Civil Rights and Liberties

This chapter discusses the concepts of civil rights and civil liberties, providing historical context and the evolution of civil rights movements in the United States.

Civil Liberties: Limitations placed on government power to protect individual freedoms.
Civil Rights: Constitutional guarantees ensuring government officials treat individuals equally without discrimination based on protected classes, including race, gender, ethnic origin, and religion.

The Equal Protection Clause is rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868. It states:
- "No State shall… deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Supreme Court interpretation:
- Ensures that "all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike."
- More commonly phrased as: "similarly situated individuals are treated similarly."

Definition: Discrimination refers to the unjust or prejudicial treatment of individuals based on their category, particularly race, age, or sex.
Discriminatory Laws: Such laws infringe upon civil rights and may be assessed in terms of:
- Discriminatory Effect: When a law results in unequal treatment of similar individuals.
- Discriminatory Purpose: When a law is enacted with intent to unjustly treat certain individuals differently.

Courts assess the constitutionality of discriminatory laws based on their intent and impact, applying different levels of scrutiny:
- Rational Basis Test: Requires laws to be rationally related to a legitimate government interest.
- Intermediate Scrutiny: Applied to laws regarding gender and sex discrimination; requires substantial relation to an important governmental objective.
- Strict Scrutiny: The highest standard, used for cases involving race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion. Laws must serve a compelling governmental interest and be narrowly tailored using the least restrictive means.

Definition: Government programs and policies designed to aid historically discriminated groups.
Aim: Address inequalities and improve opportunities for historically excluded individuals, particularly in education and employment.

Refers to amendments passed post-Civil War (1865-1877) aiming to prevent discriminatory laws that curtailed the rights of former slaves.

States:
- "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States."
Effectively abolished slavery, settling conflicts between slave and non-slave states.

States:
- "All persons born or naturalized in the United States… are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall abridge the privileges of citizens or 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."
Impacts:
- Established citizenship for former slaves.
- Prevented states from discriminating against citizens of other states.
- Implied rights to travel and extended due process to states.

Despite the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court upheld discriminatory laws:
- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Established "separate but equal" segregation, leading to the implementation of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation and restricted black voting rights.

Definition: Revocation or impediment of one’s voting right.
Common practices included:
- Literacy Tests: Required reading and comprehension skills often unfairly applied.
- Poll Taxes: Fees that had to be paid to vote.
- White-only Primaries: Restricted primary voting to white people only.

Definition: A system of laws maintaining separation between groups.
- De Facto Segregation: Resulting from individual choices.
- De Jure Segregation: Resulting from legal enforcement.
The Plessy standard was often violated, as laws favored whites and disadvantaged black populations.

Post-World War II, segregation in schools and public spaces prompted acts of civil disobedience and activism.
Activists faced severe opposition from local authorities.

Landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Initial reaction: Many states resisted desegregation for over two decades.

Outlawed government discrimination and unequal voting qualifications on racial grounds.
Prohibited segregation in public accommodations and discrimination by employers.
Established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce equal rights.

Influenced future rights movements: women's suffrage, Native American rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and immigrant rights.

Began in the mid-1840s, fighting for women’s right to vote. Full voting rights granted with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, primarily benefiting white women initially.

Native Americans faced forced removal and were denied citizenship until the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. They encountered the same discrimination as African Americans post-civil rights.

Indian Civil Rights Act (1968): Extended many Bill of Rights liberties to Native Americans on reservations.

Asian-American Rights: Exclusion from citizenship until 1940s, internment during WWII.
Latino and Chicano Advocacy: Focused on labor rights and immigrant legal pathways.
LGBTQ+ Rights Movement: Evolved in the 1960s to combat discrimination against sexual orientations and gender identities, resulting in landmark rulings like Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and others.

The civil rights landscape is complex and shaped by the interconnections among various movements advocating for equality. Civil rights laws continue to evolve in response to social changes and legal challenges.