Summary : Muller V. Oregon

The significance of Lorena Week’s sex discrimination case was that women can use the legal system to achieve for equality. Week’s case led the National Origination for Women to challenge discriminatory laws. Lorena weeks was a single mother of three children living in Wadley, Georgia. She worked as a telephone operator for many years at the Southern Bell Company. As a single mother, Weeks struggled to provide for her family on her low wages. When the position of Switchman opened, Weeks applied for the position. The switchman job had higher wages and since weeks had been with the company for many years she had seniority rights for the position. When Weeks confronted the company, they said the position was reserved for men and didn’t consider

Women’s history in the United States has always been represented as a struggle for rights. Wealth and status were tied to either their fathers or husbands. In the early 1900s, women were afforded the traditional roles of society. The majority of women worked in the home. If they were of the 18% young or poor women, they also worked in factories as laborers, manufacturing items for the booming industrial revolution (U.S. Department of Labor, 1980). During this time period the workplace was not in compliance with current safety standards. There was no minimum wage yet, work conditions were horrible and they worked long hours, “In 1900, the average workweek in manufacturing was 53 hours,” (Fisk, 2003). Women took “pink

The human brain is a remarkably intricate organ. Therefore, simple mutations in its complexity can result in devastating conditions leading to acts of violence. Kinkel, a fifteen-year-old boy, demonstrates his partaking in the unnecessary murders of both his parents and innocent bystanders. Kinkel is said to have shown signs of his intentions through inconspicuous matters. Later holding the guilt of four deaths and twenty-six attempts via semi-automatic weaponry (para. 5). The mental instability of the subject is proven to be in effect, and a suitable cause for these behaviors. The document in question is “The State of Oregon v. Kipland Philip Kinkel”, in which encompasses a trial the young boy capable of murder. Kinkel is convicted of the absolute minimal sentence for the nature of his crimes, followed by his seemly confession. The defense and prosecution contemplate proper arguments given the defendants substantial witnesses to the crimes and articles of law. Justice is debated among the courts and how to satisfy these reprimands. Judge Haselton effectively uses ethos, logos, and pathos to support the higher courts decision to deny the appeal because the original sentence was constitutional and just.

Part I: Overview of Case (who is involved and what they are arguing, as well as all possible theories, defenses, and torts involved)

As the economic changes swept through America with the Industrial Revolution, so did society and the traditional roles of men and women. These changes hit the lower class women particularly hard because not only did they have to work long hours at a factory; they also had to maintain the household as traditions required of women. With all of these responsibilities that women now had, perhaps the strain hit women because rarely had they been required to do so much. Oregon saw this and created a law in 1903 that stated that women were only allowed to work a maximum of ten hours a day. Similar laws had been passed in other states so it made some people wonder, did the Oregon law violate the women's freedom of

Throughout the 20th century, one of the most controversial topics is the equality of men and women. From the workplace to the athletic fields, many activists have made it their life’s work in order to see women able to have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. In some cases, there has been legal action made in order to facilitate these reforms and ensure that they will be enforced. In most cases, these laws have accomplished exactly what they have set out to do. The nineteenth amendment allowed for the suffrage of women, and Executive Order 11246 prevents any employer from discriminating anybody in the hiring process and in employment, to include equal opportunity as far as advancement and salary are concerned. Both of these have

Throughout the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, there were several instances were white American manhood was threatened. In “Meat vs. Rice,” Rosanne Currarino argues how in the late nineteenth century American workers expressed anti-Chinese views because of anxieties related to the decline of property ownership and increase in manufacturing wage work. These views reflected the changing views of work and manhood, as the “heroic artisan” disappeared and wage work became the norm for most working men. Despite these new challenges, white wage workers reasserted their status by using racialized and gendered language of the anti-Chinese movement to create new understandings of producerism. In the end, male workers wanted to maintain their roles as breadwinners, and consumers. [30] There were also other cases where changes in work threatened the male breadwinner and his manhood. Paul Michael Taillon in “Casey Jones Better Watch Your Speed,” argues that nineteenth-century railroad workers embraced their

The Fourth Amendment protects the police from gaining exorbitant power. However, in Florida v. Bostick and Ohio v. Robinette, the Supreme Court granted the police disproportionate power by granting them the right to conduct warrantless seizures and searches without reason. The rulings of both cases were in emulation of the Fourth Amendment rights.

On March 25, 1911 a disastrous tragedy hit our nation that forced a needed change in the factory industry. In New York’s Greenwich Village a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, one of the most prominent factories around owned by Mr. Isaac Harris and Mr. Max Blanck. Approximately 146 workers, mostly women, died in this fire, making it the most catastrophic fire incident in New York City. Just before this accident, these same women were on strike for the horrible and unsafe conditions they faced in such factories, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory being the most influential reason for the strike. This accident was more than an accident; it was society neglecting to take action in order to provide safer conditions for female factory workers, it was the lack of care in the nation at the time for women and their rights.

During the United States transition from agrarian towns to urbanization, the Supreme Court fluctuated its stance on the extent of legislative power while regulating the workplace and economy. The courts rulings began by protecting what it considered basic liberty then adjusted to regulating the industrialization of the time. Early decisions favored business owners and opposed labor unions. Employers began making yellow dog contracts which forbade employees from joining labor unions. Labor Unions were committed to improving work conditions by striking for pay raises and maximum hours. The business owner's prevention of hired individuals to join unions faced challenge in Adair v. United States (1908). The Supreme Court invalidated bans on yellow dog contracts declaring them incoherent with the

At a time when labour unions were gaining in memberships, organization, and bargaining power, women in the workforce made marginal gains during this period considering the booming economy. Sociologically, a healthy economy should in theory provide the framework for change. When citizens have low unemployment and more money in their pockets, time and attention is less directed at bread and butter issues like sustenance and poverty, and aimed at equality and social progress. For women unfortunately, this was not necessarily the case. Their battle with employers was still a struggle between classes than gender parity. Male union leadership would naturally further male worker interests first,8 and this shows a culture of sexism in the workplace that was clearly difficult for working women to overcome. Even union-dues paying women rarely openly questioned their subordination as a sex.9 They were most likely outnumbered and the consequences of being a whistle blower did not want to be entertained. In the mindset of women who worked however, was a developing identity as female wage earners and unionists.10

Around the early 1900’s, concern for child and women labor grew throughout the American public. In the factories, women faced discrimination as employers would usually pay woman about one-half the salary as a man for the same job received. During this period, working conditions were terrible as these factories were not air-conditioned or heated and women worked for

Freedom of assembly defines the right to hold public meetings and form associations without interference by the government. In the case of “De Jonge v. Oregon,” the Court protected freedom of assembly from state actions and rather referred to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (“Dejonge v. Oregon - 1937”). Dirk De Jonge was a member of the Communist Party. De Jonge protested against “police brutality.” Oregon charged De Jonge as wanting to cause civil unrest. However, in the end, the case made it to the Supreme Court who stated the following, “No State . . . shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (“Dejonge v. Oregon - 1937”). “The Court said this means that peaceable assembly cannot be made a crime” (“Dejonge v. Oregon - 1937”). Another freedom of assembly case, Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network involved pro-life protestors who surrounded abortion clinics. The Pro-Choice Network complained that pro-life protestors were hassling their clients outside their clinics (“Schenck v. Pro-choice Network (1996) - Bill of Rights Institute”). This case was about the assembly rights of citizens who wanted to protest abortion, which was their First Amendment right (“Schenck v. Pro-choice Network (1996) - Bill of Rights Institute”). The Supreme Court struck down the “floating buffer zone” due to safety concerns, yet upheld that pro-life protesters can still pass out leaflets and make statements from the approved buffer zone (“Schenck

Women fought very hard for their rights in the workplace. Some of them, including Susan B Anthony, went above and beyond the norm. Yet, today our rights are still not the same as a man’s. At one point women weren’t allowed to work at all, and today they are allowed to have jobs while still being home makers. Although improvements have been made, there are still several dilemmas that need to be addressed. A women earns less than a man when doing the same work, and that is extremely unfair. Another issue in the workplace is that men underestimate women due to lack of strength and discrimination. There are also the issues of pregnancy and sexual

Greenwald, M. W. (1989). Working-class feminism and the family wage ideal: The Seattle debate on married women's right to work, 1914-1920. The Journal of American History, 76(1), 118. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224935575?accountid=32521