Chapter 4: Civil Liberties

Question 1

Safeguards for those accused of crime. These rights constrain government conduct in investigating crimes, trying cases, and pursuing offenders.

Found in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 18th amendments

Answer 1

Criminal Due Process Rights

Question 2

Griswold V Connecticut 1965; birth control

Roe V Wade 1973; abortion

Lawrence V Texas 2003; intimate sexual activity

Answer 2

Landmark Supreme Court cases protected by First Amendment; right to privacy

Question 3

First Amendment clause prohibiting the government from enacting laws from prohibiting an individual’s practice of religion.

Answer 3

Free Exercise Clause

Question 4

First Amendment clause that bars the government from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion. Often interpreted as a separation of church and state.

Answer 4

Establishment Clause

Question 5

Speech is restricted only if it goes beyond mere advocacy, or words to create a high likelihood of imminent disorder or lawlessness.

Brandenburg V Ohio

Answer 5

Imminent Lawless Action Test
or
Incitement Test

Question 6

Government can suppress speech to avoid grave danger, even if the probability of the dangerous result was relatively remote. Established with Dennis V U.S.

Replaced by Imminent Lawless Action/Incitement Test in 1965

Answer 6

Clear and Probable Danger Test

Question 7

Any speech that has he tendency to incite crime or disturb the public peace can be silenced.

Gitlow V NY 1925

Answer 7

Bad Tendency Test

Question 8

4 bills passed by federalists in congress post French Revolution, signed into law by John Adams in 1798

• Criminalized all speech and writings judged to be critical of the government, congress, or president; empowered president to deport aliens suspected of threatening national security
• invoked by Lincoln post Civil War via Habeas Corpus
• invoked by Bush post 9/11; military combatants denied protections of civilian courts, tried in military tribunals

Answer 8

Alien and Sedition Acts

Question 9

Government may silence speech or expression when there is clear and present danger that such speech will bring harm that the government has the power to prevent.

Schenck V U.S. 1919

Answer 9

Clear and Present Danger Test

Question 10

Transfer of suspected terrorists to other nations for imprisonment and interrogation; circumvents U.S. law which requires due process and prohibits torture

Answer 10

Rendition

Question 11

• guarantee of Habeas Corpus
• prohibition of ex post facto laws
• prohibition of bills of attainder (laws that declare guilt without trial)

Guarantee of a trial by jury in the state where the crime was committed.

Answer 11

Article I, section 9

Article III

Question 12

Constitutionally established guarantees that protect citizen’s opinions and property against arbitrary government interference.

Answer 12

Civil Liberties

Question 13

Legal safeguards that prevent government from arbitrarily depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property.

Guaranteed at federal level in 5th amendment, selective incorporation into states in 14th amendment

Answer 13

Due Process

Question 14

Nonverbal speech in the form of action.

U.S. V O’Brien; burning draft cards- not protected
Tinker V Des Moines; armbands to protest war- protected
Texas V Johnson 1989; flag burning- protected

Answer 14

Symbolic Speech

Question 15

False written statements about others that harm their reputation.

To sue: must prove malicious intent

Answer 15

Libel

Question 16

False verbal statements about others that harm their reputation.

To sue: must prove malicious intent

Answer 16

Slander

Question 17

Advertising statements that describe products.
-limited protection in 1st amendment
-may be restricted if the restriction seeks to implement a substantial government interest, directly advances that interest, and goes no further than necessary to accomplish it’s objective
Ex: restrictions on tobacco advertising

Answer 17

Commercial Speech

Question 18

1914 ruling, evidence obtained illegally cannot be used in trial. Citing 4th amendment; no unreasonable searches or seizures.

Extended to states in Mapp V Ohio 1961

Answer 18

Exclusionary Rule; 4th Amendment

Question 19

Freedoms that ensure individuals can discuss important issues facing the nation and try to agree about how to address the matters.

-solutions emerge through the competition of ideas

Answer 19

Marketplace of Ideas

Question 20

speech- Gitlow v NY,1925
press- Near v Minnesota,1931
assembly and petition- DeJonge v Oregon, 1937
religion- Cantwell v Connecticut, 1940 
-establishment clause
-free exercise clause

Answer 20

First Amendment rights and their selective incorporation

Question 21

Right to bear arms- McDonald v City of Chicago, 2010

Answer 21

Second Amendment rights

Question 22

• bars double jeopardy and compelled self-incrimination
• right to speedy and public trial by a jury of one’s peers, confrontation of witness, legal counsel.

= Miranda v Arizona 1966; police must inform you off rights, in custody, before questioning

Answer 22

5th and 6th Amendment rights;

Miranda Rights

Question 23

protection against cruel and unusual punishment

Furman v Georgia, 1972- executions must be humane, not painful

Answer 23

8th Amendment

Question 24

speech that is likely to bring about public disorder or chaos; the Supreme Court has held that such speech may be banned in public places to ensure the preservation of public order

Chaplinsky v New Hampshire 1942

Answer 24

Fighting Words

Question 25

the apparent design in the universe and in living things is the product of an intelligent cause rather than of an undirected process such as natural selection

Answer 25

Intelligent Design

Question 26

form of censorship by the government whereby it blocks the publication of news stories viewed as libelous or harmful

Answer 26

Prior Restraint

Question 27

Regulations regarding when, where, or how expression may occur; must be content neutral

-restrictions do not target speech based on content, and to stand up in court, they must be applied in a content-neutral manner.

EX: ok to march in protest, just not at 4am while chanting into bullhorns

Answer 27

Time, Place, and Manner Restrictions

Question 28

Established in Lemon v Kurtzman, 1971;
Supreme Court refined the Establishment Clause standard to include 3 considerations:
-Does the state program have a secular, as opposed to a religious, purpose?
-Does it have as its principal effect the advancement of religion?
-Does the program create an excessive entanglement between church and state?

Answer 28

The Lemon Test

Question 29

Indecent or offensive speech or expression;
Supreme Court couldn’t define it, “I’ll know it when I see it”;
Developed 3 part test in Miller v California 1973:

• The average person applying contemporary standards finds the work as a whole appeals to the prurient interests- tends to excite unwholesome sexual desire
• The work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, a form of sexual conduct specifically prohibited by an antiobscenity law.
• The work taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

Answer 29

Obscenity; 3 part test