georgia's law, saying that because sodomy is not a right directly stated in the Constitution, it is not a protected right of the people. -
American with Disabilities Act
This act was signed by President George Bush. It is a civil rights law that makes discrimination against people with disabilities illegal. This aims to ensure equal opportunities and rights for people with disabilities. -
Motor Voter Act
This act makes signing up to vote more accessible. It says that you can sign up to vote at vehicle registration branches, by mail-in application, and at various National and State government buildings. It's also called the National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA -
Lawrence v Texas
Texas had a law that criminalized sex between same-sex couples. The Supreme Court ruled that this law violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court decided that the government can't regulate what consensual adults do in the privacy of their home, and as what they were doing didn't violate anyone else's rights, they were fine. -
Obergefell v Hodges
Many same-sex couples sued their state governments for refusing to issue marriage licenses to them. These cases claimed that by refusing to allow same-sex couples to marry, their equal protection rights were violated. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow same-sex marriage and to have marriage licenses recognized by all states (even if it occured in a different state)