DO PEOPLE REALLY HAVE ACCESS TO THE COURTS?
Whether or not Congress has the power to pass laws, and whether states are subject to federal laws, and whether or not someone can sue to enforce federal law are key questions that the Supreme Court faces in interpreting our Constitution. How these key questions have been interpreted has changed a lot over the lifetime of this country. People now generally assume that if our civil rights are violated that we can go to court to enforce our rights. This is not necessarily true.
Many of the greatest triumphs in the struggle to extend and protect the civil rights of all Americans have come as a result of individuals taking legal action against state and local governments. For example, racial segregation in the schools was legal in this country until people went to court and the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), required a national end to segregation in public schools. Segregation still was often the norm and the ruling wasn't enforced until more than a decade later when more people went to court again and the Court finally ruled to enforce desegregation.
Though the "right" to sue the government for violations of our civil rights may seem innate and inalienable, the truth is that it was not written into the law until 1871. After the Civil War, Congress passed a series of federal laws to reverse the effects of slavery and protect the rights of all Americans, yet many state and local officials were still unwilling to uphold these new laws. Consequently, Congress then enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1871now known as Section 1983which specified that citizens could go to court to get the state (or anyone working for that state) to enforce federal law and their civil rights. Section 1983 is a vital tool in efforts to protect civil rights. Though the law doesn't create any rights, it is a primary means by which citizens can remedy violations of established federal rights.
Recent court rulings, however, have narrowed and redefined when people can go to court to enforce their rights. And across the country courts are refusing to hear suitsand many civil rights can no longer be enforced when they are violatedas a result of these rulings.
For more information on how our civil rights are getting harder to enforce, see our fact sheet about the key Gonzaga case.