Lecture 6 POLS 207 Outline of Last Lecture Alternate Reasons for the 14th Amendment Part 2 I Was the 14th Amendment meant to correct a counter revolutionary Constitution A Powerful central government B Short term majorities have their hands tied C No word on fundamental rights D Allows slavery E Moral deficiencies II Judicial perspectives on interpretation A Narrower interpretation Race B Broader interpretation Everyone Outline of Current Lecture Alternate Reasons for the 14th Amendment Part 3 I Narrow interpretation of why we have the 14th Amendment A Way for the judiciary to deal with race ethnicity a Plessy v Ferguson b Brown v Board of Education II Broader interpretation for why we have the 14th Amendment A Rights and liberties for everyone not just minorities a Gitlow v New York b Barron v Baltimore Current Lecture At the time of its passage some Republicans thought that the 13th Amendment called for the equal treatment of all free persons This wasn t the case however seeing as how the 13 th was adopted in 1865 and many free persons were not treated equally for a long time after that one of the most obvious examples being women They were free but had no right to vote until 1920 How was the 14th Amendment to be interpreted in terms of racial equality Narrow interpretation 14th is a vehicle for the judiciary to deal with race SCOTUS helped to clarify this in 1896 they ruled that even with the 14 th Amendment s prohibition on states denying racial equality that didn t mean that you couldn t continue to make racial and ethnic distinctions for purposes of school segregation train seating and other uses of public space This case was PLESSY V FERGUSON and it essentially stated that as long as the facilities were equal they could be segregated without violating the 14 th Amendment So starting in 1896 with Plessy v Ferguson there is a judicial regime that says separate but equal is okay and with that decision the Supreme Court gave its blessing to the Jim Crow laws that were beginning to develop particularly in the South In 1954 in Brown vs Board of Education Plessy v Ferguson was OVERTURNED BROWN V BOARD OF EDUCATION WAS A VERY IMPORTANT CASE One of top ten in our history There was tremendous backlash in the South when this decision was handed down There were 21 states in 1954 that either mandated racial segregation or allowed it at the local governments discretion Brown did not hold that the United States Constitution is color blind moreover the Supreme Court has NEVER held this position They have always left room for affirmative action In 1967 with the Loving decision interracial marriages were declared constitutional and protected under the equal protection clause Note In the Brown era it was mostly political liberals who argued for a color blind constitution making no distinction between race and conservatives argued against it By the late 60s early 70s this situation had flipped and was no longer the case Conservatives now argue for a color blind constitution and liberals argue against it This partly has to do with how the different parties feel about affirmative action Affirmative action became a thing around this time Race could be considered when determining employment admission to Universities pay raises etc Racial ethnic gender distinctions are okay if it benefits those minorities For the most part liberals support affirmative action measures and conservatives do not Be watching for an upcoming ruling on the Fisher v University of Texas case currently before the Supreme Court This case deals with the effects affirmative action has on Caucasians Broader judicial perspective on the 14th Amendment Holds that the Amendment is NOT purely race ethnic based It s a vehicle for the court to identify apply a variety of fundamental rights and liberties to everyone not just minorities This broader view is how the law it typically interpreted today This interpretation became the norm in 1925 with Gitlow v New York reversed Barron v Baltimore Gitlow was a seditionist His case reached the Supreme Court where it resulted in the overturning of Barron v Baltimore which basically stated that the National bill of rights did not apply to state governments only the national government Gitlow muses that the Bill of Rights could should might apply to State governments Incorporation refers to incorporating a limitation on state local government via the 14 th Amendment Though the relationship between the states and the national government changed tremendously as a result of the Great Depression and New Deal everyone agrees on this surprisingly enough the Constitution really wasn t amended much during this time It was only amended twice in the thirties in 33 we changed presidential term of office with the 20 th Amendment and with the 21st Amendment we repealed Prohibition But going back a little let s look at the Sixteenth Amendment 1913 The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived without apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or enumeration Why is Federal Income Tax a cash cow for the government 1 It is progressive in its structure As your income rises not only are you paying more tax dollars the percentage of your income that is collected for tax rises as well your tax rate rises 2 If your economy is growing and citizens incomes are rising annually which should be the case in any healthy economy then government tax revenue increases constantly This brings us back to the point that the national government simply has a lot more money at its disposal than any state does and therefore has more power