equal protection clause

Examples of equal protection clause in the following topics:

• Two Judicial Revolutions: The Rehnquist Court and the Roberts Court

  • Under this view of federalism, the Supreme Court, for the first time since the 1930s, struck down an Act of Congress as exceeding federal power under the Commerce Clause.
  • Gore, the case that effectively ended the presidential election controversy in Florida, that the Equal Protection Clause barred a standard-less manual recount of the votes as ordered by the Florida Supreme Court.
  • The Rehnquist Court's congruence and proportionality standard made it easier to revive older precedents preventing Congress from going too far in enforcing equal protection of the laws.

• Privacy Rights and Sexuality

  • Hodges, the court said a fundamental right to marry is guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, therefore the laws banning such marriages in 14 states were unconstitutional.
  • It specifically refers to the protection of the rights of people of diverse sexual orientations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people (although it is equally applicable to heterosexuality).
  • Identify the legal cases and national legislation that protects people on the grounds of sexual orientation

• Brown v. Board of Education and School Integration

  • Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. " As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S.
  • The plaintiffs argued that systematic racial segregation, while seeming to provide separate but equal treatment of both white and black Americans, instead perpetuated inferior accommodations, services, and treatment for black Americans.
  • Eventually, the key decision of the Court was that even if segregated black and white schools were of equal quality in facilities and teachers, segregation by itself was socially and psychologically harmful to black students and, therefore, unconstitutional.
  • This aspect was vital because the question was not whether the schools were "equal," which under Plessy they nominally should have been, but whether the doctrine of separate was constitutional.

• The Rights of the Accused

  • The Act provided that all persons should have "full and equal enjoyment of ... inns, public conveyances on land or water, theatres, and other places of public amusement. " In its opinion, the Court promulgated what has since become known as the "state action doctrine," which limits the guarantees of the equal protection clause only to acts done or otherwise "sanctioned in some way" by the state.
  • They are fundamentally civil and political in nature, as well as strongly individualistic: They serve negatively to protect the individual from the excesses of the state.
  • Civil and political rights are not codified to be protected, although most democracies worldwide do have formal written guarantees of civil and political rights.
  • United States criminal procedure derives from several sources of law: the baseline protections of the United States Constitution, federal and state statutes, federal and state rules of criminal procedure (such as the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure), and state and federal case law either interpreting the foregoing or deriving from inherent judicial supervisory authority.
  • Due to the incorporation of the Bill of Rights, all of these provisions apply equally to criminal proceedings in state courts, with the exception of the Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Vicinage Clause of the Sixth Amendment, and (maybe) the Excessive Bail Clause of the Eighth Amendment.

• The Establishment Clause: Separation of Church and State

  • The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. " Together with the Free Exercise Clause ("... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"), these two clauses make up what are called the "religion clauses" of the First Amendment.
  • Incorporation of the Establishment Clause in 1947 has been tricky and subject to much more critique than incorporation of the Free Exercise Clause.
  • Critics have also argued that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is understood to incorporate only individual rights found in the Bill of Rights; the Establishment Clause, unlike the Free Exercise Clause (which critics readily concede protects individual rights), does not purport to protect individual rights.
  • One main question of the Establishment Clause is: does government financial assistance to religious groups violate the Establishment Clause?
  • Distinguish the Establishment Clause from other clauses of the First Amendment

• Promoting the General Welfare

  • In many constitutions, the general welfare clause has been used as a basis for promoting the well-being of the governed people.
  • Article IV of the Constitution of Massachusetts provides authority for the state to make laws "as they shall judge to be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth. " The actual phrase "general welfare" appears only in Article CXVI, which permits the imposition of capital punishment for "the purpose of protecting the general welfare of the citizens. "
  • The Preamble of the United States Constitution states that the Union was established "to promote the general Welfare. " The Taxing and Spending Clause is the clause that gives the federal government of the United States its power of taxation.
  • There have been different interpretations of the meaning of the General Welfare clause.
  • Illustrate how the General Welfare clause of the Constitution is applied to public policy

• The Free Exercise Clause: Freedom of Religion

  • The Free Exercise Clause is the accompanying clause with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  • The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause together read:" Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
  • The Supreme Court upheld Reynolds' conviction for bigamy, deciding that to do otherwise would provide constitutional protection for a gamut of religious beliefs, including those as extreme as human sacrifice.
  • This interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause continued into the 1960s.
  • Describe how the interpretation of the Free Exercise clause has changed over time.

• The Supremacy Clause

  • The Supremacy Clause established the U.S.
  • Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S.
  • Two sections of the essays deal with the Supremacy Clause, in which Alexander Hamilton argues that the Supremacy Clause is simply an assurance that the government's powers can be properly executed.
  • The Court found this Virginia statute inconsistent with the Treaty of Paris with Britain, which protected the rights of British creditors.
  • Discuss how the Supremacy Clause shapes the relationship between federal and state law.

• Congress

  • Two constitutional clauses, the Constitution and Foreign Commerce Clause and the War Power Clause, give Congress foreign policy powers.
  • Perhaps the most important powers are in the War Power Clause which was given to Congress in the Constitution and Foreign Commerce Clause.
  • This clause provides Congress with the power to regulate commerce overseas.
  • The Commerce Clause in the Constitution also give Congress the power to regulate trade between nations.
  • The Commerce Clause is an enumerated list in the United States Constitution.

• The Civil War Amendments

  • The Civil War Amendments protected equality for emancipated slaves by banning slavery, defining citizenship, and ensuring voting rights.
  • Known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, they were designed to ensure the equality for recently emancipated slaves.
  • The first clause asserted that anyone born or naturalized in the U.S. is a citizen of the U.S. and of the state in which they live.
  • While the amendment provided legal protection for voting rights based on race there were other means that could be used to block Black citizens from voting.