AP Government Unit 3

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution

Civil liberties

Constitutional and legal protections against government action set out in the Bill of Rights

Civil rights

Policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals.

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Second Amendment

Right to bear arms

Establishment Clause

Clause in the First Amendment that says the government may not establish an official religion.

Free Exercise Clause

A First Amendment provision that prohibits government from interfering with the practice of religion.

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Prohibited state-sponsored recitation of prayer in public schools by virtue of 1st Amendment's establishment clause and the 14th Amendment's due process clause

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

The Court ruled that Wisconsin could not require Amish parents to send their children to public school beyond the eighth grade because it would violate long-held religious beliefs.

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Public school students may wear armbands to class protesting against America's war in Vietnam when such display does not disrupt classes - symbolic speech

Symbolic speech

nonverbal communication, such as burning a flag or wearing an armband. The Supreme Court has accorded some symbolic speech protection under the first amendment.

Time, place, and manner regulations

The right of the court to regulate certain details of assembly out of public interest/a test for public assemblies; time- how long, what time; place- may limit assembly to certain streets; manner- what assembly is doing

Defamation

Act of harming or ruining another's reputation through false statements

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Speech may be punished if it creates a clear-and-present-danger test of illegal acts

"Clear and Present Danger" test

a doctrine used to test whether limitations may be placed on First Amendment free speech rights. It was established in the case of Schenck v. United States

New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

Affirmed the 1st amendment guarantee of a free press and limited "prior restraint" of the press

Prior restraint

government censorship of information before it is published or broadcast

Eighth Amendment

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Death penalty

The punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime

Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures - requires authorities to obtain a search warrant

Metadata

Data that describes other data.

Selective incorporation

The process by which provisions of the Bill of Rights are brought within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment and so applied to state and local governments.

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense is applicable to the states

Miranda rights

the constitutional rights which police must read to a suspect before questioning can occur

Fifth Amendment

A constitutional amendment designed to protect the rights of persons accused of crimes, including protection against double jeopardy, self-incrimination, and punishment without due process of law.

Sixth Amendment

A constitutional amendment designed to protect individuals accused of crimes. It includes the right to counsel, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to a speedy and public trial.

Due Process

Fair treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's entitlement. Procedural guarantees provided by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments for those accused of crimes.

Unreasonable search and seizure

Obtaining evidence in a haphazard or random manner, a practice prohibited by the 4th amendment; probable cause and a search warrant are required for this to be legal

Right to counsel

Individual right found in the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution that requires criminal defendants to have access to legal representation.

Patriot Act

This law passed after 9/11 expanded the tools used to fight terrorism and improved communication between law enforcement and intelligence agencies

USA Freedom Act

A 2015 law that came into effect the day after the USA PATRIOT Act expired. This act restored many provision of the PATRIOT Act but limited the collection of telecommunication metadata of citizens by the National Security Agency.

Due Process Clause

14th amendment clause stating that no state may deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Extends to the defendant the right of counsel in all state and federal criminal trials regardless of their ability to pay.

Exclusionary rule

improperly gathered evidence may not be introduced in a criminal trial

Right to privacy

the right to a private personal life free from the intrusion of government - has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to entail individual access to birth control and abortions

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Certain state criminal abortion laws violate the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects against state action the (implied) right to privacy in the Bill of Rights (9th amendment). Abortion cannot be banned in the 1st trimester (1st 3 months), states can regulate the 2nd trimester, 3rd trimester: abortion is illegal except to save the life of the mother

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

A letter that Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed to his fellow clergymen while he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, after a nonviolent protest against racial segregation

Civil Rights Movement

Social movement in the United States beginning in the 1950s in an effort to establish the civil rights Black citizens

Women's Rights Movement

A movement to secure legal, economic, and social equality for women, also called the feminist movement. It has its roots in the nineteenth-century women's movement, which sought, among other things, to secure property rights and suffrage for women.

National Organization for Women (NOW)

Founded in 1966, called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women. NOW also championed the legalization of abortion and passage of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Overruled the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972

Prohibits government money from being used for anything that discriminates on the basis of gender.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

a law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American suffrage

"Separate but equal" doctrine

Established that racial segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all people.

Affirmative action

A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities

Libel

a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.

D.C. v. Heller (2008)

Court ruled that a DC law banning handguns was unconstitutional - To read the Amendment as limiting the right to bear arms only to those in a governed military force would be to create exactly the type of state-sponsored force against which the Amendment was meant to protect people.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Established the exclusionary rule - evidence illegally gathered by the police may not be used in a criminal trial

Strict Scrutiny

A Supreme Court test to see if a law denies equal protection because it does not serve a compelling state interest and is not narrowly tailored to achieve that goal

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not base admissions on rigid racial quotas, but that race could be used as one of several admission criteria

Fourteenth Amendment

"no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Commercial Speech

Advertisements and commercials for products and services; they receive less First Amendment protection, primarily to discourage false and misleading ads.

Amicus Curiae Brief

Literally, a "friend of the court" brief, filed by an individual or organization to present arguments in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case.

Civil Disobedience

Deliberate refusal to obey a law or comply with the orders of public officials as a means of expressing opposition in order to influence legislation or government policy, characterized by the employment of such nonviolent techniques as boycotting, picketing, and nonpayment of taxes.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws formerly pervasive throughout the South requiring public facilities and accommodations such as restaurants, swimming polls, restrooms, movie theaters, schools, water fountains, parks, and trains to be segregated by race.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022)

Overturned the precedent established in Roe v. Wade. Stated that the right to an abortion is neither deeply rooted in the nation's history nor an essential component of "ordered liberty."

unreasonable search and seizure

Obtaining evidence in a haphazard or random manner, a practice prohibited by the 4th amendment; probable cause and a search warrant are required for this to be legal

Lemon Test (Lemon v. Kurtzman)

Three tests are described for deciding whether the government is improperly involved with religion. 1) Has a secular purpose. 2) Its primary effect neither advances nor inhibits religion. 3) It does not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.