Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Difficulty Level: Easy
83. __________ rights are defined as those that are explicitly or implicitly guaranteed
by the Constitution.
Topic: Equal Protection of the Laws: What Does It Mean?
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Analyze the Supreme Court’s three-tiered
approach used to evaluate discriminatory laws.
Page Reference: 461
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Difficulty Level: Easy
84. In 1964, Congress passed the __________ to help keep the promise of the
Fourteenth Amendment.
Topic: The Quest for Equal Justice
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Compare and contrast the efforts of various
groups to obtain equal protection of the law.
Page Reference: 451
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Difficulty Level: Easy
85. __________ programs are designed to help remedy continued inequality by
giving special treatment to members of previously discriminated-against groups.
Topic: Education Rights
Learning Objective: LO 15.6: Evaluate the historical process of school
integration and the current state of affirmative action.
Page Reference: 467 – 468
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Difficulty Level: Easy
86. To make it hard for poor blacks to vote without falling afoul of the Fifteenth
Amendment, many southern states required citizens to pay __________, which
disproportionately disenfranchised African Americans.
Topic: Voting Rights
533
Learning Objective: LO 15.4: Trace the evolution of voting rights and analyze
the protections provided by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Page Reference: 462
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
87. Critics argue that the Supreme Court’s decision in Korematsu v. United States
infringed on the civil rights of __________.
Topic: The Quest for Equal Justice
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Compare and contrast the efforts of various
groups to obtain equal protection of the law.
Page Reference: 456
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
88. The constitutionality of a law establishing a public elementary school open only
to African American students from poor neighborhoods would be determined by
the Supreme Court’s application of the __________ standard of review.
Topic: Equal Protection of the Laws: What Does It Mean?
Learning Objective: LO 15.3: Analyze the Supreme Court’s three-tiered
approach used to evaluate discriminatory laws.
Page Reference: 457
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
89. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision in Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke, an affirmative action program that uses racial __________
would likely be deemed unconstitutional.
Topic: Education Rights
Learning Objective: LO 15.6: Evaluate the historical process of school
integration and the current state of affirmative action.
Page Reference: 468
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
90. Another name for __________ is human rights, since they are the rights that
belong to all people regardless of citizenship.
534
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 446
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Short Answer Questions
91. According to the Supreme Court decisions in Bakke, Gratz, and Grutter, what
sorts of affirmative action programs for admission to public universities are
permissible, and what sorts are not?
1. Describe how Regents v. Bakke struck down the use of numerical quotas
in affirmative action programs, but was not clear about what sorts of
programs would be acceptable.
2. Describe how the two University of Michigan cases supported the idea
that affirmative action programs can be permissible to achieve racial
diversity, which serves a legitimate educational purpose. However, race
can be used as only one of many factors, and the university cannot assign
specific points based on race.
Topic: Education Rights
Learning Objective: LO 15.6: Evaluate the historical process of school
integration and the current state of affirmative action.
Page Reference: 468 – 469
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
92. How have the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1967 Age Discrimination Act, and the
1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) reduced workplace discrimination?
Discuss each act and how it has helped to achieve civil rights in the workplace.
1. Describe how the 1964 Civil Rights Act not only requires equal access
in public accommodations but also bars discrimination in employment
under Title VII of the act, making it illegal for most employers and trade
unions to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion,
or sex.
2. Discuss how the 1967 Age Discrimination Act provides statutory
protection against discrimination in employment based on age, even
though the Supreme Court has not been willing to review such cases with
either the strict scrutiny or the heightened scrutiny standard.
3. Detail that the 1990 ADA not only provides protection against
discrimination to Americans with disabilities but also mandates that all
public buildings and transportation be accessible to those with disabilities.
Topic: Rights to Equal Access: Accommodations, Jobs, and Homes
Learning Objective: LO 15.5: Describe congressional legislation against
discrimination in housing, employment, and accommodations.
Page Reference: 464
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
93. What organizations have protested discrimination against Native Americans?
What issues have been addressed? What kinds of problems do American Indians
still face?
1. Note that the American Indian Movement and the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) have both fought to protect Native American
civil rights.
2. Describe how these groups have protested discrimination against Native
Americans in housing, employment, health care, and farming, and have
fought for equal treatment of Native American students in the public
schools.
3. Discuss the issues the group still faces: unemployment on reservations,
which continues to be about 50 percent; lack of adequate health care
facilities, schools, and housing on some reservations; obtaining
compensation for past injustices and more opportunities for tribal
independence; and the need for greater vigilance in enforcing Indian treaty
rights.
Topic: The Quest for Equal Justice
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Compare and contrast the efforts of various
groups to obtain equal protection of the law.
Page Reference: 456
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
94. What are civil rights? What are natural rights? How are both sets of rights
protected by the Constitution, either explicitly or implicitly?
536
1. Define civil rights as the rights of all people to be free from irrational
discrimination such as that based on race, religion, sex, or ethnic origin.
2. Identify natural rights, also called human rights, as the rights of all
people to dignity and worth.
3. Explain that the Constitution protects civil rights by protecting people
from abuse by the government, and by granting national and state
governments the power to ensure that people are not abused by their
fellow citizens.
4. Discuss how the Framers of the Constitution believed that all men are
entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and thus they created a
system of government designed to protect these natural rights, which
means that all people have an equal right to protection from arbitrary
treatment and to the liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 444, 446
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
95. Describe the techniques used in the South prior to the 1965 Voting Rights Act to
prevent African Americans from voting. Since 1965, controversy has existed over
whether legislatures can consider race in drawing electoral district lines. What has
the Supreme Court said on this subject?
1. Describe the techniques used, including poll taxes; literacy tests, in
which African Americans were asked much more difficult questions than
whites; whites-only primaries; racial gerrymandering, which was drawing
election districts to ensure African Americans would be in a minority in all
districts; and intimidation and violence.
2. Explain that the Supreme Court has ruled that race can be considered by
legislatures when drawing electoral districts to increase the voting strength
of minorities, but it cannot be the sole or predominant reason for drawing
district lines; states must provide for districts that are roughly proportional
to the minority voters’ respective shares in the voting-age population.
Topic: Voting Rights
Learning Objective: LO 15.4: Trace the evolution of voting rights and analyze
the protections provided by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Page Reference: 461 – 462
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
537
96. Make an argument for interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment as supporting the
right of gays and lesbians to get married to their same-sex partners.
1. Identify the most relevant provision of the Fourteenth Amendment as
the equal protection clause or the due process clause.
2. Make an argument that the equal protection clause or the due process
clause prohibits marriage discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The equal protection argument is that gays, lesbians, and heterosexuals
should have an equal right to get married to the person they love. The due
process argument is that the government cannot deny people their civil
liberties without due process of law and that the right to marry the person
one loves is a fundamental civil liberty. Therefore, the government cannot
deny the right of gays and lesbians to marry whom they choose.
Topic: Equal Protection of the Laws: What Does It Mean?
1. Identify the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, which ended segregation
in public accommodations, and the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965,
which declared illegal the various devices used in the South to keep
African Americans from voting.
2. Evaluate whether the federal government might need to intervene in the
future. Answers will vary, but an ideal response will recognize that
because of de facto discrimination, problems for African Americans still
exist in American society (e.g., because of segregation in housing, affluent
Topic: Voting Rights; Rights to Equal Access: Accommodations, Jobs, and
Homes
538
Learning Objective: LO 15.4: Trace the evolution of voting rights and analyze
the protections provided by the 1965 Voting Rights Act; LO 15.5: Describe
congressional legislation against discrimination in housing, employment, and
accommodations.
Page Reference: 461 – 465
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
98. What did the Supreme Court decide in Korematsu v. United States? What does
this decision suggest about the Court’s willingness to protect civil rights during
wartime?
1. Explain that the Supreme Court’s decision in Korematsu v. United
States upheld Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II as a reasonable exercise of government power, given
that the United States was at war with Japan.
2. Note that the Korematsu decision suggests the Court’s unwillingness to
be a strong advocate for civil rights during wartime.
Topic: The Quest for Equal Justice
Learning Objective: LO 15.2: Compare and contrast the efforts of various
groups to obtain equal protection of the law.
Page Reference: 456
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
99. Outline an affirmative action program for public university admissions that would
pass constitutional muster.
1. Note that affirmative action programs for college admissions cannot use
quotas and cannot give specific points for being a minority. Rather, the
university can use race as one of many factors it considers when offering
enrollment.
2. Outline a specific program that would be acceptable to the courts. For
example, a university could collect applicant data including test scores,
GPA, class rank, extracurricular activities, race, income, honors, and so
on. When making admissions decisions, the university could look at race
along with each of the other variables in a holistic fashion to decide whom
to accept.
Topic: Education Rights
539
Learning Objective: LO 15.6: Evaluate the historical process of school
integration and the current state of affirmative action.
Page Reference: 467 – 469
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
100. What did the Supreme Court decide in Loving v. Virginia (1967)? How could
advocates of same-sex marriage use this case as a model?
1. Explain that the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia ruled
unconstitutional all laws that restrict marriage based solely on race.
2. Note that this decision hinged on the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal
protection clause.
3. Explain how a similar argument could be made that bans on same-sex
marriage are unconstitutional.
Topic: Equal Protection of the Laws: What Does It Mean?
1. Describe the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as prohibiting racial
discrimination in public accommodations involving interstate commerce.
2. Describe the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as protecting the right to vote of
all Americans regardless of their race or ethnicity.
3. Explain how the South had successfully avoided the promises of the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments through various mechanisms
including Jim Crow laws and literacy tests. Since it appeared that the
South would never rescind these laws itself, Congress stepped in to pass
these two landmark pieces of legislation.
Topic: Rights to Equal Access: Accommodations, Jobs, and Homes
Learning Objective: LO 15.5: Describe congressional legislation against
discrimination in housing, employment, and accommodations.
Page Reference: 463 – 456
Skill Level: Analyze It
540