Exam 3 review Flashcards
What is the Bill of Rights?
where the majority of civil liberties are found
What is incorporation?
the process of applying provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states
What is the compelling interest test?
a test the Supreme Court commonly uses to determine whether a particular limitation of a constitutional right is acceptable
What is the Writ of Habeas Corpus?
the right of individuals who have been arrested and jailed to go before a judge, who determines whether their detention is legal.
What is the lemon clause?
The Supreme Court test for determining whether aid to religion violates the establishment clause.
What is the Thirteenth Amendment?
the amendment that ended slavery in the United States
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
The Supreme Court case that led to the end of the separate-but-equal doctrine.
What is strict scrutiny?
The Supreme Court used this standard for discrimination cases based on race or ethnicity.
What is the Voting Rights Act?
This piece of legislation first limited, then was later amended to ban literacy tests for voting.
What is Reconstruction?
This is the era Immediately after the Civil War when freed slaves struggled to blend into society.
What is Article III?
An article of the Constitution establishes the judicial branch of government
What are appeals?
The ability to apply to a higher court for a reversal of the decision of a lower court.
Because trial courts sometimes make mistakes about questions of law, the American legal system
has followed the British practice by allowing this process.
What is the Senate responsible for?
the senate is responsible for confirming Supreme Court nominees.
What is Judicial Review has what power?
held by the federal judiciary
This power, involves constitutional interpretation.
who is Sandra Day O’Connor?
This is the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court?
what does the acronym PAC stand for?
Political Action Committee
what is the iron triangle?
interests group > congress > the buracucy
relationship among interest groups, members of Congress, and federal agencies.
What is lobbying?
The act of trying to persuade elected officials to adopt a specific policy change or maintain the status quo
What are factions?
The Framers were fearful these groups would place their own interests above the aggregate interests of society and would divide the nation.
What is a proactive group?
An interest group created in response to an opening or opportunity for social, political, or economic changes.
What are amicus curiae briefs?
Briefs that interest groups can submit as a “friend of the court.”
What is Article II?
This article gives the president the power to establish the bureaucracy.
What is the Cabinet?
the set of executive departments responsible for carrying out federal policy in specific issue areas.
What is the Federal Register?
where final regulations are published in this, the government’s official publication for implementation of laws.
What is an independent agency?
a type of federal organization established by Congress with authority to regulate an aspect of the economy or a sector of the federal government.
What is the Pendleton Act?
1883 act, established a merit- and performance-based system for federal employment instead of the patronage system.
Define the Bureaucracy
is the large collection of executive branch departments, agencies, boards, commissions, and other government organizations that carry out the responsibilities of the federal government.
What are Civil Liberties?
rights that are so fundamental that they are outside the authority of government to regulate.
which president signed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation.
Bill Clinton
Griswold v. Connecticut
Supreme Court case established the right to privacy utilizing the 9th and 14th amendment among others.
