Intro to Politics, Constitution, Civil Liberties, and Civil Rights

Vocabulary terms covering basic constitutional principles, civil liberties, and key historical milestones in civil rights from the lecture notes.

Three Political Values

Freedom, order, and equality, which serve as foundational concepts in the study of politics.

Articles of Confederation

The original governing agreement among the American states, which possessed significant political shortcomings that led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Shay's Rebellion

An armed uprising that highlighted the governance shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation and demonstrated the need for constitutional reform.

Constitutional Convention of 1787

The assembly where delegates gathered to revise the national framework, debating key political principles, structure, and ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Great Compromise

A foundational agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 concerning legislative structure and state representation.

Separation of Powers

A basic constitutional principle that distributes governmental authority and responsibilities across distinct branches.

Checks and Balances

A basic constitutional principle that provides each branch of government with specific mechanisms to limit the powers of the other branches.

Federalism

A basic constitutional principle dividing power between the national government and individual state governments.

Tyranny of the Majority

A concept discussed in Hofstadter's reading regarding the Founder's philosophy, liberty vs. democracy, and the risk of majority factions overriding individual liberty.

Civil Liberties

Individual rights and freedoms protected from government interference, articulated in the main Articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Civil Rights

Guarantees of equal treatment and freedom from discrimination under the law, defined alongside civil liberties.

Ex Post Facto

A specific legal protection articulated in the main Articles of the Constitution prohibiting laws that retroactively make an act illegal.

Habeus Corpus

A fundamental civil liberty articulated in the main Articles of the Constitution requiring a court order to determine if a person's imprisonment is lawful.

1st Amendment

A constitutional amendment covering specific rights and issues related to freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and Freedom of the Press.

2nd Amendment

An amendment in the Bill of Rights protecting the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Rights of the Accused (4th-8th)

Constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights spanning Amendments 4 through 8 that safeguard individuals standard legal procedures during criminal prosecutions.

Process of Incorporation

The nationalization of the Bill of Rights to the states through the legal application of the 14th Amendment.

14th Amendment

A crucial post-Civil War amendment that enabled the process of incorporation, extending national Bill of Rights protections to state levels.

Inferred Rights

Constitutional protections not explicitly listed in the text, such as the Right to privacy established in Griswold v. CT and applied to abortion rights in Roe v. Wade.

Griswold v. CT

A Supreme Court case that established the constitutional Right to privacy as an inferred right.

Roe v. Wade

A controversial legal decision that applied the inferred Right to privacy to address abortion rights.

Reconstruction Era (1866-1876)

The decade following the Civil War marked by civil rights developments and intense legal and political backlash.

Plessy v. Ferguson 1896

An 1896 Supreme Court ruling that legally sanctioned state racial segregation policies.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local statutes enacted primarily in the South to enforce systemic racial segregation following the Reconstruction Era (1866-1876).

Brown vs. Board of Education 1954

A landmark 1954 Civil Rights Movement legal decision that ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.