3.12

Standard 3D

The Court’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution is influenced by the composition of the Court and citizen-state interactions. At times, it has restricted minority rights and, at others, protected them.

Learning Objective

Explain how the Court has at times allowed the restriction of the civil rights of minority groups and at other times has protected those rights.

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE

Decisions demonstrating that minority rights have been restricted at times and protected at other times include:

• State laws and Supreme Court holdings restricting African-American access to the same restaurants, hotels, schools, etc., as the majority white population based on the “separate but equal” doctrine.

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that race-based school segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause

• The Supreme Court upholding the rights of the majority in cases that limit and prohibit majority-minority districting.