Majority Rule and Minority Rights

Majority Rule and Minority Rights

The Founding Fathers of the United States had a significant task on their hands when trying to establish the ground rules for their new nation. They had fled persecution in Europe and wanted to create a country where all persons were equal, where one's religion or financial status didn't determine how you were treated. However, they saw the potential for failure and dissent if a government that tried to honor each and every individual's wishes was established-imagine trying to make a simple law based on the specific requests of what is now a nation of almost 300 million individuals. The Founding Fathers had to find a way to balance the greater needs of the nation, the desires of the majority of the citizens, with the need to respect each individual's rights.

They did this in the Constitution in several ways. The first was in the manner in which they established the legislative system, which would be elected by each state's citizens to represent their needs in lawmaking. The Constitution set up two houses of legislature; the Senate consists of two senators from each state, no more, no less. The House of Representatives consists of a varying number of representatives from each state based on its population (Article I, Sections II and III). This setup allows some elected representatives to be more attentive to "big-picture" matters for their states (Senators, who are more widely representative) and some elected officials to be more attuned to a smaller constituency, by having their districts based solely on population and not physical territory (House Representatives, whose districts may vary in actual size from 1/3 of a state like Wyoming to a section of a metropolitan area, like Dallas).

In this manner of creating two sections of lawmakers who must compromise their desires, the Founding Fathers created a legislative system that could balance out the needs of the majority with the more specific needs of the minority in each lawmaker's home state.

Another institution that the Founding Fathers created in the Constitution to protect minority rights without unfairly disadvantaging the majority was the creation of an independent, unelected judiciary branch (Article III). The judiciary would be given the power to review all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;...to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; -- to Controversies between two or more States; -- between a State and Citizens of another State; between Citizens of different States,-between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens, or Subjects." (Article III, Section 2, Clause 1)

This establishment of an independent judiciary to regulate disputes between individuals without resorting to a "majority rule" situation in individual disagreements created an extra protection for minority rights in individual situations. The judiciary has frequently created minority protections that are in line with the Constitution but might not be a majority public opinion yet.

One of these instances in which the judiciary used its Constitutional powers to protect a minority group against the wishes of the majority was in desegregating public schools. The Supreme Court, against significant public opinion, ruled that all races of children should attend the same public schools. This event most likely would not have happened, and definitely would not have happened when it did, if it were left up to majority opinion. However, the justices read that all men (including public schoolchildren) had certain rights in the Constitution, and they modeled the public school system to reflect that belief.