Constitution (Bill of Rights)

Question 1

Explain the protection of rights in the US constitution?

Answer 1

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Question 2

Explain the debates surrounding privacy

Answer 2

(Const. doesn’t explicitly guarantee right to privacy, but Sup Court has found does provide right to privacy in:
- 1st (freedom of thought)
- 3rd (freedom of use of property- don’t have to quarter soldiers)
- 4th (unreasonable search)
- 5th (remain silent)
- 9th (extension of enumerated rights)
– Jefferson = “the opinions of men are no matter of civil government”
– Griswold v. Connecticut = found right to privacy
– Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) = extended right to privacy for unmarried women for contraceptives
– Lawrence v Texas (2003) = Texas law banning consenting homosexual adults from engaging in sexual acts unconst. (right to privacy)
– Katz v U.S (1967) = 4th amendment extended to anywhere a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy
– Roe v Wade (1972) = ‘right to privacy’ protects women’s rights over her own body
– U.S. v Moalin (2013-2020) = NSA’s surveillance illegal because was ‘possibly unconstitutional’)
– Carpenter v US (2018)= govt needs a warrant to access a person’s cellphone location history

For privacy:
1) Prevents govt. intrusion
2) Keeps groups from using personal data for own goals
3) Protects freedom of speech + thought - prevents ‘thought crimes’

Against privacy:
1) If you’ve got nothing to hide, nothing to be afraid of
2) If info is already public, it concerns matters of public interest
3) Increased surveillance protects society
4) Originalists - no general right of privacy exists because it’s not explicit

Question 3

Explain the debates surrounding gun ownership

Answer 3

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”

U.S v Cruikshank (1876) = 2nd amendment had no purpose other than to restrict federal govt

Lewis v US (1980) = prior convictions wouldn’t prevent you from owning a gun

D.C. v Heller (2008) = guarantees individual right to possess firearms, not collective right of state

U.S. v Hayes (2009) = affirmed law banning people convicted of domestic abuse from owning guns

McDonald v City of Chicago (2010) = 5-4- 2nd amendment was an individual right - 2nd amendment applied to state as well as federal govt.

For gun ownership:
1) Conservative pressure groups (NRA)
2) Conservative interpretation
3) Protection of rights

Against gun ownership:
1) Liberal pressure groups (Brady campaign)
2) Liberal interpretations
3) Outdated / unclear

Conservative pressure groups (NRA)
- National Rifle Association (NRA) = “promote and encourage rifle shooting”
- 2022 - $94m from membership
- 2021 - spent $4.2m on lobbying
- 2015 poll = 58% Americans either ‘mostly favourable’ or ‘very favourable’ towards NRA

Conservative interpretation
- Personal right - can’t be infringed
- ‘Applied Economics Letters’ = “assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level”
- Wayne Lapierre = “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”
- Repealing 2nd amendment would also take guns away would only allow ppl who shouldn’t have them to have them

Protection of rights
- Still relevant
- McDonald v City of Chicago = 2nd amendment individual right
- Lawrence Hunter = “Founders understood the right to own arms is essential to maintaining liberty”

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Liberal pressure groups (Brady campaign)
- Set up by James + Sarah Brady
- Aims to reduce gun violence by 25% by 2025
- 1988- ‘Brady Bill’ signed by Clinton

Liberal interpretation
- 1999-2016 = 572,000 gun deaths, only 0.79% of victims protected themselves with a gun
- 73% Dems believe there should be more gun control laws
Asian Americans - 7-to-1
- David Frum = American children under 15 9x more likely to die of a gun accident compared to other wealthy countries
- Gun violence cost $229bn a year

Outdated
- US v Cruikshank (1876) = 2nd amendment had no purpose other than restrict federal government
- Contradictory –> Chief Justice Roger Tahey in Dried Scott v Sandford = black people couldn’t become Americans because they’d be able to “carry arms wherever they went”

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Others

Legally owned guns are often stolen and used by criminals
- 2005-2010 = 1.4m registered guns stolen

• 1999-2016 = 336,579 (58.8%) suicides ,
  213,175 homicides (37.25), 11,428 unintentional deaths (2%)
• 2015 poll = 63% cited self-defence as primary reason why they owned guns
  – D.C v Heller = Justice Antonin Scalia = “like most rights, the right secured by the 2nd amendment is not unlimited”
  – United States v Castleman = “the only difference between a battered woman and a dead woman is the presence of a gun”

Question 4

Explain the debates surrounding the death penalty