Equal Protection

Documents Decoded

David L. Hudson Jr.

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781440858048
• eBook ISBN: 9798216080695
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Law

This book uses primary sources to closely examine the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and to show how legal interpretations of it have had a profound impact on American life as we know it. The Fourteenth Amendment addresses many aspects of American citizenship, including the rights of citizens. The most commonly used—and frequently litigated—phrase in the amendment is "equal protection of the laws." This phrase has figured prominently in a plethora of landmark cases in U.S. history dealing with a variety of issues, including Brown v. Board of Education (racial discrimination), Roe v. Wade (reproductive rights), Bush v. Gore (election recounts), Reed v. Reed (gender discrimination), University of California v. Bakke (racial quotas in college admissions), and Obergefell v. Hodges (gay marriage). This book closely examines the history and development of the Equal Protection Clause and details the many ways in which it has shaped U.S. history. Selections show how the equal protection clause came into being in the post-Civil War era; feature seminal Supreme Court decisions on the nature and extent of applications of the equal protection clause in American life and law through the years; and include documents that consider the impact that the equal protection clause has had and may have on American society in the 21st century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Senator Howard’s Speech Introducing the Fourteenth Amendment to Congress (May 23, 1866)
• Strauder v. West Virginia (March 1, 1880)
• The Civil Rights Cases (October 15, 1883)
• Yick Wo v. Hopkins (May 10, 1886)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (May 18, 1896)
• Justice Harlan’s “Great Dissent” in Plessy v. Ferguson (May 18, 1896)
• Korematsu v. United States (December 18, 1944)
• Shelley v. Kraemer (May 3, 1948)
• Sweatt v. Painter (June 5, 1950)
• Hernandez v. Texas (May 3, 1954)
• Brown v. Board of Education (May 17, 1954)
• President Johnson’s Commencement Address at Howard University (June 4, 1965)
• Loving v. Virginia (June 12, 1967)
• Graham v. Richardson (June 14, 1971)
• Reed v. Reed (November 22, 1971)
• In re Griffiths (June 25, 1973)
• Washington v. Davis (June 7, 1976)
• Craig v. Boren (December 20, 1976)
• Bakke v. University of California (June 28, 1978)
• Ambach v. Norwick (April 17, 1979)
• Plyler v. Doe (June 15, 1982)
• Batson v. Kentucky (April 30, 1986)
• McCleskey v. Kemp (April 22, 1987)
• Justice Marshall’s Bicentennial Speech (May 6, 1987)
• Romer v. Evans (May 20, 1996)
• United States v. Virginia (June 26, 1996)
• Justice Breyer’s Speech on the 50th Anniversary of the Brown Decision (May 17, 2004)
• Johnson v. California (February 23, 2005)
• Justice Ginsburg’s Speech on Gender Discrimination (February 10, 2006)
• Obergefell v. Hodges (June 26, 2015)
• President Obama’s Statement on the Obergefell Decision (June 26, 2015)
• Timeline of Events
• Further Reading
• Index
• About the Author