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Dred Scott v Sanford
Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri and lived in Illinois for a bit, which was a free state. He sued for his freedom, but the court ruled 7-2 that he was to be considered property, and that slaves and relatives of slaves were not citizens. Because he was not a citizen he couldn't sue anyone. -
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery in the United States. -
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to freed slaves and relatives to freed slaves. It also had the due process clause which required state and local governments to comply with the Bill of Rights. -
15th Amendment
Prohibits voting discrimination based off race or "previous servitude." Kind of didn't work out with the whole Jim Crow thing. -
Poll Taxes
A fee payed to the government to be registered to vote. They were disproportionally effecting racial minorities and therefore outlawed. An interesting fact is that they made up most of the state revenue in the colonial times. -
White Primaries
Primaries held by Southern Democrats that only allowed white people to participate. -
Plessy v Ferguson
Allowed for racial segregation in public buildings as long as the facilities were separate but equal. -
19th Amendment
Prohibits denying the right to vote based off sex. -
Brown v Board of Education
Unanimous supreme court decision ruling that separate but equal was not equal. This legally outlawed segregation in public buildings but didn't give a plan to actually end segregation. -
24th Amendment
Prohibits the practice of poll taxes that were imposed to limit African American votes in elections. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibits discrimination in schools and workplaces based off race, gender, religion, or sex. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Outlaws test meant to disenfranchise minorities, such as literacy test. It also required historically racist states to have their changes in voting procedures reviewed by Congress. The second part was removed in 2011. -
Reed v Reed
Parents were arguing who got their dead son's estate and ruled Idaho's law preferring men in these situations unconstitutional citing the 14th amendment. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Proposed and nearly ratified amendment that would make men and women legally equal. Ironically, most opposition came from women concerned about loosing women labor protection, loosing divorce laws favoring women, and being drafted into the military. -
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
The ruling upheld affirmative action, meaning schools and jobs could still take race into account, but outlawed the practice of meeting specific race quotas. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
Prohibits discrimination based off disabilities. Requires public buildings to be accessible to disabled people. -
Affirmative Action
Laws that attempt to make society more equal by allowing businesses and schools to take race and gender into consideration when someone is applying. While can they choose a minority over a white person with the purpose to make their institution more diverse, they cannot set quotas. -
Bowers v Hardwick
The court decision upheld a sodomy law in Georgia that was meant to prevent consenting adults from having gay sex in private. The ruling was later overturned in 2003. -
Lawrence v Texas
Using the 'right to privacy,' the Supreme Court deemed any laws prohibiting gay sex unconstitutional. The court made the decision based off of that straight people didn't have the government interfering with their privacy, so why should gay people. -
Obergefell v Hodges
Referencing the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses, the Supreme court ruled any law in states preventing gay people from getting married was unconstitutional.
