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Dred Scott v. Stanford
Dred Scott was enslaved in Missouri. He lived in Illinois for 10 years before returning to Missouri. Illinois was above the Missouri Compromise, so slavery there was illegal. Dred Scott took this to the Supreme Court and argued that he should be a free citizen of America because he lived in a state where slavery was illegal. On March 6, 1857, in a 7 to 2 decision, the Supreme Court decided that he should not have his freedom according to the 5th Amendment. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment stated that slavery in the United States was unconstitutional and therefore illegal. It was finally ratified on December 6, 1865 after Lincoln approved the proposal of the new Amendment from Congress, which was proposed due to the end of the Civil War where the Union claimed victory. All enslaved individuals were freed. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was created in an effort to protect the rights of citizens of states if states were to attempt to create a law infringing on their civil rights & liberties. It introduced the idea of due process, which ensures that all individuals in the United States are guaranteed a fair process that protects their rights in regards to the law. The amendment was added to secure the rights of citizens from the states. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment granted the right to vote for all men, regardless of race. It prohibited disenfranchisement based on skin color after several attempts were made by states to prevent people of color from voting in the United States, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court ruled that racial discrimination in facilities such as schools and water drinking fountains was constitutional, and segregation was not protected by the Constitution. After Plessy boarded a segregated train and was told to move to the black section despite only being 1/8th African American. Louisiana had a law that set the standard of “separate but equal” for races of cars. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in the US and prohibited the blacklisting someone from voting due to their sex. Since the early 1800’s, women were not granted suffrage and had been protesting against this law. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Marked that segregated schools based on race was unconstitutional. This case also superseded the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed racial segregation for almost 100 years. Brown, a black man, was refused his child’s admission in a white school in Topeka, Kansas. The court ruled in favor of Brown 9-0, but for years to follow, many school districts did not change their methods of segregating schools. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal at voting booths. Poll taxes were originally intended to prevent African Americans from voting, as often times they were unable to afford the tax. However, it received heavy criticism during the 1930s. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
It bans discrimination against race, religion, nationality, or sex when hiring workers or admitting people into official institutions. The act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson to put an end to the Jim Crow Laws. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Signed by President Lyndon Johnson. It banned all forms of discrimination and filtering of African Americans from voting in southern states after they lost the Civil War. These tests included the literacy test, which denied all voters that could not read, and poll taxes, which denied all voters that could not pay a fine for voting. All of these methods were considered unconstitutional after the Civil War. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is when a facility intentional includes marginalized in order to compensate for the past discrimination against them. Oftentimes, colleges and jobs will hire a marginalized individual over a non-marginalized individual if they both have the same qualifications. The legality of affirmative action is heavily debated, as some claim that it is reversing the effects of equality. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment proposed that national law equally secure the rights of individuals regardless of sex. It strictly prohibited exclusionary treatment of one sex by national law. Legal matters, such as property and divorce, would be impacted by this proposal and guarantee that women receive the same treatment as men when solving these matters. For 50 years, it would be debated in Congress before finally being passed. -
Title IX
Title IX, being a part of the Education Amendments of 1972, prohibited federally funded schools from creating programs that are unequally represented by sex. Written by Senator Birch Bayh, it was intended to secure that schools provide programs (like sports and clubs) that did not separate boys and girls. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Debated if affirmative action (purposefully hiring or admitting an individual due to their race, along with other qualifications) was constitutional. Bakke made an argument about how he was rejected from medical school. However, even though he was qualified, the school permitted 16 back students out of every 100 students to be admitted. While the Supreme Court’s decision was extremely varied in opinion, Bakke eventually won and was admitted into his school. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers was charged in Georgia for acting in homosexual sodomy, which was against Georgia law at the time. Bowers took it to the Supreme Court, where they ruled in a 5-4 ruling that the Consitution did not protect sexual rights. Therefore, Georgia was allowed to continue banning practices they saw immoral. This decision was later overturned in 2003. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act banned the exclusion and discrimination of those with disabilities from federally funded facilities, like jobs and universities. It adds on to the list of acts passed in order to include all Americans in activities that, if exclusionary, could hinder the livelihood of minorities. -
Voter ID Laws
Most states require that ID is provided when voting in order to prevent voter fraud. Those that agree argue that it would majorly decrease crime committed around the election. Those against the laws argue that gaining an ID is an unnecessary expense, and that it restricts all citizens rights to vote. They were first introduced in South Carolina in 2011. -
Shelby County v. Holder
In Sections 4(b) and 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, requirements for states to change their voting laws were written. They had been used for the past 40 years, and renewed every 5. Shelby County, Alabama sued, arguing that those provisions of the Constitution were outdated. The Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 ruling that they were indeed outdated and void. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Obergefell v. Hodges was a case that discussed the legality of same-sex marriage. Over the course of 3 years, citizens across multiple states took state laws that prohibited same-sex marriage to the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is protected under due process and the equality protection clause