Civil Rights in the USA
Civil Liberties – Freedoms enjoyed by individual Americans (e.g.,
Free Speech)
Bill of Rights – First Ten Amendments to the Constitution
Landmark Rulings – SCOTUS judgement that establishes a new legal
principle
Supreme Court – Highest federal Court in the USA, interprets the
Constitution
Civil Rights Movement – Historic Campaign for equal rights for
African-Americans
, “Explain and Analyse three ways in which landmark
rulings of the Supreme Court have protected civil rights
and liberties in the USA”
Brown v Topeka 1954
- Brought to SCOTUS as black children were denied access from the local
‘white school’, and the NAACP supported this legal challenge
- Ruled unanimously that the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine to be
unconstitutional, thus overturning Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
- TISB this resulted in follow up judgements such as the 1955 ruling that
ordered integration of all public schools, transforming the rights of
African-American citizens and ending almost half a century of legal and
systematic segregation
Roe v Wade 1973
- SCOTUS ruled 7-2 that woman in the US had a constitutional right to
unrestricted access to abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment’s ‘Due
Process’ clause, and that Texas had breached the ‘right to privacy’ by
denying Norma McCorvey (‘Roe’) an abortion
- TISB this was a landmark case for the women’s rights movement, giving
women a constitutional right to personal choice regarding their bodies
Yet conservatives criticised these unelected justices for ‘legislating
from the bench’
Overturned in Dobbs v Jackson 2022 though
Obergefell v Hodges 2015
- Maryland recognised James Obergefell’s marriage to his husband yet the
state of Ohio did not
- Like Brown v Topeka, focused on the Fourteenth Amendment’s ‘Due
Process’ Clause and eventually ruled that the right to marry was
constitutional
- TISB this demonstrates a ‘loose constructionist’ approach to interpret the
constitution in the context of modern liberal ideas about sexuality and
equality – yet this horrified many religious groups and conservatives who
viewed marriage as a ‘union between men and women’
“Explain and Analyse three ways in which a civil rights
campaign has had an impact on US Politics”
Civil Liberties – Freedoms enjoyed by individual Americans (e.g.,
Free Speech)
Bill of Rights – First Ten Amendments to the Constitution
Landmark Rulings – SCOTUS judgement that establishes a new legal
principle
Supreme Court – Highest federal Court in the USA, interprets the
Constitution
Civil Rights Movement – Historic Campaign for equal rights for
African-Americans
, “Explain and Analyse three ways in which landmark
rulings of the Supreme Court have protected civil rights
and liberties in the USA”
Brown v Topeka 1954
- Brought to SCOTUS as black children were denied access from the local
‘white school’, and the NAACP supported this legal challenge
- Ruled unanimously that the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine to be
unconstitutional, thus overturning Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
- TISB this resulted in follow up judgements such as the 1955 ruling that
ordered integration of all public schools, transforming the rights of
African-American citizens and ending almost half a century of legal and
systematic segregation
Roe v Wade 1973
- SCOTUS ruled 7-2 that woman in the US had a constitutional right to
unrestricted access to abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment’s ‘Due
Process’ clause, and that Texas had breached the ‘right to privacy’ by
denying Norma McCorvey (‘Roe’) an abortion
- TISB this was a landmark case for the women’s rights movement, giving
women a constitutional right to personal choice regarding their bodies
Yet conservatives criticised these unelected justices for ‘legislating
from the bench’
Overturned in Dobbs v Jackson 2022 though
Obergefell v Hodges 2015
- Maryland recognised James Obergefell’s marriage to his husband yet the
state of Ohio did not
- Like Brown v Topeka, focused on the Fourteenth Amendment’s ‘Due
Process’ Clause and eventually ruled that the right to marry was
constitutional
- TISB this demonstrates a ‘loose constructionist’ approach to interpret the
constitution in the context of modern liberal ideas about sexuality and
equality – yet this horrified many religious groups and conservatives who
viewed marriage as a ‘union between men and women’
“Explain and Analyse three ways in which a civil rights
campaign has had an impact on US Politics”
