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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri and filed suit for freedom because in that state slavery was forbidden. After losing his case he brought it to SCOTUS. The majority decision held that aonyone's ancestors who were sold into slavery could not be an American citizen. Futhermore, it was ruled that slaves were property under the 5th amendment and any law that would deprive slave owners that property was unconstitutional. -
13th Amendment
The 13th amenments is the first of the civil war amendments and is said to have abolished slavery. While this, for the most part, is accurate it doesn't show the whole story. An exception was placed right in plain sight that says, "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" meaning that the government can create a legal system of slavery within the criminal justice system. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment was the second of the civil war amendments and states that no state can make any law that revokes the privileges or immuniteis of any United States citizen. In short, this amendment extends the rights and liberties in the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people and defended citizens from state governments. -
15th Amendment
The 15th amendment is the last of the Civil War amendments and very simply grants African American men the right to vote. There, however, are two important things to keep in mind with this amendment. The first being that this did not guarentee them the availability to vote (oftentimes they were harrassed and things like literacy tests were very popular) and the second being that women and especially women of color were not granted the right to vote until much later. -
Plessy v. Fergunson
This SCOTUS decision was very influential for people of color and their fight for equal rights in America. This case ruled that segregation laws did NOT violate the Constitution, depending on the fact that the facilities and spaces for each race was equal in quality. The last portion of the ruling went on to create the "seperate but equal" doctrine. -
Voter ID Laws
The first voter ID law was adopted by South Carolina in 1950 and set a precedent for almost every state to follow. After the SCOTUS case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board occured in 2008 several states slowly started adopting or replacing their existing voter ID laws. All voter ID laws provide an alternative means of voting for people who lack acceptable identification. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In this historically landmark case argued that state-sanctioned segregation of public school was a violation of the 14th amendment, meaning it was unconstitutional. The SCOTUS's decision to agree with this claim marked the end of the "seeperate but equal" era set roughly 60 years prior. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendment is known for the elimination of poll taxes and applies specifically to both federal and state governments. This amendment prohbits a poll tax or any other kind of tax that would place a condition on the ability for someone to vote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act was considered a landmark law for both the civil rights movement and those fighting for equality in the workplace. The law states that discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin is completely prohibited. This law also included the inability to discriminate based on sex or race in the hiring, firing, or promoting process. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This landmark law removed racially motivated restrictions on voting. Mostly this act was put in place to enforce the 15th amendment and ensured the right to vote for all African Americans. Some say that this was the most important voting law to date. -
Affirmative Action
In 1965 Lydon B. Johnson issued an exceutive order that required government employers to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed...without regard to race, color..." meaning that there was a new goal to have diverse workplaces. This topic continues all the way to today and has become highly controversial. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)was first introduced in 1923 and passed both chambers of Congressin 1972 but at the time, Congress required 3/4s of the states to ratifiy amendments within 7 years, although there is no deadline imposed for amendments in the Constitutions. The state of this amendment is still up for debate, even today. -
Title IX
The name Title IX is the common name for a federal civil rights law for the USA and was apart of the Education Amendments in 1972. This law prohibits sex-based discrimination in any schools or educational programs recieving funds from the federal government. This has recently been in the news specifically for female athletes and sporting events. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
In this case a man named Bakke was denied from the University of California and determined it was because of their pre-saved spots for minorities and decided to sue. The SCOTUS decided tht these admission criterias were in violation of the Equal Protection Clause as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
This SCOTUS case considered whether a person had a Constitutional right to have homosexual sex in the private of their home. Prior to this case, Geogia had passed a statute criminalizing this and a man named Hardwick was arrested and sued. The court ended up ruling that the right to privacy did not extend to this situation and therefore was not a fundamental right. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
This act was enacted in 1990 and has similar undertones to the Civil Rights Act but instead adresses and outlaws discrimination based on dissability. -
Shelby County v. Holder
The SCOTUS held that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional and imposed burdens that are no longer helpful to the current conditions of the voting districts that were discussed. It was also delared that Section 5 prohibited eligible districs from creating changes to their election laws and procedures with getting official authorization. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
In this landmark case, the SCOTUS held that state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th amendment. The right to marry was called a fundamental right by Justice Anthony Kennedy who wrote the majority opinion for this case.