Chapter 7 Section 2 Questions

2. List three guidelines or tests the Supreme Court uses in its judgment of cases involving equal protection under the law.

Rational base test – the court will uphold a state law when the state can show a good reason to justify the classification.

Suspect Classifications – when a classification is made on the basis of race or national origin and is subject to strict judicial scrutiny.

Fundamental rights – rights the constitution explicitly guarantees

3. Describe the circumstances in which the Court requires the state to bear the burden of proof to justify a law on the basis of “some compelling public interest.”

When a classification is made on the basis of race or national origin.

4. Explain the court’s reasoning in overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine in the Brown decision.

Segregated school were not and could never be equal, thus making them unconstitutional. This allowed Brown to win the case.

5. Does the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment allow the government to draw distinctions between different classes of people? Explain.

Yes because the government must draw distinctions between different groups of people, such as people under 18, but cannot discriminate against specific groups.

6. What were the far-reaching effects of the Brown decision?

It opened the doors for scores of court cases dealing with equal rights. It established a precedent for court decisions striking down segregation in public parks, beaches, playgrounds, libraries, golf courses, state and local prisons, transportation systems, and anywhere else the principle of segregation had been applied.