gov midterm kill me now

Democracy

A form of government derived from the Greek words 'Demos' meaning 'people' and 'Kratos' meaning 'rule,' signifying the rule of the people.

Republic

A system of government originating from the Latin phrase 'Res Publica,' meaning 'public thing' ('Res' = thing, 'Publica' = public).

Principles of political power

The three components of political power: 1) Strength ('The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must'), 2) Cunning, and 3) Will ('The person who wins is the one who is willing to do what the other is not').

Wheel of decay

Polybius's political cycle illustrating the degeneration of government types: Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, Aristocracy degrades into oligarchy, and Democracy descends into mob rule (ochlocracy).

Sovereignty

Supreme authority and power; in American government, it represents the division of authority where the federal government is sovereign over some matters and state governments are sovereign over others.

Republicanism

The constitutional division of sovereignty, under which state governments hold exclusive sovereignty over their own domain, free from interference by the federal government or the Supreme Court.

Social contract theory

An agreement among individuals to surrender a portion of their natural sovereignty in exchange for the collective protection of society.

State of nature

A theoretical condition wherein an individual possesses complete sovereignty over oneself, retaining the liberty to perform anything that an independent country could do.

Confederacy

A political system where individual states retain ultimate sovereignty and function essentially as independent nations.

Union

A political framework where individual member states are unified under and subordinate to a single overarching national government.

13th Amendment

The Civil War amendment that enacted the constitutional abolition of slavery.

14th Amendment

The Civil War amendment establishing due process for newly freedmen, guaranteeing due process of law regardless of personal traits such as race or gender.

15th Amendment

The Civil War amendment that secured and protected voting rights for newly freedmen.

Incorporation

The constitutional doctrine through which the Supreme Court applies the Fourteenth Amendment to compel state governments to uphold and enforce the Bill of Rights.

District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)

A Supreme Court ruling affirming that individuals hold a Second Amendment right to possess personal firearms for self-defense, which applied only to Washington, D.C., and was not incorporated to the states.

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

A Supreme Court case that incorporated the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms against state governments via the Fourteenth Amendment.

Imminent lawless action

A legal standard determining that speech is unlawful and unprotected if it encourages immediate criminal conduct and provides the materials, rationale, and specific target.

Snyder v. Phelps

A Supreme Court case ruling that controversial and offensive political speech on public land—such as protests by the Westboro Baptist Church near military funerals—is protected by the First Amendment when it is non-violent and does not physically disrupt proceedings.

National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie

A First Amendment case establishing that displaying controversial political symbols, such as the Nazi swastika, is constitutionally protected speech subject to reasonable time and place restrictions.

Takings Clause

A provision in the Fifth Amendment mandating that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation, governing eminent domain.

Warren v. DC (1981)

A legal ruling holding that the government and law enforcement have an obligation to provide public safety to the community as a whole, rather than an affirmative duty to protect specific individuals.

DeShaney v. Winnebago (1989)

A Supreme Court ruling affirming that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause does not require state authorities to protect private citizens from private violence.

Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005)

A Supreme Court ruling establishing that obtaining a restraining order does not confer an individual property entitlement to mandatory police enforcement under the Due Process Clause.

Negative freedom

A form of liberty defined by restrictions on what the government cannot do to an individual, such as unlawful imprisonment or establishing a religion.

Positive freedom

A form of liberty consisting of entitlements and affirmative actions that the government is obligated to execute or provide on behalf of citizens.

Parens patriae

A legal doctrine recognizing the state or government as holding the sovereign legal role and final authority as the ultimate parent and guardian of all individuals.

Substantive due process

A constitutional principle derived from the Fourteenth Amendment protecting fundamental individual rights and liberties that are not explicitly enumerated in the text of the Constitution.

Procedural due process

A constitutional guarantee originating from the Fifth Amendment establishing the formal legal steps and fair procedures the government must follow prior to depriving an individual of life, liberty, or property.

Interest balancing

The judicial evaluation determining which competing interest takes precedence in legal matters, such as prioritizing the accused's high-stakes interests through the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard in criminal trials.

Know which classical authors young James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams were expected to read, translate, and discuss intelligently before college.

Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero

Know Hamilton's warning in Federalist No. 1 about the typical path of men who overturn republics.

commencing as demagogues and ending as tyrants

Know John Adams's statement about why democracy never lasts long.

It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide

Know Madison's description in Federalist No. 10 of the typical lifespan and character of pure democracies.

They are short in life and violent in death

Know the key institutional principle that philosophers such as Locke and Montesquieu demonstrated was necessary.

Separation of powers by checks and balances

Know Madison's argument in Federalist No. 10 about why a large republic better protects liberty.

The diversity of interests among people in a large territory would prevent factions (or groups of people opposed to the common good and/or the rights of others) from coming together as a powerful majority.

Know which historical figure George Washington especially admired for trying to save the Roman Republic.

Cato the younger

Know the idea some European philosophers and kings used to justify rule and reduce revolts.

Rulers are chosen by God - divine right

Know the primary focus of the English Bill of Rights.

Limiting the powers of the monarch

Know the basic exchange involved in the social contract as described in the readings.

People are willing to give up some of their natural freedom in exchange for the protection that comes from being citizens of a nation powerful enough to defend their rights.

Know Benjamin Franklin's explanation of the proper relationship between rulers and the people in free governments.

"In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns."

Know the meaning of the term "popular sovereignty."

Not that the most popular people are in charge, but that the authority to rule people is based on their consent to be ruled

Know Madison's characterization in Federalist No. 10 of the history of pure democracies.

"Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths"

Know Benjamin Franklin's famous comparison of pure democracy to two wolves and a lamb.

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch."

Know to whom the Declaration of Independence primarily appealed.

mankind

Know a major way the Declaration differed from earlier documents such as the Magna Carta and English Bill of Rights.

It differed fundamentally from these in its recognition of the people as sovereign, and in addressing "mankind" instead of the King of Great Britain.

Know the starting point of John Locke's political theory (the state of nature).

The state of nature: There is no government, and all of mankind are equal. Each has an equal right to govern, so, in order to have a government, a majority of individuals would have to consent to a government that would rule over all, instead of each person governing for himself.

Know what people exchange, according to Locke, when they consent to government.

Each person exchanges his natural right to govern for a civil right to live under constitutional government.

Know the connection the Declaration draws between "the laws of Nature" and the workmanship of God.

Humans are also said by Locke to be the workmanship of God, made by God with natural rights. Human beings are made by God with the power to govern themselves.

Know Locke's central argument in "A Letter Concerning Toleration" regarding the role of the civil magistrate in religion.

He asserted that no just government could compel belief or worship. "Faith is not faith without believing"

Know the limited geographic area over which British Governor Thomas Gage still held authority by the evening of April 19, 1775

Greater boston

Know the date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

April 19, 1775

Know the main reasons Congress chose George Washington as commander

in-chief of the Continental Army. - Washington's considerable military experience and because he was a southerner who would bring geographical balance to the New England army outside Boston. Washington's character and military bearing were also beyond reproach.

Know one of John Adams's key practical arguments for declaring independence.

he knew diplomatic recognition of a new nation would add weight to its cause

Know the approximate length of time between the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

One year, two months, and nineteen days

Know the general attitude of the colonists toward Britain in 1763 after the French and Indian War.

They were crazy patriotic

Know the main advantages the colonies still enjoyed by remaining inside the British Empire.

Their colonial governmental systems taxed them less than Englishmen were taxed, were more representative than the British government in the Home Islands, and did not require them to pay a fair share of the cost of the french and indian war. Also, they got a lot of economic benefits through the Empire.

Know when the Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

November 1777

Know the basic character of the government created by the Articles of Confederation.

states enter into a "firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare." The document does not mention a nation, or a national government.

Know the requirement for amending the Articles of Confederation.

Every state had to agree

Know major powers the Confederation Congress lacked.

national executive department or national court system, the power to make uniform commercial laws for the country

Know the original purpose of the Annapolis Convention of 1786.

Commercial regulation

Know some of the key delegates who attended the Annapolis Convention.

James madison, alexander hamilton, john dickinson

Know where Shays's Rebellion took place.

Western massachusetts

Know Thomas Jefferson's list of rights that a bill of rights should clearly protect.

He thought to protect the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restrictions against monopolies, the force of habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury.

Know Jefferson's response to the concern that listing some rights might endanger others.

He was not concerned with risks of partial rights, he said "Half a loaf is better than no bread. If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can."

Know the specific rights Patrick Henry warned would be lost without a bill of rights.

He warned about losing the rights of conscience and religion, trial by jury, liberty of the press, and protection against unreasonable searches.

Know the promise Madison made during the ratification debates about adding a bill of rights.

Madison promised that a bill of rights would be added after ratification.

Know how Madison originally wanted the amendments to be incorporated into the Constitution.

Madison proposed weaving them into the articles of the constitution through small additions, and word changes as opposed to a separate list of rights at the end.

Know how many amendments the Senate ultimately approved after the House had approved 17.

Of the 17 amendments approved by the house, the senate approved 12.

Know George Washington's stated primary motive for taking the field during the Revolutionary War.

Washington had a firm belief in the justice of our cause.

Know the Founders' view of religious toleration compared with full religious liberty.

The founders thought that religious toleration was an insufficient protection of a fundamental right, because it did not protect the freedom of conscience. Most of the founders thought that the lack of religious liberty was unacceptable, they believed that religious liberty was a natural right and foundational.

Know the key language of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (after Madison's revisions) regarding free exercise of religion.

In the final document, after Madison's revisions, it viewed religious liberty as a natural right saying, "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."

Know the central claim of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

In the statue, Jefferson emphasized that religious freedom was one of "the natural rights of mankind".

Know what Article VI of the Constitution prohibits regarding religious tests.

The article prohibits religious tests from being required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Know George Washington's argument in his letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport about toleration versus natural rights.

Washington argued that freedom of conscience as a natural right superseded mere religious toleration, opposing a temporary indulgence granted by a ruling class.

Know the two religion clauses of the First Amendment and what they prohibit Congress from doing.

-The Establishment Clause: prohibits congress from making any law that supports/respects the establishment of a (single) religion. (like an official state church). -The Free Exercise Clause: preserved religious freedom by prohibiting congress from making any law against free religious exercise.

Know Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's famous metaphor for freedom of speech.

His metaphor was that freedom of speech is the "marketplace of ideas".

Know the "clear and present danger" standard established in Schenck v. United States.

The standard established that the government can restrict speech if the words used create a clear and immediate threat of a substantive evil. (like someone maliciously yelling fire into a crowd).

Know one classic example the readings give of speech that is not protected by the First Amendment.

Some examples are falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater, serious communications of true threats, defamation, etc.

Know the Miller v. California standard for determining whether material is obscene and therefore unprotected.

Ruled that materials that some Americans might find to be obscene are protected by the 1st amendment if the materials have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Know the central holding of Tinker v. Des Moines regarding student speech.

The central holding was that the public school students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

Know how far back the English tradition of the right to bear arms extends according to the readings.

It extends back to the 12th century where it was medieval duty to be armed (it was even required to be armed or keep arms in their homes).

Know the limitation the English Bill of Rights of 1689 placed on the right to bear arms.

It gave protestants the right, but denied the Catholic minority.

Know what the colonists at Lexington and Concord were defending when the "shot heard round the world" was fired.

They were defending a stockpile of their weapons, their constitutional rights under English law, and their beliefs of liberty.

Know which groups many American colonies historically restricted from owning guns.

Women, free blacks, and Roman Catholics.

Know the main purposes the Founders had in adding the Second Amendment.

To protect states and individuals from a central government with too much power.

Know George Mason's description of the militia.

"Its the whole people, except a few public officers."

Know the Supreme Court's holding in United States v. Miller (1939) regarding certain weapons.

The SC upheld that the 2nd amendment did not protect the right to possess all types of weapons, like sawedoff shotguns (bc they were easy to conceal and use to hurt others).

Know the broad meaning the Founders gave to the term "property."

They thought of it like an extension of a person's identity, rights, and labor (not just physical).

Know why the Founders regarded the protection of property rights as essential.

They understood that protection of all kinds of someone's property was needed to uphold their rights and essential to their happiness.

Know how Thomas Jefferson altered John Locke's famous phrase in the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson expanded "life, liberty, and property" → "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

Know James Madison's argument in his essay "Property" about the duty of a just government.

He believed that man owns his body and possessions as well as the right to express his opinions and religious beliefs.

Know which amendments in the Bill of Rights deal substantially with property protections.

The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th.

Know the early English documents that influenced American understandings of property rights.

The Magna Carta (1215) and Declaration of Rights (1689) restricted the power of the king and queen to take property or put people in jail at random.

Know the British abuses that helped push the Founders toward revolution (related to property and rights).

Taxation without representation, forced to house troops, searched without warrants, being fined excessively, etc.

Know the core requirement of due process of law when the government restricts fundamental rights.

Substantive Due Process- protects basic, fundamental rights (bodily autonomy, marital rights, etc.) and requires the government to provide compelling reasoning + follow narrow laws. Procedural Due Process- Requires the government to follow fair, established procedures before depriving anyone of life, liberty, or property (a fair hearing, neutral decision maker, opportunity to be heard).

Know the English legal traditions from which the American concept of due process evolved.

It came from the english law, Magna carta, Petition of Right, and english Bill of Rights

Know the Magna Carta's requirement regarding the severity of punishments.

The punishment must fit the crime. Punishment should be based on the severity of the offense.

Know the two types of laws prohibited by Article I, Sections 9 and 10 of the Constitution.

The two types of law are Bill of attainder, legislative declarations of guilt without trial. Ex post Facto laws, criminal laws applied retroactively

Know what the writ of habeas corpus requires the government to do.

It requires the government to prove that a person's detention is lawful by bringing the accused before a judge/magistrate.