Equal Protection Clause-

1. Nothing can make people equal in a literal sense.
2. The democratic ideal demanded that government must treat all persons alike.
3. The 14 th Amendment talks about equality with the Equal Protection Clause

Reasonable Classification-

1. The government has the right to classify between persons and groups
2. Government does not have the right to discriminate unreasonablely.

The rational basis test

1. The test asks: Does the question bear a reasonable relationship to the achievement of some proper governmental purpose
2. California law says that a man who has sexual relations with a girl under the age of 18 to whom is not married to can be prosecuted for statutory rape
3. The court found the law to protect and prevent teenage pregnancies

The Strict Scrutiny test

1. The court impose higher standers on cases having to do with “fundamental rights” or “suspect classification”
2. An alimony case, Orr v. Orr, 1979, involved the use of the test

Segregation in American-

1. Segregation-means separation of one group from another
2. Jim Crow law-laws that separate people on the basis of race
3. These laws required segregation by race in the use of both public and private facilities

Separate but equal

1. Separated-but-equal doctrine was crated when the Supreme Court provided a constitutional basis for Jim Crow
2. This stood for nearly 60 year

Brown v. board of education

1. The Supreme Court began to chip away at the separate-but-equal doctrine in 1938
2. Plessey v. Ferguson was finally changed with he brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
3. Integration-the process of bring a group into the mainstream of society

De jure, De facto segregation

1. De jure segregation- segregation by law
2. De facto Segregation- no law require by it

Classification by Sex-

1. The only reference to sex in the constitution is in the 19 th amendment
2. Court could not find any constitutional fault with a law that required men to serve juries but gave the women the option
3. the court now take a very close look at cases involving claims of sex discrimination.