Concepts for Chapters 4 & 5 (Vocabulary Quiz 2)

Bill of Rights

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which largely guarantee specific rights and liberties.

Civil liberties

The personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge by law, constitution, or judicial interpretation; are the protections from the abuse of government power.

Civil rights

The personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge by law, constitution, or judicial interpretation;  based on gender, race, or religion thus not in the bill of rights

Clear and present danger test

Test articulated by the Supreme Court in Schenck v. U.S. (1919) to draw the line between protected and unprotected speech; the Court looks to see “whether the words used” could “create a clear and present danger that they will bring about substantive evils” that Congress seeks “to prevent.”

Double jeopardy clause

Part of the Fifth Amendment that protects individuals from being tried twice for the same offense in the same jurisdiction.

Due process rights/clause

Fifth & Fourteenth Amendments establish. Are fundamental constitutional protections that safeguard individuals from arbitrary actions by the government. These rights are critical in ensuring that individuals are treated fairly and justly under the law.

Eighth Amendment

Part of the Bill of Rights that states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Establishment Clause

The first clause of the First Amendment; it directs the national government not to sanction an official religion

Exclusionary rule

Judicially created rule that prohibits police from using illegally seized evidence at trial

First Amendment

Part of the Bill of Rights that imposes a number of restrictions on the federal government with respect to civil liberties, including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

Fourth Amendment

Part of the Bill of Rights that protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, houses, papers, and effects without a warrant from a judge.

Fifth Amendment

Part of the Bill of Rights that imposes a number of restrictions on the federal government with respect to the rights of persons suspected of committing a crime. It provides for indictment by a grand jury and protection against self-incrimination, and prevents the national government from denying a person life, liberty, or property without the due process of law. It also prevents the national government from taking property without just compensation.

Free Exercise Clause

The second clause of the First Amend-ment; it prohibits the U.S. government from interfering with a citizen’s right to practice his or her religion.

Incorporation Doctrine

An interpretation of the Constitution holding that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires state and local governments to guarantee the rights stated in the Bill of Rights.

Libel

False written statement that defames a person’s character.

Miranda rights/rule

Statements required of police that inform a suspect of his or her constitutional rights protected by the Fifth Amendment, including the right to an attorney provided by a court if the suspect cannot afford one.

Prior restraint

refers to government actions that prevent material from being published or broadcasted. often discussed in the context of the First Amendment and freedom of the press. generally considered unconstitutional, as it violates the principle of free speech and the press.

Right to privacy

The right to be left alone; a judicially created principle encompassing a variety of individual actions protected by the penumbras cast by several constitutional amendments, including the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

Selective incorporation

A judicial doctrine whereby most, but not all, protections found in the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment.

Sixth Amendment

Part of the Bill of Rights that sets out the basic requirements of procedural due process for federal courts to follow in criminal trials. These include speedy and public trials, impartial juries, trials in the state where the crime was committed, notice of the charges, the right to confront and obtain favorable witnesses, and the right to counsel

Slander

Untrue spoken statements that defame the character of a person.

Symbolic speech

Symbols, signs, and other methods of expression generally considered to be protected by the First Amendment.

Writ of habeas corpus

A court order to a person or agency holding someone in custody to deliver the imprisoned individual to the court issuing the order. Allows a person to report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court by requiring an explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody

Probable cause

reasonable grounds (for making a search, pressing a charge, etc.).

Unreasonable search and seizure

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

Search warrant

Document needed to search a suspects house, car, belongings, etc.

Cruel and unusual punishment

prohibited by the Eighth Amendment in the Constitution.includes torture, deliberately degrading punishment, or punishment that is too severe for the crime committed. Due process clause of the 5th and 14th Amendments.

Defamation

the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.

Obscenity

a category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment. These laws are concerned with prohibiting lewd, filthy, or disgusting words or pictures.

Right to counsel

a defendant has a right to have the assistance of lawyers, and if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, requires that the government appoint one or pay the defendants legal expenses; 6th amendment

Speedy and public trial

protects a defendant from having a long delay between being arrested and facing trial; protected under the Sixth Amendment. right to an impartial jury.

Time place and manner regulations

Government regulations that place restrictions on free speech. These regulations, specifying when, where, and in what way speech is allowed, are applied when unrestricted free speech will conflict with the rights of others.

Affirmative action

Policies designed to give special attention or compensatory treatment to members of a previously disadvantaged group.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Wide-ranging legislation passed by Congress to outlaw segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment, education, and voting; created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Equal Protection Clause

Section of the Fourteenth Amendment that guarantees that all citizens receive “equal protection of the law

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Proposed amendment to the Constitution that states “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.”

Fifteenth Amendment

One of three major amendments ratified after the Civil War; specifically enfranchised newly freed male slaves.

Fourteenth Amendment

One of three major amendments ratified after the Civil War; guarantees equal protection under the law to all U.S. citizens.

National Organization for Women (NOW)

The leading activist group of the women’s rights movement, especially in the 1960s and 1970s.

Poll tax

Taxes levied in many southern states and localities that had to be paid before an eligible voter could cast a ballot.

Separate-but-equal doctrine

The central tenet of the Plessy v.Ferguson decision that claimed that separate accommodations for blacks and whites did not violate the Constitution. This doctrine was used by southern states to pass widespread discriminatory legislation at the end of the nineteenth century

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act

Provision of the Education Amendments of 1972 that bars educational institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating against female students.

Social movement

Sustained grassroots organization/action demanding reforms/changes in existing socio-economic or government practices.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Federal law banning the methods that had systematically excluded African Americans from registering or voting in southern elections. So it outlawed educational requirements for voting in states or counties.