Chapter 14 Flashcards
Commerce Clause
Constitutional clause that gives Congress the power to regulate certain types of trade, also a justification for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
natural law
Law that classical Greeks believed resided in the human heart and reflected our innate sense of right and wrong
judicial legisation
When courts do not feel bound by the letter of the law nor by their own precedents, and instead appropriate the legislative function of making laws in resolving issues.
growth of privacy
A broadening of the toleration that ought to be extended to an array of lifestyles, behaviors, choices, and value systems as well as a government prescription in individuals’ lives.
narrow construction
Constitutional clauses that were written to be interpreted in a more narrow or direct manner.
moral consensus
A general agreement on standards of right and wrong that was more prevalent in early America than it is today.
growth of governemnt
The steady drift of power from the states to the federal government, with increasing involvement of the federal government in American life.
broad construction
Construction clauses that were written to be interpreted in a more broad or general manner.
growth of personal rights
The broadening judicial interpretation of personal rights that were construed fairly narrowly in the past
Rosa Parks
African American seamstress and civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger while riding a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on Dec. 1, 1955. Her subsequent arrest became the basis for challenging the legality of segregation laws.
Earl Warren
Fourteenth Chief Justice of the Supreme court, Warren ruled in Brown v. Board of Education the segregation was unequal and therefore unconstitutional.
John Marshall
Fourth Chief Justice, Marshall ruled the writs of mandamus were unconstitutional in the case Marbury v. madison, thereby establishing a precedent for judicial review
Martin Luther King Jr
A baptist minister and political activist, King was also a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. His most famous speech was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, entitled Have a Dream”
Charles Kelser
A senior fellow of The Claremont Institute and editor of the Claremont Review of Books. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and is currently Director of the Henry Salvatori Center at Claremont McKenna College. A constitutional scholar, Kesler asserts there is a moral text in the Constitution.
Dred Scott
Slave who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in 1857 because he had lived with his owner in several states where slavery was illegal. The ruling of Dred Scott v. sanford determined that slaves were property and could not be freed by state laws. The ruling essentially nullified Missouri Compromise and was a major factor contributing to the Civil War.
