Case Summary

On October 15, 1872, Virginia Minor applied to register to vote in Missouri. The registrar, Reese Happersett, turned down the application, because the Missouri state constitution read: "Every male citizen of the United States shall be entitled to vote." Mrs. Minor sued in Missouri state court, claiming her rights were violated on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question(s)

Does the Fourteenth Amendment protect the voting rights of women?

Answer(s)

No. In a unanimous opinion the court held that while women were citizens of the United States, and were, even prior to the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, voting rights were not a "necessary privilege and immunity" to which all citizens are entitled.

See: 88 U.S. 162 (Wall.)

Case Summary

The Oklahoma Constitution, while appearing to treat all voters equally, allowed an exemption to the literacy requirement for those voters whose grandfathers had either been eligible to vote prior to January 1, 1866 or were then a resident of "some foreign nation," or were soldiers. It was an exemption that favored white voters while it disfranchised black voters, most of whose grandfathers had been slaves and therefore unable to vote before 1866.

Question(s)

Are these kinds of exemptions to the literacy requirements a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment?

Answer(s)

Yes. Justice Edward White went on to strike down the grandfather clause. He saw the Oklahoma law for what it was--a bald-faced attempt to disenfranchise blacks. Justice White wrote that the act "inherently brings" discrimination based on race "into existence since it is based purely on a period of time before the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment and makes that period the controlling and dominant test of the right of suffrage.

See: 238 U.S. 347 (1915)

Case Summary

In June 1924, the Child Labor Amendment passed both houses of Congress. Under Article V of the Constitution, three-fourths of state legislatures must ratify an amendment passed by Congress before it becomes part of the Constitution. Initially, the Kansas state legislature rejected the amendment but, in January 1937, it was reintroduced before the state senate. Of forty state senators, twenty voted for the amendment and twenty against it. Under Kansas law this left the deciding vote to the lieutenant governor in his capacity as presiding officer of the senate, who voted in favor of passage. After subsequent passage by the Kansas state house, Rolla W. Coleman, a state senator and twenty-three other members of the Kansas legislature filed suit against Clarence W. Miller, the secretary of the state senate, challenging the constitutionality of Kansas's ratification process. Further, they claimed that by 1937, thirteen years after Congress initially proposed it, the amendment had "lost vitality" and could no longer be considered.

Question(s)

Did the participation of the lieutenant governor, the prior rejection by the Kansas state legislature, or the length of time between the proposal and ratification of the Child Labor Amendment conflict with the ratification process laid out by Article V of the U.S. Constitution?

Answer(s)

The Court's 7-2 decision addressed primarily the prior rejection and the length of time between proposal and ratification, and found this question nonjusticiable, meaning it was not the function of the Court to decide the matter. The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, described the question as inherently political, analogous to its 1849 decision in Luther v. Borden, and noted that no legal criteria exists for its determination. Thus, the Court reasoned, Congress alone has authority to decide. The Court also chose not to address the participation of the lieutenant governor, describing itself as "equally divided" on the matter.

See: Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433 (1939)

Case Summary

Black children were denied admission to public schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to the races. The white and black schools approached equality in terms of buildings, curricula, qualifications, and teacher salaries. This case was decided together with Briggs v. Elliott and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County.

Question(s)

Does the segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprive the minority children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment?

Answer(s)

Yes. Despite the equalization of the schools by "objective" factors, intangible issues foster and maintain inequality. Racial segregation in public education has a detrimental effect on minority children because it is interpreted as a sign of inferiority. The long-held doctrine that separate facilities were permissible provided they were equal was rejected. Separate but equal is inherently unequal in the context of public education. The unanimous opinion sounded the death-knell for all forms of state-maintained racial separation.

See: Brown v. Board of Education (I), 347 U.S. 483 (1954)

Case Summary

After its decision in Brown I which declared racial discrimination in public education unconstitutional, the Court convened to issue the directives which would help to implement its newly announced Constitutional principle. Given the embedded nature of racial discrimination in public schools and the diverse circumstances under which it had been practiced, the Court requested further argument on the issue of relief.

Question(s)

What means should be used to implement the principles announced in Brown I?

Answer(s)

The Court held that the problems identified in Brown I required varied local solutions. Chief Justice Warren conferred much responsibility on local school authorities and the courts which originally heard school segregation cases. They were to implement the principles which the Supreme Court embraced in its first Brown decision. Warren urged localities to act on the new principles promptly and to move toward full compliance with them "with all deliberate speed."

See: Brown v. Board of Education (II), 349 U.S. 294 (1955)

Case Summary

Annie E. Harper, a resident of Virginia, filed suit alleging that the state's poll tax was unconstitutional. After a three-judge district court dismissed the complaint, the case went to the Supreme Court. This case was decided together with Butts v. Harrison.

Question(s)

Did the Virginia poll tax violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Answer(s)

In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court held that making voter affluence an electoral standard violated the Equal Protection Clause. The Court found that wealth or fee-paying had no relation to voting qualifications. The Court also noted that the Equal Protection Clause was not "shackled to the political theory of a particular era" and that notions of what constituted equal treatment under the clause were subject to change.

See: The Oyez Project, Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966)

Case Summary

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prevented states from using a "test or device" (such as literacy tests) to deny citizens the right to vote. Federal examiners, under the attorney general's jurisdiction, were empowered to intervene to investigate election irregularities.

Question(s)

Did the act violate the states' rights to implement and control elections?

Answer(s)

No: The Court upheld the law. Noting that the enforcement clause of the Fifteenth Amendment gave Congress "full remedial powers" to prevent racial discrimination in voting, the act was a "legitimate response" to the "insidious and pervasive evil" which had denied blacks the right to vote since the Fifteenth Amendment's adoption in 1870.

See: South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301 (1966)

Case Summary

A 1965 amendment to New York's education law required public school boards to lend textbooks to elementary and secondary school students enrolled in private and parochial schools. The board of education for New York Central School District No. 1, contending that the law violated the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment, filed suit against James Allen, Commissioner of Education, requesting a declaratory injunction to prevent enforcement of the statute. The trial court agreed with the board and found the statute unconstitutional. The appellate division reversed the ruling, finding that the boards lacked standing. On appeal, the court of appeals ruled the boards did have standing, but also found that, because the law's purpose was to benefit all students regardless of the type of school they attended, the law did not violate the First Amendment.

Question(s)

Do the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses forbid New York from requiring that public school boards loan textbooks to parochial school students without cost?

Answer(s)

No. In a 6-3 opinion authored by Justice Byron R. White, the Court applied the test constructed in Abington School District v. Schempp and found that, because the stated legislative purpose and necessary effects of the statute did not advance any one religion or religion in general, the law did not violate the First Amendment. Because the books were given to the students, rather than the parochial schools themselves, the Court reasoned, "the financial benefit is to parents and children, not schools."

See: Board of Education v. Allen, 392 U.S. 236 (1968)

Case Summary

The Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970 made changes to voter eligibility. Oregon, Texas, and Idaho brought suit in the Supreme Court against the United States and attorney general John Mitchell to challenge the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970. They claimed that only the states, and not Congress, have the authority to establish qualification rules for voters in state and local elections.

Question(s)

Can the Federal Government make laws respecting local and state elections?

Answer(s)

For the most part, no. The Supreme Court held, with considerable disagreement, that the federal 18-year-old voting age requirement is valid for national elections, but not for state or local elections. Justice Hugo Black announced the Court's judgment in an opinion that expressed his own views. Four justices agreed with Justice Black that the Constitution gives Congress broad powers to regulate federal elections. These four justices, but not Justice Black, thought Congress also could do so in State elections. They argued that the states have no legitimate interest in excluding 18 to 21-year-old voters, and that the Equal Protection Clause supports the right of people in this age group to vote. Four other justices agreed with Justice Black that Congress could not regulate the minimum age in State and local elections. These justices thought Congress also lacked the power to set the voting age for federal elections. They argued that under the Constitution, only the states have the right to set voter qualifications. All justices agreed that Congress can prohibit the use of literacy tests or other requirements that discriminate against voters based on their race in all elections. In upholding the ban on literacy tests, the Court accepted Congress's findings that the tests tended to disqualify a disproportionate number of minority voters.

See: The Oyez Project, Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 US 112 (1970)

Case Summary

After the Supreme Court's decision in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education, little progress had been made in desegregating public schools. One example was the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, system in which approximately 14,000 black students attended schools that were either totally black or more than 99 percent black. Lower courts had experimented with a number of possible solutions when the case reached the Supreme Court.

Question(s)

Were federal courts constitutionally authorized to oversee and produce remedies for state-imposed segregation?

Answer(s)

Yes. In a unanimous decision, the Court held that once violations of previous mandates directed at desegregating schools had occurred, the scope of district courts' equitable powers to remedy past wrongs were broad and flexible. The Court ruled that 1) remedial plans were to be judged by their effectiveness, and the use of mathematical ratios or quotas were legitimate "starting points" for solutions; 2) predominantly or exclusively black schools required close scrutiny by courts; 3) non-contiguous attendance zones, as interim corrective measures, were within the courts' remedial powers; and 4) no rigid guidelines could be established concerning busing of students to particular schools.

See: The Oyez Project, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Ed., 402 U.S. 1 (1971)

Case Summary

After being dismissed from her job at a Meritor Savings Bank, Mechelle Vinson sued Sidney Taylor, bank's vice president. Vinson charged that she had constantly been subjected to sexual harassment by Taylor during her four years at the bank. She argued such harassment created a "hostile working environment" and was covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Vinson sought injunctive relief along with compensatory and punitive damages against Taylor and the bank.

Question(s)

Did the Civil Rights Act prohibit the creation of a "hostile environment," or was it limited to tangible economic discrimination in the workplace?

Answer(s)

Yes: The Court held that the language of Title VII was "not limited to 'economic' or 'tangible' discrimination," finding that Congress intended "'to strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women' in employment..." The Court noted that guidelines issued by the EEOC specified that sexual harassment leading to noneconomic injury was a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII. The Court recognized that plaintiffs could establish violations of the act "by proving that discrimination based on sex has created a hostile or abusive work environment." The Court declined to rule on the degree to which businesses could be liable for the conduct of specific employees.

See: The Oyez Project, Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986)

Case Summary

As a result of a lawsuit in 1974, the Jefferson County Personnel Board in Birmingham, Alabama, entered into consent decrees that included hiring blacks as firefighters and for promoting them. The decrees were approved by a federal district court. Years later, Robert K. Wilks, a white firefighter, challenged the decrees and alleged that whites were being denied promotions in favor of less qualified blacks. Wilks argued that such practices violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The personnel board agreed that it was making race-conscious decisions but argued it was doing so pursuant to the original decrees. The Court combined arguments in two companion cases: Personnel Board v. Wilks and Arrington v. Wilks.

Question(s)

Did Wilks and other white firefighters have a constitutional right to challenge the previously established decrees?

Answer(s)

Yes. In a 5-to-4 decision, the Court held that because "a person cannot be deprived of his legal rights in a proceeding to which he is not a party," the white firefighters were not precluded from challenging employment decisions taken pursuant to the consent decrees. The Court argued that "[t]he parties to a lawsuit presumably know better than anyone else the nature and scope of relief sought in the action" and that they were better suited to intervene when their rights were immediately threatened. Conversely, the Court noted that "[n]o one can seriously contend that an employer might successfully defend against a Title VII claim by one group of employees on the ground that its actions were required by an earlier decree entered in a suit brought against it by another, if the later group did not have adequate notice or knowledge of the earlier suit."

See: Martin v. Wilks, 490 U.S. 755 (1989)

Case Summary

Brenda Patterson, a black woman, worked as a teller for McLean Credit Union for ten years until she was laid off. She then alleged that McLean had harassed her, failed to promote her, and ultimately fired her because of her race. She claimed in federal district court that this violated 42 U.S.C. 1981, which the Supreme Court's ruling in Runyon v. McCrary interpreted to prohibit racial discrimination in the ""making and enforcing of contracts."" The court declared that Section 1981 did not cover racial harassment suits, and instructed the jury to only consider her lack of promotions and firing. Patterson lost. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit court of appeals ruled that Section 1981 only applied to matters relating to contracts and therefore did not include harassment suits. The Supreme Court held arguments and surmised that its decision would depend on whether it maintained the interpretation of Section 1981 it reached in Runyon v. McCrary. The Court scheduled re-argument to focus on whether it should offer a broader interpretation of Section 1981 than that reached in Runyon.

Question(s)

Can a victim of workplace racial harassment file suit under 42 U.S.C. 1981? In order for an employee bypassed for promotion to charge racial discrimination under 42 U.S.C. 1981, must the bypassed employee show that the employees promoted instead had lesser qualifications?

Answer(s)

No. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy delivered the opinion for a 5-4 court. The Court affirmed its interpretation of Runyon v. McCrary allowing only contract-related suits under Section 1981. The Runyon interpretation of Section 1981 neither conflicts with other laws against racial harassment nor has proved unworkable as precedent. Regarding the racial harassment suit, the Court deemed that ""the conduct alleged is postformation conduct by the employer relating to the terms and conditions of continuing employment, which is actionable only under the more expansive reach of Title VII."" Since workplace harassment does not affect contracts, Section 1981 does not apply. Regarding promotions, the Court rejected the trial court's demand for proof that less qualified employees were promoted. Instead, Patterson only needed to prove that ""she applied for and was qualified for an available position, that she was rejected, and that the employer then either continued to seek applicants for the position...or filled the position with a white employee."" When following this procedure, Section 1981 did apply to discriminatory promotion suits.

See: Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164 (1989)

Case Summary

Wards Cove Packing Co. employed primarily nonwhite workers for unskilled seasonal jobs canning fish. A group of nonwhite workers filed suit in federal district court alleging that Wards Cove practiced discriminatory hiring in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As evidence, the group compared the high percentage of nonwhites in unskilled work with the high percentage of whites in skilled work. The district court rejected this claim because it found that Wards received unskilled workers through a hiring agency that enrolled primarily nonwhites. The ninth circuit court reversed the decision. It held that Wards had the burden of proof to show that its hiring practices were not discriminatory after the claimants presented evidence of racial disparity.

Question(s)

Once employees present evidence of racial disparity among different classes of jobs, does the employer have to justify this disparity as a "business necessity" in order to avoid a "disparate impact" lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer(s)

No. Justice Byron R. White delivered the opinion for a 5-4 court. The fact that one class of jobs at a firm has a higher percentage of nonwhites than another class does not by itself prove that the firm practices discriminatory hiring. Comparisons of race percentages among different job classes could wrongfully blame the employer, since what appears to show racial discrimination could in reality reflect the racial differences that exist in the labor market at large. Instead, the Court held that "the proper comparison is generally between the racial composition of the at-issue jobs and the racial composition of the qualified population in the relevant labor market." If a substantial difference is found, then the claimants must show that it is the result of a hiring practice of the employer.

See: Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, 490 U.S. 642 (1989)

Case Summary

The Seattle School District allowed students to apply to any high school in the district. Since certain schools often became oversubscribed when too many students chose them as their first choice, the District used a system of tiebreakers to decide which students would be admitted to the popular schools. The second most important tiebreaker was a racial factor intended to maintain racial diversity. If the racial demographics of any school's student body deviated by more than a predetermined percentage from those of Seattle's total student population (approximately 40% white and 60% non-white), the racial tiebreaker went into effect. At a particular school either whites or non-whites could be favored for admission depending on which race would bring the racial balance closer to the goal. A non-profit group, Parents Involved in Community Schools (Parents), sued the district, arguing that the racial tiebreaker violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Washington state law. A federal district court dismissed the suit, upholding the tiebreaker. On appeal, a three-judge panel on the ninth circuit court of appeals reversed the decision. Under the Supreme Court's precedents on racial classification in higher education, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, race-based classifications must be directed toward a "compelling government interest" and must be "narrowly tailored" to that interest. Applying these precedents to K-12 education, the circuit court found that the tiebreaker scheme was not narrowly tailored. The district then petitioned for an "en banc" ruling by a larger panel of 11 ninth circuit judges. The panel came to the opposite conclusion and upheld the tiebreaker. The majority ruled that the district had a compelling interest in maintaining racial diversity. Applying a test from Grutter, the circuit court also ruled that the tiebreaker plan was narrowly tailored, because 1) the district did not employ quotas, 2) the district had considered race-neutral alternatives, 3) the plan caused no undue harm to races, and 4) the plan had an ending point.

Question(s)

1) Do the decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger apply to public high school students? 2) Is racial diversity a compelling interest that can justify the use of race in selecting students for admission to public high schools? 3) Does a school district that normally permits a student to attend the high school of her choice violate the Equal Protection Clause by denying the student admission to her chosen school because of her race in an effort to achieve a desired r

Answer(s)

No. No. Yes. By a 5-4 vote, the Court applied a "strict scrutiny" framework and found the district's racial tiebreaker plan unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the plurality opinion that "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." The Court acknowledged that it had previously held that racial diversity can be a compelling government interest in university admissions, but it ruled that "the present cases are not governed by Grutter." Unlike the cases pertaining to higher education, the district's plan involved no individualized consideration of students, and it employed a very limited notion of diversity ("white" and "non-white"). The district's goal of preventing racial imbalance did not meet the Court's standards for a constitutionally legitimate use of race: "Racial balancing is not transformed from 'patently unconstitutional' to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it 'racial diversity.'" The plans also lacked the narrow tailoring that is necessary for race-conscious programs. The Court held that the district's tiebreaker plan was actually targeted toward demographic goals and not toward any demonstrable educational benefit from racial diversity. The district also failed to show that its objectives could not have been met with non-race-conscious means. In a separate opinion concurring in the judgment, Justice Kennedy agreed that the district's use of race was unconstitutional but stressed that public schools may sometimes consider race to ensure equal educational opportunity.

See: The Oyez Project, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701 (2007)

Alabama's Literacy Test in 1965. Such tests were used as a requirement to register to vote until restrictions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made them all but illegal. They were used to deny voting rights primarily to African Americans, who had limited access to quality education.

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Days after the violent episode that erupted during second march from Selma to Montgomery, President Johnson sought help from the full Congress to pass a voting rights bill, which would be quickly passed as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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From Wikipedia: The Letter from Birmingham Jail or Letter from Birmingham City Jail, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr., written from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in the Birmingham campaign, a planned non-violent protest against racial segregation by Birmingham's city government and downtown retailers. King's letter is a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963, titled "A Call For Unity". The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets. King responded that without nonviolent forceful direct actions such as his, true civil rights could never be achieved.

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From Wikipedia: Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government) is an essay by Henry David Thoreau first published in 1849. It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid letting the government make them the agents of injustice. Further, it argues against respect for laws over justice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American war.

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