The New Frontier

New Frontier

• 1960 election was closely contested between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy

• Main issues: the economy and the Cold War. The candidates were very similar on these issues.

New Frontier

• Other factors played an important role in the election: style, background, personal manner.

• Candidates spent heavily on television advertising, and engaged in a series of televised debates.

• Kennedy appeared relaxed, outgoing, and tan, while Nixon appeared stiff and pale

The Kennedy Mystique

• Kennedy was youthful and optimistic, and his family became the subject of constant media coverage.

• His charisma came through on television, and he was the first to broadcast press conferences live on television.

Success and Setback on the Domestic Front

• Not all were taken with Kennedy, and because his victory was so close, it was sometimes difficult for him to pass his legislative package, called the New Frontier.

• Congress defeated his proposals for health insurance for the elderly and federal aid to education.

• Kennedy did have some success getting his economic program passed.

• Deficit spending to create jobs: Congress agreed to spend more on defense and space exploration.

• Congress defeated his tax cut proposal, however.

• Kennedy efforts to channel funds to poorer areas: Area Redevelopment Act, Housing Act

• On women’s rights, JFK:– Appointed women to prominent

positions in the administration– Created the Presidential Commission

on the Status of Women– Issued an order to end gender

discrimination in federal employment– Signed the Equal Pay Act

Warren Court Reforms

• Earl Warren: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, nominated by Eisenhower. Led an activist court.

• Voting rights:– Baker v. Carr: Federal courts can

intervene to protect voting rights.– Reynolds v. Sims: State legislative

districts must be equal in population.

• Extending due process:– Mapp v. Ohio: Evidence seized in

violation of federal constitution can’t be used at state trials.

– Gideon v. Wainwright: Criminal defendant has right to an attorney regardless of ability to pay.

– Miranda v. Arizona: Police must advise suspects of rights.

• Prayer and Privacy

– Engel v. Vitale: States cannot compose and require official prayers to be recited in school. Later, Court barred daily Bible readings in public schools.

– Griswold v. Connecticut: State ban on sale of birth control devices was

unconstitutional.