Civil rights are a collection of rights that aim at protecting freedom of individuals against the violation by governments and/or privately run organizations. Civil rights revolve around ensuring preservation of life, provision of safety and preservation of mental and physical. Civil rights also aim at eliminating any form of discrimination on an individual. Society has practiced discrimination based on skin color and racial differences, differences in religion, disability among others. In an attempt to ensure the preservation of these civil rights,the Congress passed a number of civil rights acts between 1866 and 1875 meant to facilitate the implementation of the 13^th and 14^thamendments. These formed the basis for court battles in the Supreme Court, African-Americans against white supremacist groups reluctant to observe the acts. They considered the laws as aninfringement on their personal freedom of choice. Several such cases contributed a great deal in shaping the social situations and in the modification of the racial policy. One such case involved Plessy versus Fergusson.

Plessy versus Fergusson

The Plessy versus Ferguson court legal case started in 1892 through 1896 in the Louisiana State. Homer Plessy was a shoemaker by profession and an activist of African-American rights from New Orleans. The legislativebody of Louisiana had a law in place in 1890 that allowed carriage of all passengers, black and white, by the railway companies. The law also provided the companies avail equal services fortheir coaches, but providedifferent accommodations between black and white people. This was a supposed improvement of the law that banned black people from travelling in first class coaches. Plessy determined to defy Jim Crow law and a provision that provided blacks to ride the trains along the whites but for the first class. He was arrested for boarding an all-white passenger car of the East Louisiana Railway. A trial followed at the Criminal District Court in New Orleans, heard from John J Ferguson. Ferguson ruled that the law had no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court heard the Plessy’s case in 1896 and withheld Fergusson’s ruling.

Case of judicial activism or judicial restraint?

Plessy versus Ferguson case decision shows clear support of judicial restraint. First, despite the length and detailed nature of the Fourteenth Amendment, the court applied a very shallow interpretation. To arrive to its ruling; the court depended solely on the clause that rendered the states powerless of making or enforcing laws infringing on the basic civil rights of the citizens. The clause further provided the states to ensure equal protection of the laws for every person within their borders. Only due law process would lead to the infringement of these rights. The clause, however, did not provide for the provision of the same rights, only equal.

Secondly, despite the valid argument presented by Harlan, Plessy’s justice, the ruling of the court went ahead to promote the provision of ‘equal but separate’ rights as the constitutionally mandated. In his argument, Harlan posed that the law ought to regard man as man, regardless of the circumstances surrounding and irrespective of the person’s color. Harlan insisted on the constitution being intolerant of classes among the citizens. The court was obliged to listen to this argument, dwell more on interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment before making ruling, as was the case. This never happened.

Thirdly, the court never considered the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Brown. Mr. Brown, presenting the court’s opinion stated that equal rights for all citizens could not be equal, yet one was an inferior to the other, not from a political or civil standpoint. This was a judicial activism standpoint. The court could not tolerate such,in the end; the Supreme Court held Fergusson’s decision.

Interest Groups

Interest groups are an organized bodywhose main intention is public policy manipulation to suit their own interests or of those that they represent. The main driving force is frustration with government policies. Their influence largely depends their size, the amount of resources at their disposal and the leadership qualities they have. Ability to finance politicians plays a major role in enhancing their influence. The United States is home to scores of these interest groups.This paper seeks to elaborate on two of these interest groups.

Christian Coalition

According to their website, the Christian Coalition of America is a political organization, comprised of pro-family Americans whose main agenda is ensuring thepreservation and strengthening of family values. Though the group claims being non-partisan in politics, and only engages in safeguarding religious rights, its role in American politics is undeniable. The Christian Coalition controls the Republican Party. It is conventional knowledge that the Christian Coalition determines who will be the Republicans presidential candidate (Diamond, 1995). The Christian Coalition actively involves itself in campaigning for its preferred candidates. During the 1996 general elections, the electoral commission raised accusations against the Christian Coalition of illegally aiding the election campaigns of prominent Republican candidates. These included George Bush. (Thomma & Goldstein, 1996).

The Christian Coalition is a very powerful group,attributed to the enormous resources at its disposal and the large voter base it controls. It is an admirable organization, which dwells on enhancing moral and just leadership. In spite of these efforts, they have their shortcomings. First, Christian Coalition tries to impose moral values and standards founded theology and the Bible. These ideologies disregard the principle teachings of other denominations and may result in conflict of interest. Secondly, they often get involved in politics and forget their principal agenda. They participate in funding and campaigning for their candidates of choice. In addition, the Christian Coalition, in its push for moral and preservation of family values, is punitive towards women and tend to undermine gender inequality. An interesting fact to note about the Christian Coalition is that once a chairperson of the coalition resigned to join politics.

American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil liberties Union is an organization that seeks to promote liberty of American citizens, defend and enhance preservation of the individual rights as provided by the United States constitution. The union alsopurposes to foresee the protection of the rights of the minority or of those that have been subjected to discrimination and deprivation of these rights it the past.

The American Civil Liberties Union has contributed in a number of ways in American politics. The union is highly associated with the Democrats party from the huge PACSgeared towards their campaigns. Funding to any candidate enhance the ability to campaign and directly influence the outcome of the elections. The union rises against a candidate perceived to have no respect for the civil rights. With its high influence, it has decided the outcomes of major elections.

The American Civil Liberties Union is very influential. This union is effective in fulfilling its principle mandate of preserving the civic rights of the public, earning public confidence and with its political influence. Further, the union has a great amount of resources at its disposal, for which it can fund candidates and increase political influence.

The union has more good than bad. First, the union has a record of accomplishments in ensuring the government observes the rule of law for all. Secondly, the union has made huge public huge government secrets. It believes in the right to information for all people. Thirdly,the union has great leadership that has ensured its survival through the years.

An interesting fact about the American Civil Liberties is that once,ahead of the union resigned after criticism of name-calling a voter who refused on voting his preferred candidate.

References

About us. (n. d). Retrieved March 25, 2014. American Civil Liberties Union website, https://www.aclu.org/

Christian coalition. (n. d).Retrieved March 25, 2014. ALPWiki2011 website, http://alpwiki2011.wikispaces.com/Christian+Coalition

American civil liberties union. (n. d). Influence Explorer Website, http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/american-civil-liberties-union/9a2e6fb699314c72bb4d1429e7b0040f

American civil liberties union. (n. d). Retrieved March 25, 2014. Open secrets.org website, http://www.opensecrets.org/

Diamond, S. (1995, September 27).A Christian Coalition Member on Every Corner. Inquirer Washington Bureau. Retrieved from: http://articles.philly.com/1995-09-27/news/25718620_1_christian-coalition-convention-exhibit-hall

Thomma, S., & Goldstein, J., (1996, July 31). Coalition Aid To Candidates Called Illegal as Fec Lawsuit Targets The Christian Coalition. It is Accused of Illegally Helping George Bush and Others. Inquirer Washington Bureau. Retrieved from: http://articles.philly.com/1996-01-12/news/25651936_1_ralph-reed-christian-coalition-tax-credit

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