Civil Rights

In today's litigious environment, nurse educators must understand the legal issues involved in determining grades and deciding academic progression. Although the courts have consistently ruled that educators are the most qualified people to evaluate what constitutes academic success, the potential remains for students to legally challenge their grades. This article reviews legal cases and shows the change in the studentinstitution relationship from one of a child-surrogate parent (in loco parentis) to one in which students' rights and institutional responsibility are balanced. The courts continue to support the concept that educators are uniquely qualified to make determinations concerning grading and progression and defer to decisions made by the academic community. However, a series of legal decisions based on due process and contract law now protects students from arbitrary and capricious decisions made without a formal grievance process. The implications for nurse educators and administrators are far-reaching and include such issues as specific policies within syllabi, divisional policies, institutional policies, and adherence to formal grievance procedures. (

This thesis is a historical and filmic analysis of the Black Panther Party, using two documentaries, All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond (1996) and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015). It is first stated what the documentary film should set out to achieve when framing a political narrative. The films will be looked at separately, in regard to the context of their production and release. Power to the People was a reaction to the Rodney King riots. Vanguard of the Revolution was filmed alongside the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Black Panther origins as a movement are briefly considered to allow for a base understanding of the party’s precepts and aims. This includes the roles of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and an introduction to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The content analysis begins by looking at the main ideologies of the party and its operations. The empowerment of women but also hyper masculinity within the party is then discussed. This follows on to social and survival programs set up by the party. Primarily using two significant cases, the deaths of Bobby Hutton and Fred Hampton, there is an examination of concerted efforts by police and FBI to mobilise and neutralise the party. Comparisons and contrasts are then made between the style and content of the two films. It will be concluded that the films serve two purposes, to give the positive work of the Black Panthers a legitimate platform, but also to address the criticisms levelled at the party. The overarching conclusion will be that the Black Panthers were involved in a vicious cycle. Once they brought any semblance of solidarity to their communities, the FBI and Police would move against them leading to reactionary violence which caused the party’s eventual disbandment.

Die (österreichische) archäologische Denkmalpflege befindet sich in einer schweren Krise: das ursprünglich 1923 erstmals erlassene und seither nur unwesentlich novellierte Denkmalschutzgesetz (DMSG) ist hochgradig veraltet und genügt modernen denkmalpflegerischen und wissenschaftlich-archäologischen Erfordernissen nicht mehr. Als reaktives Gesetz beruht das DMSG in erster Linie auf dem traditionellen Schutzlistenprinzip; im Bereich der archäologischen Denkmalpflege ergänzt um eine Meldepflicht für Zufallsfunde und damit verbundene, kurzfristige Arbeitseinstellungspflichten bei der zufälligen Entdeckung sogenannter "Bodendenkmale". Das war 1923, als selbst Baugruben noch mehrheitlich von Arbeitern händisch mit der Spitzhacke und Schaufel ausgehoben wurden, durchaus adäquat, weil allfällig durch Bauarbeiten betroffene archäologische Denkmale dabei unweigerlich auffielen und daher - als Zufallsfunde - geschützt waren. Heute hingegen sind Bau-, Land- und Forstwirtschaft durchgehend maschinisiert und industrialisiert und Zufallsfunde archäologischer Denkmale kommen daher bei bodenverändernden Arbeiten so gut wie gar nicht mehr vor, weil allfällig vorhandene archäologische Denkmale von den Arbeitern einfach nicht bemerkt werden. Es bedarf daher heute eines präventiven archäologischen Denkmalschutzes, bei dem vorausschauend vor bodenverändernden Arbeiten nach archäologischen Überresten gesucht und diese erforderlichenfalls vor Beginn der Erdarbeiten wissenschaftlich erforscht (d.h. ausgegraben) werden. Das DMSG und insbesondere seine Auslegung durch die für seinen Vollzug verantwortliche Behörde, das Bundesdenkmalamt, behindern eine derartige, moderne präventive archäologische Denkmalpflege massiv. Stattdessen versucht die Behörde mittels des inzwischen untauglichen Gesetzes einen totalen Denkmalschutz zu erreichen, der dem explizit ausgedrückten Willen des Gesetzgebers diametral widerspricht und betreibt somit rechtswidrige Denkmalpflege.

Modern challenges require us to rethink the definitions of work, rest and break time and reflect them in existing legislation. Legislation existing today does not ensure full regulation and definition of working time. It is a must for the definition of working time to include the following formulation: Working time is the part of calendar time, during which an employee is under the disposal of an employer (despite being or not being present at the workplace (which is considered as the legal address of an employer) because any place where an employee performs their working activities and fulfills work obligations must be defined as the working place. Rest and break time are not included in working time.

The obligation of an employer to record the working time is in direct correlation with the discussion of any topic related to the amount of work, which means that in such cases the burden of proof should be on an employer, not an employee.

The considerations in this article relate to the relationship between state security and the necessity of introduction restrictions on constitutional rights and freedoms of man and citizen. In order to present the multidimensionality of this relationship, the author first explained the concept of state security with regard to the meaning of constituent concepts, namely the concept of state and the notion of security. Subsequently, the analysis of constitutional provisions was carried out from the point of view of their relationship with the concept of state security and in the context of protection of constitutional freedoms and human and civil rights. The analysis has proven that in many cases the implementation of state security requires restrictions on constitutional freedoms and rights of man and citizens. These restrictions should respect the principle of proportionality.

A look at a few of the courageous individuals who were harassed, beaten and bombed while testing desegregation court rulings for the Southern United States. They rode buses in May of 1961 in an heroic act of nonviolent protest that helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the years following World War II, the national Democratic Party aligned its agenda more and more with the goals of the civil rights movement. By contrast, a majority of southern Democrats remained as committed as ever to a traditional, segregationist ideology. Through the career of Senator James Eastland, one of the mid-century’s most prominent politicians, author Maarten Zwiers explores the uneasy, yet mutually beneficial relationship between conservative southerners and the increasingly liberal party to which they belonged.

Mississippi Democrat James “Big Jim” Eastland began an influential four-decade career in the United States Senate in 1941, ultimately rising to become president pro tempore of the Senate, a position that placed him third in the line of presidential succession. His reputation for toughness developed from his unfailing and ruthless opposition to greater civil rights and his concern over the global spread of communism, as he believed participants in the two movements were working together to undermine the American way of life. Zwiers contends that despite Eastland’s extreme positions, he still managed to maintain influence through productive relationships with his Senate colleagues—liberal as well as conservative. Though the progressive wing of the Democratic Party continued to push for stronger civil rights legislation, they valued compromise with southern senators like Eastland in order to ensure support from a region the Democrats could ill afford to lose. While Eastland’s campaigning rhetoric was inflammatory, his ability to operate within the national political structure by leveraging moderate concessions contributed to his lengthy and effective career.

Drawing on recently opened archival records, Maarten Zwiers offers a nuanced portrait of a man frequently portrayed as a southern zealot. Senator James Eastland provides a case study of the complicated relationship between party and party members that allowed Democrats to maintain power in the South for much of the twentieth century.

See more at: http://lsupress.org/books/detail/senator-james-eastland/

Bob Moses was a civil rights pioneer who made a difference in the state of Mississippi, and his indelible impact was felt by a whole generation of voters, which included Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi. Moses died on Sunday, July 25, at his home in Hollywood, Fla. He was 86. This blog post reviews some of Moody’s comments about him in her classic memoir.

Synopsis -South Africa has been in the forefront of countries that articulate gender rights as vital human rights. Therefore, it came as no surprise to many observers that when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began hearings in 1996 to investigate human rights abuses during the apartheid era, women's stories were being neglected, and the country was getting a distorted view of the past. In response to pressure from women's organizations, the TRC held three all-women hearings in which women were encouraged to tell their own stories of human rights violations. This article highlights women's oppression during the period of review (1960)(1961)(1962)(1963)(1964), the TRC's handling of gender issues, and an assignment of the TRC's contribution toward the promotion of gender rights.

The purpose of this study was to explore university students' attitudes toward same-sex parenting and toward gay and lesbian rights. A total of 292 participants, aged between 18 and 27 (M = 21) responded to a questionnaire measuring attitudes toward parenting by gay men and lesbians, gay and lesbian rights, and beliefs about the etiology of homosexuality. Results revealed that the majority of students were against gay and lesbian parenting, gay and lesbian equal rights, and believed that homosexuality has a social/environmental basis. It was found that sexual prejudice is highly prevalent in Portuguese university students, and implications of these findings are discussed.

Recent transformations of civil rights structures such as the Voting Rights Act, the policies concerning affirmative action have called into question the propriety of race conscious remedies to promote equality. This has occurred despite the fact that in other areas of civil rights, the theory of civil rights equality has evolved to be more inclusive of identity-based claims such as those that support same-sex marriage. This modern period of transformation has raised the core question of the meaning of civil rights and its proper relationship to its original purpose. In response to this concern, this Article draws on legal history, critical theory, and democracy theory to rearticulate the underlying purpose of civil rights as a mechanism of reinforcing democracy. It then concludes by proposing directions for the future of civil rights theory.

This Article begins by extending John Hart Ely’s theory of democracy re-enforcement to include both a concern for fair process and a need to attend to substantive opportunity to equal treatment as both necessary to foster democratic equality. The Article then offers an account based on this theory to demonstrate how the civil rights accomplished in various respects the need for fair process, but failed to focus on substantive equality of situation. It then explains how this has evolved over time to include, but then ultimately exclude, race conscious remedies while gender and sexual orientation discrimination have been included within the process. In light of this account, the Article then proposes that despite the need for substantive equality to make democracy re-enforcement theoretically complete, the reality is that our conceptions of civil rights have underplayed issues of class and socioeconomic status. It recommends that an approach that is both race-conscious and attends to the disadvantages of lower socioeconomic status is necessary to revitalize the civil rights model for the twenty-first century.

Among the provinces of Canada having a history of eugenics (sterilization) legislation, Alberta alone undertook vigorous implemen tation. British Columbia legislation, in effect for 40 years, was not in fact pursued. The major focus of the Alberta experience was with the mentally retarded. The Alberta Sterilization Act did not require consent for sterilization from either the retarded person or his parent, relative or other guardian. Sterilization provisions respecting the men tally ill were on a voluntary basis and they were not so frequent in request or approval The experiment is now complete, Alberta having repealed the legislation and B.C. having announced intent of repeal. The story will have interest for those who continue to be sensitive to eugenics issues in the mental health field in Canada. The Origins of Voluntary Sterilization The history of sterilization legislation in North America is founded on newspaper Sunday supplement studies, popular around the turn of the century, a period when the social consequences of degenerate heredity were being widely broadcast (2,3). The re sulting genetic alarm was a natural enough public and legislative reaction to: the failure of the mental retardation 'curists' (4,6); the large number of test-dullards being exposed *Manuscript received May 1973.

Introduction: Actions taken at the level of the European Union and related to the implementation of the European governance model are based on the assumptions of the theory of good governance. The research problem is the analysis of the process of implementation of this model in the decision-making mechanisms in the EU. Purpose: to analyse the theoretical framework for the application of the concept of good governance in the European Union, to assess the principles and to diagnose the actors responsible for the efficient functioning of the European governance model. The article verifies the hypothesis that the implementation of the concept of good governance in the European Union leads to the strengthening the elements that democratise and increase the transparency of the principles of its functioning for citizens. Methods: The study of these issues is conducted using actor-centred approach and metatheoretical research. The general scientific methods of cognition is used (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, description, etc.), as well as theoretical methods of formal and dialectic logic, supplemented by the specific juridical methods (juridical-dogmatic method, system and structure revealing method, and the method of legal norms interpretation). The analysis covers the normative basis of the good governance concept, with particular emphasis on actors involved in the procedures of applying and protecting the civil rights resulting from this concept. Results: The networks of individual actors, thematic platforms and transnational associations are active in numerous consultations with the European Commission. Тhis way, they are the main representatives of opinions of the EU Member States’ societies and the inspirers to take the necessary decisions. They play a similar role in the implementation phase of decisions, when the national administrations is obliged to implement the European standards into national legal acts. Then, the actors participate in consultations with the national authorities and monitor the implementation of EU programmes. Conclusions: The conducted analysis proved the functioning of civil participation in the European Union, which also means the existence of a civil control mechanisms. However, it is small, in comparison with local governments and business structures. Representatives of civic organisations submit postulates to the European Commission that it is necessary to modify the existing rules. The governments and national officials have better support – both technical, organisational and financial – to participate in monitoring the decision-making process, but representatives of civil society are deprived of any support. These conclusions lead to a reflection that the European governance model is not functioning entirely well. There must be connections between the elements of the good governance system. The presented analysis demonstrates that only some of its fragments are functioning: legal regulations, law, public consultations of several policies. These are the lonely elements of society's influence on decision-making process. The lack of strong systemic connections not only results in instability of the entire structure of EU governance, but also weakens the effectiveness of the law. // FULL TEXT --> http://metodol59.ru/images/2021/2021-perm-metodolog.pdf

There is a legislative gap concerning the conjoined twins in many countries of the world, including Georgia, primarily because there are no targeted interdisciplinary researches, among them in the field of law, conducted with relevant intensity, scope and quality, which not only leaves some unanswered questions, but also causes the absence of questions at first glance. 
This text aims at promoting the legal issues on conjoined twins, identifying important questions (research topics) and providing an incentive for researchers to conduct a profound and detailed study of the issues discussed in the text.
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მსოფლიოს სხვადასხვა ქვეყნებში, მათ შორის საქართველოში, შეერთებულ ტყუპებთან დაკავშირებით არსებული სამართლებრივი ვაკუუმი უპირველესყოვლისა ეფუძნება იმ გარემოებას, რომ შესაბამისი ინტენსივობით, მოცულობითა და ხარისხით არ წარმოებს მიზნობრივი ინტერდისციპლინური კვლევები, მათ შორის სამართლის მიმართულებით, რაც არა თუ პასუხგაუცემელს ტოვებს კითხვებს, არამედ კითხვების ერთი შეხედვით არარსებობასაც იწვევს.

Within the auspices of today's society, the subjects of civil rights and diversity go hand in hand - it seems that there cannot be one without the other.  This is true within organizations such as FEMA.  With there being such a multifariousness of employees within the different governmental agencies, the need for legislation, guidelines, reviews and revisions to protect the basic human rights of all individuals has become a major point of concern.

In this article, we explore the wraparound approach of service delivery as a model for transnational social work. The wraparound model, used primarily within community-based children's mental health services and child protection initiatives, has been effective when planning services for clients and their families with complicated needs, whose care has to be provided within a multiple provider context. Most social work is delivered nationally or internationally rather than transnationally. In the article we outline how the model could be structured to meet the particular needs of transmigrants, including the involvement of NGOs and INGOs, and identify key obstacles and limitations.

#AnneMoody

This is an overview of the Anne Moody History Project (AMHP) and its plans to promote and help preserve the legacy of Anne Moody (1940 - 2015). Ms. Moody was a civil rights pioneer and the famous author of Coming of Age in Mississippi. She grew up in Centreville, Miss., where she overcame poverty, racism, persecution, and the threats of death. She became a respected leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

Drawing on the author's background in marketing and journalism, this document presents a list of practical ideas adapted by AMHP for promoting Ms. Moody's history. The ideas include promotional work through schools, churches, the local community, government agencies, social media, and the news media. In addition to honoring her with a street and highway bearing her name, AMHP plans call for having a proclamation issued for “Anne Moody Day.” The author, who serves as AMHP chairman, has said the promotional campaign is about “history, education and tourism.” Current and future generations need to know her story, according to the author.

Note: Readers are encouraged to follow updates on Ms. Moody’s history by following @AnneMoodyHP on Twitter. #AnneMoody

This is a study guide for using the Crossing the BLVD book as a text in courses on documentary art, immigration, refugee/asylum issues including law and policy, race ethnicity and the changing face of America, photography and visual art, English writing seminars, or any courses dealing with cross-cultural dialogues. Any questions please contact EarSay - the non-profit in charge of touring this project: info@earsay.org.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the key differences in aesthetic symbology within political musical performances that took place during the Civil Rights Movement, in comparison to the Black Lives Matter Movement, and how this impacts the methods of imparting messaging within performance. This study analyses ten performances using a synthesised theoretical framework, adapted from Brook’s Civil Sphere EMM-Framing Theory and Pierce’s Model of Semiotics. This provides a rigorous framework for understanding the intended impacts of iconography on consumer’s emotional responses and moral beliefs. This also allows for a recognition of the ways in which musical performance is used to challenge the ideologies of the mainstream. Further, this study identifies similarities and differences between symbology within performance between the two time periods to recognise how the ideologies of the Civil Sphere is made manifest within musical performance. This paper concludes that whilst the intended goal of aesthetics within protest music performance are to, indeed, impart social change discourse, the differing content of this discourse comes to mirror the changed collective beliefs of a society.

Following the death of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide after forced “conversion therapy,” President Barack Obama called for a nationwide ban on psychotherapy aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. The administration argued that because conversion therapy causes substantial psychological harm to minors, it is neither medically nor ethically appropriate. We fully agree with the President and believe that this is a step in the right direction. Of course, in addition to being unsafe as well as ethically unsound, current conversion therapy approaches aren’t actually effective at doing what they claim to do – changing sexual orientation. But we also worry that this may be a short-term legislative solution to what is really a conceptual problem. The question we ought to be asking is “what will happen if and when scientists do end up developing safe and effective technologies that can alter sexual orientation?”

The legal competency or capability to exercise rights is level of judgment and decision-making ability needed to manage one's own affairs and to sign official documents. With some exceptions, the person entitles this right in age of majority. It is acquired without legal procedures, however the annulment of legal capacity requires a juristic process. This resolution may not be final and could be revoked thorough the procedure of reverting legal capacity - fully or partially. Given the increasing number of persons with dementia, they are often subjects of legal expertise concerning their legal capacity. On the other part, emphasis on the civil rights of mentally ill also demands their maximal protection. Therefore such distinctive issue is approached with particular attention. The approach in determination of legal competency is more focused on gradation of it's particular aspects instead of existing dual concept: legally capable - legally incapable. The main assumption repre...

Narrative tells of a new law to address discrimination in the federal workplace known as the Elijah E. Cummings Federal Employee Antidiscrimination Act.  The EEO reforms,  presented and suggested by the Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C), was introduced in the House of Representatives by the late Rep. Cummings and became law on January 1, 2021.

Police and authorities have increasingly adopted “command and control” strategies to the policing of intentionally peaceful protest crowds. These strategies work to close down access to a physical space in which a protest is to occur and thus in turn they effectively restrict the capacity of a citizen to engage in the democratic right of peaceful protest.

Terence McKenna argued that sovereignty over one’s consciousness is the next great civil rights struggle after sexism, racism, and homophobia. “Coming out” about one’s psychedelic identity, interests, and/or experiences is an important part of redefining the public perception of psychedelics and of those who choose to experience their effects. Even non-using “allies” (comparable to LGBTQ allies) can join the conversation in supportive roles. In light of the shifting legal status of psychoactive plants and chemicals, what might it mean to identify as psychedelic in a post-prohibition world?

This article, which is based on and expands on an amicus brief the authors submitted to the United States Supreme Court, first provides the moral argument in favor of the insanity defense. It considers and rejects the most important moral counterargument and suggests that jurisdictions have considerable leeway in deciding what test best meets their legal and moral policies. The article then discusses why the two primary alternatives to the insanity defense, the negation of mens rea and considering mental disorder at sentencing, are insufficient to achieve the goal of responding justly to severely mentally disordered offenders. The last section considers and rejects standard practical arguments in favor of abolishing the insanity defense.

Code civil is the result of a monumental legal activity in France initiated by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 and realized in the following years by a commission of experts led by Cambacérès. Among them there were other renowned lawyers, such as Tronchet, Portalis, and Malevill. The Napoleonic Civil Code, adopted on 21 March 1804 after much debate and intensive work, confirmed some of the principles of 1789: the freedom of the individual, equality before the law, laicization of the state, and unlimited and non-forfeitable (forever-enduring) property rights. The Code also enabled the constitution of the bourgeois family by strengthening the father and husband's authority and introducing limited divorce rules. Nevertheless, it still considered the married woman, in relation to her husband, as inferior. Under the new civil law, the woman was fully submitted to her husband´s paternalistic protection: she could not dispose freely of her property or plead in her own name before a court of law without the consent of her husband. The Code civil, called by Napoleon “My Code", which was published in 1807 again under the name of the French Emperor as the Code Napoléon, is still considered to be the most important legacy of the Napoleonic government not only in France but also in countries occupied by the French. During the 19th and 20th centuries, it served as a model for many other civil-law texts adopted in various states across continents.

The Inclusive Standards to Facilitate Persons with Disability Access to Elections - Awareness Guide -  (In Arabic)
My Right Campaign- The National Campaign toward the Endorsement of the Political Rights of Persons with Disability in Lebanon.

My research examines the legal history of the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment - the emancipation amendment -  ended legal slavery in the United States. The second portion of the Amendment has the controversial verbiage “Except As Punishment For A Crime." Thus, the amendment abolishes slavery but states that anyone convicted of a crime can be held in servitude. One core question this research considers is to what degree is this clause legally binding today. The synthesis of the 13th Amendment is important because of the growing minority prison population.  My methodology consist of examining 13th Amendment Supreme Court Cases and other case law pertaining to the Amendment. This work contextualize the histories of carceral systems like the Black Codes, the Convict Lease System, the War on Drugs and the emergence and expansion of the Prison Industrial Complex.  As a result, this research considers drug disparities and perceptions of powder versus crack cocaine. In addition, this work analyzes the social ramifications of being a felon. My findings suggest there are important economic outcomes associated with controlling and restricting African Americans that have been in place since slavery and continue today.

Two weeks ago, the world witnessed a murder of an innocent Black man, George Floyd, what many, including Jesse Jackson, called a “public lynching” in broad daylight, at the hands of a white policeman. It was a brutal killing by the manner in which Minneapolis policeman, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, slowly and viciously forcing the life out of Floyd for almost 9 minutes. While Chauvin’s fellow officers, by not coming to Floyd’s aid, were complicit to the crime. There was no need for Chauvin to have subdued Floyd in such a cruel and purposeful way until Floyd could no longer breathe, especially since Floyd had already been restrained. Nor, did Floyd have any weapon. Nor had he committed any crime warranting such force. In a video captured by a teenager, Floyd could be heard stating he could not breathe, and calling out for his deceased mother. Since 2014, there have been other police killings of African-Americans with no consequences for the police officers involved.

Introduction As concerns grow that a thinning labor force due to retirement will lead to worker shortages, it becomes critical to support positive employment outcomes of groups who have been underutilized, specifically older workers and workers with disabilities. Better understanding perceived age and disability discrimination and their intersection can help rehabilitation specialists and employers address challenges expected as a result of the evolving workforce. Methods Using U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Integrated Mission System data, we investigate the nature of employment discrimination charges that cite the Americans with Disabilities Act or Age Discrimination in Employment Act individually or jointly. We focus on trends in joint filings over time and across categories of age, types of disabilities, and alleged discriminatory behavior. Results We find that employment discrimination claims that originate from older or disabled workers are concentrated within a subset of issues that include reasonable accommodation, retaliation, and termination. Age-related disabilities are more frequently referenced in joint cases than in the overall pool of ADA filings, while the psychiatric disorders are less often referenced in joint cases. When examining charges made by those protected under both the ADA and ADEA, results from a logit model indicate that in comparison to charges filed under the ADA alone, jointly-filed ADA/

This toolkit supports viewers in discussing what it means to be an American, community choices, civil rights and civil liberties, the role of media during times of war, and connecting the Korematsu v. United States Supreme Court case to contemporary issues. *Includes an op-ed written by Fred Korematsu on September 16, 2004, titled “Do we really need to relearn the lessons of Japanese American internment?” Can support learning about Asian American history, connections between history and the present, what it means to be a responsible citizen, and how to get involved in defending civil rights.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Of Civil Wrongs and Rights is the untold history of the 40-year legal fight to vindicate Fred Korematsu — who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II — one that finally turned a civil injustice into a civil rights victory.

*Served as one of the guide producers.

Like the nation as a whole, organized medicine in the United States carries a legacy of racial bias and segregation that should be understood and acknowledged. For more than 100 years, many state and local medical societies openly discriminated against black physicians, barring them from membership and from professional support and advancement. The American Medical Association was early and persistent in countenancing this racial segregation. Several key historical episodes demonstrate that many of the decisions and practices that established and maintained medical professional segregation were challenged by black and white physicians, both within and outside organized medicine. The effects of this history have been far reaching for the medical profession and, in particular, the legacy of segregation, bias, and exclusion continues to adversely affect African American physicians and the patients they serve.

Instituting a civil right to health care in the United States would be widely beneficial. Access to health care has demonstrated benefits for physical health, which, in turn, has demonstrated benefits for mental health. Improved health, furthermore, has been demonstrated to be a social utility, positively affecting productivity, economic prosperity, and group health. Acknowledging the practical benefits to instituting a civil right to health care, an analysis is performed on related tenets of western philosophy which influences American law, culture, and thought. A description of human nature, rights, social utility, justice, and human capital is offered in the philosophies of David Hume, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, and Adam Smith and proves useful in validating the proposed civil right from a philosophical perspective. The associations drawn by some of these philosophers between education, the market, and public utility enable a comparison of the two-tiered education system in America with a similar possible system for health care. A two-tiered system and possible organization of it is thus proposed and defended on the basis that it has a demonstrated comparable precedent, promotes the exercise of liberty, benefits the worst off among us, and increases competition in the market.