Equality Under the Law

Catalog description

The Declaration of Independence's promise "that all men are created equal" precipitated an ongoing and unfinished battle about how to define and create equality in American law. This course charts that history through an exploration of the 14th Amendment. That Amendment (1868) guaranteed citizens "equal protection" under the law and put this illusory promise into the U.S. Constitution for the very first time. So profoundly did it transform the nation that scholars refer to it as the nation's "Second Founding." Progressive social movements leveraged the 14th Amendment to create the modern rights revolution. Most modern equality law—guaranteeing our equal treatment and equal protection—rests on this one amendment. The history of the modern Supreme Court has, in many ways, been defined by battles over the 14th Amendment's meaning, which we'll explore in class. Deciding in favor of equality and protection for increasing numbers of Americans (from civil rights, to women's rights, to queer rights), the Court is now signaling its interest in reversing the 14th Amendment jurisprudence it has steadily developed over the past 75 years. This puts "equal protection" up for reevaluation and reinterpretation. This course will equip you to understand and assess this history as well as the current judicial-political sea change. This course is open to all students, requires no prerequisites, and may be used to fulfill one of the elective requirements for the Gender Studies minor.