Affirmative Action on Trial: Is Fairness an Elusive Goal? GENERAL BACKGROUND: What are the origins of what is known today as affirmative action, the programs that seek to remedy past discrimination against minorities and women? The original American foundation for social justice, fairness and civ...

RACISM We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The Declaration of Independence The legal barriers to racial equality have signi...

Constitutionality of the Death Penalty And the Case of Furman V. Georgia Furman v. Georgia was a landmark case in the annals of American Law because it was the first time the Supreme Court turned to the controversial question of capital punishment. Capital punishment has always been a hotly de...

What is more important... absolute protection of the First Amendment, or the right to equality as guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment? Furthermore, what exactly IS guaranteed by the First Amendment, and what lies outside the boundaries? Virginia v Black 123 S.Ct. 1536 (2003) addresses the issue o...

Brown vs. Board of Education and School Integration The strength of American society is weakened, as it has been since the first slave ship set sail for this country, by the deep-rooted prejudices embedded within the great-grand daughters and sons of former slave owners and slaves. Al...

Analysis of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka On June 7, 1892 a man named Homer Adolph Plessy was arrested and jailed for refusing to leave the "White" section of an East Louisiana Railroad train. Although Plessy was only one-eighths black, under Louisiana law he was considered bla...

Justification and Weaknesses of the Non-Interpretive Model Brief: Justification and Weaknesses of the Non-Interpretive Model The question of Constitutional interpretation still has yet to be resolved. Should only the explicit ...

Resolved: That colleges and universities have a moral obligation to prohibit the public expression of hate speech on their campuses. Alexander, Larry. BANNING HATE SPEECH AND THE STICKS AND STONES DEFENSE. Constitutional Commentary. Spring, 1996 In addressing this issue, I, like most of ...

Fourteenth Amendment Before the slaves were freed, most citizens relied on their states to be protectors of their basic rights against the federal government (Klotter, Kanovitz, and Kanovitz 24). After the war freed the slaves, the relationship between the national government and state governmen...

Introduction American History is full of struggles and the fight for equality for all people. The civil rights era was among the most memorable battles in American History. It involved many sacrifices on the part of minorities and those that fought for their civil rights. The civil righ...

In the following pages, I will discuss the history, debate, past and current public opinion, and how it applies to American ideology and opposing values. Both sides have a fair amount of support and I have included direct quotes and paraphrasing from authors, celebrities, journalists, and ordinary...