WHAT IS EQUAL?SESSION 2:

LAST TIME …

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.”

- Abraham Lincoln

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 […] DENY TO ANY PERSON WITHIN ITS JURISDICTION THE EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS.

EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW

PROTECTED CLASSES: •SUSPECT CLASS •QUASI-SUSPECT CLASS

BRADWELL V. THE STATE (1872)

STRAUDER V. WEST VIRGINIA (1880)

CIVIL RIGHTS CASES (1883)

SANTA CLARA COUNTY V. SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY (1886)

YICK WO V. HOPKINS (1886)

“These provisions are universal in their application to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction, without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality, and the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws.”

PLESSY V. FERGUSON, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)

CUMMING V. RICHMOND COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION (1899)

MISSOURI EX REL. GAINES V. CANADA, (1938)

WORLD WAR II

THURGOOD MARSHALL

BROWN V. BOARD (1954)

BROWN V. BOARD II (1954)

"WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED"

LOVING V. VIRGINIA, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)

2010:

9.4% OF WHITES 17.1% OF BLACKS

25.7% OF HISPANICS AND 27.7% OF ASIANS

TIERS OF SCRUTINY

PROTECTED CLASSES: •SUSPECT CLASS •QUASI-SUSPECT CLASS

STRICT SCRUTINY

KOREMATSU V. UNITED STATES, 323 U.S. 214 (1944)

RATIONAL BASIS REVIEW

INTERMEDIATE SCRUTINY

U.S. Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence Course Materials by Lakshmi Gopal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.