Vocab Notes

1. Heterogeneous: society is composed of different people or cultures

2. Immigrants: legal alien from another country

3. Reservation: public land given to the native americans by the united states government

4. Refugee: somebody who moves to another country for their protection

5. Assimilation: adapt a culture to majority's culture

Section 1:
-The population of the US today is prominently white and historically has been as well.
-Immigrants arrive in record numbers every year since the 1960s.
-Populations have grown:
     african american, hispanic american, asian american
-Minority populations exceed white populations in the following states:
     California, Texas
-More females than males

Why is there so much focus on discrimination against african americans?
1. african americans have been the victims of consistent and deliberate unjuust treatment for a longer time
2. african americans constitute a huge minority group
3. most of the gains in terms of equality have been brought about on behalf of the african americans

Native Americans
-when american settlers arrived, there were many native americans
-a few years later, this number dropped drastically
-this was due to american settlers bringing foreign diseases from europe
-Trail of Tears: Native americans were forced westward
-Indian Education Act of 1972 attempted to fix problems

Hispanics
-anybody who speaks spanish
-can be any race
-largest minority group today
-Divided into four main subgroups:
     Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Central and South Americans

Asian Americans
-chinese laborers were the first asians to come to america in large numbers in the 1850s and 60s.
-they faced violence from whites who felt that they were taking their jobs.
-WWII all japanese were evacuated to the pacific coast, even native born.
-Chinese exclusion act of 1882-80 years.

Section 3:

-Those who oppose civil rights often believe you cant change morality by passing a law

Civil Rights Act of 1964:
-passed after the longest debate in senate history. (83 days)
-made four major changes:
     voting provisions
     public services could no longer deny access based on race
     federal funding programs could not discriminate for the same reasons
     employers could also not discriminate as well as labor unions
Civil Rights Act of 1968:
-aka the open housing act
-could not refuse selling or renting a living space to a person due to race

Affirmative Action:
-requires employers to take positive steps to fix the affects of past discrimination
-employers must meet quotas for minority groups/genders
-reverse discrimination: discrimination against majority group; they are denied opportunities so minority groups have more opportunities.
-California, washington, michigan, and nebraska voters passed measures to eliminate all affirmative action plans
-The Bakke Case:
     Allan Bakke sued the University of California because he was denied access to their medical school due        to affirmative action.
     He won.
-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor predicts in 25 years the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary

Section 4:

An American Citizen is a person that swears allegiance to the us and is entitled to its protection and privileges of its laws
-earlier on it didnt matter whether somebody was a citizen or not, but higher populations called for more importance to the situation
-14th Amendment was the first constitutional definition
-any citizen is subject to the jurisdiction of the judiciary of which they are a citizen
-A person can become a citizen in one of two ways
     1. By Birth
     2. Naturalization
Citizenship by Birth:
-90% of citizens
Citizenship by Naturalization
-legal process by which someone can become a us citizen.
-congress has exclusive power to provide for naturalization
-naturalization is done individually typically
-collective naturalization is when an entire group becomes citizens through en masse; normally happens when the us gains a new territory
Loss of Citizenship:
-every american citizen has a right to voluntarily abandon his citizenship; expatriation
-it is unconstitutional for congress to take away a persons citizenship based on something he has done, even if a person is involved in another countrys affairs
-naturalized citizens can lose their citizenship through denaturalization
-marriage does not make a person a citizen; only shortens the time of the naturalization process
Immigration:
-congress decide who enters and leaves the country
- quotas for immigration are like a cap; they limit the number of immigrants that are allowed to enter the united states
- immigration act of 1965 did away with the quota system; preference is given to immediate family of current american citizens
-we are currently under the immigration act of 1990; basically just adds preference to those with occupational talents and allowed more people
People can be denied entrance based on their characteristics
-criminals
-mentally ill
Deportation:
-legal process by which aliens are required to leave the country
-biggest reason for deportation: illegal immigrant or convicted of a serious crime

BR 4-1-14

Yes; as technology in safety becomes available, car companies should take full advantage of it.

Cameras will definitely make a difference in driving. Most accidents occur because the person is too careless or lazy to turn around and look to make sure they are safe to back up. Integrating cameras into the cars will allow the lazy people to see more clearly behind them without actually having to turn their heads.

BR 3-31-14

     Racism is definitely still an issue today. The main difference today is that racism goes in all directions, rather than the typical white against black persecution. Today black people are racist towards white people, white people are racist towards black people, Hispanics are racist towards Asians, and the list goes on. With that being said, occurrences of racism are far less common in this day and age than they were a few years ago. Racism has been on a steady decline for years now.

BR 3-27-14

     Supreme court justices should serve for life, because we should have a constant interpretation of the constitution for longer than a few years. The cases will be consistent, but also changing as society develops as the justices gradually change. Serving for life also practically eliminates the competition between political parties. The ideologies of the parties could pose a bias for either party if the competition became too great, and court case findings would differ between arguing political parties.

BR 3-24-14

     A outbreak of Ebola has occurred in Guinea. It is estimated that at least 59 deaths have a occurred as a result of this disease. This disease is marked by a viral hemorrhagic fever. An outbreak like this is of great concern in a nation like Guinea, where the medical practices and technology are underdeveloped compared to those of other nations. Proper sanitary action is required to prevent further spreading of this deadly disease.

Recent Supreme Court Cases

1. Religion:
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In 1999, Cheryl Perich started teaching at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Michigan. While Perich led students in prayer and taught a religion class several days a week, her job primarily consisted of teaching grade school art, science, social studies and music. In 2004, Perich left on disability and was diagnosed with narcolepsy. In 2005, after being cleared by her doctors to go back to work, the school told her that they already hired someone else. Perich then threatened to file suit, so the school promptly fired her for "insubordination and disruptive behavior."

The court unanimously agreed with a prior decision that "the Establishment Clause prevents the Government from appointing ministers, and the Free Exercise Clause prevents it from interfering with the freedom of religious groups to select their own."


2. Minority:
Ricci v. DeStefano

This case was in regards to the racially discriminatory employment practices by New Haven, Connecticut's fire department. Eighteen of the city's firefighters sued them on the basis of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Most of these firefighters were white with one hispanic. They sued because they were all denied promotions to management positions, even though they all passed the management exams. Furthermore, the positions were given to black firefighters who apparently did not meet the requirements of the exam.

The Supreme Court heard the case. The Court held 5–4 that New Haven's decision to ignore the test results violated Title VII because the city did not have a "strong basis in evidence."


3. School System:
Fisher v. University of Texas

A girl was denied admission into the University of Texas. She argued that it was on the basis of her skin color. Surprisingly enough, she was actually white, which totally goes against the grain of most previous racial discrimination. She put the blame of this on the basis of her black friend's acceptance into UT with the same or lower academic credentials.

The court ruled in favor of the girl and forced the university to remove race questions from their application. But also, the school had the right to accept a certain number of black students.

     

Notes 3-20-14

Structure and jurisdiction of courts.

Inferior courts
-function beneath the supreme court

District courts
-94 district courts
-12 judicial districts

Secret Courts
-little known about multi-judge panel
-FISA meet in secret and are entitled to secret search warrants
-allow them to monitor terrorist threats.
-Alien Terrorist Remove court: decide whether those identified as alien terrorists by the us attorney general should be expelled form the country.

Jurisdiction
-do not hear cases within original jurisdiction of the supreme court
-hear both criminal and civil cases
-us is always prosecutor in criminal cases
-in a civil case the us can either be the plaintiff or the defendant

Court of appeals
-where the case goes after district court
-each district has 12 court of appeals and one court for federal circuit
-each court has 6-28 judges and one supreme court justice

Court of international trade
-federal trial court only tries civil cases that arise out of the nation's customs and other trade related laws
-9 judges- chief justice appointed by the president and senate