| Legal Issues of the 1960s Writing Exercises |
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1. Why is it often difficult for society to balance the rights of the accused with the need to protect people and society? Balancing the rights of the accused with public protection is difficult because these principles often conflict in practice. Strong legal protections for the accused can sometimes allow potentially dangerous individuals to remain in the community before trial, creating public anxiety. Conversely, prioritizing crime control through aggressive policing or pretrial detention risks eroding civil liberties and punishing individuals who are legally presumed innocent. Society must constantly navigate this tension, as emphasizing one value inherently compromises the other. 2. Describe the effects of Baker v. Carr (Supreme Court case on legislative reapportionment). In Baker v. Carr (1962), the Supreme Court empowered federal courts to review legislative apportionment under the Equal Protection Clause. This decision initiated the "reapportionment revolution," leading to a massive wave of redistricting that shifted political power from rural to urban and suburban areas. By declaring apportionment a justiciable issue, the case paved the way for the "one-person, one-vote" principle and fundamentally altered the balance of political representation across the nation. 3. Explain the constitutional basis of civil rights legislation, using specific examples. The constitutional basis for most civil rights legislation is found in the enforcement clauses of the Reconstruction Amendments. For example, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection, empowering Congress to prohibit discrimination, as seen in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Similarly, the Fifteenth Amendment's enforcement clause was used to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, targeting racial barriers to voting. Click here to print (PDF file). Answers will vary. |
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