Equal Protection Guarantees Research Articles

Sikh Rebellion and the Hindu Concept of Order

The militancy of the Sikh separatist movement in India and the response of the Hindu majority to it must be understood against a historical background in which multiple ethnic groups have coexisted in large part by virtue of their willingness to accede to the Hindu social order. The absorption of previous religious heterodoxies such as Buddhism into the Hindu system has provided a model for modern Hindu expectations of non-Hindu religions, and has served as a negative example for those intent on retaining a separate religious identity, such as the Sikhs. Sikhism is a religious tradition that began in South Asia in the fifteenth century and today claims as its adherents approximately 2% of India's total population. The historic center of the Sikh faith is the Punjab region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, and over the past five centuries, the religious identity of the Sikhs has become intertwined with the ethnic, linguistic, and regional identity of Punjab. In 1984, the fact that this identity had acquired a strongly militant cast became known to the world through the assassination of India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. The proximate cause of anger for the Sikhs was the storming of Sikhism's holiest shrine at Amritsar by Indian troops in the so-called Operation Bluestar. The desecration of the Golden Temple was an action that affronted all Sikhs' religious values and served to incite fundamentalists to religious war. Furthermore, Operation Bluestar represented to many Sikhs a breach of India's constitutional guarantee of equal protection of all religions, and led to a sudden drop in Sikh confidence in the national government. The Hindu backlash following the death of Mrs. Gandhi, in which some 3,000 Sikhs were killed and 50,000 fled their homes, further polarized Sikh and Hindu communities in Punjab and across North India.

A comparison of regression and standard score discrepancy methods for learning disabilities identification: Effects on racial representation

Learning-disabled (LD) children are often identified for services on the basis of a discrepancy between their IQ and achievement scores. Comparisons between regression and standard score difference methods for determining IQ-achievement discrepancies have not considered the comparative effects of these methods on the racial composition of LD classes. A comparison of these methods shows that the standard score difference method produces disproportionate racial representation, whereas the regression method produces proportionate racial representation in LD classes. In addition, the regression method demonstrates advantages in measurement of discrepancies, LD program planning, and conformity with constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law.

Access to Health Care and Equal Protection of the Law: The Need for a New Heightened Scrutiny

Proposals to reduce national expenditures for health care under Medicare and other programs raise questions about the limits on legislative power to distribute health care benefits. The constitutional guarantee of equal protection has been a weak source of protection for the sick, largely because they fail to qualify for special scrutiny under traditional equal protection analysis. Recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court suggest that the Justices seek a newer, more flexible approach to reviewing claims of unequal protection. This Article examines the application of the equal protection guarantee to health-related claims. It argues that traditional equal protection analysis is too rigid and newer rationality review too imprecise to provide just eligibility determinations. The Article concludes that courts should subject claims of unequal protection in the health care context to heightened scrutiny, as health care plays a special role in assuring equality of opportunity.

Equality Under the Constitution: Reclaiming the Fourteenth Amendment, by Judith A. Baer

The principle of equality embedded in the Declaration of Independence and reaffirmed in the Constitution does not distinguish between individuals according to their capacities or merits. It is written into these documents to ensure that each and every person enjoys equal respect and equal rights. Judith Baer maintains, however, that in fact American judicial decisions have consistently denied individuals the form of equality to which they are legally entitled-that the courts have interpreted constitutional guarantees of equal protection in ways that undermine the original intent of Congress. In Equality under the Constitution, Baer examines the background, scope, and purpose of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment and the history of its interpretation by the courts. She traces the development of the idea of equality, drawing on the Bill of Rights, Congressional records, the Civil War amendments, and other sections of the Constitution. Baer discusses many of the significant equal-protection cases decided by the Supreme Court from the time of the amendment's ratification, including decisions on reverse discrimination, age discrimination, the rights of the disabled, and gay rights. She concludes with a theory of equality more faithful to the history, language, and spirit of the Constitution.

Further Study on Values of Black and White Children: Are They Different?

American children have been transported to school at public expense in the familiar yellow buses for several decades. Yet, busing has become a divisive educational issue today. Beginning with the Brown decision in 1954, the United States Supreme Court has consistently ruled that de jure segregation imposed by official action is inconsistent with the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the laws. Such Supreme Court decisions have resulted in massive busing of white and black pupils beyond neighborhood schools to achieve racial integration. They have also produced furious protests by parents in northern as well as in southern cities. In short, busing has become an American dilemma! Opponents of busing often cite the pioneering work of the former Johns Hopkins sociologist James Coleman,1 who pointed out that such devices as smaller classes, newer books, or more sophisticated facilities made little impact on the work of black children. Other critics also cite the so-called fundamental difference of culturally deprived children from normal children. Kaplan discussed this point of view in Phi Delta Kappan: The term culturally deprived is now viewed with some disfavor by certain sociologists and educators, more accurate terms they submit are culturally different or economically deprived. They maintain that children from impoverished families are not culturally deprived in the sense that they are

Comparative Negligence versus the Constitutional Guarantee of Equal Protection: A Hypothetical Judicial Decision

Comparative Negligence versus the Constitutional Guarantee of Equal Protection: A Hypothetical Judicial Decision

Individual Liberty vs. Social Control: Are Consensual Sex Laws Constitutional?

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the possibility that consensual sex law reform will be forced, in some cases, by Supreme Court rulings on the constitutionality of the laws. The most common attacks on laws prohibiting such acts as sodomy, fellatio, and cunnilingus have been based on the explicit constitutional guarantees of due process, equal protection, and freedom of religion, and the implied guarantee of a right to privacy. It is this last approach—based on the right of privacy—that will apparently be the most successful in having statutes voided. The due process approach would most likely result only in revision of the statute and not repeal, and the success of the freedom of religion approach rests on showing that the law serves no secular purpose.

Equal Protection of the Laws. Veterans' Benefits. Exclusion of Conscientious Objectors Who Have Performed Civilian Alternate Service from Eligibility for Veterans' Benefits Violates Equal Protection Guarantee of Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. Robinson v. Johnson, 352 F. Supp. 848 (D. Mass. 1973), Prob. Juris. Noted, 41 U. S. L. W. 3605 (U. S. May 14, 1973) (No. 1297)

Equal Protection of the Laws. Veterans' Benefits. Exclusion of Conscientious Objectors Who Have Performed Civilian Alternate Service from Eligibility for Veterans' Benefits Violates Equal Protection Guarantee of Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. Robinson v. Johnson, 352 F. Supp. 848 (D. Mass. 1973), Prob. Juris. Noted, 41 U. S. L. W. 3605 (U. S. May 14, 1973) (No. 1297)

A Constitutional Forecast: Demise of the "State Action" Limit on the Equal Protection Guarantee

A Constitutional Forecast: Demise of the "State Action" Limit on the Equal Protection Guarantee

Equal Protection Guarantee and the Right of Property Under the Indian Constitution

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The Durability of Colegrove v. Green

A certain tendency to animism affects lawyers when they talk about cases, and they communicate it to interested laymen. Animated cases rise, struggle, and conquer, or are vanquished by, other cases. And so Baker v. Carr I is thought to have vanquished Colegrove v. Green.2 But caution is advisable. The millenium has not arrived for urban voters. A crack in judicial gate that should not have been closed in Colegrove v. Green has now been pried open, but gate has not swung on its hinges. Urban voters will snatching defeat from jaws of victory if they now concentrate all their energies on law suits and focus their hopes of ultimate success on judiciary. Baker v. Carr has made clear what decision in Colegrove v. Green was not, and should never have been thought to be. Colegrove did not hold that Court may never interfere with election process, or that there are no judicially enforceable constitutional principles that apply to elections. For Court has interfered consistently for some fifty years to enforce fifteenth amendment's guarantee that the right of citizens of United States to vote shall not denied or abridged by United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.8 Nor-though a passage in Mr. Justice Frankfurter's opinion does tend in this direction 4-can Colegrove rest on proposition that Constitution, properly interpreted, confides to Congress exclusive authority to regulate congressional elections. For plainly fifteenth amendment cuts across any such exclusive authority, and as a matter of textual interpretation, there is no readily apparent reason why fourteenth amendment's guarantee of equal protection of laws should not similarly cut across and similarly authorize judicial intervention. To sure, Constitution specifically empowers Congress to make or alter regulations about times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, and it confers upon Congress duty to apportion representatives among States according to their respective Numbers, and to be Judge of Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members. But there is no textual reason why these duties and functions of Congress

Constitutional Law. Equal Protection of the Laws

This volume provides a brief, but comprehensive, analysis of the doctrine and theory that glosses the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. Topics covered include an analysis of rational basis review, an explanation of the difference between heightened scrutiny for fundamental rights and substantive protection of those rights, an analysis of the role of purpose and effect in equal protection doctrine, and discussions of gender discrimination and affirmative action.