POLS - Ch 05 - Civil Rights - Vocabulary

Bakke v. California

Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action at colleges as long as there are no quotas.

Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme Court decision striking down segregated schools.

Civil Rights Cases

Limited congressional authority to prohibit private discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court decision declaring that blacks could not be citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.

Korematsu v. United States

Supreme Court decision upholding the detention of Japanese Americas during World War II.

Loving v. Virginia

Supreme Court case striking down laws that prohibit racial intermarriage.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court case that upheld the validity of segregation.

The Feminine Mystique

Book by Betty Friedan considered by many to have launched the modern feminist movement.

affirmative action

Policies that grant racial or gender preferences in hiring, education, or contracting.

American Civil Liberties Union

Interest group devoted to freedom of expression, criminal due process, civil rights, and reproductive rights.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Requires businesses and government to make reasonable accommodations for employees with known physical or mental limitations.

black codes

Southern laws that prohibited freedmen from voting, owning land or leaving their plantations.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Barred Immigration of Chinese to America.

citizenship

Full-fledged membership in a nation.

civil disobedience

Peaceful protests in violation of a law believed to be unjust or immoral.

civil liberties

Those rights such as freedom of speech or religion, that are so fundamental that they are outside the authority of government to regulate.

civil rights

Set of tights, centered around the concept of equal treatment, that government is obliged to protect.

Civil Rights Act

Prohibits discrimination in employment, education, and places of public accommodation.

civil rights movement

Movement following World War II to gain equal rights for African Americans, later expanded to end discrimination on account of race, gender, sexual preference, and disability status.

civil unions

State laws that provide the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples without using the term marriage.

compelling interest test

Standard frequently used by the Supreme Court in civil liberties cases to determine if a state has a sufficient justification for making distinctions on account of race, ethnicity, religion, or citizenship status.

coverture

Legal doctrine that grants married women no rights independent of their husbands.

Defense of Marriage Act

Federal law exempting states from any requirement to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

discrimination

Favoring one person over another, usually on irrelevant grounds such as race or gender.

disparate impact

Job tests that differentially affect minority groups, even if there is no intent to discriminate.

don't ask, don't tell

Policy allowing gays to serve in the military of they do not discuss their sexual preferences.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's order ending slavery in states in rebellion.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Independent federal agency charged with protecting equal employment rights.

Equal Pay Act

Prohibits different pay for males and females for the same work.

equal protection clause

Prevents states from denying any person the equal protection of the laws.

Equal Rights Amendment

Proposed amendment that would have banned federal and state governments from discriminating on account of sex.

equality of opportunity

Expectation that citizens may not be discriminated against on account of race, gender, or national background, and that every citizen should have an equal chance to succeed in life.

equality of outcome

Expectation that equality is achieved if results are comparable for all citizens regardless of race, gender, or national background, or that such groups are proportionally represented in measures of success in life.

grandfather clauses

Election rules that exempted people from difficult literacy and interpretation tests for voting if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote.

heightened scrutiny

Standard of review used when laws discriminate on account of sex.

Jim Crow laws

Southern laws that established strict segregation of the races.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist terrorist organization.

literacy tests

Tests requiring reading and interpretation skills in order to vote.

miscegenation

Interracial marriage and/or sexual intercourse, often forbidden by state law until Loving v. Virginia.

Missouri Compromise

Prohibited slavery in territories north of the southern border of Missouri.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Civil rights organization dedicated to helping African Americans.

National Organization of Women

Organized interest group devoted to securing equal rights for women.

natural-born citizens

People who are citizens in a nation from birth, usually by being born there.

naturalization

Acquired citizenship through formal application procedures.

poll taxes

Tax on voting prohibited by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964)

private discrimination

Discrimination by private individuals or businesses.

privileges and immunities clause

Prohibits states from abridging certain fundamental rights.

profiling

Practice of using racial or ethnic characteristics to determine whether to investigate.

public discrimination

Discrimination by national, state, or local governments.

rational basis

Lowest standard of review, used when laws discriminate against groups that do not receive strict or heightened scrutiny.

Reconstruction

Period in which the former Confederate states gained readmission to the Union and the federal government passed laws to help the emancipated slaves.

separate-but-equal doctrine

Supreme Court doctrine that upheld segregation as long as there were equivalent facilities for blacks.

state action

Action by a state, as opposed to a private person, that constitutes discrimination and therefore is an equal protection violation.

Stonewall riots

Street protest by gay patrons against police raid at a gay bar in New York, considered to have launched the gay rights movement.

strict scrutiny

Toughest standard of review, used when laws discriminate on account of race, ethnicity, religion, or alienage.

tests

Standards used by the courts to determine whether a law or right has been violated across a range of cases.

Voting Rights Act

Gives the federal government the right to prevent discrimination in voting rights.

white primary

Election rules that prohibited blacks from voting in Democratic primaries.

Women's Rights Project

Litigation group for women's rights formed by the ACLU.

women's suffrage

Movement to grant women the right to vote.