Racial policies were mostly those that dealt with the issue of slavery at first and later with the issue of civil rights. Court's decision to have the anti-slavery acts and to later have the civil war acts impacted African-Americans a lot. A case when it comes to ethnicity is for example the court's decision that affirmative action can often be treated as positive racism and that such laws and policies have to pass strict scrutiny and be analyzed to prevent discrimination. Religious groups often had court problems because of issues regarding homosexuality or abortions in which it was established that religious groups have all the freedom to believe what they want but same-sex marriages and abortions can be provided to all people regardless of religion.
<span>One way that Rhode Island colony differed from the Massachusetts bay colony was that Rhode Island had religious tolerance. Although only puritans could worship publicly and have sermons and similar, they didn't bother other people of other faiths.</span> <span />
