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Past opinions provide perspective

Tue., July 4, 2017

Looking Back reviews opinions published in The Spokesman-Review during this week in history.

Civil Rights Act, July 5, 1964

In the wake of President Lyndon Johnson signing the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, an S-R editorial focused on events that led to its passage.

“Within the last decade the United States Supreme Court has made several far-reaching decisions, the true constitutionality of which has been questioned by a great many Americans.

It continued: “It is therefore important to note that the forthcoming discussions among our people on the constitutionality of the new Civil Rights Act should be made with one basic fact in mind: This new law was passed by Congress and not a ‘judge-made’ law.

“In this respect, this act of Congress provides a quite different base for its enforcement from the base of the federal government’s jurisdiction over public school integration. The Supreme Court school ruling of 1954 was a radical new judicial interpretation of the federal Constitution. Its intended effect was to outlaw many state constitutional provisions with regard to ‘separate but equal’ school facilities. In this outlawing of southern state legal requirements, the federal courts began a process of social change that is far from finished. The resulting emotional and physical turmoils have contributed greatly to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, a law approved by Congress.”

Court closes schools, July 5, 1976

After the New Jersey Supreme Court closed that state’s schools over inadequate funding, an S-R editorial noted the similarities to Washington state’s predicament.

“The (New Jersey) state’s constitution obligates the state to pay for public education, but raising school revenue has more and more been left to local districts, some of which have a far lower tax base than others.

“While there may be some differences between the circumstances in Washington and New Jersey, there is substantial similarity. And this decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court to close down the state’s schools means that it is entirely possible that that could happen here as well.”

ERA fails, July 4, 1982

An S-R editorial lamented the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment, but noted the accomplishments that occurred anyway.

“The decade of debate wasn’t a total disaster. The fight over the amendment sensitized millions to the issue of sexism. In Spokane as elsewhere, the ERA debates helped generate a rape crisis center for the city. It encouraged thousands of women to enter the job market. It broke down uncounted barriers in the home where women long had felt neglected and trivial.

“And there were some spectacular successes by women in this last decade of the ERA debate. Sandra Day O’Connor became a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Janet Guthrie raced at the Indianapolis 500. Soon Sally Ride will become the first woman astronaut.

“But that is not enough. A country that allows women to work for wages that are one-third less than what men earn in the same jobs still needs the ERA. A country where women still can be shortchanged by insurance companies, pension plans and their bosses, still needs the ERA.”