Culture War & The Supreme Court
Kailey Rivera
Brown vs Board of Education
Landmark case in the united states that declared the segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional. The unanimous 9-0 decision was reached by stating that "separate educational facilities are unequal". This case started the movement towards integration and was a big victory for the civil rights movement.
Griswold vs Connecticut
Ruled that the constitution protected a right to privacy. THe case ruled that contraception methods were legal because the 7-2 vote declared that banning contraception methods violated the "right to marital privacy".
Tinker vs Des Moines
The Des Moines public school system had a rule that said any student who wore an armband would be forced to remove it because it would cause a disturbance. If the students refused to they would be suspended. Three students wore the armbands to school to express their opposition to the United states fighting in the Vietnam War and they refused to remove the arm bands and were suspended. They argued that it wasn't infringing on the rights of other students. The court ruled that the wearing of arm bands was closely related to "free speech" and therefore it was protected by the first amendment. This ruling had an effect on school dress code indicating that a style one wore was freedom of expression.
Roe vs Wade
Norma McCorvey wanted to get an abortion in Texas but was denied under state law. The court struck down that law because it unconstitutionally restricted her right to choose. This opinion set forth rights on state abortion regulations.
2 Likely Vacancies
1. Stephen Breyer: A Liberal who is 74 years old, could retire soon
2. Ruth Ginsburg: 80 year old who has had previous health problems
Direction of the Court
Americans have the power to shape the direction of the supreme court for years to come with the presidential election of 2016. The next president could fill as many as three or maybe more vacancies. If president Obama The next president could fill as many as three, perhaps more, Supreme Court vacancies. This provides the president with the opportunity to dramatically change the ideals of the supreme court.
Culture War
Right now the United States is in a culture war it is over whether or not culture is political and if so what politics should be and how they should be expressed. Also conflict is about
academic, religious, and community institutions. Today there are many ongoing debates rather than resolution. There are arguments that center on whether culture is changing fast enough or too fast..