Existing comment:
Out of Many
Records of the National Archives illuminate different types of stories, rights, and experiences. Many connect with tenets defined by constitutional amendments.
In the 1950s, immigrant Ignatz Mezei was permanently excluded from entering the United States on security grounds and stranded on Ellis Island for three years without trial or charges. He sued asserting unlawful confinement and a violation of the Sixth Amendment "right to a speedy and public trial." The Supreme Court decided that an immigrant seeking admission to the United States had no right to constitutional due process. Mezei could thus be excluded without a hearing and detained indefinitely.
This Clifford Berryman political cartoon depicts the two big winners from New York's 1917 election day -- women and Tammany Hall (New York City's Democratic political machine). A women's suffrage amendment was added to the state constitution, and John F. Hylan won the mayoral race. Although New York allowed women to vote, no national law guaranteed women that right until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.
Journalist Melissa Ludtke went to court in 1977 over Major League Baseball's policy of excluding female reporters from locker rooms. She successfully argued that it put her at a disadvantage because of her gender. The policy was overturned when the court ruled that it violated the equal protection or due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. |