Overview: Chapter 5

Equal Rights: Struggling Toward Fairness 

Chapter Goals
The chapter addresses the following goals:

• Distinguish between civil liberties and civil rights, and determine whether constitutional devices intended to provide equality under the law have been successful.
• Describe the impact and evolving interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment on individual equality.
• Detail the provisions of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1964, and describe the debate over and current state of affirmative action.
• Distinguish among reasonable basis, strict scrutiny, and intermediate (or almost suspect) scrutiny, and comment on the implicit assumptions about appropriate means and ends that underlie each.
• Trace the development of measures to promote racial equality in America, concentrating on the most significant milestones and analyzing the actions that proved necessary in order to achieve them.
• Discuss the similarities and differences among the dilemmas faced, strategies implemented, and rewards gained by the respective struggles for African Americans, women, and other historically disadvantaged groups in the United States.

Focus and Main Points
The focus of this chapter is on civil rights and equality. All individuals have the right of equal protection of the laws and equal access to society’s opportunities and public facilities. This chapter examines the major laws relating to equality, and the conditions that led to their adoption. The chapter concludes with a brief look at some of the continuing challenges facing America’s historically disadvantaged groups.

The chapter emphasizes these points:

• Americans have attained substantial equality under the law. In purely legal terms, although not always in practice, they have equal protection under the laws, equal access to accommodations and housing, and an equal right to vote.
• Legal equality for all Americans has not resulted in de facto equality. African Americans, women, Hispanic Americans, and other traditionally disadvantaged groups have a disproportionately small share of America’s opportunities and benefits. However, the issue of what, if anything, government should do to deal with this problem is a major source of contention.
• Disadvantaged groups have had to struggle for equal rights. African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and a number of other groups have had to fight for their rights in order to achieve a fuller measure of equality.

Chapter Outline
I.   Equality through Law

1. The Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection
2. 1. 1. Segregation in the Schools
      2. Judicial Tests of Equal Protection
      3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
   2. 1. 1. The Black Civil Rights Movement
         2. The Movement for Women’s Rights
         3. Hispanic Americans and the Farm Workers’ Strikes
         4. Native Americans and Their Long-Delayed Rights
         5. Asian Americans and Immigration
         6. The Voting Rights Act of 1965
            D.   The Civil Rights Act of 1968
            E.   Affirmative Action
         7. The Continuing Struggle for Equality
         8. African Americans
            B.   Women
            C.   Native Americans
            D.   Hispanic Americans
            E.   Asian Americans
            F.   Gays and Lesbians
            G.   Other Disadvantaged Groups

III.   Discrimination: Surface Differences, Deep Divisions

Chapter Summary
During the past half-century, the United States has undergone a revolution in the legal status of its traditionally disadvantaged groups, including African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. Such groups are now provided equal protection under the law in areas such as education, employment, and voting. Discrimination by race, sex, and ethnicity has not been eliminated from American life, but it is no longer substantially backed by the force of law. This advance was achieved against strong resistance from established interests, which only begrudgingly and slowly responded to demands for equality in law.

Traditionally disadvantaged Americans have achieved fuller equality primarily as a result of their struggle for greater rights. The Supreme Court has been an instrument of change for disadvantaged groups. Its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), in which racial segregation in public schools was declared a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause, was a major breakthrough in equal rights. Through its affirmative action and other rulings, such as those providing equal access to the vote, the Court has also mandated the active promotion of social, political, and economic equality. However, because civil rights policy involves large issues concerned with social values and the distribution of society’s opportunities and benefits, questions of civil rights are inherently contentious. For this reason, legislatures and executives have been deeply involved in such issues. The history of civil rights includes landmark legislation, such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.

In more recent decades, civil rights issues have receded from the prominence they enjoyed during the 1960s. The scope of affirmative action programs has narrowed, and the use of forced busing to achieve racial integration in America’s public schools has been nearly eliminated. At the same time, new issues have emerged, including the question of whether same-sex couples will have the same rights as opposite-sex couples.

The legal gains of disadvantaged groups over the past half-century have not been matched by material gains. Although progress in areas such as education, income, and health care have been made, it has been slow. Tradition, prejudice, and the sheer difficulty of social, economic, and political progress stand as formidable obstacles to achieving a more equal America.

Overview: Chapter 3

Federalism: Forging a Nation 

Chapter Goals
The chapter addresses the following goals:

• Define federalism and describe the bargaining process at the Philadelphia convention resulting in its inception.
• Specify the differences among enumerated, implied, and reserved powers. Explain the purpose underlying this distribution of power.
• Distinguish among the “necessary and proper,” supremacy, and commerce clauses, explaining how their constitutional interpretations have affected the division of powers in American government.
• Outline the different stages in the Supreme Court’s interpretation of federalism, referring to its major decisions and their significance.
• Describe the causes behind the rise in nationalism, such as the nature of interdependency and the cooperative federalism that has resulted.
• Outline the aspects of fiscal federalism, including the types of grants-in-aid and the influence they can bear on behalf of the federal government.
• Explain the causes behind the devolution movement of the latter decades of the twentieth century, and describe the recent developments that have brought about an end to the devolution trend.

Focus and Main Points
The author focuses on the issue of federalism: its creation through the Constitution, its evolution during the nation’s history, and its current status.

The main points presented in the chapter are these:

• The power of government must be equal to its responsibilities. The Constitution was needed because the nation’s preceding system (under the Articles of Confederation) was too weak to accomplish its expected goals, particularly those of a strong defense and an integrated economy.
• Federalism—the Constitution’s division of governing authority between two levels, nation and states—was the result of political bargaining. Federalism was not a theoretical principle, but rather a compromise made necessary in 1787 by the prior existence of the states.
• Federalism is not a fixed principle for allocating power between the national and state governments, but rather a principle that has changed over time in response to political needs and partisan ideology. Federalism has passed through several distinct stages in the course of the nation’s history.
• Contemporary federalism tilts toward national authority, reflecting the increased interdependence of American society.

Chapter Outline
I.   Federalism: National and State Sovereignty

1. The Argument for Federalism
   1. 1.  Protecting Liberty
      2.  Moderating the Power of Government
      3. The Powers of the Nation and States
      1. 1. Enumerated Powers and the Supremacy Clause
         2. Implied Powers: The Necessary and Proper Clause
         3. Reserved Powers: The States’ Authority
         4. Federalism in Historical Perspective
         5. An Indestructible Union (1789-1865)
         1. 1. The Nationalist View: McCulloch v. Maryland
            2. The States’ Rights View: The Dred Scott Decision
            3. Dual Federalism and Laissez-Faire Capitalism (1865-1937)
            1. 1. The Fourteenth Amendment and State Discretion
               2. Judicial Protection of Business
               3. National Authority Prevails

III.   Contemporary Federalism (Since 1937)

1. Interdependency and Intergovernmental Relations
   B.   Government Revenues and Intergovernmental Relations

1. 1. 1.  Fiscal Federalism
      2.  Categorical and Block Grants
      3. Devolution
      1. 1. The Republican Revolution
         2. The Supreme Court’s Contribution to Devolution
         3. Nationalization, the More Powerful Force
         4. The Public’s Influence: Setting the Boundaries of Federal-State Power

Chapter Summary
A foremost characteristic of the American political system is its division of authority between a national government and state governments. The first U.S. government, established by the Articles of Confederation, was essentially a union of the states.

In establishing the basis for a stronger national government, the U.S. Constitution also made provision for safeguarding state interests. The result was the creation of a federal system in which sovereignty was vested in both national and state governments. The Constitution enumerates the general powers of the national government and grants it implied powers through the “necessary and proper” clause. Other powers are reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment.

From 1789 to 1865, the nation’s survival was at issue. The states found it convenient at times to argue that their sovereignty took precedence over national authority. In the end, it took the Civil War to cement the idea that the United States was a union of people, not of states. From 1865 to 1937, federalism reflected the doctrine that certain policy areas were the exclusive responsibility of the national government, whereas responsibility in other policy areas belonged exclusively to the states. This constitutional position validated the laissez-faire doctrine that big business was largely beyond governmental control. It also allowed the states to discriminate against African Americans in their public policies.

Federalism in a form recognizable today began to emerge in the 1930s. In the areas of commerce, taxation, spending, civil rights, and civil liberties, among others, the federal government now plays an important role, one that is the inevitable consequence of the increasing complexity of American society and the interdependence of its people. National, state, and local officials now work closely together to solve the nation’s problems, a situation known as cooperative federalism. Grants-in-aid from Washington to the states and localities have been the chief instrument of national influence. States and localities have received billions in federal assistance; in accepting federal money, they also have accepted both federal restrictions on its use and the national policy priorities that underlie the granting of the money.

Throughout the nation’s history, the public through its demands on government has influenced the boundaries between federal and state power. The devolutionary trend of the 1990s, for example, was sparked by Americans’ sense that a rollback in federal power was desirable, whereas the subsequent expansion of federal power has been a response to Americans’ concerns about terrorism and economic recovery.