Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Supreme Court of the United States has since used judicial review in cases that have directly impacted civil liberties. Civil liberties are explicit, guaranteed rights that are protected under the Constitution or interpreted throughout different Court cases. These include rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of privacy, the right to vote, and more. One of the first Supreme Court cases regarding civil liberty, which is also one of the most important Supreme Court cases in U.S history,…

in the United States, the number of Americans that reported to have been profiled due to their race was thirty-two million in 2004, approximately the population of Canada (“Racial Profiling and the Use of Suspect Classification”). Racial profiling happens when a law enforcement official targets an individual based on their race or ethnicity. But racial profiling violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that, “All persons born or naturalized in the United…

important things I have learned in Government class this year is that your government should be afraid of you; not the other way around. But how exactly do states have more power when you give all the power to the government? If your government is allowed to sneak through the loop holes of loose construction, they rule the country. If states’ rights are protected and they control how much power the government has, that’s strict construction, and they rule the country. That is why I believe…

Desegregation Debacle: The Unintended Consequences of Brown v. Board of Education In the aftermath of the civil war, reform and subsequent legislation were implemented in an attempt to improve equality for blacks. However, these actions failed to leave a lasting improvement in civil rights for African Americans. After the Plessy v. Fergusson decision in 1896, any previous gains were negated when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of separating peoples by their races provided they…

In his article, Pilgrim later states, “Unfortunately for blacks, the Supreme Court helped undermine the Constitutional protections of blacks with the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life.” Even though these laws were clearly in breach of the 14th amendment, Congress passed the “Separate but Equal” doctrine, allowing states to divide public facilities and to make sure whites were not “contaminated”…

Darwinism. The case of West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937), which overruled Adkins, demonstrated the end of the Court 's acceptance of the doctrines of liberty of contract and laissez faire-social Darwinism. The decision involved upholding a Washington State minimum wage law, which consequently overruled two previous Court decisions. This change in the makeup of the Court would bring about a new era of…

of the 14th Amendment, judicial power was again substantially augmented with the implementation of three key clauses: the Privileges and Immunities, Due Process,and the Equal Protection clauses. Since the passage of the 14th Amendment, the Court has used these in its decisions to greatly affect the country, from Brown v Board of Education (1954), to Roe v Wade (1973), to this very summer, with Obergefell v Hodges (2015). These landmark cases demonstrate sweeping…

tried to appeal to the school board, but it didn't help. On February 28th of 1951 the battle begun when Reverend Brown filed his suit in the United States District Court as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Dudley,…

Brown’s support provides the court legitimacy for their ruling and provided an era for equality. This era of equality allowed the court and social movements to work in synergy. Firstly, the decision undermines the federal system that the 1787 constitution creates and forces the federal courts to micromanage local school boards without the proper implementation powers. However, this shortcoming legitimizes Brown as the Executive Branch implemented the ruling. Brown undermines…

According to the required reading of the New York Times, “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was encated to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting.” Voting was never considered equal when it came to women or people of color. In our history, many states never allowed those two groups to vote. However, they wanted to include them in the general population count. This is a form of discrimination and considered unconstitutional and against civil rights. Looking back at the Timeline: A…