CHAPTER 6

• Powers or privileges guaranteed to individuals and protected from arbitrary removal at the hands of government or individuals

• When the gov treats classes of people differently the treatment must be reasonable not arbitrary

• Suspect classifications – the questionable way of classifying people

• Subject to strict scrutiny• “Similarly situated”

– A state cannot set different ages at which men and women legally become adults

– A law that punishes males but not females for statutory rape is permissible; men and women are not “similarly situated” w/ respect to sexual relations

– Selective Service – men have to register for the draft but women don’t

14th AMENDMENT

• EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE• Has become the vehicle for more

expansive Constitutional interpretations

• upheld constitutionality of slavery and forbade Congress from banning it in the new states

• 13th – no involuntary servitude• 14th – granted citizenship• 15th – extended suffrage to African

Americans

• Southern states circumvented the law

• Instituted:– Literacy tests– White primary– Poll taxes– Grandfather clause– Denying access

• SCOTUS endorsed “separate but equal” making segregation legal

• Formed in 1909• Goal: win legal battles w/o having to

change public opinion or form broad political alliances

• Targeted school segregation• For education to be equal, it had to be

equally available

• Campaign in the courts– Prove schools are separate; NOT equal– Inherently unconstitutional

• CJ Earl Warren:– “in the field of public education the doctrine of

‘separate but equal’ has no place” because “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”

• De jure – by law• De facto – in practice

• The decision led to the widespread use of busing to end segregation by federal judges in the South.

• Events led to women’s rights– 1848 – Seneca Falls– 1920 – 19th Amendment– WWII – entrance into workforce– 1963 – Equal Pay Act– 1963 – Feminine Mystique– 1964 – Civil Rights Act – 1973 – Roe v. Wade

• "the unseen, yet unbreakable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements."

• “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”

• NEVER PASSED!

• Bowers v. Hardwick – SC upheld state sodomy laws

• Lawrence v. Texas – overturned• DOMA – no state would have to give

legal status to same-sex marriage in another state

• DADT overturned

BENEFITS• Favored immigration status, hospital visitation

rights, certain tax exemptions, the right to adopt a partner’s child, extension of health and dental insurance coverage

• Tradition – must preserve the vital institution of marriage that is designed to ensure a society’s future through raising children

• Morally wrong• Contribute to the breakdown of American family culture

= social problems like violent crime and teen pregnancy

• Attempts to prevent discrimination by forcing employers and universities to hire a certain percentage of minority groups or to give them compensatory preferential treatment

• Such programs include:– Recruitment– Preferential treatment– Quotas for women, minorities, and people

with disabilities in education– Employment– Awarding of government contracts

• Upheld affirmative action but ruled against the practice of setting aside quota spots for particular groups