Political Science 161

Questions for Bardes, et al., Ch. 5

 

 

1.     What would be the impact of granting illegal immigrants citizenship? 

 

2.     What was decided in the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments?  What is the importance of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875?  What happened in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883?  What is the importance of Plessy v. Ferguson?  What was a Jim Crow Law? What is a poll tax?  How did literacy tests discriminate against African Americans? 

 

3.     What happened in Brown v. Board of Education?  What were “segregation academies”? Distinguish between de jure and de facto segregation.  What is the recent direction of the Supreme Court regarding attempts to end segregation? 

 

4.     What are the major provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?  What were the major factors that led to its passage?   What is the importance of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?  What is the EEOC?

 

5.     What are the two major provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?  How did it affect African American turnout?  What is the importance of the Civil Rights Act of 1968?  Give some ways that the Civil Rights Movement has helped other minorities.  What are the difficulties of the race based civil rights agenda of the 1950s and 1960s according to the text?

 

6.     What happened at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848?  When was the 19th Amendment ratified? 

 

7.     When was the Equal Rights Amendment first proposed?  When was it sent to the states for ratification?  What happened to it?

 

8.     Who was the first woman to hold one of the major leadership posts in Congress?  Who was the first woman to be appointed to the inner cabinet?  How many women serve in the U.S. House today?  How about the Senate? How many women governors are there?

 

9.      How has Congress indicated that pregnancy should be treated in employment?  What is sexual harassment?  What is hostile-environment harassment?   How liable is an employer for sexual harassment that occurs without his or her knowledge?  Do sexual harassment rules apply to members of the same sex?

 

10. Distinguish between equal pay for equal work and comparable worth.  What is the glass ceiling?

 

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11. Discuss the controversy surrounding illegal immigration issues.  How about bilingual education

 

12. What is affirmative action?  How did the Bakke case affect affirmative action?  What are some more recent limitations on affirmative action?  What are some signs that affirmative action might survive?  What recently happened in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) involving affirmative action at the University of Michigan?  What states have banned affirmative action?

 

13. What are the major provisions of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967?  What is the present status of mandatory retirement rules?  How does political participation by older Americans compare with younger Americans?  Why is it difficult to limit entitlement programs for older Americans?

 

14. Give the major provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act?  Why do some people argue against some provisions of the ADA?  Do persons with HIV infection qualify as disabled under the ADA? 

 

15. What was the importance of the Stonewall incident of 1969?  How many states have special laws protecting lesbians and gay men against discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and credit?  What is the significance of the Romer v. Evans case?  What recently happened to the Texas sodomy law (and, most likely, laws like it in 12 other states) in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas (2003)?  What is the present status of same-sex marriages?  How about gay couples in child custody cases?

 

16. About what percent of the population is under 21 years old?  How do the voting habits of 18 to 20-year-olds compare with older voters?  Discuss how the criminal and civil rights of juveniles can differ from those for adults.

 

17. What are some arguments for and against zero-tolerance policies?