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Fourteenth Amendment

The University of Akron

Equal protection

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The Reed Case: The Seed For Equal Protection From Sex-Based Discrimination, Or Polite Judicial Hedging?, John P. Murphy Jr. Aug 2015

The Reed Case: The Seed For Equal Protection From Sex-Based Discrimination, Or Polite Judicial Hedging?, John P. Murphy Jr.

Akron Law Review

Reed is yet another example of how the Equal Protection Clause may be used to strike down state statutes which embody arbitrary classifications that are neither fairly nor substantially related to the object of the statute, and which bring about the invidious discrimination that is repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. It must stressed that the outcome of Reed is clearly commendable in terms of justice. What is troublesome is the fact that one may contend that the Supreme Court hedged, perhaps avoided, an excellent opportunity in which to expand the constitutional scope of the Equal Protection Clause. Reed afforded the …


Standing; Assertion Of Jus Tertii; Sex Discrimination; Equal Protection; Twenty-First Amendment; Craig V. Boren, Anthony Sadowski Aug 2015

Standing; Assertion Of Jus Tertii; Sex Discrimination; Equal Protection; Twenty-First Amendment; Craig V. Boren, Anthony Sadowski

Akron Law Review

"A PPELLANTS brought an action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The complaint charged that the operation of two Oklahoma statutes, which prohibited the sale of 3.2% beer to males under the age of 21 while allowing females over the age of 18 to purchase the commodity, violated the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution. The three-judge court held that the gender-based classification did not violate the equal protection clause. In Craig v. Boren, on direct appeal, the United States Supreme Court reversed, finding that the gender-based classification could …


Automobile Guest Statute; Unconstitutional; Equal Protection; Due Process; Right To Seek Legal Redress; Primes V. Tyler, Margaret Fuller Corneille Aug 2015

Automobile Guest Statute; Unconstitutional; Equal Protection; Due Process; Right To Seek Legal Redress; Primes V. Tyler, Margaret Fuller Corneille

Akron Law Review

IN JULY 1975, the Supreme Court of Ohio in the case of Primes v. Tyler' joined a small but growing number of states' which have declared automobile guest statutes' unconstitutional. The circumstances of the Primes case are similar to those encountered in countless other suits brought by injured guest passengers since the Ohio guest statute was enacted in 1933.' George Primes, III and Donald G. Tyler were members of an informal golf group which shared a car pool arrangement. Tyler, driving for the car pool, was involved in an automobile accident in which Primes, a passenger, was injured. Primes brought …


Equal Protection; Sex Discrimination; Veterans' Preference Statutes, Feeney V. Massachusetts, Eloise Taylor Jul 2015

Equal Protection; Sex Discrimination; Veterans' Preference Statutes, Feeney V. Massachusetts, Eloise Taylor

Akron Law Review

"Historically, the armed services have been predominantly male. The result has been that the operation of veterans' preferences has placed women as a class at a particular disadvantage in comparison to men when in or entering into civil service.' To nullify this stigma, the first successful challenge to veterans' preference, Feeney v. Massachusetts,' was litigated."


Equal Protection; State Alimony Statutes; Sex Discrimination; Orr V. Orr, David A. Detec, Jane L. Thomas-Moore Jul 2015

Equal Protection; State Alimony Statutes; Sex Discrimination; Orr V. Orr, David A. Detec, Jane L. Thomas-Moore

Akron Law Review

In Orr v. Orr the United States Supreme Court held unconstitutional the Alabama alimony statutes which provided that husbands, but not wives, may be required to pay alimony upon divorce. The Court's principal reason for so holding was the statutes' violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment on the basis of sex discrimination.


The Original Understanding Of The Fourteenth Amendment In Illinois, Ohio, And Pennsylvania, James E. Bond Jul 2015

The Original Understanding Of The Fourteenth Amendment In Illinois, Ohio, And Pennsylvania, James E. Bond

Akron Law Review

This article reviews the state ratification debates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. Then as now these states were major electoral battlegrounds. In all three states the two parties fielded strong candidates and ran well-organized campaigns. Many of the nationally recognized proponents of the 14th amendment hailed from these states. Those among them who faced re-election were marked men. President Johnson himself made his famous "swing around the circle," defending "My Policy" in major cities in all three states. The President was only the most prominent of the many well-known outsiders who criss-crossed these states in a desperate attempt to influence …


Private Problem, Public Solution: Affirmative Action In The 21st Century, Darlene C. Goring Jul 2015

Private Problem, Public Solution: Affirmative Action In The 21st Century, Darlene C. Goring

Akron Law Review

This Article will explore the origins of the Court’s color-blind interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the role that this interpretation plays in the development of new barriers against challenges to race-based affirmative action programs. Part II of this Article traces the development and application of the strict scrutiny test to evaluate the constitutionality of both invidious and benign racial classifications. Part III examines Justice Powell’s position that racial classifications used as remedial measures may overcome the presumption of constitutional invalidity associated with the use of race-based classifications. In this context, the Court recognizes that the continued impact of past …


Teaching Free Speech From An Incomplete Fossil Record, Michael Kent Curtis Jul 2015

Teaching Free Speech From An Incomplete Fossil Record, Michael Kent Curtis

Akron Law Review

The second part of this symposium has been devoted to how we teach the Constitution. It has emphasized what gets left out. The reader will see a pattern. Paul Finkelman is a leading scholar on the law of slavery and the Constitution. Paul thinks – and I believe he is correct – that the immense influence of slavery on American constitutional law is too often neglected in our constitutional law courses. James Wilson has studied how political philosophers – Aristotle, Rousseau, James Harrington, and others – have understood the distribution of wealth as a central factor affecting how the constitution …


The Continuing Importance Of Congressman John A. Bingham And The Fourteenth Amendment, Richard L. Aynes Jul 2015

The Continuing Importance Of Congressman John A. Bingham And The Fourteenth Amendment, Richard L. Aynes

Akron Law Review

In the now-famous 1830s chronicle of a visit to America, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that in America every political issue is ultimately a legal issue in the courts. For Americans who lived through the antislavery and abolitionist era as well as the crisis of the war of 1861-1865, the military victory of the Union forces on the field of battle still left open large political issues. These issues were attempted to be resolved through the political process that produced a legal solution: a constitutional amendment that we currently identify as the Fourteenth Amendment. The meaning of the Amendment was ultimately …


Rebuilding The Slaughter-House: The Cases' Support For Civil Rights, David S. Bogen Jul 2015

Rebuilding The Slaughter-House: The Cases' Support For Civil Rights, David S. Bogen

Akron Law Review

This Article sets forth the Slaughter-House Cases’ support for civil rights. Justice Miller used federalism in order to protect Reconstruction legislatures where significant numbers of African-Americans participated fully for the first time. His recital of the history and purpose of the Civil War Amendments centered on the Amendments’ design to protect African-Americans, and suggested sweeping federal power to accomplish that end. Gutting the Privileges and Immunities Clause compelled the Court to read the Equal Protection Clause broadly, and was indirectly responsible for the reapportionment decisions of the Warren Court. The Slaughter-House Court’s structural analysis and its view of federal protective …