Module 3 Flashcards
Evolution of Federalism
- State centered federalism
- Dual Federalism/sheet cake (clearly outlined powers of federal and state government - strict interpretation of the written law)
- Cooperative Federalism/marble-cake (begins with the new deal, state and federal governments worked together with concurrent powers)
- Centralized Federalism (short-lived)
- New Federalism (devolution)
Example of things accomplished with the new deal
- large infrastructure projects
- unemployment insurance
- creation of social security
- block grants
What role did the new deal have in federalism?
Substantially expanded the role and power of the federal government.
What are Civil liberties?
Individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution that limit government.
Protections from improper government action. (negative freedoms - government cannot act)
What are Civil rights?
Freedom of groups to participate fully in public life. Requires that government act to protect the rights of certain disenfranchised groups and ensure equality.
What are the two types of civil liberties?
Procedural - rules regarding how the government must act (such as due process).
Substantive liberties - written in law that limit what the government can do.
Which Amendments in particular are important to Civil rights?
13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 26th amendments
What is the Bill of Rights?
The first 10 Amendments specifically that were written in the Constitution.
How do civil rights relate to power?
- 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.
What are natural rights?
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.
When are our rights limited?
- When they clash with another person’s rights.
2. When they conflict with a collective good that society values.
What does incorporation mean?
Supreme Court action making the protections of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
What are accommodationists and separationists?
Accommodationists are people who want the state to support all religions equally.
Separationists are those who want a sharp division between church and state.
What is the Lemon test?
The three-pronged rule used by the courts to determine whether the establishment clause is violated.
- Law must have a secular purpose
- Law must not advance religion
- Law must not have excessive entanglement with religion
Types of freedoms?
- Freedom from established religion
- Freedom of expression
- Freedom of assembly
Limits to Freedom of Expression:
- 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)
Tests for dangerous freedom of expression.
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.
What it the miller test?
The rule used by courts in which the definition of obscenity must be based on local standards.
What is prior restraint?
Censorship or punishment for the expression of ideas before the ideas are printed or spoken.
Actions banned from Congress as explained in Article I of the Constitution in promotion of due process.
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.
Amendments that exist to help prevent police power being used for political purposes?
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 14th amendments. (14th makes right applicable on state levels)
Is the right to privacy written into the constitution?
No, the Supreme Court ruled in Grisworld v. Connecticut that the right to privacy was implied in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 9th amendments.
Difference between strict constructionists and judicial interpretivists?
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
Process of courts deciding when to discriminate/compelling state interest test:
Suspect classification ->strict scrutiny ->compelling state purpose
Legal classifications and scrutiny standards:
Suspect - race
quasi-suspect - gender
nbnsuspect - age, income
Two types of discrimination:
- de jure discrimination (discrimination by law)
2. de facto discrimination (discrimination on the basis of life circumstances)
What are black codes?
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.
What are Jim Crow laws?
Laws passed after the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Intended to recreate the power relations of slavery.
What came from Plessy v. Ferguson?
The ruling that segregation didn’t violate the Constitution as long as the separate facilities were equal.
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
The 1954 Supreme Court case that rejected the idea that separate could be equal in education.
What is a boycott?
The refusal to buy certain goods or services as a way to protest policy or to force political reform.
What event is attributed with marking the beginning of the Women’s suffrage movement?
The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 in New York.
