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Fourteenth Amendment Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Fourteenth Amendment

Some Effects Of Identity-Based Social Movements On Constitutional Law In The Twentieth Century, William N. Eskridge Jr. Aug 2002

Some Effects Of Identity-Based Social Movements On Constitutional Law In The Twentieth Century, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Michigan Law Review

What motivated big changes in constitutional law doctrine during the twentieth century? Rarely did important constitutional doctrine or theory change because of formal amendments to the document's text, and rarer still because scholars or judges "discovered" new information about the Constitution's original meaning. Precedent and common law reasoning were the mechanisms by which changes occurred rather than their driving force. My thesis is that most twentieth century changes in the constitutional protection of individual rights were driven by or in response to the great identity-based social movements ("IBSMs") of the twentieth century. Race, sex, and sexual orientation were markers of …


Colorblindness, Race Neutrality, And Voting Rights, Henry L. Chambers, Jr. Jan 2002

Colorblindness, Race Neutrality, And Voting Rights, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

The Reconstruction Amendments' guarantee of civil rights and political equality for racial minorities means that with respect to voting and representation, raceneutral results should be as much a constitutional imperative as colorblind process. As such, a colorblind electoral rule that unintentionally lessens the ability of a minority group to vote or to choose its candidate of choice should be deemed unconstitutional under the Fifteenth Amendment, not merely unlawful under the Voting Rights Act, unless the jurisdiction can provide a strong justification for the rule focused on why such a rule is reasonably necessary to safeguard the electoral process. This change …


Contract Rights And Civil Rights, Davison M. Douglas Jan 2002

Contract Rights And Civil Rights, Davison M. Douglas

Michigan Law Review

Have African Americans fared better under a scheme of freedom of contract or of government regulation of private employment relationships? Have court decisions striking down regulation of employment contracts on liberty of contract grounds aided black interests? Many contemporary observers, although with some notable dissenters, would respond that government regulation of freedom of contract, particularly the antidiscrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, has benefited African Americans because it has restrained discriminatory conduct by private employers. Professor David E. Bernstein challenges the view that abrogation of freedom of contract has consistently benefited African Americans by …