Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law Author’s Name The Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor Name Assignment Due Date Introduction In 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment of the American Constitution granted equal rights and protection to all the citizens of America in the aftermath of the Civil War. Despite the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, equal rights were not granted to women in the United States. They were given the right to vote after the female suffrage movement in 1920 (Wolbrecht & Corder, 2020). Even after recognition of their right to vote, they were subjected to discriminatory behavior in different walks of life. The clause of equal rights of the Fourteenth Amendment was applied in judgments of Supreme Court cases almost after a century in 1971 in the case of Reed v. Reed. A summary of the cases taken for this study is provided. It also contains letters to the United States Supreme Court in support of these cases from the perspective of a person who was present in the Court at that time. The rationale for supporting these cases is also elucidated. Summary of the Case Reed v. Reed In 1971, the Supreme Court’s decision in Reed V. Reed became one of the first cases that applied the Fourteenth Amendment to advocate equality for women. The state law was rebuffed due to its discriminatory attitude towards women on the basis of their sex, which violated the Equal Protection Clause. In 1864, Idaho enacted a law in which men were preferred over women during their selection as administrators of estates in cases when the offspring passed away (Supreme Court Historical Society, 2022). Richard Lyn Reed passed without writing a will while he was sixteen years old. His parents, Sally and Cecil Reed were divorced at that time. Both of them filed a petition to seek appointment as administrator of their son. The probate court selected the father as the administrator by citing the 1864 statute. Sally Reed’s complaint that the statute’s preference of men over women was capricious was rejected by the Idaho Supreme Court by declaring that men could play better roles as administrators than women and are better qualified as well. The ruling served as a key guideline regarding the appointment of administrators in the state. Sally Reed filed a challenge to this decision of the Idaho court in the Supreme Court of the United States (Supreme Court Historical Society, 2022). The key issue in front of the Supreme Court was to decide whether the Equal Protection Clause (EPC) of the 14th Amendment was violated due to the discriminatory decision of the Idaho Court, which preferred men over women while appointing estate administrators. The Supreme Court unanimously decided that gender-based categorization undertaken by Idaho law was in abject violation of the EPC. The law was considered to be discriminatory as it rejected the appointment of women at the behest of their sex without providing a rational justification for it. The differential treatment of women depicted through setting up gender as a selection criterion was refuted by the Court. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger opined that injustice based on sexual and gender distinctions starkly contradicts the Fourteenth Amendment (Supreme Court Historical Society, 2022). After this case, the application of the Fourteenth Amendment related to sex discrimination was refined in the upcoming cases related to women’s rights. Letter to the Supreme Court Name Address City Email Phone Number Date Chief Justice Supreme Court of...