BEATRIZSANTILLANES | CHAPTER 4 Flashcards
Chapter 4 Vocabulary
THE CROWN V. ZENGER (1735)
Legal case in the colony of New York that is considered a precursor to free press provisions in the Constitution. The case did not set legal precedent, but did reflect a difference between British authorities and colonists with regard to press freedoms.
CIVIL LIBERTIES
The personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge by law, constitution, or judicial interpretation.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The government-protected rights of individuals against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by governments or individuals.
BILL OF RIGHTS
The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which largely guarantee specific rights and liberties.
NINTH AMENDMENT
Part of the Bill of Rights that makes it clears that enumerating rights in the Constitution or Bill of Rights does not mean that others do not exist.
TENTH AMENDMENT
The final part of the Bill of Rights that defines the basic principle of American federalism in stating that the powers not delegated to the national government are reserved to the states or to the people.
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
One of the three major amendments enacted after the Civil War, extending ¨equal protection of the law¨ to all citizens.
DUE PROCESS CLAUSE
Clause contained in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments; over the years, it has been construed to guarantee a variety of rights to individuals.
SUBSTANTIVE DUE PROCESS
Judicial interpretation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments due process clauses. Protects citizens from arbitrary or unjust state or federal laws.
SEDITION LAWS
Laws that make it illegal to speak or write any political criticism that threaten to diminish respect for the government, its laws, or public officials. State sedition laws were overturned as a result of the 1925 Gitlow Supreme Court decision.
GITLOW V. NEW YORK (1925)
A Supreme Court case that extended the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of speech and of the press to the state governments.
INCORPORATION DOCTRINE
An interpretation of the constitution holding that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires state and local governments to guarantee the rights stated in the Bill of Rights.
SELECTIVE INCORPORATION
A judicial doctrine whereby most, but not all, protections found in the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment.
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS
Those rights defined by the court as essential to order, liberty, and justice and therefore entitled to the highest standard of review.
WARREN COURT
The period in the Supreme Court history during which Earl Warren served as Chief Justice (1953-1969), noted for its many rulings expanding civil liberties and civil rights.
EARL WARREN
The fourteenth chief justice of the United States and who served from 1953 to 1969 and led the court through an important liberal phase; previously a Republican governor and vice presidential nominee.
FIRST AMENDMENT
Part of the Bill of Rights that imposes a number of restrictions on the federal government with respect to civil liberties, including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE
The first clause of the first amendment; it directs the national government not to sanction an official religion.
FREE EXERCISE CLAUSE
The second clause of the First Amendment; it prohibits the U.S. government from interfering with a citizen’s right to practice his or her religion.
LEMON TEST
Three-part test created by the Supreme Court for examining the constitutionality of religious establishment issues.
PRIOR RESTRAINT
Constitutional doctrine that prevents the government from prohibiting speech or publication before the fact; generally held to be in violation of the First Amendment.
ALIEN SEDITION ACTS
Laws passed in 1798 that allowed the imprisonment and deportation of aliens considered dangerous and criminalized false statements against the government.
ABOLITIONIST
A supporter, especially in the early nineteenth century, of an end to the institution of slavery.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Sixteenth president of the United States, the first elected Republican president, who served from 1861-1865. Lincoln, who led the Union during the Civil War, was assassinated in 1865 by a Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth.
ESPIONAGE ACT
A 1917 law that prohibited urging resistance to the draft or distributing anti-war leaflets; by the Supreme Court in Schenck v. U.S.
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TEST
Test articulated by the Supreme Court in Schenck v. U.S. (1919) to draw the line between protected and unprotected speech; the Court looks to see ¨whether the words used¨ could ¨create a clear and present danger that they will bring about substantive evils¨ that Congress seeks ¨to roevent.¨
DIRECT INCITEMENT TEST
Test articulated by the Supreme Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) holding that the first amendment protects advocacy of illegal action unless imminent lawless action is intended and likely to occur.
NEW YORK TIMES CO. V. U.S. (1971)
The case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. government could not block the publication of secret Department of Defense documents illegally furnished to the Times by antiwar activists. Also called the Pentagon Papers case.
SYMBOLIC SPEECH
Symbols, signs, and other methods of expression generally considered to be protected by the first amendment.
HATE SPEECH
Communication that belittles a person or group on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics.
OCCUPY WALL STREET
A recent social movement that promotes protests and political activism against income inequality and corporate greed.
BLACK LIVES MATTER (BLM)
A recent social movement focused on direct protest and political activism against police brutality, mass incarceration, and related offenses against African Americans.
LIBEL
False written statement that defames a person’s character.
SLANDER
Untrue spoken statements that defame the character of a person.
NEW YORK TIMES CO. V. SULLIVAN (1964)
Case in which the Supreme Court concluded that ¨actual malice¨ must be proven to support a finding of libel against a public figure.
FIGHTING WORDS
Words that ¨by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of peace.¨ Fighting words are not subject to the protections to the First Amendment.
MILLER V. CALIFORNIA (1973)
Supreme Court case that created the ¨Miller test¨ to determine when sexually-explicit expression was obscene and therefore beyond the protection of the First Amendment.
DEJONGE V. OREGON (1937)
Supreme Court case that applied the First Amendment’s protections of freedom assembly to the states.
EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT
A 1913 amendment that created the nationwide prohibition on alcoholic beverages; it was repealed in 1933.
WRITS OF HABEAS CORPUS
Petition requesting that a judge order authorities to prove that a prisoner is being held lawfully and that allows the prisoner to be freed if the government’s case does not persuade the judge. Habeas corpus rights imply that prisoners have a right to know what charges are being made against them.
EX POST FACTO LAW
Law that makes an act punishable as a crime even if the action was legal at the time it was committed.
BILL OF ATTAINDER
A declaring an act illegal without a judicial trial.
DUE PROCESS RIGHTS
Protections drawn from the fourth amendment and the bill of rights. Due process may be procedural, ensuring fair treatment, or substantive, protecting fundamental rights.
FOURTH AMENDMENT
Part of the Bill of Rights that protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, houses, papers, and effects without a warrant from a judge among other guarantees.
FIFTH AMENDMENT
Part of the Bill of Rights that imposes a number of restrictions on the federal government with respect to the rights of persons suspected of committing a crime, It provides for indictment by a grand jury and protection against self incrimination, and prevents the national government from denying a person life, liberty, or property without the due process of law. It also prevents the national government from taking property without just compensation.
GRAND JURY
A group of citizens charged with determining whether enough evidence exists for a case to go to trial. Guaranteed by the Fifth-Amendment.
MIRANDA V. ARIZONA (1966)
A landmark Supreme Court ruling holding that the fifth amendment requires individuals arrested for a crime to be advised of their right to remain silent and to have counsel present.
MIRANDA RIGHTS
Statements required of police that inform a suspect of his or her constitutional rights protected by the fifth amendment, including the right to an attorney provided by a court if the suspect cannot afford one.
BURGER COURT
The period in Supreme Court history during which Warren Burger served as Chief Justice (1969-1986).
WARREN E. BURGER
The fifteenth chief justice of the United States who served from 1969 to 1986 and who led the court in an increasingly conversation direction.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY CLAUSE
Part of the fifth amendment that protects individuals from being tried twice for the same offense in the same jurisdiction.
EXCLUSIONARY RULE
Judicially created rule that prohibits police from using illegally seized evidence at trial.
SIXTH AMENDMENT
Part of the Bill of Rights that sets out the basic requirements of procedural due process for federal courts to follow in criminal trials. These include speedy and public trials, impartial juries, trials in the state where the crime was committed, notice of the charges, the right to confront and obtain favorable witnesses, and the right to counsel.
CAPITAL CASES
Court cases in which a conviction may result in the application of the death penalty.
EIGHTH AMENDMENT
Part of the Bill of Rights that states: ¨Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.¨
RIGHT TO PRIVACY
The right to be left alone; a judicially created principle encompassing a variety of individual actions protected by the penumbras cast by several constitutional amendments, including the first, third, fourth, ninth, and fourteenth amendments.
ROE V. WADE (1973)
The Supreme Court found that a woman’s right to an abortion was protected by the right to privacy that could be implied from specific guarantees found in the Bill of Rights applied to the states through the fourteenth amendment.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA V. CASEY (1992)
The Supreme Court’s decision in this abortion case replaced the strict scrutiny standard of Roe with the less stringent undue burden standard.
UNDUE BURDEN TEST
A standard set by the Supreme Court in the Casey case in 1992 that narrowed Roe v. Wade and allowed for greater regulation of abortion by the states.
WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH V. HELLERSTEDT (2016)
Supreme Court abortion ruling that struck down state law provisions in Texas as presenting an undue burden on woman seeking abortions. This decision invalidated numerous state and local laws that imposed similar limitations on clinics.
SEPTEMBER 11TH
A terrorist plot carried out on September 11, 2001 that used hijacked civilian aircraft to attack the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington D.C.
