Chapter 5 Civil Rights Rights and Liberties cid 2 Civil Rights Areas where the government must take action to insure fair and effective procedures Active involvement ensuring you can exercise your rights Takes one to two days cid 2 Civil Liberties Areas where the government must not tread or where government infringement must have very clear and narrow limits Passive They do not interfere and stay away from your freedoms only regulate specific things Primarily found in the Bill of Rights are civil liberties Takes a longer amount of time Liberty freedom and it is freedom from government intervention Liberties are cid 2 First Amendment Religion Speech Press Assembly cid 2 Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms cid 2 Criminal Rights 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th cid 2 Privacy Contraception Abortion Right to Die Gay Rights cid 2 Major Difference Government involvement one is active and one is passive Civil Rights cid 2 Origins of Civil Rights in America Bill of Rights happened right after the signing in the beginning of us becoming a constitutional government Civil Rights differ because they came during the civil war Dred Scott v Sanford 1857 cid 2 Major precursor to civil war cid 2 Dred Scott was a former slave that moved to a free state cid 2 Old owner wanted to move back to a slave state and make him a slave again cid 2 Supreme court says he does have to go and slaves are not people they are property cid 2 Therefore they are not guaranteed any constitutional rights cid 2 Courts lost almost all of public prestige country doesn t see them as a legitimate institution neither does Lincoln cid 2 Imp there are no civil rights before the civil war cid 2 Civil War Amendments 13th Amendment Abolished Slavery 14th Amendment Grants citizenship must be born or naturalized in the U S to be a citizen Equal protection of the law for everyone who is a citizen 15th Amendment Extends voting no person will be denied the right to vote based on race and other qualifications excludes women 19th Amendment 1919 ratified in 1920 Women right to vote 24th Amendment eliminated the poll tax had to pay to vote tried to keep African Americans from voting cid 2 Civil Rights Post Reconstruction 26th amendment Change voting age to at most 18 can be lower elsewhere Blacks constitutionally were allowed to vote but in practice they were not Reconstruction building up of the civil war North won the war and wanted to keep the Union together south doesn t like this obviously Compromise of 1877 cid 2 Or the Corrupt Bargain who s going to get electoral votes cid 2 South said they would give Rutherford b Hayes electoral votes if he immediately ended reconstruction Jim Crow Laws cid 2 Preventing African Americans from voting cid 2 Procedural Limitations cid 2 Poll Tax Literacy Tests cid 2 Also things about curfews and such cid 2 Grandfather clause if your grandfather was allowed to vote so are you helped white people Civil Rights Act of 1875 cid 2 First attempt congress makes to federally enforce laws cid 2 Supreme Court struck it down it s unconstitutional the discriminatory acts were by private business cid 2 There was no popular view as to enforcing these laws Plessy v Ferguson 1896 Imp Set a precedent of separate but equal cid 2 cid 2 Railcars in Louisiana cid 2 Homer Plessy was 1 16th black and got on the white car and was arrested cid 2 Supreme Court upheld this because they said it s not wrong to separate it is unnatural to force them together cid 2 NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Formed in 1909 built up support in the North Demonstrations and Peaceful Organization cid 2 Nonviolent protests Legal Defense Fund cid 2 Started in the 20s but didn t start litigating until the 30s cid 2 They fund cases to challenge these laws good lawyers Brown v Board of Education cid 2 Topeka Kansas 1954 Imp Set precedent that Separate is inherently unequal overturned cid 2 Plessy v Ferguson cid 2 School facilities were not similar at all even if it was practice of separating makes it unequal cid 2 Only order is that you must desegregate schools in Topeka Kansas cid 2 All states took a while to enforce this because they were not forced to cid 2 Civil Rights Acts Had actual enforcing mechanisms racial practices Civil Rights Act of 1964 cid 2 Don t get funds if you re not desegregated cid 2 They can be sued directly by the government and take money cid 2 you are involved in interstate commerce then you can be regulated Interstate commerce clause how the government regulates states if Voting Rights Act of 1965 cid 2 Section 5 If you had less than a certain percentage of African American turnout you automatically must change voting laws and you fall into a specific classification and cannot regulate them anymore in the future without approval cid 2 Cannot set laws in a discriminatory manner so they were trying to prevent that cid 2 Really effective in Georgia first to overturn Jim crow and then to increase black vote Fair Housing Act of 1968 cid 2 People didn t rent to others because of their race cid 2 Designed to end discriminatory housing practice but no enforcement mechanisms Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 cid 2 Added the enforcement practices cid 2 Other Civil Rights ERA Equal Rights Amendment cid 2 outlaws discrimination based on gender cid 2 Never ratified so it has no ability to protect against racial discrimination cid 2 Now it s gone there is no amendment can still discriminate Title IX 9 1972 Education Act cid 2 Equal support for men and women sports cid 2 Equal treatment for male and female athletes Title VII 7 Civil Rights Act of 1964 cid 2 Deals with sexual harassment in the workplace Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 cid 2 Supposed to be allowed equal access to facilities cid 2 Can t fire someone for being disabled 1967 Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act cid 2 Can t be fired because of their age only if not physically able Affirmative Action cid 2 Preferential treatment racially based usually in admission processes to college cid 2 Says race can be a factor but not the primary factor if there are equal qualifications then you use race cid 2 Original reason was so that minorities wouldn t be denied education cid 2 Types of Discrimination in Court Racial based discrimination is most protected by the law gets heightened scrutiny person being accused of discrimination the entire burden of proof is upon them They have to prove they are not discrimination proof because you have to prove its