Affirmative Action

Announcements:

4/27-5/1 Weekly Planner

In addition to reading today's post, please make sure you:

1. Complete the Khan Academy modules on affirmative action.
2. Watch the Crash Course Affirmative Action video on EdPuzzle

READING: 129-159 in Edwards

UNIT THREE Identification Terms 

Today's Essential Question: How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution in policy areas like affirmative action?

Learning Standards:

CON-6.A.2: The debate on affirmative action includes justices who insist that the Constitution is colorblind and those who maintain that it forbids only racial classifications designed to harm minorities, not help them.

Affirmative Action

Beginning in the 1960s, the government promoted the use of affirmative action as an way to promote and improve opportunities for disadvantaged and underrepresented minority groups, primarily in the workplace and education.

This Khan Academy video will help explain how affirmative action works and the constitutional debate over its role in promoting equality.

The first major case on affirmative action is University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978). Here's a Bill of Rights Institute video summarizing this case:

A more recent case is Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) that revisits the issue of affirmative action.

Let's take a look at several different perspectives on affirmative action in this article by The Atlantic. Read each of the seven opinions and decide which one you agree with the most.

Review Video:

Civil Rights & the Courts (2 days)

Announcements:

4/20-4/24 Weekly Planner

In addition to reading (and watching the screencast) today's post, please make sure you:

1. Read the Street Law Summary of Brown v. Board of Education.
2. Fill in the information about this case on the Supreme Court case matrix (use the same copy you have been using)
3. Complete the Khan Academy modules on government responses to social movements (Brown v. Board video, article, and 4 question self-check)

READING: 129-159 in Edwards

UNIT THREE Identification Terms 

Today's Question: How has the Supreme Court impacted civil rights and the push for equality?

Learning Standards:

PMI-3.A: Explain how the government has responded to social movements.

PMI-3.A.1: The government can respond to social movements through court rulings and/or policies, as in:

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that race-based school segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause 
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 
• Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965

CON-6.A: Explain how the Supreme Court has at times allowed the restriction of the civil rights of minority groups and at other times has protected those rights.

CON-6.A.1: Decisions demonstrating that minority rights have been restricted at times and protected at other times include:

• State laws and Supreme Court holdings restricting African American access to the same restaurants, hotels, schools, etc., as the majority white population based on the “separate but equal” doctrine 
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that race-based school segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause 
• The Supreme Court upholding the rights of the majority in cases that limit and prohibit majority-minority districting 

Review:

• What is the difference between civil liberties and civil rights?
• What is incorporation? How does it work?
• What is the difference between the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause? Provide an example of each.
• What is meant by the "clear and present danger" doctrine?
• What is the significance of Mapp v. Ohio?
• What two court cases helped incorporate provisions of the 5th & 6th Amendments?
• How does the right to privacy illustrate judicial activism?

Civil Rights and the Courts
The courts have played a vital role in the promotion of civil rights, especially in the latter 20th century and 21st century. Interest groups, like the NAACP, have successfully litigated in support of civil rights with landmark decisions like Brown v. Board of Education. The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause ("no state shall deny to any person under its jurisdiction equal protection under the law") is most commonly used as the legal justification for these civil rights cases.

 

Review Videos:










Important Civil Rights Cases:

Plessy v. Ferguson

Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

Brown v. Board of Education II, 1955

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US, 1964

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 1971

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 1978

US v. Windsor, 2013

Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015