Chapter 4 - Civil Rights and Liberties

Question 1

Civil rights

Answer 1

Rights that (1) enable individuals to engage in activities central to citizenship or legal immigrant status, such as voting or petitioning the government; (2) ensure all individuals receive due process and equal treatment under the law; or (3) guarantee freedom from discriminatory actions by others that seek to deny an individual’s full status as an equal member of society

Question 2

Civil liberties

Answer 2

Freedoms protected from interference by the government, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion

Question 3

Bill of Rights

Answer 3

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, which enumerate a set of liberties not to be violated by the government and a set of rights to be protected by the government

Question 4

Jim Crow laws

Answer 4

Laws passed after the Civil War to establish a system of segregation of public facilities and private establishments that made African Americans second-class citizens

Question 5

Civil rights movement

Answer 5

A social movement of the 1950s and 1960s focused primarily on the situation of African Americans, but also promoting the goals that all people be treated as equals under the law and that discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and place of origin be eliminated

Question 6

Due process

Answer 6

The right to legal protections against arbitrary deprivation of life, liberty, or property

Question 7

Equal protection

Answer 7

The principle that laws passed and enforced by the states must apply fairly to all individuals

Question 8

Incorporation

Answer 8

The process by which rights and liberties established by the Bill of Rights are applied to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment

Question 9

Strict scrutiny

Answer 9

The highestlevel standard used by the Supreme Court to determine whether a law is compatible with the Constitution. A law subject to this standard is considered unconstitutional unless it advances a “compelling state interest” and represents the least intrusive means

Question 10

Rational basis test

Answer 10

The lowest-level standard used by the Supreme Court to determine whether a law is compatible with the Constitution. A law subject to this standard is assumed to be constitutional as long as its goals are clearly linked to its means

Question 11

Intermediate scrutiny

Answer 11

An intermediate standard used by the Supreme Court to determine whether a law is compatible with the Constitution. A law subject to this standard is considered constitutional if it advances “an important government objective” and is “substantially related” to the objective

Question 12

Affirmative action

Answer 12

Efforts to redress previous discrimination against women and minorities through active measures to promote their employment and educational opportunities