Civil Liberties

Question 1

The Crown v Zenger

Answer 1

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 freedom.

Question 2

Civil Liberties

Answer 2

The personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge by law, constitution, or judicial,or judicial interpretation

Question 3

Civil Rights

Answer 3

The government-protected rights of individuals against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by governments or individuals

Question 4

Bill of Rights

Answer 4

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which largely guarantee specific rights and liberties

Question 5

Ninth Amendment

Answer 5

Part of the Bill of Rights that makes it clear that enumerating rights in the Constitution or Bill of Rights does not mean that others do not exist

Question 6

Tenth Amendment

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Fourteenth Amendment

Answer 7

One of three major amendments enacted after the Civil War extending “equal protection of the law” to all citizens

Question 8

Due Process Clause

Answer 8

Clause contained in the fifth and fourteenth Amendments over the years, it has been construed to guarantee a variety of rights to individuals

Question 9

Substantive Due Process

Answer 9

Judicial interpretation of the fifth and fourteenth Amendments due process clauses. Protects citizens from arbitrary or unjust state or federal laws

Question 10

Sedition Laws

Answer 10

Laws that make it illegal to speak or write any political criticism that threaten to diminish respect for the government and its laws or public officials. State sedition laws were overturned as a result of the 1925 Gitlow Supreme Court decision

Question 11

Gitlow v New York

Answer 11

A Supreme Court case that extended the First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and of the press to the state governments.

Question 12

Incorporation Doctrine

Answer 12

An interpretation of the Constitution holding that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment requires state and local governments to guarantee the rights state and local governments to guarantee the rights stated in the Bill of Rights

Question 13

Selective Incorporation

Answer 13

A judicial doctrine whereby most, but not all, protections found in the Bill of Rights and made applicable to the states via the 14th amendment

Question 14

Fundamental Freedom

Answer 14

Those right defined by the Court as essential to order, liberty, and justice and therefore entitled to the highest standard of review

Question 15

Warren Court

Answer 15

The period in Supreme Court history during which Earl Warren served as Chief Justice, noted for its many rulings expanding civil liberties and civil rights

Question 16

Earl Warren

Answer 16

The 14th Chef Justice of the United States who served from 1953 to 1969 and led the court through an important liberal phase; previously a Republican governor and vice presidential nominee

Question 17

First Amendment

Answer 17

Part of the Bill of Rights that imposes a number of restriction on the federal government with respect to civil liberties, including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

Question 18

Established Clause

Answer 18

The first clause of the First Amendment; is directs the national government not to sanction an official religion.

Question 19

Free Exercise Clause

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Lemon Test

Answer 20

Three-part test created by the Supreme Court for examining the constitutionality of religious establishment issues

Question 21

Prior Restraint

Answer 21

Constitutional doctrine that prevents the government from prohibiting speech or publication before the fact; generally held to be in violation of the First Amendment

Question 22

Alien and Sedition Act

Answer 22

Laws passed in 1798 that allowed the imprisonment and deportation of aliens considered dangerous and criminalized false statements against the government

Question 23

Abolitionist

Answer 23

A supporter, especially in the early nineteenth century of an end to the institution of slavery

Question 24

Abraham Lincoln

Answer 24

16th president of the U.S., 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

Question 25

Espionage Act

Answer 25

A 1917 law that prohibited urging resistance to the draft or distributing anti-war leaflets; by the Supreme Court in Schenck v U.S.

Question 26

Clear and Present Danger Test

Answer 26

Test articulated by the Supreme Court in Schenk v U.S to draw the line between protected and unprotected speech; the court looks to see “whether the words use”. could “create a clear and present danger that they will bring about substantive evils” that Congress seeks “to prevent”

Question 27

Direct Incitement test

Answer 27

Test articulated by the Supreme Court in Brandenburg v Ohio holding that the First Amendment protects advocacy of illegal action unless imminent lawless action is intended and likely to occur

Question 28

New York Times Co v U.S.

Answer 28

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 activities. Also called the Pentagon papers case

Question 29

Symbolic Speech

Answer 29

Symbols, sign, and other methods of expression generally considered to be protected by the First Amendment

Question 30

Hate Speech

Answer 30

Communication that belittles a person or group on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics

Question 31

Occupy Wall Street

Answer 31

A recent social movement that promotes protests and political activism against income inequality and corporate greed

Question 32

Black Lives Matter

Answer 32

A recent social movement focused on direct protest and political activism against police brutality, mass incarceration, and related offenses against African Americans

Question 33

Libel

Answer 33

False written statements that defames a person’s character

Question 34

Slander

Answer 34

Untrue spoken statement the defame the character of a person

Question 35

New York Times Co v Sullivan

Answer 35

Cause in which the Supreme Court concluded that “actual malice” must be proven to support a finding of liberal against a public figure

Question 36

Fighting Words

Answer 36

Words that “by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate branch of peace” Fighting words are not subject to the protections of the First Amendment

Question 37

Miller v California

Answer 37

Supreme Court case that created the “Miller test” to determine when sexually-explicit expression was obscene and thereof beyond the protection of the First Amendment

Question 38

DeJonge v Oregon

Answer 38

Supreme Court case that applied the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of assembly to the states

Question 39

18th Amendment

Answer 39

A 1913 amendment that created the nationwide prohibition on alcoholic beverages it was repealed in 1933

Question 40

Writs of Habeas Corpus

Answer 40

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 changes are being made against them

Question 41

Ex Post Facto Law

Answer 41

Law that makes an act punishable as a crime even if the action was legal at the time it was committed

Question 42

Bill of Attainder

Answer 42

A law declaring an act illegal without a judicial trial.

Question 43

Due Process Right

Answer 43

Protections drawn from the Fourth Amendment and the Bill of Rights. Due process may be procedural, protecting fundamental rights

Question 44

Fourth Amendment

Answer 44

Part of the Bill of Rights that protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, houses, papers, and effects without warrant from a judge among other guarantees

Question 45

Fifth Amendment

Answer 45

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

Question 46

Grand Jury

Answer 46

A group of citizens charged with determining whether enough evidence exists for a case to go to trail. Guaranteed by the fifth amendment.

Question 47

Miranda v Arizona

Answer 47

A landmark Supreme Court ruling holding that the fifth amendment requires individuals arrested for a crime to be advised of the right to remain silent and to have a counsel present

Question 48

Miranda Rights

Answer 48

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 an attorney provided by a court if the suspect cannot afford one

Question 49

Burger Court

Answer 49

The period in Supreme Court history during which Warren Burger served as Chief Justice

Question 50

Warren E Burger

Answer 50

The fifteenth Chief Justice of the United States who served from 1969 to 1986 and who led the Court in an increasingly conservative direction

Question 51

Double Jeopardy Clause

Answer 51

Part of the fifth Amendment that protects individuals from being tried twice for the same offense in the same jurisdiction.

Question 52

Exclusionary Rule

Answer 52

Judicially created rule that prohibits police from using illegally seized evidence at trial

Question 53

Sixth Amendment

Answer 53

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 when the crime was committed, notices of the charges, the right to confront and obtain favorable witnesses and the right to counsel

Question 54

Capital Cases

Answer 54

Court cases which a conviction may result in the application of the death penalty

Question 55

Eight Amendment

Answer 55

Part of the Bill of Rights that states “Excessive ball shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”

Question 56

Right to privacy

Answer 56

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.

Question 57

Roe v Wade

Answer 57

The Supreme Court found that a women’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.

Question 58

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey

Answer 58

The Supreme Court’s decision in the abortion case replaced the strict scrutiny standard of Roe v Wade and allowed for greater regulation of abortion by the states.

Question 59

Undue burden test

Answer 59

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

Question 60

Whole Women’s Health v Hellerstedt

Answer 60

Supreme Court abortion ruling that struck down state law provisions in Texas as presenting a undue burden on women seeking abortions. This decision invalidated numerous state and local law that imposed similar limitations on clinics

Question 61

September 11th

Answer 61

A terrorist plot carried out on September 11, 2001 that used a hijacked civilian aircraft to attack the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington D.C.