Swan v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

The case of Swan v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education had to deal with the issue of bussing segregating the school system based on the Board manipulating boundaries to keep schools segregated by zoning. Even African American children closer to white schools still were forced to be bussed to the predominantly black schools.

Mood court :
Swan: arguments made
- Violated the 14th amendment by forcing African American students to be bussed to different schools based on race
- Separate but equal argument was over turned and needed to be abided by the law
-Besides the 14th amendment other federal laws such as civil rights acts must be obeyed. Money goes into these cases so why ignore the verdicts.
-Unconstitutional and unfair learning opportunities for African American children
-Being forced to be transported to further schools and disrupts everyday life
-Go against the ideals in Brown v. The Board
-Since 1868 our constitution has called for equal treatment under the law
-school system took affirmative steps to cause segregation


Board of Education: arguments
-zoning is not illegal
-Put funds to good use into the schools instead to bussing African Americans to different schools and build up the school system
-Impracticable to try to achieve 100% fairness because someone is always going to feel screwed
-If you don't like it you can move. You are not forced to live where you live.

I argued the side of Swan and I agree with it and the decision. Schools were desegregated for a reason. America needs to get progress in order to get away from the constant racism and discrimination that this county has constantly seen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swann_v._Charlotte-Mecklenburg_Board_of_Education

Killings of Unarmed Citizens

Police killings in the United States is an issue that has been recently consuming the press. Most headlines having to do with Police killing those of the African American race. Most people in the news will classify these killings as racially motivated. A lot of recent studies have been taking place to take a look in depth at African Americans being killed by police officers. These finding were as followed.

• Police killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015, nearly twice each week.

• Nearly 1 in 3 black people killed by police in 2015 were identified as unarmed, though the actual number is likely higher due to underreporting

• 37% of unarmed people killed by police were black in 2015 despite black people being only 13% of the U.S. population

• Unarmed black people were killed at 5x the rate of unarmed whites in 2015

• Only 10 of the 102 cases in 2015 where an unarmed black person was killed by police resulted in officer(s) being charged with a crime, and only 1 of these deaths (Matthew Ajibade) resulted in convictions of the officers involved. Only one of the two officers convicted received jail time. The officer was sentenced to one year in jail and allowed to serve this time exclusively on weekends.

This country clearly has an issue with police shooting and killing unarmed people. Others countries have numbers as low as 3 people being killed by police shooting. Our country needs to find a solution to this problem. The violence in this country needs to end. Having people murder each other and news headlines only causes chaos. The amount of riots and violence that takes place after these shootings are also an issue. Police violence and retribution after shootings of African Americans is out of control. Races are being pinned up against each other and it is causing nothing but hatred and violence in society. 

http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/

Freedom of Speech on Campus

Freedom of speech on college campuses has long been oppressed. Students who speak out or protests on their campuses are shut down and usually punished in some way. There is a fear among college students to speak out against injustices on campus.

As a college student myself I can relate to the fear of consequences I might face for exercising my freedom of speech on campus. Especially being a High Point University student I have as much rights as dead people. In all honesty prisoners have more rights than I do. High Point University being a private institution rather than government run gives me no right to make a constitutional claim.

High Point University used to have a school newspaper that was student run. However the university decided to no longer use this paper as they thought the students talked about issues the school did not want talked about. High Point being a private institution stopped the student run newspaper and gave it over to the public relations board instead. This was the last bit of freedom of speech and expression that the students had on this campus. There is nothing as students of this campus we can do to get this newspaper back except maybe protest or sign a petition, even then myself and others involved can suffer the consequences inforced by the school .

Seprate is not Equal

Arguably one of the most landmark cases that forever changed this nation was that of Brown v. the Board which in turn also overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision separate but equal. Brown v. the Board made it clear that separate was no longer equal and chose to integrate the school systems. This was a very hard process due to those who objected and used violence to protest fueled by their hate for the African American race. This was a hard process but we can thank those of the past as now school communities, workplaces, etc are all racially diverse.

It's hard to look back on history and remember that no too long ago everyone was separate from each other. White children did not go to school with black children. And it was not until 1954 in the Brown v. Board case that this country realized it needed to change. Times were changing and it could no longer be denied that separate was not equal. The schooling systems for African American children verses white children was unfair and unconstitutional. Growing up I never had to experience any type of segregation based on race. I could play with who I wanted to and not be judged based upon it. I grew up going to school and playing sports with people from all different backgrounds. I believe being surrounded by diversity helped me grow up well cultured and respecting others who are different than I am.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education

Pregnancy Clinics Fight for Their Right to Deny Abortion Information

In January a law was passed in the state of California that said pregnancy clinics had to put up a sign saying that abortion is an option even fir those with low incomes with a phone number to call. However, most pregnancy clinics are refusing to comply with this law as they claim it violates their First Amendment rights.

The claim that the pregnancy clinics are making that putting up this sign is speech that they do not want to say. This is an example of speech-action dichotomy. Now the court is going have to decide if it is speech protected by the First Amendment or action that is not.

Personally, I understand the point the Pregnancy Clinics are making. I do believe it is unconstitutional to make them "say" and give information about a topic that they do not. No one should be forced to say something they do not believe in or just simply do not want to say. This is exactly what the First Amendment protects, our freedom of speech . What we want to say is our decision and no one else's. I also find this law extremely unfair to those running the pregnancy clinics because abortion is against their religion. Not only are these people being forced to say something they do not want want to but they are being forced to say something that violates their morality . This is unconstitutional and I think soon the courts will adjust this law to make it fair for everyone especially because the pregnancy clinics are refusing to comply to it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/us/pregnancy-clinics-fight-for-right-to-deny-abortion-information.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FFirst%20Amendment%20(US%20Constitution)&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=collection

Thank You First Amendment

As we know, or hope that most of you know, our beloved First Amendment continues to protect the citizens of the United States. There are constantly new court cases taking places because people are having their First Amendment rights violated.

A couple days ago, on April 26th a town over from the one that I currently live in , Paterson NJ was facing a First Amendment dispute. A police officer was seen and noted for holding a sign that was for a certain mayor. The cops's boss denoted him to patrol officer based on the fact that he was making a political statement by doing this.

Mr. Heffernan (the police officer) sued under the First Amendment that his rights were being violated by his supervisor for doing this. This is a valid First Amendment claim because an individual was having their rights violated by a government agency. However , the ruling in Mr. Heffernan's case was he was not exercising his rights and therefore they could not be violated.

This ruling really surprises me, I thought that this case was a for sure win for Mr. Heffernan. The government was punishing him for holding a sign that showed support for a mayor. In my opinion this is harsh and oppressive behavior and unconditional . Workers should not be afraid to be punished in the workplace because of their political views. The First Amendment is in place to protect citizens from having issues like this .





http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/us/supreme-court-first-amendment-police-officer-demoted.html?

Plessy v. Ferguson

Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark case that ruled "separate but equal" for segregated train cars. This case went to a supreme court and had a seven to one ruling. Justice Harlan said that by allowing public authority to segregate train cars was a violation of African-Americans constitutional rights. Justice Harlan compared this case to that of Dred Scott and said that one day this ruling will be overturned and struck as unconstitutional just like that of Dred Scott.

It is so clear to see how this ruling was a violation of the 13th and 14th amendments. This also violated the civil rights act. Only one Justice at the time of this ruling could see how wrong it was to separate people on a train by race. At this time period everyone was so blinded by racism that African-Americans were constantly being denied their rights as citizens. We know today that separate but equal was never actually that. It was a deliberate mechanism that tried to take away African-American's rights fueled only by racism and hate. As a country we have made so much progress from the time of the Plessy v. Ferguson case; with that being said progress must continue to happen,  racism is still not eradicated and citizens are denied their rights everyday.