Civil Rights

The principle of equal protection under the law is one of America’s core civic values; however, this has not always been the case. The journey toward equal protection under the law has included constitutional amendments, Supreme Court cases, federal legislation, executive intervention, and the efforts of countless civil rights activists. To ensure legislation does not violate the equal protection clause, the Supreme Court applies one of three tests: the rational basis test, the intermediate scrutiny test, or the strict scrutiny test.

The rational basis test is the easiest test to apply to a law to see if the distinctions between groups of people are fair. The intermediate scrutiny test has a higher standard than the rational basis test and usually applies to cases involving gender. The highest standard applied to laws that categorize people is the strict scrutiny test. This test is applied in cases where a fundamental right is being restricted or a classification is being made based on race or national origin. Many cases, such as Loving v. Virginia (1967), cannot be justified under the strict scrutiny test. Other cases, like Korematsu v. United States (1944), have upheld laws that classified people based on their national origin.

Since the 1960s, the federal government has passed several key laws or amendments to protect the civil rights of minorities, women, and those with disabilities. These acts include landmark legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and the American Disabilities Act (1990), which extended civil rights protections to those with mental and/or physical disabilities.