Constitutional Law: Civil Rights & Civil Liberties - Judicial Review & Due Process

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from lecture notes on Judicial Review, Incorporation of the Bill of Rights, and Substantive and Procedural Due Process cases.

Judicial Review

The power and authority of a court to review the constitutionality of an act of another branch of government or state action.

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Landmark Supreme Court decision establishing judicial review by holding that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional because it impermissibly expanded the Court's original jurisdiction beyond Article III.

Writ of Mandamus

A judicial order directing an executive officer or government official to perform a specific legally required duty.

Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816)

Supreme Court case establishing that the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction to review state-court decisions involving federal questions, federal law, treaties, and the U.S. Constitution.

Supremacy Clause

Provision in Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution establishing that the Constitution, federal laws, and national treaties constitute the supreme law of the land, binding upon all states.

Cooper v. Aaron (1958)

Supreme Court decision reinforcing judicial supremacy by ruling that state officials and state legislatures are bound by Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution.

Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

Landmark ruling establishing non-incorporation, holding that the Bill of Rights (specifically the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause) applied only to the federal government, not to state or local governments.

Takings Clause

A provision of the Fifth Amendment prohibiting the government from taking private property for public use without providing just compensation.

Thirteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified in 1865 that officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified in 1868 defining citizenship and containing the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause.

Fifteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified in 1870 prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Privileges and Immunities Clause (Article IV)

Article IV, Section 2 provision preventing individual states from discriminating against out-of-state citizens regarding fundamental rights and privileges.

The Slaughter-House Cases (1873)

Supreme Court decision that severely narrowed the Fourteenth Amendment Privileges or Immunities Clause by distinguishing between national and state citizenship.

Saenz v. Roe (1999)

Supreme Court ruling utilizing the Fourteenth Amendment Privileges or Immunities Clause to protect the right to travel, invalidating California's durational residency requirement for full welfare benefits.

Procedural Due Process

Constitutional requirement under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments ensuring fair legal procedures, such as notice and an opportunity to be heard, before government deprives a person of life, liberty, or property.

Substantive Due Process

Legal doctrine holding that the Due Process Clauses protect fundamental individual rights and liberties from unreasonable government interference, regardless of procedural fairness.

Selective Incorporation

The constitutional doctrine through which the Supreme Court selectively applies specific protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments via the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.

Duncan v. Louisiana (1968)

Supreme Court case incorporating the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial in criminal cases against state governments via the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.

District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)

Supreme Court decision holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, independent of militia service.

McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010)

Decision incorporating the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms against state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.

Lochner v. New York (1905)

Landmark ruling striking down state working-hour limits for bakers, establishing freedom of contract as a fundamental economic right under substantive due process.

Lochner Era

Historical period (1905 to mid-1930s) during which the Supreme Court frequently invalidated economic, minimum wage, and labor regulations by applying substantive due process.

Nebbia v. New York (1934)

Supreme Court decision marking the decline of the Lochner Era by holding that states may regulate private businesses and prices for the general welfare, provided the laws are not arbitrary or discriminatory.

West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937)

Supreme Court case upholding minimum wage laws for women, officially ending the Lochner Era by establishing that freedom of contract is subject to reasonable regulations.

Williamson v. Lee Optical Co. (1955)

Decision establishing that economic and commercial regulations are subject to the deferential rational basis test under the Due Process Clause.

Rational Basis Test

A standard of judicial review requiring a law to be rationally related to a conceivable, legitimate government interest.

Penumbra

Implied rights and guarantees derived from the shadows or emanations of explicit protections in the Bill of Rights, used to establish a constitutional right to privacy.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Landmark ruling establishing a constitutional right to privacy regarding marital access to contraception, derived from penumbras formed by emanations of the Bill of Rights.

Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)

Supreme Court decision extending the fundamental right to privacy regarding contraceptive access to unmarried individuals under the Equal Protection Clause.

Carey v. Population Services International (1977)

Case striking down state prohibitions on selling contraceptives to minors under the fundamental right to privacy.

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

Supreme Court decision holding that the Constitution does not confer a fundamental right to engage in consensual homosexual sodomy.

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

Landmark decision explicitly overruling Bowers v. Hardwick, holding that state laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct violate the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.

Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990)

Ruling holding that competent individuals have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in refusing unwanted medical treatment, while allowing states to demand clear and convincing evidence for incompetent patients.

Washington v. Glucksberg (1997)

Supreme Court case ruling that physician-assisted suicide is not a fundamental liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause.

Mathews v. Eldridge (1976)

Landmark decision establishing a three-part balancing test to determine what procedural due process safeguards are required before the government deprives a person of liberty or property.