AP Goverment Unit 3

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

School sponsorship of religious activities violates the establishment clause

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

Compelling Amish students to attend school past the eighth grade violates the free exercise clause

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

Public school students have the \n right to wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War, 1st amendment symbolic speech.

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

Bolstered the freedom of the press, establishing a \n "heavy presumption against prior restraint" even in cases involving national security

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Speech creating a "clear and present danger" is not protected by the First Amendment

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Guaranteed the right to an attorney for the poor or indigent in a state felony case, 6th amendment-right to counsel

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Extended the right of privacy to a woman's decision to have an abortion, right to privacy implied by the bill of rights (3,4,5 &9)

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

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

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Race-based school segregation violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Legal segregation is inherently unequal precedent, but not enforced in states for awhile, overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.

writ of habeas corpus

A court order requiring explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody.

ex post facto law

law that makes an act punishable as a crime even if the action was legal at the time it was committed and this is not allowed

due process clause

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

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.

Establishment Clause

Part of the First Amendment stating that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Free Exercise Clause

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

clear and present danger test

law should not punish speech unless there was a clear and present danger of producing harmful actions

prior restraint

A government preventing material from being published. This is a common method of limiting the press in some nations, but it is usually unconstitutional in the United States, according to the First Amendment and as confirmed in the 1931 Supreme Court case of Near v. Minnesota.

Unprotected Speech

libel, obscenity, and fighting words, which are not entitled to constitutional protection in all circumstances

libel

written defamation

Obsenity

form of speech and press the government can regulate, pornography, applied community standards and the material is without social value

Civil Disobedience

A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws.

eminent domain

Power of a government to take private property for public use.

regulatory taking

A government regulation that effectively takes land by restricting its use, even if it remains in the owner's name.

due process

following established legal procedures

Procedural Due Process

Constitutional requirement that governments proceed by proper methods; limits how government may exercise power.

search warrant

A written authorization from a court specifying the area to be searched and what the police are searching for.

exclusionary rule

a law that prohibits the use of illegally obtained evidence in a criminal trial.

grand jury

A group of citizens that decides whether there is sufficient evidence to accuse someone of a crime.

petit jury

A jury of 6 to 12 persons who determine guilt or innocence in a civil or criminal action

indictment

A formal charge by a grand jury

plea bargain

a defendant's admission of guilt in exchange for a less severe punishment

double jeopardy

Being tried twice for the same crime

affirmative action

A policy in educational admissions or job hiring that gives special attention or compensatory treatment to traditionally disadvantaged groups in an effort to overcome present effects of past discrimination.

Equal Protection Clause

14th amendment clause that prohibits states from denying equal protection under the law, and has been used to combat discrimination

Fifteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Fourteenth Amendment

made "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" citizens of the country

grandfather clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

literacy test

a requirement that citizens show that they can read before registering to vote

NAACP

Interracial organization founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination and to achieve political and civil rights for African Americans.

Nineteenth Amendment

granted women the right to vote in 1920

poll taxes

required citizens of a state to pay a special tax in order to vote

preclearence

the process of seeking U.S. Department of Justice approval for all changes related to voting

reasonableness standard

when the government treats some classes of people differently from others, the different treatment must be reasonable and not arbitrary

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

A 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely because of their race.

Separate but equal

Principle upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public facilities was legal.

Thirteenth Amendment

abolished slavery

Title IX

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance

Twenty-fourth Amendment

The constitutional amendment passed in 1964 that declared poll taxes void in federal elections.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King argues to the White clergy that people have had enough with segregation. They have the duty to break unjust laws to install just law and demand equality, rather than waiting for it to happen.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (title vll), or national origin in public places. Allowed withholding grants and suing schools that did not integrate.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Prohibits racial discrimination in voting; banning literacy tests and poll taxes

Protected Speech

pure speech,free speech plus, symbolic speech

Civil Liberties

Fundamental rights and freedoms protected from infringement by the government

Civil Rights

Protections from discrimination as a member of a particular group (race, gender, religion, ethnicity, etc)