1865 - The "Civil War" Amendments were added to the Constitution.
1964 - The Civil Rights Act was passed.
One hundred years. In 100 years, we finally realized other races were equal and had the same fundamental rights. It would take another 44 years before a president was elected who belongs to a different race. It took another five years before the Supreme Court struck down DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act). In the advanced society we live in today, it is shocking to see the amount of time it has taken to award other human beings basic rights.
Our Founding Fathers constructed this nation under the pretense that " All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." However, it has taken us the better part of 200 years to fulfill that statement, and we still have a long path ahead of us. We are making progress and through that progress, our own individual rights have expanded. This steady growth of these "unalienable" rights has been largely influenced by our Supreme Court.
Due to the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison (1803), our Supreme Court has the power of judicial review. This power gives the court the authority to strike down laws, made by the legislature, as unconstitutional. This has led to a steady increase of individual freedom.
For example, the Right of Privacy has been introduced by the Supreme Court in cases like Roe v. Wade (1973), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
While too many of us are too young to remember any of these cases, they played a major impact on the way our society functions. For those who do not know, before Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), it was illegal for a married couple to use contraceptives in their own home. What seems like a non-issue today, was a landmark decision Supreme Court and our nation.
Mentioned earlier, in 2013, a section of DOMA was struck down as unconstitutional. DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. This act defined marriage on a federal level as "the union between one man and one woman." Section 3 of DOMA specifically states that same-sex couples could not be recognized as "spouses" at the federal level. This meant that same-sex couples were denied certain benefits that heterosexual couples were entitled to. This section has since been struck down by SCOTUS (United States v. Windsor) as unconstitutional. This is just one of the most recent expansion of rights awarded to us by SCOTUS and their gradual push toward individual freedom.
In conclusion, the rights given to us by our Founding Fathers have slowly been evolving. We have moved from a country run by all wealthy, white, protestant males to a society run by mostly wealthy, white, protestant males with a few minorities thrown in. It is a fight our generation will have to continue, but it is one we are winning. Keep looking forward, but never forget our past. For those of us who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.
