Question

In the 1950s, Pete Hernandez, a Mexican American agricultural worker, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison by an all-white jury in Jackson County, Texas. Hernandezs defense claimed that people of Mexican ancestry had been discriminated against in Jackson County. They pointed to the fact that no person of Mexican ancestry had served on a jury in 25 years and that the Jackson County Courthouse itself practiced segregation in its facilities. The five jury commissioners, who selected the members of the grand jury, testified under oath that they selected jurors based only on their qualifications and did not consider race or national origin in their decisions. In the ensuing case, Hernandez v. Texas (1954), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Hernandez, deciding that evidence of discrimination against Mexican Americans existed in Jackson County and that the Constitution prohibits such discrimination.

Based on the information above, respond to the following questions.
A. Identify the constitutional amendment that was used as the basis for the decision in both Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Hernandez v. Texas (1954).

Answer 1

The constitutional amendment used as the basis for the decision in both Hernandez v. Texas (1954) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was the Fourteenth Amendment, which includes the Equal Protection Clause.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the landmark case Hernandez v. Texas (1954), the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was the constitutional basis for the decision, just as it was in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause was crucial in both cases, as it mandates that no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. This provision was used to argue that Mexican Americans in Jackson County, Texas were being discriminated against by being systematically excluded from jury service, and the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that such exclusion was unconstitutional.

The Hernandez v. Texas case was instrumental in extending the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment to all ethnic groups in the United States, reinforcing the principle that the amendment is not limited to a 'two-class theory' of just whites and African Americans but applies to all racial groups.