One of the Amendments to the Constitution made on the heels of the Civil War was the
13th Amendment (1865) which abolished ___.
The doctrine of stare decisis, that
courts typically rely heavily on ___, the way in which courts in the past have interpreted a question of law, is not absolute, especially not when the Supreme Court is interpreting the Constitution. The Court will ignore precedent when the governing decisions were "unworkable or are badly reasoned." (Chief Justice Rehnquist in Payne v. Tennessee (1991).)
Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits ___ on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in places of public accommodation and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
The authority of Congress's ___ powers-- those that are not enumerated in the Constitution-- stem from Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, under which Congress has the power "to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers...." In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) the Court held that pursuant to the "Necessary and Proper" clause, Congress may enact laws that are reasonably related to Congress’s enumerated powers, so long as in doing so Congress does not violate any other specific provision or prohibition of the Constitution. This case established the doctrine of "___ powers” and also established the doctrine of national supremacy.
In ___ v. Madison (1803), the Supreme Court assumed the power to strike down unconstitutional federal statutes, and to declare a statute unconstitutional and therefore void.
The Supreme Court’s decision in ___ v. Board of Education of Topeka KS (1954) held that
state laws segregating public schools are violations of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause. In this unanimous decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren abandoned the "separate but equal" fiction of Plessy v. Ferguson, stating "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
The ___ Amendment protects unenumerated rights, stating
“[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Numerous unenumerated rights have been recognized under the broad Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, including “the right to marry, to determine how one’s children are to be reared and educated, to choose one’s occupation, to start a business, to travel freely across state lines, the right to privacy, and to sue in the court.