Ben Gutowski

Three cases being Brown vs.BOE, Roe vs. Wade and Citizens United vs. FEC are three major cases in American History. They all explore the depths and meaning of two constitutional amendments and start to unravel the meaning of being an American citizen.

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S 483 (1954)

Brown vs. the Board of Education (also known as Brown vs. BOE) is about five groups of people suing the BOE about segregation in schools. This originated in Topeka, Kansas when Oliver Brown filed a lawsuit because his daughter could not attend the all-white school there. The local court heard the case and ruled that separate was still equal. However a year later the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) filed a lawsuit against the BOE and the Supreme Court decided to take the case to decide if separate was indeed equal. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public facilities would be legal in the United States in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson. Plessy (an African-American man) refused to sit on the train car for African-American passengers. It took fifty-five years for segregation to be challenged at the level of the Supreme Court again.

In 1951, a man named Oliver Brown filed a lawsuit against the BOE of Topeka, Kansas when his daughter Linda Brown could not attend the all-white elementary school there. The basis of Brown's lawsuit was that segregating schools violated the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment. The equal protection clause states that "nor shall any State [...] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". The case was first heard in Topeka district court where segregation in schools was upheld due to the court being in a conservative Jim Crow area with a conservative jury. Jim Crow was the set of racist laws that prohibited things like mixed racial schools and mixed-race water fountains. Soon the NAACP caught wind of this case and several others like it and filed a lawsuit to the Supreme Court. These five cases combined under the name of Brown vs. BOE. The Court's decision was unanimous; they found that separate was indeed not equal and was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment specifies that the States cannot make laws restricting the rights of American-born citizens. The case made national headlines as the liberal Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren made the announcement that segregation was soon to be outlawed in schools.

Warren was initially in the running for Republican President at the time. When he was not nominated as a candidate, he was appointed to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court where he heavily advocated for Brown in the case. Due to him being so opinionated towards Brown, it swayed the other judges making the decision unanimous. However, it has been said that Warren exercised his power as Chief Justice in order to reach the ruling he wanted. On top of Warren advocating for desegregating schools, he also pushed hard for property rights and criminal justice. He is perceived as one of the most liberal Republicans of his time. The Court is perceived as liberal due to the unanimous ruling that segregation should be outlawed. This was a ruling that not many courts in the United States (especially in the South) would have made. The case originated in the Topeka county district court (conservative) and segregation was upheld. The courts in the South rarely made progressive rulings as this is where Jim Crow was the most prevalent. The ruling was unanimously upheld and life went on until the case was taken to the Supreme Court.

The amendment that ties closest into this case would be the Fourteenth Amendment and more specifically the equal protection clause in that amendment. The amendment itself states that the government cannot pass laws restricting the rights of American born citizens. The segregation in schools was violating this because the white schools were always nicer than the all-black schools and provided them with better supplies and learning resources.

A relevant issue today would be the racial demographics of some schools. Previous Jim crow areas have almost always majority white schools and majority black schools they are almost never equally distributed. This is directly relevant to the Brown vs. BOE case as this is what Brown was fighting to prevent.

Roe vs. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

Roe vs. Wade is the primary case involving women’s abortions rights. It is an extremely controversial ruling that is still argued over today and remains at the heart of the pro-life vs pro-choice controversy. What should have been a conservative Supreme Court made a very liberal ruling by the narrowest of margins with well-known justices such as Thurgood Marshall, Lewis Powell and many other appointed by President Nixon. Although pro-choice is the victor at the moment there are many hard-working conservatives trying to have the case overturned.

It all started in 1970 in Dallas County, Texas when a woman named Norma McCovey (who is referred to as Jane Roe in official court documents) wanted to get an abortion in order to get rid of an accidental baby. However, she could not receive this abortion due to doctors being afraid that they would be sued on the premise of abortions being illegal in Dallas County. She ended up having the baby and placing it up for adoption. This was bothersome to her so she tried to sue the district attorney Henry Wade. Initially, the ruling of pro-life was upheld due to it being in a lower-level conservative court. She then filed a suit to the Supreme Court and they took it. Theoretically, this Court should have been conservative and predictably made the pro-life decision as many of the judges were appointed by conservative presidents. However, the Court made their decision based upon the privacy clause in the Fourteenth Amendment which essentially states that women not getting an abortion due to the law is technically a violation of their right to privacy. Upon this, the Supreme Court decided in dramatic fashion that abortions cannot be outlawed in the United States.

The most interesting part of this case is the Supreme Court justices. Most of the justices were appointed by conservative presidents. The Chief Justice Warren Burger, as well as justices Lewis Powell and Harry Blackmun, were appointed by Richard Nixon (a conservative Republican). Other justices such as Potter Stewart and William J. Brennan were appointed by Dwight Eisenhower (a Republican) and Thurgood Marshall was appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat). The only other justice who was not appointed by a Republican was William O. Douglas, who was appointed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat). So theoretically this court should have been majority conservative. However, once the case was heard they made the pro-choice ruling. The ruling was four pro-choice to three pro-life. The ruling had been made, however, it was not pleasing to everybody and the justices themselves were described as “Wishy-Washy” when announcing the ruling. None of them stood firmly by their decisions.

The amendment most closely related to this case is once again the Fourteenth Amendment. The whole basis for Roe vs. Wade was that it violated the privacy clause in the Fourteenth Amendment. The clause states that the state government cannot make laws that are against a United Stated citizen’s privacy, which getting an abortion technically falls under. It is a very small clause, but it is a part of the amendment. All amendments must be thoroughly examined and analyzed by the Supreme Court.

This case is still extremely controversial in modern-day life. There are many pro-life conservatives working very hard to get this ruling overturned by the Supreme Court. In an online survey taken by planned parenthood.com, seventy-three percent of the US population opposes overturning Roe vs. Wade, which means that almost thirty percent of Americans want to see it overturned. The impact of Roe vs. Wade being overturned would be catastrophic as almost forty percent of women would lose access to getting an abortion in their state. (cite this).

Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010)

The third and final case is Citizens United vs. FEC. This case is about political elections and sponsorships. Initially, it was illegal for privately-owned companies to sponsor political candidates due to people believing that it would corrupt the candidates’ beliefs. Due to some candidates being greedy and money hungry, they would make political moves benefiting only their sponsors and not the American people. Although this may be true, restricting companies from sponsoring and supporting candidates is a violation of their freedom of speech.

This is the most recent of the three cases, as it took place in 2010. The premise of this case is that a conservative group wanted to air a documentary about Hilary Clinton following her running for President two years prior in 2008. She did not win and announced she would be planning on running again in the near future. Upon this, Citizens United made a documentary with the purpose of corrupting her chances of winning. This documentary went over many things that would sway voters away from her campaign. However, they were legally not allowed to post it due to there being a law in place that said corporations and groups of individuals cannot publically produce works in order to hurt candidates or sponsor their candidates with large amounts of money. This was determined in a previous case known as Austin v. Michigan State Chamber of Commerce. They challenged this case in the Washington D.C District Court. In this hearing, they were placed up against the Federal Election Commission, whose job was to protect the current law. Initially, the FEC won and the law was upheld. However, Citizens United filed a case to the Supreme Court which took the ruling and eventually led to the case being overturned.

The justices on this case were John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and others. The Chief Justice at the time was John Roberts. The decision was highly controversial among the American public.

This case involves the First Amendment, which states that Congress cannot pass laws that prohibit freedom of speech. This is unique because in some other countries it is against the law to speak poorly of the person or administration that is in charge at the time. It is within American people’s right to peacefully protest anything and always speak what is on their mind. Citizens United argued that this freedom of speech should apply to corporations as well, not just individuals.

Today these corporations have huge impacts on political candidates due to the extremely large sums of money that are pulled in by each business per year. The big controversy over this revolves around the gun industry. The corporations who make and sell guns are very prevalent in political races and offer large amounts of money to ensure that they will still have influence over the candidate once they enter the office. Although thousands are killed by guns each year, the candidates often take the money and jeopardize the safety of millions by doing so. This is also relevant because we are headed into another election next fall. This is a highly controversial case in the American public as many believe that this gives billionaires too much power in Washington and that candidates speak to the beliefs of their sponsors and not the beliefs of the majority of American citizens.

In conclusion, these cases are pivotal points in how we live our lives today. However, some of these could change in the near future. Which leaves the question; what would the impact be if some of these rulings were overturned?