Mr. McCormack
American Government
Central Dauphin High School
Chapter 21 Notes
I. Diversity and Discrimination in American Society
A. The United States is a heterogeneous society
1. The US population grows more diverse each year
a. More immigrants are people of color
b. Non-white populations of the US tend to have a higher birthrate
2. America’s Racial Composition in 2000
a. White Non-Hispanic: 69.1%
b. Black: 12.3%
c. Hispanic: 12.5%
d. Native American: 1%
e. Asian American: 3.6%
f. Multiracial: 2.4%
B. Race-Based Discrimination
1. African Americans
a. Until recently, African Americans were the largest minority group in the United States
b. African Americans constitute about 12% of the total population
c. From slavery to segregation, African Americans have probably suffered the most persistent discrimination of all minorities in America
d. Most of the gains in Civil Rights were accomplished on behalf of African Americans
2. Native Americans
a. Natives suffered a precipitous decline in population and territory as America expanded
b. Federal policy shifted from segregation on the reservations to forced assimilation
c. Today nearly 3 million Natives continue to live on reservations in circumstances that are frequently appalling
3. Hispanic Americans
a. Hispanics are not a “race” but a vast group of people united by a
language
b. Today, with more than 42 million people, they are the largest minority group in America
c. Many Hispanic immigrants arrive as refugees
d. Most Hispanics belong to one of four groups
i. Mexican Americans
ii. Cuban Americans
iii. Puerto Ricans
iv. Central and South Americans
4. Asian Americans
a. Asian Americans exceed 14 million
b. Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority
(by % growth)
c. Asian Americans are a majority in Hawaii
C. Discrimination Against Women
1. Females actually outnumber males in America
2. Women historically lacked many of the rights of men
3. Women (“suffragettes”) began to organize for their rights in the
Nineteenth century
4. In spite of progress, women continue to lag in important measures such as representation in Congress
II Equal Protection Clause
A. Equality of condition is impossible
1. People are naturally endowed with different abilities
2. People are born into different circumstances
B. The Free Market attempts to approximate freedom of opportunity
C. “Equality of persons” is not literally proclaimed by the Constitution, but the
14th Amendment does guarantee “equal protection of the laws”
1. This clause was originally intended to benefit the freed slaves from state
persecution, but now protects all people from unreasonable discrimination
2. A similar clause in the 5th Amendment protects people from
discrimination at the hands of the federal government
D. “Reasonable Discrimination”
1. The government does have the power to classify people into different
groups for a variety of reasons
a. Smokers pay taxes that non-smokers don’t, for example
b. In-state college students often pay less tuition at public
universities than out-of-state students
2. The Supreme Court usually employs the “Rational Basis Test” to determine when such classifications are reasonable
a. Question: “Does the classification in question bear a reasonable relationship to the achievement of some proper governmental purpose?
b. Example: A man is punished for statutory rape while his juvenile partner, a willing participant in the act, is not – this does not violate the equal protection clause because the different treatment bears a reasonable relationship to the proper public policy goal of preventing child abuse
3. The Supreme Court will employ the “Strict Scrutiny Test” to
particularly important cases of discrimination
a. When the case concerns a fundamental right like the right to
vote or the freedoms of religion or speech
b. When the case involves a “suspect classification” based on race,
sex, or national origin
4. For discrimination to survive the “Strict Scrutiny Test,” the government
must prove that it has a compelling governmental interest to justify its
action
a. Orr v. Orr (1979) was a challenge to an Alabama law that made women, but not men, eligible for alimony
b. The law was held unconstitutional because the distinction between men and women did not serve a compelling governmental interest
E. Segregation in America
1. By the late 1800s more than half of the states had racial segregation
laws (aka Jim Crow laws)
a. Most of them targeted African Americans, but some targeted
Mexican Americans, Native Americans, or Asian Americans
b. These laws required the segregation of both public and private
facilities
2. Separate-but-Equal Doctrine
a. The Supreme Court upheld the principle of segregation in
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
b. The Court reasoned that separate facilities could still be equal to
one another, and the Constitution only promised equal protection,
not integration
c. Subsequently, most separate facilities were far from equal
3. Overturning “Separate-but-Equal”
a. The Court began to enforce its expectation of equality on a
limited basis in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)
i. Missouri denied admission to its law school to a black
man, but had no separate law school for him to attend
ii. The Court ordered Missouri to admit him or create a
school just for him
b. In 1950, the Court decided two cases that reinforced the
expectation of “equality in fact”
i. Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma
ii. In both cases graduate students sued because their
schools were not equal to the whites-only schools
c. The Supreme Court finally ruled that “separate-but-equal” was
unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
i. The Court ordered segregating jurisdictions to make a
reasonable start at integrating, but intense resistance slowed
the pace of change
ii. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 denied federal aid to any
jurisdiction still practicing segregation, and this hastened
change
iii. In Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education
(1969), the Court declared that the time for integration had
lapsed and anyone still segregating had to stop immediately
4. De Jure, De Facto Segregation
a. By the fall of 1970, segregation by law (de jure) had been
abolished, but segregation in fact (de facto) still existed in many
places
b. The government has wrestled with the idea that it is responsible for fighting de facto segregation, such as when whites and blacks live in separate neighborhoods without any influence from the government
i. Some districts have redrawn boundaries to force schools
to be more integrated
ii. Sometimes these newly drawn districts have required
busing students great distances from their homes
iii. These efforts have generally not been popular
5. Other Racial Integration Cases
a. Baltimore v. Dawson (1955) – swimming pools & rec centers
b. Gayle v. Browder (1956) – local transportation
c. Lee v. Washington (1968) – state and local prisons
d. Palmore v. Sidoti (1984) – child custody cases
e.. Loving v. Virginia (1967) – anti-miscegenation laws
F. Classification by Sex
1. The Supreme Court, like society, has tolerated a great deal of sex
discrimination in spite of the inclusive language of the 14th Amendment
a. Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) upheld the exclusion of women from
the practice of law
b. Hoyt v. Florida (1961) upheld a law that required men to serve
on juries while giving women a choice
2. The Court first struck down a sex-based classification in Reed v. Reed
(1971) -an Idaho law gave fathers preference over mothers in administering a deceased child’s estate
3. Other Cases
a. Taylor v. Louisiana (1975) – States can’t exclude women from
juries
b. Craig v. Boren (1976) – States can’t have different ages to
purchase alcohol for men and women
c. United States v. Virginia (1996) – States can’t exclude women
from public military academies
d. Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte (1987) – The
Court upheld a state law forcing service clubs to integrate
III. Federal Civil Rights Laws
A. From the 1870s to the 1950s there was no meaningful civil rights legislation
B. From the 1950s to 1980s Congress passed many important laws aimed at fighting
discrimination
1. 1964 Civil Rights Act – accomplished three main goals
a. No discrimination for public accommodations (such as hotels and
restaurants) on account of race, color, religion, national origin, or physical disability
b. No discrimination for race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or
physical disability in any program that receives federal funding
c. No employment discrimination (or labor union) for race, color, religion,
sex, physical disability, or age
2. 1968 Civil Rights Act – Open Housing Act
a. No refusal to rent or sell a dwelling for race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or family with children
b. In 1988 Congress authorized the Justice Department file criminal charges for violations of this act
C. Affirmative Action
1. Requires employers to take positive steps to remedy the effects of past
discriminations
2. Applies to all Federal Government agencies, state and local governments, and
private employers who sell goods or services to the Federal government
3. Workforce must reflect the general makeup of the population in its locale
4. No inequalities in matters of pay, promotions, and fringe benefits
5. Critics claim this amounts to Reverse Discrimination
a. The Supreme Court has been backing away from allowing racial
preferences to persist, even if they benefit minorities
i. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) -
Race can’t be the only criteria, but it can be one of several factors
ii. Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995) – all affirmative action cases will be reviewed with strict scrutiny test
iii. Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) - States have a compelling interest in having diverse student bodies and therefore using race as one factor in admissions policies is a narrowly tailored means of accomplishing that interest
b. Several states have begun rolling back their affirmative action programs
i. In 1996, California passed Proposition 209 to eliminate almost
all affirmative action
1. Ruled unconstitutional in 1996
2. Reinstated by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997
3. Appeal to the Supreme Court was denied, so the Proposition is still in effect
ii. Washington approved a similar law in 1998
IV. American Citizenship
A. Federal and State Citizenship
1. The Constitution references both “citizens of the United States” and “citizens of the
States” without defining the terms
2. Until the Civil War, many people believed that national citizenship was secondary
to state citizenship
3. The question of citizenship was a flashpoint of the Civil War, especially as it
concerned African Americans
4. The Fourteenth Amendment settled the question in 1868 by defining citizenship
a. All persons born in the United States
b. All persons naturalized in the United States
B. Citizenship by Birth
1. More than 90 percent of Americans are citizens by birth
2. Jus Soli
a. “Law of the soil”
b. Anyone born on American soil is entitled to citizenship
i. States
ii. Territories
iii. American embassies
iv. American vessels
c. Native Americans born on tribal reservations were not considered
citizens prior to 1924
3. Jus Sanguinis
a. “Law of the blood”
b. Anyone born to two American parents so long as at least one of those
parents lived in American territory at some point
c. Anyone born to one American parent who has lived in the US for at
least 10 years (5 of which were after age 14) and then himself lives in American territory for at least five continuous years between ages 14 and 28
d. Interestingly, not mentioned in the 14th Amendment, but this has been part of American law since 1790
C. Citizenship by Naturalization
1. The Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power to create a legal process
to confer citizenship
2. More than 800,000 immigrants are naturalized each year
3. Most naturalizations are accomplished on an individual basis
a. Adult immigrants seeking to become citizens have to complete a
process
i. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service in the Department
of Homeland Security investigates the applicant
ii. A report is made to the judge (federal or state) overseeing the
case
iii. The new citizen must take an oath of citizenship
b. Naturalization of both parents (or one parent if widowed or divorced)
automatically naturalizes anyone under the age of 16 who resides in the United States
c. Foreign children adopted by American citizens are automatically
naturalized if the adoption is finalized before the children turn 18
4. Sometimes naturalization can be accomplished collectively
a. By Act of Congress, an individual or group of individuals may receive
citizenship
i. Hawaiians (1898)
ii. Puerto Ricans (1917)
iii. Native Americans (1924)
iv. Virgin Islanders (1927)
v. Inhabitants of Guam (1950)
vi. Inhabitants of Northern Mariana Islands (1977)
b. By Constitutional Amendment, former slaves and others became
citizens in 1868
c. By Treaty, residents of newly acquired territories have become citizens
i. Louisiana (1803)
ii. Florida (1819)
iii. Alaska (1867)
d. By Joint Resolution of Congress, residents of Texas became citizens in
1845
D. Loss of Citizenship
1. An American citizen can renounce his citizenship
2. The Constitution prevents the government from depriving someone of
citizenship as punishment for a crime or other offense
3. Naturalized citizens may be denaturalized by court order if it is shown that the
citizenship was obtained fraudulently
E. Immigration
1. Congress has the exclusive power to regulate immigration
2. Congress did not make any major effort to control immigration until the
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
3. Congress acted to bar entry of certain undesirables (convicts, lunatics, paupers,
immoral persons, contract laborers, anarchists, illiterates, etc.)
4. Congress began to impose numerical limits on immigrants in 1921
i. Immigrants from the Western Hemisphere were not limited
ii. Quotas favored the nations of northern and western Europe
5. Congress replaced the country-based quota system in 1965
6. Today, the Immigration Act of 1990 controls immigration
i. An annual limit of 675,000 is in place
ii. One third of those visas must be granted to relatives of persons already