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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dredd Scott v. Sandford was a landmark Supreme Court decision decided in 1857, that drastically harmed freedom and abolition movements in the North. Scott was residing in Illinois, a free state, and was eventually ordered to return to his master in Missouri. Scott filed suit, claiming his residence made him a free man. His master maintained that such protections did not exist since he could not be a citizen. The court ruled in favor of the master, deeming such laws unconstitutional. -
13th Amendment Ratified
The 13th Amendment was a reconstruction amendment put into place almost immediately after the close of the civil was, finally deciding the inevitable outcome of a decisive Northern victory: full and absolute abolition in the entirety of the US and its territories, except as punishment for a crime that one has been duly convicted of. -
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Poll Taxes
Poll taxes, aka a head tax or capitation, is a tax levied at a fixed sum for every adult individual. during Jim Crow, such laws took advantage of the economically poor blacks, and failure to pay the tax resulted in loss of voting privileges. -
14th Amendment Ratified
The 14th amendment was the 2nd of the reconstruction era amendments, passed in 1868 to prevent Southern states from immediately denying former slaves fundamental rights by law. The amendment bars states from infringing on "privileges of immunities" of the United States", which led to future court cases where the Supreme court decided that the amendment affectively incorporated the bill of rights to the states. -
15th Amendment Ratified
The 15th amendment was the last of the reconstruction amendments, giving increased voting protections to former slaves in the US. The amendment bars a state from limiting voting on the basis of race; however, under Jim Crow era, Southern States applied subterfuge to get around such limitations, such as the grandfather clause, which prevented slave descendants from voting, or poll taxes. -
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White Primaries
White primaries were primary elections in Southern states that explicitly barred black people from voting. The first such primaries where introduced by Southern states in 1896, until 1944 when they were ruled unconstitutional in the Supreme Court decision Smith v. Allwright. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1896, which upheld that "Separate but equal" amenities and services were constitutional. This decision was late partially overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, and entirely by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. -
19th Amendment Ratified
The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, finally gave women in the US the constitutional right to vote, and barred voting restrictions on the basis of sex. This completed a century long continuous fight by women for such protections. -
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Equal Rights Amendment
The "Equal Rights Amendment" is a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman in 1923. The amendment would require full and equal protections for men and women under the law, and remove the legal distinction between men and women in many cases of law. It originally failed in 1970 because of testimony from certain women groups arguing against women in the draft and areas of the workforce. Today, 38 states have ratified the amendment. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of education was a landmark Supreme Court case that heralded many advances in protections for African Americans. The case was decided on the bases of scientific inquiry and social sciences, which proved, at least in a school setting, that separate schools were inherently not equal, and forced such practices disbanded. The case provided justification for later movements in the Civil Rights era, including the Civil Rights Act, which banned "separate but equal" entirely. -
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Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action is the practice of using race as a factor for deciding employment, college acceptance, and else for the purpose of creating racial diversity. The practice is used to forcibly remain in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other anti-discriminatory pieces of legislation, although some continually argue that such actions ARE discriminatory. The practice was upheld by the Supreme Court in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. -
24th Amendment Ratified
The 24th amendment was ratified in 1964, federally banning the use of poll taxes in the United States, which were seen as preying on the poor. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 broadly banned discrimination on the basis of race or gender in the case of hiring or firing. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed a slough of discriminatory practices from Jim Crow laws, such as literacy tests. It was a defining hallmark of the Civil Rights movement, and is one of the most aggressive pieces of social reform legislation signed by Congress. -
Reed v. Reed
Reed v. Reed is a landmark Supreme Court decision that determined that discrimination based off sex is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Regents v. Bakke was a landmark case that upheld the practice of Affirmative Action as constitutional, although specific racial quotas, as used by the university, are not. The case is still contested, as many to this day argue that such actions are inherently discriminatory and protest any organization that mandates, rather than promotes, racial diversity. It is not unlikely that another case will reach the court in upcoming years to uphold or remove the previous decision. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick was a Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of anti-sodomy laws that existed in the 80's, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. This case was eventually overturned in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas, a similar suit challenging anti-sodomy law prosecution. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act, often just ADA, was a landmark piece of legislation signed in 1990 that required accommodation for physically disabled individuals for all economic activity and public locations. Such accommodation includes ramps, ramped curbs and elevators. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas was a Supreme Court case that overturned the courts previous decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, now outlawing anti-sodomy laws. The decision went farther, stating that under Due Process, no state has the right to legislate so intrusively into peoples personal lives, denying any law that wished to restrict sexual activity or conduct in private. The case as a whole is seen as a landmark decision for forwarding LGBT rights. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Obergefell v. Hodges was a Supreme Court case in 2015 that ruled that homosexual couples have an inherent right to marry under the Equal Protections clause. This case meant that no state was allowed to bar homosexual couples full married status under the law, or to restrict such marriage specifically. This case is seen as the deciding LGBT protections case in recent years.
