Equal Protection and Civil Rights
Analyze equal protection, voting rights, affirmative action, anti-discrimination law, and major civil rights cases.
A lesson of AP United States Government and Politics, in Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, about 10 minutes.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain the Equal Protection Clause, describe the three tiers of judicial scrutiny, and analyze landmark civil rights cases.
The Equal Protection Clause
14th Amendment (1868): "No State shall...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Original purpose: protect formerly enslaved people from discriminatory state laws after the Civil War.
Modern application: the broadest civil rights provision in the Constitution; the basis for challenges to discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, age, disability, and more.
Three Tiers of Scrutiny
The level of scrutiny courts apply depends on what the law classifies:
Rational basis review: for ordinary laws; the law need only be rationally related to a legitimate government interest. Courts almost never strike these down.
Intermediate scrutiny: for sex/gender discrimination; the law must be substantially related to an important government interest. United States v. Virginia (1996) struck down VMI's male-only policy.
Strict scrutiny: for race, national origin, or fundamental rights; the law must be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. Courts almost always strike these down.
"Suspect classifications" (race, national origin) trigger strict scrutiny because they are:
- Based on an immutable characteristic
- Bear no relationship to the ability to contribute to society
- Have been used to discriminate historically
Key Equal Protection Cases
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): "Separate but equal" — upheld racial segregation; equality does not require integration.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954): overturned Plessy; "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Used social science evidence that segregation caused psychological harm.
Loving v. Virginia (1967): Virginia's ban on interracial marriage violates Equal Protection and Due Process. Race is a suspect classification.
Reed v. Reed (1971): first case to use Equal Protection to strike down sex discrimination (in estate administration).