week10_equalprotection

Week 10: Equal Protection

Professor: SalamCourse: POLI104C: Civil Liberties– Rights of the Accused & MinoritiesDate: March 11, 2025

Today's Agenda

• Recap from last week: Discussion on the implications of civil liberties regarding minority rights and the historical context of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Explore the Fourteenth Amendment: Examination of its sections, significance, and historical context.

• Discuss Due Process: Differentiation between procedural and substantive due process.

• Examine Incorporation: The process by which the Bill of Rights has been applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

Key Reading

Komisarchik, Sen & Velez (2022)Focus on: "The Political Consequences of Ethnically Targeted Incarceration: Evidence from Japanese American Internment during World War II"

Research Focus

• Investigate how the legacy of incarceration influenced Japanese-American political activity post-WWII, especially in relation to civil rights movements.

• Analyze survey data from over 4,000 Japanese Americans gathered from 1962-1968, focusing on political engagement metrics and community participation.

• Notably, 14% of Japanese Americans were outside exclusion zones during internment, a factor that complicates understanding of collective trauma and political involvement.

• Findings indicate that those who were imprisoned or had family members imprisoned exhibited significantly lower political engagement, with the level of disengagement correlated with the duration of incarceration. The data suggests a nuanced understanding of impacts, particularly for individuals who experienced intragroup violence in camps, hinting at group fragmentation as a contributing factor to political disengagement.

Discussion Questions

1. What are potential explanations for the decline in Japanese-American political participation a generation post-incarceration?

2. How do current engagement levels differ between descendants of incarcerated Japanese-Americans and those who were not imprisoned during WWII?

3. What downstream effects might repression in political participation have, both nationally and locally?

Fourteenth Amendment Overview

Section 1:

• Defines citizenship with clarity: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States... are citizens." This provision aimed to secure citizenship for formerly enslaved individuals following the Civil War.

• Prohibits state laws that abridge privileges or immunities of citizens and ensures due process and equal protection under the law, establishing a crucial framework for civil rights.

Historical Context

• The Fourteenth Amendment was not part of the original Constitution or Bill of Rights but was ratified in 1868 during the Reconstruction era, a response to the failures of previous laws to address the status of emancipated slaves.

• Many concessions to slavery were embedded within the original Constitution (e.g., Fugitive Slave Clause, the 3/5 Compromise).

• Some abolitionists argued that ending slavery did not guarantee full citizenship rights encompassing political and civil rights.

• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): This landmark ruling concluded that freed slaves could not become U.S. citizens, highlighting the challenges ahead for civil rights advocates.

• The Civil War (1861-1865) was a pivotal moment in determining the political and civil status of enslaved peoples and led to significant amendments aimed at protecting these groups.

Reconstruction Amendments

1. Thirteenth Amendment (1865): Abolished slavery except as punishment for crime, stating: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist..."

2. Fourteenth Amendment (1868): Cemented citizenship rights and equal protection under the law for formerly enslaved individuals and their descendants.

3. Fifteenth Amendment (1870): Prohibits racial discrimination in voting rights, empowering African American men to exercise their newfound political rights.

Separate But Equal Doctrine

• Following the Civil War, various states implemented racially discriminatory policies undermining the Fourteenth Amendment, leading to systemic inequalities.

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): This critical case upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine, asserting that while the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees legal equality, it does not ensure social equality, thereby facilitating segregationist policies under state law.

• This ruling enabled states to enforce segregation and perpetuated Jim Crow laws throughout the South, severely limiting the rights of African Americans.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• A landmark Supreme Court case that challenged the separate but equal doctrine and marked a turning point in civil rights jurisprudence.

• Over a period of more than 50 years, the Supreme Court began to dismantle institutionalized racial discrimination through a series of important rulings.

• Key Developments:

  • Emphasis on the quality of educational facilities for Black students (1914).

  • Legislation aimed at ending racial discrimination in residential real estate (1917).

  • Early efforts to eliminate racial discrimination in higher education (1950).

  • The specific case involved Black students in Topeka, Kansas, who were denied access to nearby public schools.

  • The resulting lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education culminated in the court ruling that segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby mandating desegregation in public schools.

Affirmative Action

• There remains an ongoing debate regarding the intersection of the Fourteenth Amendment and race-blindness in law.

• Progressive arguments exist for race-conscious policies aimed at addressing historical inequalities that may conflict with the stipulations of the equal protection clause.

• Class focus will be on reinforcing the equal enforcement of criminal law through the Fourteenth Amendment and addressing any disparities that might arise.

Effects of the Fourteenth Amendment

• Established birthright citizenship, ensuring that all individuals born on U.S. soil are citizens, thereby granting them equal protection under the law and guaranteeing due process in states.

Due Process

• Procedural Due Process: mandates that government must follow fair procedures when depriving individuals of life, liberty, or property, ensuring transparency and accountability.

• Substantive Due Process: protects fundamental rights from governmental infringement, emphasizing the essence and scope of personal rights.

• The distinction highlighted here is that procedural focuses on the fairness of procedures, whereas substantive focuses on the underlying essence of rights being protected.

Elements of Procedural Due Process

• Requirements include:

  • Notice of charges

  • The opportunity for a Hearing

  • An Impartial Judge/Jury

  • Access to Effective Counsel

  • Decisions based on the Record

Redefining the Role of States

• The Fourteenth Amendment ensures that constitutional protections for due process are binding upon states, requiring them to adhere to federal standards.

• When the Supreme Court incorporates a Bill of Rights amendment, it extends that protection to the states, affecting state-level laws and practices significantly.

• The Fourteenth Amendment is frequently invoked to assess the constitutionality of state policies, impacting crucial issues such as abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, and interracial marriage.

Notable Supreme Court Cases

1. Mapp v. Ohio (1961): Ruling established that illegally obtained evidence cannot be utilized in state criminal trials, reinforcing Fourth Amendment protections.

2. Miranda v. Arizona (1966): Required that defendants must be informed of their rights prior to being interrogated, establishing critical protections against self-incrimination.

3. Ramos v. Louisiana (2020): Ruled that state criminal juries are required to decide unanimously to convict, impacting the rights of defendants significantly.

Discussion on the Fourteenth Amendment

• Its Due Process Clause has been instrumental in extending federal protections to state practices, making it a key aspect of ongoing rights discourse.

Discussion Questions

• Evaluate the effectiveness of this extension in protecting the rights of the accused.

• Are there lingering inequities present in the application of these laws? Provide examples from contemporary contexts.

• Can the Fourteenth Amendment address these lingering inequities effectively? If not, what alternatives might exist for achieving equity?

Upcoming Review

• Thursday: Exam Review

• Next Week: Exam!