The United States has a lengthy history of welcoming immigrants from throughout the world and ultimately naturalizing and conferring citizenship to them. Yet, a number of indigenous and people of color never consented to citizenship and many still do not wish to have it. This article explores the role of citizenship as a tool to not only…

Good research does not mean good policy, but policy or legal conclusions that rely on false assumptions are certain to be bad. When the rights of U.S. students of color are at stake, the Supreme Courts need the best research findings the country can offer. The U.S. Constitution contains sweeping and undefined terms. Reaching a conclusion about the…

Recent reports on discrimination in private schools have led some observers to decry the fact that private and charter schools receiving public tax dollars selectively exclude some populations from both employment and enrollment; others, however, note that in these and similar instances the schools have broken no laws. Both may be right. How can…

The Constitution is a living document whose meaning was not fixed forever at the Philadelphia Convention. Focuses on the slavery compromise and the Fourteenth Amendment to demonstrate defects of the document and its promising evolution through 200 years of American history. (PS)

The history of the Fourteenth Amendment is reviewed from the time it was added to the Constitution of the United States in 1868. (MC)

When asked by Thurgood Marshall during the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case to join a team of scholars to answer questions posed by the U.S. Supreme Court about the intent of the framers of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, Dr. John Hope Franklin didn't hesitate to accept. This document contains personal accounts of the famous…

In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 82-352. This civil rights act forbade hiring, promoting, and firing discrimination based on sex or race. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to implement the law. Subsequent legislation expanded the role of the EEOC. Today, the EEOC enforces laws that prohibit…

Traces the origin of affirmative action from Reconstruction and the Fourteenth Amendment through the emergence in case law of legal definitions of quotas and the development of the modern concept of affirmative action. The current legal status of affirmative action employment programs, their effectiveness, and future prospects are commented upon.…

On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas." State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was declared a violation of the 14th Amendment and was unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the…

Incorporates material from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's into the high school curriculum as part of a unit on the Reconstruction Era. Discusses the background and passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the beginning of Jim Crow laws as precursors to the Civil Rights Movement. (KO)

The relation between the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the provisions of the Bill of Rights or the first 10 Constitutional amendments is discussed. (RM)

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a state law compelling a child's attendance at a public school constitutes a violation of the parent's liberty interest under the 14th amendment. In Canada, however, courts have held that their equivalent to the 14th amendment does not encompass the liberty of parents to choose how to educate their children.…

The 50th anniversary of the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" provides an opportunity to trace the origin of "Brown" and the long journey by African Americans to achieve quality elementary and secondary education in this country. This journey began with passage of the Fourteenth…

Examines the Supreme Court's historical treatment of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment to better understand the meaning of the Constitution's founding. That the Constitution does not offer an absolute protection is supported by analyzing a broad outline of the Constitution and several court cases involving due process. (TRS)

On May 17, 2004, the United States will observe the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. By invalidating the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the field of public education, a doctrine that had been approved by the same court nearly sixty years earlier in Plessy…