1. Critical Thinking Question
Is there ever a circumstance in which the government should be allowed to treat people differently based upon ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, age, etc? Explain your reasoning.

2. Equal Protection of the Law
Unit 6

3. 14th Amendment
Forbids any state to deny to any person the equal protection of the law
Government cannot make unreasonable distinctions among different groups of people
Taxes on cigarettes
Whether a distinction or classification the government is making is “reasonable” or “unreasonable” is where 14th Amendment questions are made

4. Rational Basis Test Supreme Courts asks themselves
Is the classification “reasonably related” to the goal of government?
Wisconsin v. Mitchell
Supreme court held up a state law that made criminals who commit “hate crimes” serve longer sentences.

5. Hate Crimes Discussion
Is prosecuting someone for committing a hate crime the same as prosecuting someone for their thoughts?
Should this be allowed in America?

6. Rise Against Video

7. 2 Exception to the Rational Basis Test
Suspect Classification
Fundamental Rights

8. Suspect Classification
If the classification is based upon “race, ethnicity, or national origin” then the supreme court is going to be really strict.
Only ok if the state shows, “some compelling public interest.”

9. Fundamental Rights Fundamental Rights cannot be violated
Right to travel freely between states
Right to vote
First Amendment Rights

10. Critical Thinking Question
If you invent a test and one group of people perform better on it than another, is that discrimination?

11. Proving Intent to Discriminate
Discrimination
When individuals are treated unfairly solely because of their race, gender, ethnic group, age, physical disability, religion, or sexual orientation.

12. Showing Intent to Discriminate
Washington v. David
To prove a state guilty of discrimination, one must prove that it was the state’s intention to discriminate when it took it’s action.

13. Struggle for Equal Rights
From 1860 to the 1950s the Supreme Court upheld laws that discriminated against race
Plessey v. Ferguson (1896)
Made segregation legal
Separate but equal doctrine
Allowed for separate facilities for different races as long as those facilities were equal
Dissenting Opinion
“I deny that any legislative body or judicial tribunal may have regard to the race of citizens when the civil rights of those citizsens are involved Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law” – Justice John Marshal Harlan, 1896
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Established that Separate was NOT equal and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson

14. Civil Rights Movement
Since the Brown v. Board of Education decision many African Americans and whites have come together to end racial discrimination and segregation
Dr. Martin Luther King
Malcolm X
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Equal voting rights and job opportunities
Affirmative Action – adopted per state
Business and government are required to hire minorities based upon local population percentages