Civil Rights in the Shadow of Slavery

The Constitution, Common Law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866

George A. Rutherglen (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

224 Seiten

2013
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-973970-7 (ISBN)

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The 1866 Civil Rights Act is one of the most monumental pieces of legislation in American history, figuring into almost every subsequent piece of legislation dealing with civil rights for the next century. While numerous scholars have looked at it in the larger social and political context of Reconstruction and its relationship with the Fourteenth Amendment, this will be the first book that focuses on its central role in the long history of civil rights. As George Rutherglen argues, the Act has structured debates and controversies about civil rights up to the present. The history of the Act itself speaks to the fundamental issues that continue to surround civil rights law: the contested meaning of racial equality; the distinction between public and private action; the division of power between the states and the federal government; and the role of the Supreme Court and Congress in implementing constitutional principles. Slavery, Freedom, and Civil Rights shows that the Act was not just an archetypal piece of Radical Republican legislation or merely a precursor to the Fourteenth Amendment. While its enactment led directly to passage of the amendment, their simultaneous existence going forward initiated a longstanding debate over the relationship between the two, and by proxy the Courts and Congress. How extensive was the Act's reach in relation to the Amendment? Could it regulate private discrimination? Supersede state law? What power did it endow to Congress, as opposed to the Courts? The debate spawned an important body of judicial doctrine dealing with almost all of the major issues in civil rights, and this book positions both the Act and its legacy in a broad historical canvas.

George Rutherglen is John Barbee Minor Distinguished Professor of Law and Edward F. Howrey Research Professor at the University of Virginia.

Chapter 1: The Birth of Civil Rights: The Circumstances, Acts, and Legacy of the 39th Congress ; Chapter 2: Citizenship, Slavery, and the Constitutional Origins of the Act ; Chapter 3: Reconceiving Civil Rights: The Passage and Structure of the Act ; Chapter 4: The High Tide of Reconstruction: The Fourteenth Amendment and Later Legislation ; Chapter 5: Restrictive Interpretations and the End of Reconstruction ; Chapter 6: The Verdict of Quiescent Years: Aliens, Property, and State Action ; Chapter 7: Resurrecting Civil Rights: Reading an Old Act for a New Era ; Chapter 8: Reaffirming the Revived Act: Extension, Reconsideration, and Recodification ; Chapter 9: Discerning the Future from the Past: The Contemporary Significance of the Act ; Selected Statutes

Erscheint lt. Verlag	17.1.2013
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	163 x 236 mm
Gewicht	440 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
	Recht / Steuern ► Öffentliches Recht ► Verfassungsrecht
	Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte
ISBN-10	0-19-973970-6 / 0199739706
ISBN-13	978-0-19-973970-7 / 9780199739707
Zustand	Neuware