Civil Rights and Constitutional Law

Civil Rights and Constitutional Law

Constitutional rights • The Bill of Rights guarantees basic rights to citizens of the US • Protects from federal, state, and local governments

Immigrants and aliens • Immigrants come to a new country intending to live there permanently; aliens live in a country where they are not citizens • 5 categories: • Resident aliens • Nonresident aliens • Enemy aliens • Refugees • Illegal aliens • Protections of the BOR apply to immigrants and citizens

National citizenship • Citizens of the US have rights, responsibilities, and duties • The founders assumed the states would decide who was a citizen • Citizenship came to both a national and state dimension • 2 types of citizens: • By birth • By natuarlization

Citizenship • Birth • Citizens by the “law of the soil” are born in the US or its territories • Children born to a parent who is a US citizen are also citizens by the “law of blood,” including children born in another country of American parents • Naturalization • Naturalized citizens have most of the rights and privileges of native-born citizens. • Qualifications are established by Congress

Responsibilities of Citizens • Responsible citizens: • Need to know about the laws that govern society • Participate in political life

Protections from Government • Search and Seizures • Accused persons have protected rights • Today, most searches are done with a court warrant • 1914 exclusionary rule restricts the use of illegally obtained evidence • Guarantee of Counsel • 6th amendment guarantees the right to an attorney • State and federal courts appoint attorneys for defendants that cannot afford their own

Protections from GOvernment • Self-Incrimination • 5th amendment protects witnesses before grand juries and congressional investigating committees • Also protects against forced or coerced confessions • Miranda rights falls under this amendment • Double Jeopardy • Cannot be tried for the same crime twice • Cruel and Unusual Punishment • 8th amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishment • Use of death penalty is still a controversy

Equal Protection • 14th & 15th amendments require that all people are entitled to equal rights and equal protection of law • The Supreme Court has developed guidelines for deciding when state laws may violate the equal protection clause • State laws that violate fundamental rights (the right to vote and 1st amendment rights) are unconstitutional

The struggle for equal rights • For nearly a century after the 14th amendment was adopted, the courts upheld discrimination and segregation against African Americans • Plessyvs Ferguson- “separate but equal” justified segregation • Brown vs BOE-overturned “separate but equal” and desegregated public schools • De jure-segregation by law • De facto-segregation in practice

Civil rights act of 1964 • Barred discrimination in public accomodations engaged in interstate commerce, and prohibited discrimination in employment on grounds or race, color, religion, national origin, and sex • Was passed using various conventional and unconventional acts • Helped lead to the American’s with Disabilities Act

Equal opportunity or outcomes? • Equal opportunity-when everyone has the opportunity to compete for things like jobs and admission to educational institutions • Equal outcomes-the awards of competition are spread equally across all sectors of society, including women, minorities and the disabled

Affirmative action • 1960s programs that gave preference to minorities, women, or the physically challenged in hiring and promotions, government contracts, admission to schools, and training programs • Most affirmative-action programs are required by federal government regulations or court decisions; others are voluntary efforts • Outside of higher education, the constitutional status of affirmative action is unclear; the Court has struck down as many programs as it has upheld

Discrimination against women • New challenges against discrimination toward women have been raised • The Supreme Court held that past laws discriminating against women did not violate the equal protection clause • Since the Reed case in 1971, the Court has allowed some laws based on gender classification, but has declared others unconstitutional

Questions • Should the 14th amendment be read to guarantee equal opportunity or equal outcomes? • Can effective equal protection rights be guaranteed to individuals or must these guarantees be based on group membership? • How has the entrance of large numbers of women in the workforce changed our understanding of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment?

Civil Rights and Constitutional Law