Chapter 4 lecture notes, videos, and websites

1.  
Michelle Palaro
CJUS 2360
Fall 2015
Chapter 4
Equal Protection Under
the Law: Balancing
Individual, State and
Federal Rights

2.  The framers of the Constitution wanted to
prevent excessive federal authority
 They wanted to give states more authority, but
resulted in problems the national government
could not overlook
 There were several issues:
o State bank and money versus national banks
and currency
o Federal aid versus state aid to improve
roadways and railway
o Freedom versus slavery

3.  President Lincoln was elected in 1960.
o Soon after many states passed a resolution
to withdraw from the Union
 President Lincoln was faced with trying to keep
the Union together
 He promised to abolish slavery in the territories,
but under the Constitution, slavery was legal in
the states where it had been established

4.  Brief overview of the case:

5.  Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
o Supreme Court ruled that even free blacks could not
be citizens of the United States and that they “had no
rights which a white man was bound to respect”
 The southern states were not convinced and the
Civil War ensued
 It pitted American against American and sometimes
brother against brother
 Hundreds of thousands wounded and killed
 Caused a divide that still affects the country to this
day

6.  April 1862, slavery was abolished in the District
of Columbia and 2 months later in all the
territories
 January 1, 1863, President Lincoln declared all
the slaves free in all districts of the United
States in his Emancipation Proclamation
o Set a national tone toward abolishing slavery,
but those states who had slaves maintained
them
 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865 and
abolished slavery

7.  Even though slavery was now abolished with the
13th Amendment, states continued to discriminate
o Many Southern states passed “Black Codes”
 Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1868
which gave blacks citizenship, and granted
citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the
United States
 The 14th Amendment also forbids the states to deny
their citizens due process of law or equal protection
of the law
o Certain provisions of the Bill of Rights were made
applicable to the states as well

8.  Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states that “all
people born or naturalized in the United States”
are citizens of the United States and of the state
in which they reside, effectively overriding the
Dred Scott decision
 It also prevents federal and state governments
from abridging the privileges of citizens or to
deny any citizen equal protection of the law or
deprive them of life, liberty, or property without
due process of the law

9.  Due process provides rules and procedures to
ensure fairness and prevent arbitrary
government actions
 2 types of due process:
1. Procedural due process refers to how laws are
applied
2. Substantive due process requires that the laws
themselves be fair, not just how the laws are
enforced (see Lochner v. New York slide)

10.  Prevents state or local governments from
infringing on people’s rights when federal
government would not be allowed to
 It holds that only the provisions of the Bill
of Rights fundamental to the American
scheme of justice are applied to the states
through the due process clause of the 14th
Amendment

11.  Facts: Duncan requested a jury trial and was denied,
then found guilty of battery with a maximum sentence of
two years imprisonment
 Issues: Is the denial of the jury trial in a state criminal
prosecution, where a sentence of up to two years
imprisonment is possible, a violation of the 6th and 14th
Amendments?
 Holding: Yes
 Rationale: The right to a jury trial is fundamental to the
American scheme of justice
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_v._Louisiana

12.  Rights explicitly listed in the Bill of Rights (enumerated)
are applied to the states through incorporation and are
almost always evaluated with the strict scrutiny test
 Nonenumerated rights are those that are implied in the
concept of ordered liberty, using the due process
section of the 14th Amendment covering proceedings
involving life, liberty and property
 If state interference in these nonenumerated rights
involves a fundamental right (generally those involving
civil rights), strict scrutiny is applied. If not fundamental,
the courts apply the rational basis test instead

13.  Brief overview of case:

14.  The Supreme Court found that the Connecticut
law making contraceptives illegal violated a
“right to privacy” in regard to marriage within the
14th amendment
 The Court asserted that certain rights and
liberties, even though not specifically stated in
the Constitution, exist because specific
guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras
or peripheral rights implied along with them

15.  Brief overview of case:

16.  Issue: Does a state law forbidding a baker to
work more than 10 hours in a day or 60 hours a
week violate the liberty protected by the 14th
Amendment?
 Holding: Yes
 Rationale: The Supreme Court decided the
law is not reasonable and interferes with the
right contract found in the liberty aspect of the
Due Process Clause

17.  Issues: Does New York law that establishes a
minimum milk price violate the Due Process
Clause?
 Holding: No
 Rationale: The Supreme Court in contrast to the
older Lochner case, decided that in the area of
social and economic legislation, if the law is not
arbitrary and has a reasonable relation to
promoting public welfare, the courts are without
authority to override it
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebbia_v._New_York

18.  Prejudice – An attitude, commonly known as a
negative attitude regarding a person or thing
 Discrimination – An action or behavior based on
prejudice
 In a democratic society, people are free to think
what they want
 When these thoughts become socially
unacceptable behaviors, the government is
justified in intervening
 Laws exist to punish the actor and protect the
victim

19.  Racial discrimination existed well before colonization
and the Constitution
 The 13th Amendment did not outlaw unequal treatment
or change racial attitudes
o Dred Scott (1856) decision ruled that freed slaves
did not have the right to remain free in a territory
where slavery was still legal
o Plessy v. Feguson (1896) showed the Court’s desire
to avoid civil rights issues, declaring discrimination to
be outside the realm of the Court

20.  Racial tension mounted as states passed
laws to ensure that Whites could maintain
their privileged status
 These laws were known as Jim Crow
Laws
o Strictly segregated Blacks from Whites
in schools, restaurants, streetcars,
hospitals, and cemeteries

21.  Many laws were passed that prohibited
discrimination based on race, color, religion,
sex or national origin in employment and
education in public and private sectors at the
federal, state and local levels
o The Equal Pay Act of 1963
o The Civil Rights Act of 1964
o The 1972 Equal Opportunity Act
o 1972 Equal Education Act

22.  The Nixon Administration formed the affirmative
action programs
 They were created to spread equal opportunity
throughout the diverse American population
 They were designed to cure discrimination in
hiring and eliminate past, present and future
discrimination using race, sex, color, and age as
deciding criteria

23.  Must distinguish between discrimination and
disparity
o Disparity - A difference, but one that does not
necessarily involve discrimination
o Discrimination - The differential treatment of
groups without reference to an individual’s
behavior or qualifications
• The degree and prevalence of discriminatory treatment
within the criminal justice system exists along a
continuum between the extremes of pure justice and
systematic discrimination

24.  Criminal justice system is characterized
by contextual discrimination
o Racial minorities are treated more
harshly at some points and in some
places in the criminal justice system but
no differently than Whites at other
points and in other places

25.  Facts: Evidence established the systematic exclusion
of African-Americans from jury service in 2 Alabama
cities
 Issues: Is this consistent with the 14th Amendment?
 Holding: No
 Rationale: Court acknowledged that exclusion of
African Americans on juries constituted an equal
protection violation
 The ruling was ineffectual and African Americans
remained underrepresented on juries

26.  Facts: The defendant was African-American and
the prosecutor used the state’s peremptory
challenges to remove all four prospective black
jurors, leaving an all white jury that ultimately
convicted Batson
 Issues: Can use of peremptory challenges be
unconstitutional?
 Holding: Yes
 Rationale: The Court ruled that the use of
peremptory challenges to deliberately produce a
racially unbalanced jury was unconstitutional
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batson_v._Kentucky

27.  Right - A legally protected claim.
 Privilege - A claim that is not legally
protected
 Cooper v. Pate (1964)
o Inmates could sue the warden for
depriving them of their constitutional
rights under Section 1983 of the U.S.
Code

28.  Race discrimination
o Segregating racial groups, assuming they will
be in conflict otherwise, violates the equal
protection component of the 14th Amendment
 Discrimination against the disabled
o Correctional facilities were required to
provide special accommodations,
programming and services to disabled
inmates