Since the 1960s, civil rights protections (implementation of the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protections of the laws”) have extended well beyond the initial efforts to end discrimination based on race. This point was brought home to many in U.S. society in the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges recognizing same-sex marriage as a constitutional right under the both the due process clause and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.
What other groups in U.S. society were spurred on by the civil rights movement to seek equal rights protections and what sorts of remedies have they sought from the federal government? In your opinion and based on the answers to the previous questions, do you think that the remedies that these groups are seeking will reduce discrimination in our society? How will they shift traditional notions of federalism? Why?
