Civil Rights Legislation: From Equal Protection to Affirmative Action

1. Civil Rights Chapter 5

2. The Equal Protection Clause • From the 14th Amendment: • “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.”

3. The Courts and the Equal Protection Clause • Strict Scrutiny • Suspect Classification- Race is subject to strict scrutiny by the courts, if the law is justified by a compelling state interest. • Intermediate Scrutiny • Laws based on gender classifications are permissible if they are related to an achievement of a vital government objective. • The Rational Basis Test (Ordinary Scrutiny) • Justices ask whether the discrimination is rational.

4. Equal Treatment for Women • The Struggle for Voting Rights • Suffrage - the right of women to vote. • Women in American Politics Today • In 2002, for the first time in history, a woman Nancy Pelosi was elected minority leader of the House of Representatives. • One of the largest PACs is the EMILY List (Early Money is Like Yeast-It Makes the Dough Rise) which promotes and supports Democratic women candidates for political office. • Women in the Workplace • Wage discrimination and Sexual Harassment. • Go to: http://www.now.org & http://www.feminist.org

5. Women gained the right to Vote

6. African Americans • Separate But Equal doctrine • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • The Brown Decisions and School Integration • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) overturned the separate but equal doctrine. • Busing was used to integrate school classrooms. • The Civil Rights Movement • Led by Dr. Martin Luther King and his SCLC sought to end racial segregation through non-traditional means of political participation.

7. Civil Rights Legislation in the 1960s • Nonviolence as a Tactic • Civil disobedience and sit-ins. • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Outlawed discrimination in public accommodations. • Banned discrimination in employment. • Voting Rights Act of 1965

8. Hispanics • Party Identification and Electoral Significance • The largest ethnic minority in the United States. • Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans tend to identify with the Democratic Party. Cuban-Americans support the Republican Party for their anti-Castro position. • Political Participation • Hispanic voter turnout is only about 27 percent compared to 50 percent for the population at large. • Go to: http://www.latinosvote.com/

9. Other Ethnic Groups • Asian Americans http://www.sunfiregroup.com/ • Native Americans http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9118/

10. Protecting Older Americans • - • Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 • Obtaining Rights for Persons with Disabilities • Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990- most significant legislation protecting the rights of this group. • Requires that all public buildings and services be accessible to persons with disabilities. • Go to: http://www.aarp.org • Go to: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm

11. Gay Men and Lesbians • A Changing Legal Landscape • Stonewall Inn Incident • Romer v. Evans (1996) • Changing Attitudes • Liberal political leaders have been supporting gay rights for at least two decades. • Go to: http://www.glaad.org/org/index.html

12. Beyond Equal Protection—Affirmative Action • Affirmative Action Tested • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1979) • The Bakke ruling: Although race-based admissions systems can be constitutional, quota systems are not.

13. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1979) • Facts of the Case: UC Davis medical school's racial set-aside program reserved 16 out of 100 seats for members of certain minority groups. Bakke was denied admission although lesser-qualified minority applicants were admitted. • Ruling: The decision produced six separate opinions, none of which commanded a majority. Four Justices would have upheld the program on the ground that the government can use race to remedy disadvantages cast on minorities by past racial prejudice. 438 U. S., at 325. Four other Justices would have struck the program down on statutory grounds. Id., at 408. • Justice Powell, announcing the Court's judgment, provided a fifth vote not only for invalidating the program, but also for reversing the state court's injunction against any use of race whatsoever.

14. Justice Powell emphasized that the " 'nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure' to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation." Id., at 313. However, he also emphasized that "[i]t is not an interest in simple ethnic diversity, in which a specified percentage of the student body is in effect guaranteed to be members of selected ethnic groups," that can justify using race. Id., at 315. Rather, "[t]he diversity that furthers a compelling state interest encompasses a far broader array of qualifications and characteristics of which racial or ethnic origin is but a single though important element.“ • Source: Findlaw.com

15. Affirmative Action Under Attack? • Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña (1995),515 U. S. 200, 227. • The Supreme Court ruled that all government racial classifications must be analyzed by a reviewing court under strict scrutiny. • Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996) The Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court that diversity or prior racial discrimination was not a compelling state interest. • Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) The Supreme Court allowed affirmative action on the grounds that diversity improves education. • Gratz et al. v. Bollinger et al. (2003) The Supreme Court held that raced-based admissions must be narrowly tailored.

16. Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) • Facts of the Case: The University of Michigan Law School denied admission to petitioner Grutter, a white Michigan resident with a 3.8 GPA and 161 LSAT score. Her suit alleged discrimination on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and 42 U. S. C. §1981. She further argued that the admissions system, which significantly increased the admissions of some races while decreasing those of non-favored races served no compelling interest to the state. • Ruling: The Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body is not prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause, Title VI, or §1981. Pp. 9-32.

17. Gratz et al. v. Bollinger et al. (2003) • Petitioners Gratz and Hamacher, both of whom are Michigan residents and Caucasian, applied for admission to the University of Michigan's (University) College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) in 1995 and 1997, respectively. • The University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA) considers high school grades, standardized test scores, high school quality, curriculum strength, geography, alumni relationships, leadership, and race in admissions decisions. • During all relevant periods, the University has considered African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans to be "underrepresented minorities," and admits virtually every qualified applicant from these groups.

18. The current guidelines use a selection method under which every applicant from an underrepresented racial or ethnic minority group is automatically awarded 20 points of the 100 needed to guarantee admission. • Ruling:Because the University's use of race in its current freshman admissions policy is not narrowly tailored to achieve respondents' asserted interest in diversity, the policy violates the Equal Protection Clause. • The Court finds that the University's current policy, which automatically distributes 20 points, or one-fifth of the points needed to guarantee admission, to every single "underrepresented minority" applicant solely because of race, is not narrowly tailored to achieve educational diversity.

19. The Politics of Homeland Security • Racial Profiling in the War on Terrorism. • Homeland Security database of Arab-Americans by zip code and density. • INS detention: Detaining non-citizens from selected nations on minor immigration violations. • Fingerprinting and photo at airports. • Is racial profiling ever justified?

20. Homeland Security Issues • Porous Borders: Should the U.S. grant temporary guest worker visas to undocumented workers? • Provides legal status to millions of undocumented workers • Will reduce tracking and detention costs • Better utilization of homeland security resources • Faces tough political opposition • Current lack of funding • Non-Mexican undocumented immigrants released due to limited holding space; Mexican immigrants deported. • Operation Gatekeeper and human rights issues. • Heightened border security in San Diego blamed for increased immigrant deaths due to exposure. • Are current border policies inhumane? • Costs and future threats associated with exporting gang members, criminals, and potential terrorists.

21. Current Issues • Should Affirmative Action Be Abolished? • Should Bilingual Education Be Abolished? • Is discrimination against Gays and Lesbians constitutional? • Should the U.S. provide guest worker (legal) status to millions of currently undocumented workers? • Health care, living wages, and affordable housing – how far should the government go to ensure that early death, poverty, and housing crises do not strike some races more than others?