Part IV Rights, Ch.22 Equality
Julie Novkov
From: The Oxford Handbook of the U.S. Constitution
Edited By: Mark Tushnet, Sanford Levinson, Mark A. Graber
Constitutional equality has been a crucial engine in constitutional development. Interpretations of equality helped to shape the regulatory environment of the antebellum era and set the boundaries for regulation during the Industrial Revolution. The courts’ readings of equality legitimized the development of a post-slavery caste-based state with different regional manifestations. Courts’ rulings also maintained gendered hierarchies and reshaped them to accommodate women’s changing roles, even as women’s rights advocates fought for and won specific legal...
