American Constitutionalism in Historical Perspective (packet)

Enforcement of Civil Rights and Reconstruction Amendments (pp. 984-1021)

1. 
   Enforcement power derived from:
   
   1. 
      Commerce Clause: broad cong enforcement powers, limited jud rev based on rule of clear mistake.
      
      1. 
         Subject matter: any business w/in the states which in the aggregate can have any effect on interstate commerce. Within its subject matter, Congress can do whatever it wants.
         
      2. 
         Purpose: any purpose will do limited by Lopez and Morrison, c/n apply to something non-business like ed.
         
   2. 
      Reconstruction Amendments:
      
      1. 
         13^th A, sec. 2: “Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
         
      2. 
         14^th A, sec. 5: “The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
         
      3. 
         14^th A, sec. 2: “The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by approp legislation.”
         
2. 
   Congressional Enforcement v. Judicial Review: Congressional enforcement under the Reconstruction Amendments raises questions of judicial supremacy not involved when enforcing under the Commerce Clause. If the court finds a suspect class, expressly or impliedly endorsed, or if a fundamental right is unreasonably burdened, the legislation is per se unconstitutional.
   
   1. 
      Judiciary: constrained by arguments of principle.
      
   2. 
      Congress: may take remedial action that goes beyond judicial enforcement.
      
3. 
   Voting Rights Act of 1965: congressional enforcement of the 15^th A and 14^th A §1 equal protection. Based on congressional findings that voter registration test or device was qualifying the rt to vote, was used to deprive blacks of the rt to vote, and that blacks had resultant low voting rates. Determined that several remedies were required w/in the covered areas:
   
   1.