POL 1 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Equal Protection Clause, Separate Car Act
Terms
●Home rule
○Power given by a state to a locality to enact legislation and manage its own affairs
locally
○Significance: During the 18th century, the British Crown allowed colonies to rule
themselves until the French and Indian War/7 Years War had great costs that the
British could not cover alone
■Led to taxes being imposed on the colonies -> Colonists argued due to the
lack of representation they had in the British Parliament “no taxation
without representation” → becomes a primary component in setting up
new United States Constitution
■Led to the Revolutionary War
●Bicameral legislature
○Legislature with two chambers (House of Representatives and Senate)
○Former colonial governments had a bicameral legislature which led to most states
adopting the same model of government
○New Jersey Plan + Virginia Plan = GREAT COMPROMISE
●The Three- Fifths Compromise
○Counted slaves as 3/5ths of a person in regards to population matters
○Significance: Method used by the South to gain more seats in the House and
ultimately gain more legislative power over the North
●15th Amendment - Established in 1870
○Section 1: "The right to citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude."
○Part of the “Reconstruction Amendments” - after civil war, 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendment were enacted and extended new constitutional protections to blacks,
though the struggle to fully achieve equality would continue into the twentieth
century (Civil Rights Movement)
●Grandfather clause
○disenfranchised black men by not allowing them to vote if their grandfather was a
slave
○Tactic used by the South to inhibit Blacks from voting in the South
○in the wake of Reconstruction (1865-1877) that allowed potential white voters to
circumvent literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tactics designed to disenfranchise
southern blacks
●Plessy v. Ferguson - U.S. Supreme Court Case - 1896
○Argued that the Separate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th Amendments
○Significance: Upheld the constitutionality of segregation by stating "we cannot
say that a law which authorizes or even requires the separation of the two races in
public conveyances is unreasonable" as long as the segregated facilities are equal
in quality
○"separate but equal" doctrine
■Mere segregation did not directly equate to inequality
○7-1 decision for Ferguson
●Brown v. Board of Education - U.S. Supreme Court Case - 1954
○Significance: Argued that the segregation of public education based solely on race
violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
○Decided that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and does
violate the 14th Amendment
■Was detrimental to the growth of African American children
○Unanimous decision, reversed Plessy v. Ferguson ruling
●De jure and de facto segregation
○De jure segregation - segregation directly enforced by laws
■Ex: Jim Crow laws
○De facto segregation - segregation created by societal conditions, does not violate
the constitution
■Ex: cities primarily composed of poc often happen by societal
circumstances
●Regents of the University of California v. Bakke - U.S. Supreme Court Case - 1978
○UC Davis Medical School reserved 16 places in each entering class of 100 for
"qualified" minorities as part of their affirmative action
○Bakke, a white man, had applied to the UC Davis Medical School and was
rejected twice
○Four of the justices contended that any racial quota system supported by
government violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964
■Civil Rights Act of 1964 - prohibited providing federal money to
segregated schools
○Justice Powell argued that the use of racial quotas violated the Equal Protection
Clause of the 14th Amendment
○Other justices held that the use of race as a criterion in admissions decisions in
higher education was constitutionally permissible
○Significance: Essentially, minimized white opposition to the goal of equality
while extending gains for racial minorities
●Obergefell v. Hodges - U.S. Supreme Court Case - 2015
○Argued on the basis that banning/not legally recognizing same-sex marriages
violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the 14th
Amendment
■One group of plaintiffs also brought claims under the Civil Rights Act
○The court decided that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees
the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects
■Judicial precedent held that the right to marry is a fundamental liberty -> it
is inherent to the concept of individual autonomy
○Court also decided that the Equal Protection Clause was violated due to the
guarantee to same-sex couples equal protection under the law
■Marriage rights have been traditionally addressed through both parts of the
14th Amendment
○Significance: included marriage as a fundamental right protected by the
Constitution
■Essentially: included constitutional rights that are not explicitly states in
the constitution
○5-4 decision
●Americans with Disability Act - passed in 1991
○Established comprehensive national standards to prohibit discrimination in public
services and accommodations and to promote handicapped access to public
buildings and transportation
○Considered a direct order
(requirements that can be enforced by legal and civil
penalties)
○Also a crosscutting requirement
(statutes that apply certain rules and guidelines to
a broad array of federally subsidized state programs)
○Discrimination defined: "failure to make reasonable modifications in policies,
practices, or procedures [unless those modifications] would fundamentally alter
the nature of the activity
●Concept: Civil Liberties vs. Civil Rights
Civil Liberties
Civil Rights
