Module 3

Question 1

Evolution of Federalism

Answer 1

1. State centered federalism
2. Dual Federalism/sheet cake (clearly outlined powers of federal and state government - strict interpretation of the written law)
3. Cooperative Federalism/marble-cake (begins with the new deal, state and federal governments worked together with concurrent powers)
4. Centralized Federalism (short-lived)
5. New Federalism (devolution)

Question 2

Example of things accomplished with the new deal

Answer 2

• large infrastructure projects
• unemployment insurance
• creation of social security
• block grants

Question 3

What role did the new deal have in federalism?

Answer 3

Substantially expanded the role and power of the federal government.

Question 4

What are Civil liberties?

Answer 4

Individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution that limit government.
Protections from improper government action. (negative freedoms - government cannot act)

Question 5

What are Civil rights?

Answer 5

Freedom of groups to participate fully in public life. Requires that government act to protect the rights of certain disenfranchised groups and ensure equality.

Question 6

What are the two types of civil liberties?

Answer 6

Procedural - rules regarding how the government must act (such as due process).
Substantive liberties - written in law that limit what the government can do.

Question 7

Which Amendments in particular are important to Civil rights?

Answer 7

13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 26th amendments

Question 8

What is the Bill of Rights?

Answer 8

The first 10 Amendments specifically that were written in the Constitution.

Question 9

How do civil rights relate to power?

Answer 9

• The ability to claim rights makes one a citizen, not a subject. Rights give citizens power to push back on their government’s actions.
• The ability to deny rights gives citizens power over each other.
• The ability to use government to fight back against those who would deny their fellow citizens rights is also a form of power. Civil rights movements are efforts to claim and exercise citizenship rights under government protection.

Question 10

What are natural rights?

Answer 10

The idea that a person is born with a set of rights that no government can take away. Thomas Jefferson made a point to mention unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence.

Question 11

When are our rights limited?

Answer 11

1. When they clash with another person’s rights.

2. When they conflict with a collective good that society values.

Question 12

What does incorporation mean?

Answer 12

Supreme Court action making the protections of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.

Question 13

What are accommodationists and separationists?

Answer 13

Accommodationists are people who want the state to support all religions equally.
Separationists are those who want a sharp division between church and state.

Question 14

What is the Lemon test?

Answer 14

The three-pronged rule used by the courts to determine whether the establishment clause is violated.

1. Law must have a secular purpose
2. Law must not advance religion
3. Law must not have excessive entanglement with religion

Question 15

Types of freedoms?

Answer 15

• Freedom from established religion
• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of assembly

Question 16

Limits to Freedom of Expression:

Answer 16

• sedition (speech that critics the government in order to promote rebellion)
• Obscene words
• fighting words (speech intended to incite violence)
• libel and slander (speech that maliciously damages a reputation - defamation)

Question 17

Tests for dangerous freedom of expression.

Answer 17

Clear and Present Danger Test: was meant to distinguish speech that was immediately harmful from that which posed only a remote threat.
Imminent Lawless action Test: protects speech unless it is linked with action.

Question 18

What it the miller test?

Answer 18

The rule used by courts in which the definition of obscenity must be based on local standards.

Question 19

What is prior restraint?

Answer 19

Censorship or punishment for the expression of ideas before the ideas are printed or spoken.

Question 20

Actions banned from Congress as explained in Article I of the Constitution in promotion of due process.

Answer 20

Cannot suspend habeas corpus: right to be brought before a judge and informed of crimes.
Pass a bill of attainder: a law directed at an individual or group that accuses and convicts them of a crime.
Pass an ex post facto law: a law that makes something illegal after you have already done it.

Question 21

Amendments that exist to help prevent police power being used for political purposes?

Answer 21

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 14th amendments. (14th makes right applicable on state levels)

Question 22

Is the right to privacy written into the constitution?

Answer 22

No, the Supreme Court ruled in Grisworld v. Connecticut that the right to privacy was implied in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 9th amendments.

Question 23

Difference between strict constructionists and judicial interpretivists?

Answer 23

Strict constructionists read the Constitution strictly and take its words literally. Judicial interpretivists hold that judges should read the Constitution as the founders would write it in light of modern-day experience

Question 24

Process of courts deciding when to discriminate/compelling state interest test:

Answer 24

Suspect classification ->strict scrutiny ->compelling state purpose

Question 25

Legal classifications and scrutiny standards:

Answer 25

Suspect - race
quasi-suspect - gender
nbnsuspect - age, income

Question 26

Two types of discrimination:

Answer 26

1. de jure discrimination (discrimination by law)

2. de facto discrimination (discrimination on the basis of life circumstances)

Question 27

What are black codes?

Answer 27

A series of laws that denied freed Blacks the right to vote, to go to school, or to own property—they essentially re-created the conditions of slavery under another name.

Question 28

What are Jim Crow laws?

Answer 28

Laws passed after the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Intended to recreate the power relations of slavery.

Question 29

What came from Plessy v. Ferguson?

Answer 29

The ruling that segregation didn’t violate the Constitution as long as the separate facilities were equal.

Question 30

What is Brown v. Board of Education?

Answer 30

The 1954 Supreme Court case that rejected the idea that separate could be equal in education.

Question 31

What is a boycott?

Answer 31

The refusal to buy certain goods or services as a way to protest policy or to force political reform.

Question 32

What event is attributed with marking the beginning of the Women’s suffrage movement?

Answer 32

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 in New York.