The main issues of this legislation revolve around commerce and federal preemption. From the cases discussed in lecture and discussion, there are two cases that have a strong, direct correlation to the cases and many others that have a secondary or weaker correlation to the legislation. Windsor (2012) has the greatest correlation because of the topic at hand. Windsor challenged the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) citing that the act discriminated against the ability of Edith Windsor to collect her spouse's estate by imposing estate taxes that other non-same-sex couples were not subject to. There were three questions at hand; one regarding the statement by the Executive Branch that the law is unconstitutional, one regarding the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group which wanted to represent the government, and one regarding whether or not Edith Windsor's Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection were violated. The decision of the court allowed jurisdiction, left the second question unanswered and stated that DOMA was unconstitutional and violated equal protection rights. The decision was 5-4 in favor of Windsor with Justice Kennedy writing the opinion. Heart of Atlanta (1964) was a case involving discrimination of African-Americans from staying at the Heart of Atlanta Motel. The question at hand was whether Congress overstepped its commerce powers with the Civil Rights Act by limiting the ability of businesses to choose their customers based on race. The court decided that Congress did not overstep its powers, is able to regulate commerce at the local level, and that the Civil Rights Act was constitutional. The decision was 9-0. Similarly, the case of Katzenbach v. McClung (1964), which handled the issue of disc... ... middle of paper ... ...lance in discrimination and promote the same-sex rights agenda. In the end, equal protection supersedes the Commerce Clause issues. After examining the legislation, I would recommend to the Senator that the law is constitutional and that co-sponsorship would be a benefit to the office and a positive victory for the support of same-sex rights, especially equal protection. Based off of the decisions in Windsor (2012) and Heart of Atlanta (1964), and the history of Commerce Clause cases, I would argue that based on precedent, that the law is constitutional and that even if challenged, that the composition of the Supreme Court would uphold the constitutionality of the law. The recent shifts in ideology regarding same-sex rights is no different than the arguments presented in civil rights era cases. Same-sex couples deserve equal rights and freedom from discrimination.
Abstract On June 26, 2015 a divided Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples could now marry nationwide. At the time of the split ruling there were 9 supreme court justices, 5 of the justices were Republicans, and the remaining 4 were Democrats. In high profile cases it is except that the justices will vote along party lines. When the 5-4 ruling was reveled by the following statement. “It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right (Corn,2015).” written by
For some background, this case escalated to the Supreme Court since several groups of same-sex couples from different states, sued state agencies when their marriage was refused to be recognized. As it escalated through appeals, the plaintiffs argued that the states were violating the Equal Protection clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal Protection, according to the Constitution refers to the fact that, “any State [shall not] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” (23). The opposition of this case was that, 1) The Constitution does not address same-sex marriage as a policy, and 2) The sovereignty of states regarding the decision. Ultimately, and according to the Oyez project, the Court held that “[the Amendment] guarantees the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects, and that analysis applies to same-sex couples,” and therefore, same-sex marriage is a fundamental liberty.
Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.
“Under our constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of the other race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the states.” In 1967, Earl Warren led the Supreme Court when it was faced with choosing to support a state’s rights of having their own laws or equal protection of the laws granted to all citizens under the Constitution. The case of Loving v. Virginia was sent to the Supreme Court because Virginia, including 15 other states, enforced an anti-miscegenation statute, which disallowed marriage between white and black people. The court case was important then and continues to affect change in the twenty-first century.
Despite there being many reasons as to why people discriminate homosexuals, the most popular ones are due to their religion or cultural norm. They include acts of verbal and physical abuse towards individuals who are homosexual. For those who are homosexuals, they are verbally abused by name calling such as fag, homo or sissy more than two dozen a day. There was a survey conducted by Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and found that 86 percent of LGBT teens are being harassed at school in 2007. In 2013, 82 percent of teens had problems from previous year with bullying about sexual orientation. 64 percent felt unsafe at school and 32 percent did no go to school because of feeling unsafe. Even as an adult homosexual are attacked verbally.
Sex is one of the most central themes in society today, with generally everybody in the world, adults and children, either seeing it in the mass media or taking part in it, whether it be for their career, for reproductive reasons, or for pleasure. Because of its predominance, sexuality plays an important, if not the most important, role in social inequality, causing double standards, violence and internal self-worth issues for minorities. Factors such as pornography, prostitution, and the way people view homosexuality and intersexuality as repugnant all influence the prejudice ways in which society views and treats women, homosexuals, and intersexuals.
"The Constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the Wake of Romer v. Evans ." New
Gender Discrimination is a topic that has been going on within our country for a long time. Women have never been treated equality as men. Women are living in a society that they are known as property. Many men are unprejudiced discriminators since they do not see women as equal values to themselves:
Within the United States election season of 2012, we heard many of our current, and wanna-be elected leaders discussing a ‘so-called’ war on women. Coming into this years election cycle we will undoubtedly hear more of this discussion, which begs the question: Is there really a war on women in America? In America, women make up only 19% of the US Congress, 5% of the Fortune 500 C-level executives, and just 16% of the Heads of State [Nilges]. Whether it be in politics, the workplace, or through inherent speech patterns, gender bias influences opportunities afforded to both men and women. While tremendous improvement has been made within the United States over the last 3 generations, it is clearly a challenge that requires a persistent, collective effort.
Everyone will have a least one job in their lifetime, and knowing how to recognize discrimination, so they are able to seek the proper help when needed to is very important. Discrimination in the work place can happen to anyone, and that is why people need to know the laws that protect employees against discrimination, ways employers can prevent discrimination, and the effects of discrimination in the workplace.
Huebner, D. M., Rebchook, G. M., & Kegeles, S. M. (2004). Experiences of harassment, discrimination, and physical violence among young gay and bisexual men. American Journal Of Public Health, 94(7), 1200-1203.
The topic of gender discrimination is certainly a controversial one. Some of our group remembers their LIBS 7013 course, an entire course dedicated to studying Race, Class and Gender. It’s interesting to look at these issues from a moral point of view, and apply different principles to the circumstances at hand.
Sexual discrimination, also known as gender discrimination is prejudice based on the sex of a person. Throughout history, discrimination against people of any kind, for countless reasons, have led to many catastrophes. While sexual discrimination may not seem to bring any sort of impending doom, it causes traumatic effects on individual worldwide. It does this by affecting many aspects of a person’s life, such as their emotional and physical well-being. Sexual discrimination also plays an effect on religion. In a world where lives are shaped on ethics and morality, the Catholic religion does it’s best to highlight the religious views and aspects on such matters.
The dictionary defines discrimination as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or identified sex and sexual orientation. The term LGBT stands for, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. These terms refer to sexual orientation and also gender identity. Every day people of the LGBT community suffer wrongful terminations and oppression in their schools for their sexual orientation or identified gender.
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.