Federal Civil Rights Statutes

Besides those listed above, these are the major federal civil rights statutes:

Core anti-discrimination laws

• Civil Rights Act of 1964: the most foundational, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment, public accommodations, and federally funded programs

• Equal Pay Act of 1963: requires equal pay for equal work regardless of sex

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA, 1967): protects workers 40 and older from age-based discrimination

Education & housing

• Title IX (1972) — prohibits sex discrimination in any school or education program receiving federal funding

• Fair Housing Act (1968) — prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, and familial status

Voting rights

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 — prohibits discriminatory voting practices that had been used to disenfranchise Black Americans

Do student's have rights?

Students have constitutional rights, and they don't disappear when you walk through the school doors. Courts have wrestled with exactly how far those rights extend in a school setting, and the cases below have shaped what students can and cannot do in public schools across the country.

Free Speech

In 1969, the Supreme Court decided one of the most important student rights cases in history. In Tinker v. Des Moines, a group of students wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War and were sent home. The Court sided with the students, ruling that schools cannot silence student expression unless it causes a substantial disruption to the school environment. The Court famously wrote that students do not "shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate."

However, free speech in school has limits. In Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986), the Court ruled that schools can discipline students for lewd or offensive speech at school events. And in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), the Court ruled that schools can control the content of school-sponsored activities like newspapers, yearbooks, and plays, as long as they have a reasonable educational reason for doing so.

More recently, in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021), the Court considered whether schools can discipline students for things they say off campus and online. The Court ruled largely in the student's favor, signaling that schools have less authority over student speech that happens outside of school, though this area of the law is still developing.

The Right to Read

In Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982), a group of students, led by Steven Pico, sued their school district after the school board removed several books from the school library, calling them inappropriate. The Supreme Court ruled that school officials cannot remove books from a library simply because they disagree with the ideas in them. The right to receive information and ideas is protected, and a library is one of the key places where that right lives. This case is especially significant because it directly involves school libraries and the freedom to read.

Religion in Schools

Public schools are government institutions, which means they must follow the First Amendment's rules about religion. In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools is unconstitutional. Schools cannot organize or lead students in prayer. Students, however, are free to pray privately or in student-led groups on their own time.