1. Chapter 7: Our Living Constitution

2. Our Living Constitution  Think of the Constitution as a “flexible document” that can be changed  What are some of the new forms of technology that have been created in your lifetime? How have these inventions changed our laws?

3. 7.1 Changing the Law of the Land  Debate over the issue of slavery begins at the Constitutional convention  Three-fifths compromise gives an unfair advantage to the Southern states in Congress  Missouri Compromise (1820) divides any new states into “slave” or “free” territories

4. Dred Scott Case (1857)  Dred Scott was a slave whose owner took him to Illinois & Wisconsin  Argued that he was now a free man  Supreme Court stated that slaves were considered property so Dred Scott was not free

5. Ending Slavery  Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation in July 1863  Thirteenth Amendment (1865): abolishes slavery

6. African Americans and the Right to Vote  Fourteenth Amendment: grants citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. & “equal protection of the laws”  Fifteenth Amendment: guarantees everyone (i.e. all men) the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

7. The Right to Vote Continued...  Most African Americans still had to take literacy tests in order to vote  Most African Americans also had to pay a fee in order to vote (poll tax)  Grandfather clause: poor white men could avoid taking the test or paying the tax if their grandfather had voted in previous elections

8. The Right to Vote Continued...  Suffrage (franchise): the right to vote  Twenty-fourth amendment (1964): declared poll taxes illegal  Civil Rights Act of 1964: declared segregation illegal in all public places  Voting Rights Act of 1965: banned all literacy tests

9. Women and the Right to Vote  Women’s Rights Convention held in New York in 1848  Convention led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott  Write the Declaration of Sentiments  19 th Amendment (1920) gives women the right to vote

10. Youth and the Right to Vote  Many soldiers fighting in WWII, Korea & Vietnam were 18-20 yrs. old (but couldn’t vote)  26 th Amendment (1971) gave all eighteen year-olds the right to vote

11. The Twenty-Seventh Amendment  Passed in 1993  If members of Congress vote to increase their salaries, they will receive the pay raise AFTER the next election

12. 7.2 The Constitution: A Flexible Framework  The role of the Supreme Court is to determine whether the Constitution has been followed by the Gov’t and its citizens

13. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)  Homer Plessy, a black man, refused to leave the “whites only” railroad car  Plessy argued that segregation in Louisiana was illegal  Decision established the “separate but equal” doctrine

14. The NAACP  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People  Organization that opposed segregation, especially in schools  In the 1950s, led by lawyer, Thurgood Marshall

15. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)  Linda Brown lived only 7 blocks away from the all- white school but 21 blocks from the all-black school  Black children meant to feel inferior and white children felt superior  Overturned the “separate but equal” clause & bans segregation in schools

16. Affirmative Action  Definition: steps to counteract the effects of past racial discrimination and discrimination against women (applied also to colleges & universities  Some people feel that this leads to discrimination against white males (i.e. reverse discrimination)

17. University of California v. Bakke (1978)  University of California Medical School denied Allan Bakke admission in 1974  School reserved spots for various minority groups  Bakke claimed he was a victim of reverse discrimination  Court ruled that race could only be one of the factors considered for application

18. Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)  University of Michigan used a 150- point scale for all undergraduate applicants  Minority students were given 20 bonus points whereas a perfect SAT score was 12 points  Jennifer Gratz, a white student, claimed reverse discrimination  Supreme Court found the admission system unconstitutional

19. Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation (1971)  Ida Phillips interviewed for a corporate job in Florida  Phillips didn’t get the job because she had two pre-school age children  She sued for discrimination and won– the court found one hiring policy for women and one for men unconstitutional