Chapter 4

Question 1

Civil liberties

Answer 1

-basic freedoms and liberties
-rooted in the Bill of Rights
- primarily restrict what the government can do to you
(Negative rights)

Question 2

Civil rights

Answer 2

-protection from discrimination
-rooted in laws
-promises of equality under the law
(Positive rights)

Question 3

Civil War Amendments

Answer 3

13th-15th Amendments, which abolished slavery and gave civil liberties and voting rights to freed slaves after the civil war

Question 4

Due Process clause

Answer 4

part of the 14th Amendment that forbids states from denying “life, liberty, or property” to any person without due process of the law

Question 5

Gitlow v. NY

Answer 5

1924 Supreme Court ruling that free speech protections of the 1st Amendment apply to states because of the due process clause, but state could resist speech if it had “dangerous tendency”
1st time the Court said the 14th Amendment incorporated a Bill of Rights Amendment

Question 6

selective incorporation

Answer 6

process through which civil liberties granted in the Bill of Rights are applied to the sates on a case-by-case basis through the 14th Amendment

Question 7

establishment clause

Answer 7

part of the 1st Amendment that states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”
Congress can’t sponsor or favor any religion

Question 8

free exercise clause

Answer 8

part of the 1st Amendment that says Congress can’t prohibit or interfere with the practice of religion

Question 9

Engel v Vitale

Answer 9

1962 Supreme Court ruling that prayer in public schools is a violation of the 1st Amendment’s establishment clause

Question 10

“coercion test”

Answer 10

prohibited prayers that may seem voluntary but in effect are compulsory

Question 11

Lemon test

Answer 11

established in Lemon v kurtzman, used to determine if a practice violates the 1st Amendment’s establishment clause
violates if:
-doesn’t have a secular legislative purpose
-advanced or inhibited religion
-fostered an excessive government entanglement with religion

Question 12

“endorsement test”

Answer 12

says government action is unconstitutional if a “reasonable observer” would think it either endorses or disapproves of religion

Question 13

strict scrutiny

Answer 13

highest level of scrutiny courts can use to determine if a law is constitutional
-must serve a “compelling state interest”
-must be tailored to achieve goal
-must be the least restrictive means off achieving the goal

Question 14

intermediate scrutiny

Answer 14

middle level for determining constitutionality
-must further an important government interest in a “substantially related” way
-must use means fit to government’s role
-must be content neutral

Question 15

Schenck v United States

Answer 15

1919 Supreme Court ruling that Schenck’s protests against World War 1 weren’t protected by the 1st Amendment because they posed a “clear and present danger that Congress has the right to prevent”

Question 16

clear and present danger test

Answer 16

established in Schenck v US, it let the government restrict certain types of speech deemed dangerous

Question 17

Holmes’s “free trade in ideas”

Answer 17

marketplace of ideas where good ones win over bad

Question 18

direct incitement test

Answer 18

established in brandenburg v Ohio, protects threatening speech under the 1st Amendment unless speech aims to and is likely to cause “imminent lawless action”

Question 19

symbolic speech

Answer 19

nonverbal expression (signs and symbols), benefits from the same constitutional protections as verbal speech because of its expressive value

Question 20

Hate speech

Answer 20

expression that’s offensive or abusive, particularly in terms if race, gender, or sexual orientation
currently protected under the 1st Amendment

Question 21

“viewpoint neutral”

Answer 21

minority views treated with the same respect as majority views

Question 22

prior restraint

Answer 22

limit on press freedom that let the government prohibit media from publishing certain materials

Question 23

Heckler’s veto

Answer 23

the ability of an individual to restrict the freedom of speech of another individual or group (?)

Question 24

fighting words

Answer 24

forms of expression that “by their very utterance” can incite violence
regulated by the government, but hard to define

Question 25

slander

Answer 25

spoken false statements that damage someone’s reputation
regulated by the government but hard to distinguish from permissible speech

Question 26

libel

Answer 26

written false statements that damage someone’s reputation
regulated by government but hard to distinguish from permissible speech

Question 27

commercial speech

Answer 27

public expression with the aim to make profit
more protected recently but less protected than political speech

Question 28

Miller test

Answer 28

established in Miller v California
3 part test used by the Supreme Court to decide if speech is an obscenity, which the government can restrict
-appeals to prurient interests
-“patently offensive”
-the work as a whole lacks value

Question 29

due process rights

Answer 29

The idea that laws and legal proceeding must be fair
The Constitution guarantees that the government cant take people’s “life, liberty, or property without due process of the law”
Other specific due process right are found in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments
They include:
- right to fair trial
- right to consult lawyer
- freedom from self-incrimination
- right to know the crime they’re accused of
- right to confront the accuser in court
- freedom from unreasonable searches

Question 30

Police can search without a warrant if

Answer 30

• suspect consents to being searched
• they search at the time of arrest in the immediate vicinity of the arrest
• the evidence is not part of the warrant, but is out in the open
• they are using a roadblock, as long as it stops all cars
• they are searching containers in cars if the officer has probable cause
• they are searching passengers in cars if the driver is stopped for a traffic offense
• they are searching an area with a crime in process or an “armed and dangerous” suspect
• they are searching school lockers with probable cause
• they are searching for weapons and or to prevent the destruction of evidence

Question 31

Exclusionary rule

Answer 31

principle that illegally or unconstitutionally gained evidence can’t be used in a criminal trial
Established for all courts in Mapp v Ohio, where the 4th Amendment was incorporated

Question 32

“good faith exception”

Answer 32

exception to exclusionary rule that lets evidence be used if the officer believed that their search was legal

Question 33

“independent source exception”

Answer 33

exception that lets evidence initially gotten illegally, but then acquired with a valid warrant be used

Question 34

Miranda rights

Answer 34

list of civil liberties defined in the 5th Amendment (and others) that must be read to a suspect before their words can be used in a trial

Question 35

double jeopardy

Answer 35

being tried twice for same crime
prevented by 5th Amendment
people can be tried in both state and federal courts
suspect can be found innocent of criminal charges but guilty of same or similar civil charges

Question 36

Wisconsin v Yoder (1972)

Answer 36

1972 Supreme Court ruling that parents couldn’t be required to send their children to public schools past 8th grade

Question 37

Tinker v Des Moines (1969)

Answer 37

right to symbolic speech exists for students during the school day of it doesn’t interfere with the essential function of the school
Morse v Frederick- disruption with nonsense is not protected

Question 38

New York Times v United States (1971)

Answer 38

Pentagon Papers case
printing of confidential information is protected under the 1st Amendment if it doesn’t cause a direct threat

Question 39

Gideon v Wainwright (1963)

Answer 39

incorporates 6th right to attorney
1963 Supreme Court ruling that the 6th Amendment’s right to counsel in criminal cases requires state courts in all felony cases to provide attorneys for defendants who can’t afford one

Question 40

McDonald v Chicago (2010)

Answer 40

incorporates 2nd Amendment right to bear arms
legal weapons can’t be made illegal, but can be originally defined that way

Question 41

Roe v Wade (1973)

Answer 41

incorporates 9th Amendment’s implied right to privacy
states can’t make abortions illegal

Question 42

Privacy rights

Answer 42

liberties protected by several Amendments in the Bill of Rights that shield some personal aspects of citizens’ lives from governmental interference

Question 43

Griswold v Connecticut

Answer 43

established constitutional basis for right to privacy

Question 44

Justice Douglas’s origins of privacy

Answer 44

• 1st Amendment’s right of association (unreasonable- meant politically)
• 3rd Amendment’s protection against quartering of troops
• 4th Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures
• 5th Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination
• 9th Amendment’s “enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage other retained by the people”

Question 45

Bowers v Hardwick

Answer 45

ruled that there is no privacy protection for homosexuals

Question 46

Lawrence v Texas

Answer 46

overturned Bowers v Hardwick and established broad privacy rights for sexual behavior