How can the 14th amendment be applied to civil rights

The Court rules, however, that the law does not violate either amendment. A Georgia law establishes a primary voting system in which the popular vote of each county determines which candidate wins that county. Each county is then assigned a certain number of unit votes and the winner of the most unit votes wins the election. Because urban counties have many more voters than rural counties, some saw equating the votes of the two counties as unfair. Because each rural voter would have the same impact as several urban voters, the rural voters had a much larger impact on the outcome of the election.

In South v. Supreme Court allows the law, saying that the problem is a political one that should be left to the state government. In Hernandez v. Texas , the U. In a unanimous decision, the U. Supreme Court overturns its ruling in Plessy v. In Brown v. Board of Education , the Court finds that the doctrine of separate but equal has no place in public schools.

It holds that schools that are racially segregated are inherently unequal. In Chandler v. Fretag , the defendant said he did not want an attorney when he appeared in court to plead guilty to a charge of breaking and entering.

At that time, he was told for the first time that he faced a sentence of life in prison because of his criminal record. He requested a delay so he could consult a lawyer on the habitual criminal charge, but his request was denied. In response to a federal court order to integrate schools, Gov. The students are taken through a side door, angering protesters.

Fearing an out-of-control mob, authorities remove the students. Two days later, the students enter the school under the protection of the st Airborne Division, ordered there by President Dwight Eisenhower.

The first civil rights law enacted since , the Civil Rights Act of authorizes creation of a Civil Rights Division and a Civil Rights Commission to enforce all federal civil rights laws, to coordinate the enforcement of civil rights, and to investigate complaints of civil rights violations.

In , the Civil Rights Act penalizes any person who prevents another individual from registering to vote or voting. Alabama , the U. In Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections , the U. Finding that the rule is consistent with the 14th, 15th and 17th Amendments, the Court rules that the states have long been held to have broad powers to determine the conditions under which voting rights may be exercised. Although the Court notes that state standards cannot be discriminatory or go against any restriction that Congress has imposed, it finds that states may reasonably impose requirements based on residence, age, and criminal record.

Similarly, the Court holds, a state may consider the ability to read and write in determining the qualifications of voters. Building on its earlier decision in Baker v. Carr and reversing South v.

Peters , the U. Supreme Court in Gray v. Because each rural voter would have the same impact as several urban voters, the rural voters had a much larger impact on the outcome of the election than urban voters.

Writing for the majority of the Court, Justice William O. Douglas finds that this policy violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In Gideon v.

Wainwright , the U. Supreme Court unanimously extends to state court trials the rule it established for federal court trials nearly 30 years earlier in Johnson v. In , in Argersinger v. Hamlin , the Court will extend the Gideon rule to defendants charged with a misdemeanor and facing jail time.

In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States , the owners of a large motel in Atlanta, Ga. The hotel owners says Congress does not have the power to prohibit racial discrimination in places of public accommodation because neither the 13th, 14th, nor the 15th Amendment authorizes Congress to regulate private action.

The owners also argue that the commerce clause the phrase in the Constitution that gives Congress the power to regulate business transactions across state lines does not include behavior such as this. In a companion case, Katzenbach v. McClung , restaurant owners challenge the power to prohibit discrimination in their establishments.

Relying on its decision in Heart of Atlanta Motel , the U. Supreme Court upholds the Civil Rights Act finding that restaurants participate in interstate commerce.

In Kent v. United States , the U. Supreme Court rules that juvenile offenders are entitled to a full hearing before their criminal case can be transferred from the juvenile justice system to the adult justice system.

In so doing, the Court recognizes that juveniles accused of a crime need as many procedural protections in the justice system as adults do. The Court reaffirms this idea two years later, in another case involving the due process rights of a juvenile facing a sentence in a detention facility. In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections , the U. Supreme Court overrules its decision in Breedlove v.

Suttles , declaring that the use of a poll tax at state elections is unconstitutional. As a result of this ruling and the earlier passage of the 24th Amendment, poll taxes cannot be used in either federal or state elections. In Elfbrandt v. Russell , the U. Supreme Court invalidates an Arizona law requiring state employees to take a loyalty oath. Anyone who took the oath and then became a member of the Communist Party or any other group that advocated the violent overthrow of the government could be prosecuted for perjury and fired.

The Court says the law violates the due process clause by infringing on the right of free association. The Court holds that the law is too broad by punishing a person who joins a group that has both legal and illegal purposes but does not subscribe to the illegal purpose. Supreme Court decides In re Gault , holding that juveniles possess the standard constitutional guarantees of due process.

Previously, the juvenile justice system withheld constitutional protections routinely afforded adults. Reed gender discrimination , and University of California v.

Bakke racial quotas in education. See more All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age , and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. Section 1 All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Section 2 Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. Section 3 No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

Section 4 The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. Section 5 The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

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Educational Video Voting Rights Amendments Advanced Level In this session, students learn about voting rights in America through a historical exploration of the right to vote in America.