Civil Liberties

Question 1

Advisors to the President

Answer 1

to support and assist the president with communication to other persons, including board members

Question 2

Bill of Rights/Amendments with clauses

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Checks and balances

Answer 3

A constitutionally mandated structure that gives each of the three branches of government some degree of oversight and control over the actions of others

Question 4

Commerce clause

Answer 4

grants Congress the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”

Question 5

Elastic clause

Answer 5

Granted Congress the power to pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying out the enumerated list of powers specified in the Constitution (aka Necessary and Proper Clause)

Question 6

Engel v Vitale

Answer 6

A case in which the Court found that a short school prayer authorized by New York public school officials violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment

Question 7

Exclusionary Rule

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Full faith and credit clause

Answer 8

Section of Article IV of the Constitution that ensures judicial decrees and contracts made in one state will be binding and enforceable in any other state

Question 9

Gideon v Wainwright

Answer 9

A case in which the Court held that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee a right of legal counsel to anyone accused of a crime (provide an attorney to defendants who are unable to afford their own attorneys)

Question 10

Iron triangles

Answer 10

The relatively ironclad relationships and patterns of interaction that occur among agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees

Question 11

Judicial Review

Answer 11

Power of the courts to review acts of other branches of government and the states

Question 12

McCulloch v Maryland

Answer 12

The Supreme Court upheld the power of the national government and denied the right of a state to tax the federal bank, using the Constitution’s supremacy clause. The Court’s broad interpretation of the necessary and proper clause paved the way for later rulings upholding expansive federal powers

Question 13

Original jurisdiction

Answer 13

The jurisdiction of courts that hear a case first, usually in a trial. These courts determine the facts of the case

Question 14

Precedent

Answer 14

A prior judicial decision that serves as a rule for settling subsequent cases of similar nature

Question 15

Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 15

Supreme Court case that challenged a Louisiana statute requiring that railroads provide separate accommodations for blacks and whites; the Court found that separate-but-equal accommodations did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Question 16

Redistricting/Gerrymandering/Reapportionment

Answer 16

process of redrawing congressional districts to reflect increase or decrease in seats allotted to the states, as well as population shifts within a state; drawing of congressional districts to produce a particular electoral outcome without regard to the shape of the district; reallocation of the number of seats in the House of Representatives after each decennial census

Question 17

Roe v Wade

Answer 17

A case where the Supreme Court found that a woman’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 18

Schenck v U.S.

Answer 18

The Supreme Court ruled that the freedom of speech protection afforded in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment could be restricted if the words spoken or printed represented to society a “clear and present danger.

Question 19

Selective Incorporation

Answer 19

A judicial doctrine whereby most, but not all, protections found in the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment

Question 20

Stare decisis

Answer 20

In court rulings, a reliance on past decisions or precedents to formulate decisions in new cases

Question 21

Supremacy clause

Answer 21

Portion of Article VI of the Constitution mandating that national law is supreme over (that is, supersedes) all other laws passed by the states or by any other subdivision of government