Chapter 14 Equal Justice under the Law

Objectives To examine the role of government in providing equal rights To examine equal protection under the laws To describe the life and death of Jim Crow in education To review barriers to voting To examine racial and sexual barriers to public accommodations, jobs, and homes To review our constitutional rights of life, liberty, and property To analyze how the Constitution protects citizenship To examine constitutional protections of property To inquire into arbitrary arrest, questioning, and imprisonment To evaluate our system of justice

Vocabulary Affirmative Action Bakke Case Boat People Brown v. Board of Education Civil Rights Act of 1964 Class Action Suit Community Policing De Facto Segregation De Jure Segregation Double Jeopardy Dual Citizenship Eminent Domain Exclusionary Rule Indictment Jim Crow Laws Majority-Minority District Natural Rights Naturalization Plea Bargaining Plessy v. Ferguson Poll Tax Probable Cause Procedural Due Process Quasi-Suspect Classification Racial Profiling Rational Classification Right of Expatriation Search Warrant Self-Incrimination Sexual Harassment Substantive Due Process Suspect Classification Voting Rights Act of 1965 Women's Suffrage Writ of Habeas Corpus

Guided Questions 1. Citizenship Rights a. How does our government compare to others? b. What is due process? c. Explain the relationship between a child's citizenship and his/her parents. d. What are the steps in naturalization? 2. Equality and Equal Rights a. What are the different concepts of equality? b. Trace the struggle of women to secure the suffrage and equal rights. c. Why did the Civil War amendments fail to give blacks equality? d. Why did the federal government become involved in African-American protests in the 1960s? e. What forms of pressure did African Americans use in their struggle for equality? f'. Why was the demand by Native Americans for equal rights so long delayed? g. Explain the civil rights struggles involving Hispanics and Asian-Americans. 3. What Does Equal Protection of the Law Mean? a. What is the rational basis test? b. Differentiate between suspect and quasi-suspect classifications of groups. c. What essential criteria proves that a law is discriminatory? 4. Education Rights a. Why was the Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson so significant? b. In what fundamental way was the Plessy decision reversed by Brown v. Board of Education? c. How does affirmative action affect school programs and activities? 5. Voting Rights a. What devices were used by Southern states to circumvent the 14th and 15th Amendments? b. How were these devices curbed in 1965? c. What changes in political life did the 1965 law bring? d. What constitutes diluting of minority voting power? 6. Rights to Public Accommodations, Jobs and Homes a. Upon what constitutional basis did Congress justify laws against discrimination? b. What national impact did the 1964 Civil Rights Act have on employment? Public accommodations? c. Why has housing legislation against discrimination been less successful? 7. Affirmative Action a. Is affirmative action constitutional? What was Proposition 209? b. What was the significance of the Bakke case? c. What fundamental conflict lies at the base of the affirmative action issue? 8. Constitutional Protection of Property/Privacy Rights a. How is private property protected by the contract clause? b. What is eminent domain? c. What is the difference between procedural due process and substantive due process? d. How do you explain the fact that substantive due process is no longer a serious check on legislative regulation of economic matters? e. What are the legal tender and contract clauses? f. What constitutional basis is used today to expand the right to privacy? g. What rights to abortion were given to women by Roe v. Wade? h. How does the Supreme Court view sexual orientation rights? 9. Rights of Persons Accused of Crime a. Under what restrictions do the police operate in making searches. arrests, and using deadly force? b. What controversy surrounds the exclusionary rule? c. What is the source of these rights: 1) to remain silent; 2) third-degree confessions? What is the significance of a grant of immunity? d. What protection is provided to a person accused of a crime by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth amendments? e. What are the procedures involved in gaining a fair trial, indictments, and sentencing/punishment? f. What restrictions on capital punishment have been imposed by the Court? g. What is meant by double jeopardy? 10. How Just is our System of Justice/The Supreme Court and Civil Liberties a. What arguments are advanced to prove that our system is just? Unjust? b. Why do some people believe that our justive system discriminates against ethnic and racial minorities? Also, why is there controversy surrounding the jury system? c. Ultimately, on what is our guarantee of freedom and liberty based? d. how does community policing work? e. Why are there objections to "racial profiling"? f. What is the relationship between the Supreme Court and civil liberties?

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