William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

Key players in the conflict over civil rights 181

• A female personnel manager in Florida was told by her manager that men were paid
  more than women because “men are here to make a career and women aren’t. Retail
  is for housewives who just need to earn extra money.”^84

But in 2011 the Court ruled that the class-action lawsuit was not valid because

there was no “convincing proof of a companywide discriminatory pay and promotion

policy.” That is, women would have to prove discrimination individually, not as a group.

Civil rights experts said this was the “death knell” for class-action lawsuits seeking

monetary damages for discrimination.^85

Gay Rights The Supreme Court has a similarly mixed record on gay rights. The Court’s

decisions in early cases were not supportive of gay rights. One of the first cases concerned

Georgia’s law banning sodomy. As we discussed in Chapter 4, the Supreme Court ruled in

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) that homosexual behavior was not protected by the Constitution

and that state laws banning it could be justified under the most lenient rational basis test.^86

After cases where it sidestepped the issue, the Court first endorsed civil rights

for gays in 1996. Here the Court struck down an amendment to the Colorado state

constitution that would have prevented gays from suing for discrimination in

employment or housing. The Court said that the state amendment violated gays’

equal protection rights because it “withdrew from homosexuals, but no others, specific

legal protection from the injuries caused by discrimination.”^87 The Court rejected

the state’s “rational basis” arguments and came close to putting gays in the “suspect

classification” that had been reserved for racial and ethnic minorities.

An important ruling came in 2003 in a case involving two Houston men. As we

discussed in Chapter 4, John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner were prosecuted for

same-sex sodomy (which was illegal in Texas) after police found them having sex in

FIGURE

5.5

AK

CA

AZ

NM

TX

OK

KS

CO

UT

NV

OR

ID

WY SD

ND

NE

MN

WI

MI

IN

KY

OH

WV

NC

VA

PA

NY

VTNHME

MA

RI

CT

NJ

DE

MD

SC

IL

IA

MO

AR

LA

MS AL

TN

GA

FL

MT

WA

HI

D.C.

Less than $250,000

Between $250,000 and $350,000

Between $350,000 and $425,000

Between $425,000 and $500,000

Greater than $500,000

Lifetime wage gap is

Sources: “The Lifetime Wage Gap, State by

State,” National Women’s Law Center, based

on U.S. Census 2016 American Community

Survey Data, https://nwlc.org/resources/

the-lifetime-wage-gap-state-by-state

(accessed 6/15/18).

Lifetime Wage

Gap for Women

as Compared

to Men

There is a substantial difference

between women’s and men’s earnings

in the United States. What could

account for this variation? How much

do you think it has to do with levels

of discrimination, and how much with

differences in the nature of the jobs

that men and women hold?

Full_06_APT_64431_ch05_148-197.indd 181 16/11/18 1:30 PM