The Supreme Court and Civil Rights

The Supreme Court of the United States – Key Issues and Landmark Cases

In this course, Dr Emma Long (University of East Anglia) explores how the Supreme Court of the United States works by looking at some of its landmark cases over the past 50-60 years – especially those relating to civil rights (broadly defined). In the first module, we think about the growth of the Supreme Court’s interest in civil rights in the post-war period, including its handling of an unprecedented number of cases related to individual rights. In the second module, we think about the Supreme Court cases that paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), making the argument that Brown should be seen not as the beginning of a civil rights movement, but as the culmination of a legal campaign that can be traced back to Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938). In the third module, we turn to the reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) and think about the potential for Supreme Court decisions to turn a politically (relatively) inert issue into something much more controversial and hotly contested. In the fourth module, we think about the decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), which – in its majority and minority opinions – produced unusually cogent outlines of the originalist and living constitutionalist approaches to interpretation of the Constitution. Finally, in the fifth module, we turn to the issue of gay rights and the extent to which shifts in public opinion impacts how the Supreme Court interprets the law.

The Supreme Court and Civil Rights

In this module, we think about the growth of the Supreme Court’s interest in civil rights in the post-war period, focusing in particular on: (i) the period of American history known as the ‘rights revolution’ and changing attitudes to the role of the federal government in protecting individual rights; (ii) the contribution of the Supreme Court to the ‘rights revolution’, including its hearing of an unprecedented number of cases related to individual rights; (iii) the historical antecedents of the ‘rights revolution’, including: the rise of consumer protection laws and workers’ rights in the Progressive Era (1890-1920), the expansion of the role of the federal government in the 1930s, and the appointment of new, activist justices in the Supreme Court; and (iv) the six key questions one should keep in mind when considering Supreme Court decisions.