Part 1- legal question - Frontiero v Richardson Sharron...

Frontiero v Richardson
Sharron Frontiero, a female lieutenant in the United States Air Force, sought housing and
medical benefits, and increased quarters allowances for her husband on the ground that he was
her “dependent.” These benefits would have automatically been granted to a wife of a male Air
Force member, but Frontiero had to prove her husband’s dependence through an application
which she was denied because she failed to demonstrate that her husband was dependent on her
for more than one-half of his support. The question for this decision is whether the difference in
treatment of male and female Air Force Members constitutes an unconstitutional discrimination
against servicewomen in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas
A class action suit was filed by thirteen parents of Topeeka, Kansas against the Board of
Education of that city on behalf of their twenty children to call for the school district to reverse
its policy of racial segregation.