The Supreme Court and Race

Spring, 2019 - jimbolnersr @ gmail.com

 Course Description:  "Analyze the ways that the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted constitutional and statutory provisions relating to race. Examine the Court’s most important decisions dealing with slavery, and the Court’s interpretation of key constitutional and federal legislation in areas such as: civil and voting rights, public accommodations, housing, education, criminal justice, national security, interracial marriage, and affirmative action."

Outline

I. Race and racism in the United States
   Demographic facts
   Racial attitudes and their consequences
   Approaches to constitutional and statutory interpretation

II. How the Supreme Court Works
    The court system and Supreme Court Jurisdiction
    Accepting and deciding cases

III. The Original Constitution and Race
      Colonialism and Slavery
      The Three-Fifths "Compromise"
      Article IV and fugitive slaves
      The Dred Scott (1856) decision

IV. The Reconstruction Amendments and Race
      How the amendments were interpreted
      The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
      The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
       Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and "Separate but Equal"
       The Corporate Exploitation of the Fourteenth Amendment

V.  The Civil Rights Era
      The NAACP Legal Defense Fund
      Litigation Before Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
      The Court Interprets the civil rights laws of the 1960's

VI.  The Future of the Supreme Court and Race
       The persistence of race in American life
      


Internet Resources

James Bolner, Sr. -  Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

U.S. Federal Courts 101 --from the usconstitution.org

The Supreme Court of the United States - Official website

The Supreme Court of the United States --from the U.S. Government Organization Manual (2018)

The Fedeal Court System in the United States --from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts

The United States Federal Courts --from ballotpedia.org

U.S. Federal District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana --from uscourts.gov

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit --from uscourts.gov

Timothy R. Johnson,"  "The Supreme Court Decision Making Process" --from the Oxford Research Encyclopedia (2018)

"Constitutional Topic: Slavery": --from usconstitution.net

Oral Arguments Before the Supreme Court - 2018-2019 Term --from oyez.org

Supreme Court Blog - A first-class source of information about the Court

Supreme Court of the United States --from ballotpedia.org

Statistics - (Supreme Court Justices' Voting Patterns) --from scotusblog.com

Lawfare - A rich repository of crucial commentary and documents ""

Harvard Law Review - Supreme Court Statistics - 2018 Term - More  

Supreme Court Cases on Race --from findlaw.com

10 Racist U.S. Supreme Court Rulings --from thoughtco.com

American Slave Court Cases --from Wikipedia.com

Ten Important Supreme Court Decisions in Black History --from infoplease.coms

A Brief History of Race and the Supreme Court --from http://repository.upenn.edu

Fisher v. University of Texas (2016) --from supremecourt.gov

Affirmative Action Fast Facts --from CNN

Supreme Court Appointment Process: Consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee
(August, 2018) --from the Congressional Research Service

Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2017: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee,
and the President (July, 2018) --from the Congressional Research Service

The Supreme Court's Overruling of Constitutional Precedent (September, 2018) --from the
Congressional Research Service

Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History (1922) --from the Internet Archive
   Vol. I - Vol II - Vol. III - A classic history of the Court up to the 1920's

Affirmative Action Fast Facts --from CNN (October 23, 2018)

Google Results for "Supreme Court decisions race"