Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Lecture Slides PDF

TOPIC 8: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties POSC 225 Section 0005 Dr. Marty Cohen States’ rights Tyranny of the majority/minority Separation of powers Self-interested factions Interest group politics Constitutional barriers to secu...

TOPIC 8: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties POSC 225 Section 0005 Dr. Marty Cohen States’ rights Tyranny of the majority/minority Separation of powers Self-interested factions Interest group politics Constitutional barriers to securing civil rights 2 Specific rights that embody the general right to equal treatment under the law Civil rights represent those protections by government power ◦ Or, things government must secure on behalf of its citizens. Definition of civil rights 3 Reconstruction ◦ Post-war amendments  13th  14th  15th ◦ Attempts to solidify Republican power ◦ Racial violence and brutality ◦ The compromise of 1876 ends Reconstruction The fight for African-American civil rights 4 Jim Crow era ◦ Jim Crow laws were adopted across the South to systematically disenfranchise and segregate African-Americans  White primary  Poll tax  Literacy test  Grandfather clauses ◦ Supreme Court upheld much of the above with an extremely narrow interpretation of the post- war amendments  Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ◦ Separate but equal The fight for African-American civil rights 5 African-Americans migrate north 6 The Roosevelts and the New Deal ◦ Economic relief for African-Americans ◦ New political power for African-Americans ◦ Beginnings of Democratic sponsorship of civil rights  Eleanor’s role  Franklin’s executive order banning employment discrimination in federal agencies and his establishment of the Committee on Fair Employment Practices (1941)  Truman desegregates the armed forces and makes the Committee on Fair Employment Practices permanent (1948)  The “Dixiecrats” are born and are led by Strom Thurmond The fight for African-American civil rights 7 African-Americans swing the election to Truman in 1948 8  The beginning of the civil rights coalition ◦ NAACP and litigation  Smith v. Allwright (1944) ◦ Outlaws white primary  Shelly v. Kramer (1948) ◦ Outlaws restrictive housing covenants  Sweatt v. Painter (1950) ◦ First major blow to “separate but equal” precedent  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) ◦ Supersedes Plessy ◦ Desegregates the schools with “all deliberate speed”  Massive resistance by the South ◦ Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1957  Jockeying for the Democratic presidential nomination  Watered down considerably  Minor follow-ups The fight for African-American civil rights 9  The height of the civil rights movement ◦ Rosa Parks begins the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) ◦ The first “sit-in” is held in Greensboro, North Carolina (1960) ◦ Bull Connor turns his dogs and fire hoses loose on African-American demonstrators (1963) ◦ Kennedy is assassinated (1963) ◦ Civil Rights Act of 1964  Sweeping  Goldwater opposes it ◦ Johnson and the Democrats win a landslide in the Election of 1964 ◦ Selma (1965) ◦ Voting Rights Act of 1965  Finally secures the right to vote for African-Americans in the South  Registration rolls swell The fight for African-American civil rights 10 Focus turns northward ◦ Fair housing  De jure vs. de facto segregation ◦ Economic relief Inner-city riots ◦ Watts ◦ Detroit ◦ Oakland ◦ Philadelphia ◦ Newark The fight for African-American civil rights 11 Geographic concentration of Latinos 12 Women’s rights ◦ Equal Rights Amendment ◦ Equal pay for equal work ◦ Legal recognition of sexual harassment ◦ Gender parity in government LGBTQ rights ◦ Same-sex marriage ◦ Trans rights Elderly,Disabled, Asian-American, Indigenous Peoples Other rights movements 13 Fundamental freedoms that together preserve the rights of a free people Civil liberties represents those protections from government power ◦ Those freedoms the government may not take away Definition of civil liberties 14 Incorporation and the 14th Amendment ◦ Bringing state laws and practices under the Bill of Rights – essentially applying the Bill of Rights to the states ◦ The method by which the Supreme Court has established most civil liberties Before incorporation ◦ Barron v. Baltimore Definition of civil liberties 15 The 14th Amendment ◦ Due process clause ◦ Equal protection clause Areas of incorporation ◦ Freedom of speech, press, and religion (1st Amendment)  1920s through the 1940s ◦ Rights of the accused (4th, 5th, 6th Amendments)  1960s ◦ Right to privacy (4th, 9th Amendments)  1960s through the present Definition of civil liberties 16  Protections by government power (civil rights) vs. protections from government power (civil liberties)  Securing civil rights required the sustained efforts of a national majority exerting the full force (Congress, the President, the Supreme Court) of the federal government while advancing civil liberties policy involves mainly the Supreme Court reining in majorities asserting their prerogatives over individuals and groups who did not want to conform to prevailing preferences  The struggle for civil liberties was a prime example of the nationalization of power and the assertion of federal influence over states and localities Differences between civil rights and civil liberties 17  Americans’ increasing tolerance of unpopular speech  Threatening speech ◦ Schenck v. United States (1919)  “Clear and present danger”  Shouting fire in a crowded theater  Non-threatening speech and expression ◦ Stromberg v. California (1931)  Pledging allegiance to the Soviet Union’s flag ◦ Free speech for the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis ◦ Texas v. Johnson (1989)  Flag burning ◦ Obscenity  Roth v. United States (1957) ◦ “I know it when I see it.”  Miller v. California (1973) ◦ Local community standards Freedom of speech 18 Prior restraint ◦ Government censorship  Near v. Minnesota (1931)  The New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) ◦ Pentagon Papers Libel and slander ◦ Written and spoken forms of false and malicious information that damages another person’s reputation  New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) ◦ Public figures largely forfeit their right to sue for libel and slander Freedom of the press 19  Back to the 1st Amendment ◦ Establishment of religion clause  The Lemon test ◦ Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)  Statute must have a secular legislative purpose  Statute must neither advance nor inhibit religion  Statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion  The Lemon test was replaced by the neutrality test  School prayer ◦ Engel v. Vitale (1962) ◦ School District of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) ◦ Free exercise clause  Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940) ◦ “Compelling government interest” ◦ Free exercise vs. establishment  Carson v. Makin (2022) ◦ Aid for students attending religious schools  Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022) ◦ Prayer on the 50-yard line ◦ “Wall of separation”  Varying interpretations lead to controversy Freedom of religion 20 Opinions on school prayer 21 4th Amendment ◦ Illegal searches and seizures  Mapp v. Ohio (1961) ◦ Exclusionary rule  “Good faith” effort 5th Amendment ◦ Self-incrimination and double jeopardy  Miranda v. Arizona (1964) ◦ Miranda rights  Double jeopardy doesn’t apply to federal and state charges Rights of the accused 22 6th Amendment ◦ Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)  Right to counsel and impartial jury of peers  Poor defendants deserve representation 8th Amendment ◦ Cruel and unusual punishment  Death penalty ◦ Racial bias ◦ Mental capacity ◦ Age Rights of the accused 23  Noright to privacy in the Constitution, instead penumbras, or implicit zones of protected privacy rights, have been asserted by the Court in recent decades ◦ Reproductive rights  Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) ◦ Married women entitled to contraception  Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) ◦ Single women entitled to contraception  Roe v. Wade (1973) ◦ Established woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) ◦ Overturns Roe in a 6-3 vote ◦ Sexual freedom  Lawrence v. Texas (2003) ◦ Sodomy laws ◦ Right to die Right to privacy 24 2nd Amendment ◦ “a well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  Group right or individual right? ◦ D.C. v. Heller (2008)  Requirements for concealed carry permits ◦ New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) Emerging liberties on guns 25 The Court’s shifting ideology on civil liberties cases 26 The Court’s rights of the accused decisions 27 The Supreme Court in 2022 28  November 2023: ◦ Ohio voters place abortion rights in the state constitution ◦ Virginia thwarts Governor Youngkin’s plans for a trifecta  What’s in store for ‘24? ◦ White House, U.S. House, U.S. Senate all up for grabs ◦ Republican sweep! The voters speak up 29