Race and Ethnic Identity

"But in the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect to civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the powerful." Justice John Marshall Harlan, Plessy dissent. 

To say that the United States Supreme Court has a mixed record on civil rights is a massive understatement. While the American Civil War had seemingly ended the slavery issue, it failed to cement equal treatment under the law for most non-white citizens. The Court in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld segregation as a logical and just system, despite the language of the Fourteenth Amendment that seemed to suggest otherwise. Nearly 50 years later, a liberal court, composed of Roosevelt appointees sanctified the internment of Japanese Americans unfortunate enough to live on the west coast. Even after Brown v. Board (1954) the Court failed to secure the right to public education. In some parts of the country, rather than integrate, public education simply ceased to exist. 

Those who take an incrementalist approach to legal change argue that the Court throughout the years has done an adequate job of recognizing and then securing the rights of all individuals. Those who argue for more forceful approaches tend to focus on the continued lack of progress in achieving equality, some nearly 70 years after the Brown ruling.