🏛️AP GOV / events

John Locke

• expanded Hobbes’ social contract

Baron de Montesquieu

• seperation of powers

Select committee

• temporary comittee created for specific purpose (ex: Missouri Compromise)

House rules committee

• gatekeeper for all legislation

• decides where votes take place and asisgns bills to various committees for debate and revision p

Great Compromise

• combined Virginia + New Jersey plan

reserved powers

• state powers

Magna Carta

• limited royal power (even king is subjected to law)

Virginia’s House of Burgesses

• representative democracy

US v Lopez

• pulled back Congress’s power by using Commerce Clause powers

Cooperative (marble-cake) federalism

Funded / Unfunded Mandates

• rules of what states MUST do regardless of getting money or not

Revenue sharing

• federal money to the states with NO strings attached

Devolution

• attempt to give some power back to the states

Pluralist theory

• power rests in the hands of people

Toll good

• good that is available but is only used by those who can afford it

• ex: private schooling

Supremacy Clause

• federal law is superior to state law

Crosscutting mandate

• failure to comply w these mandates results in criminal + civil penalties like reduction of federal grants, prosecution of officers

• ex: racial discrimination laws

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA)

• restrain federal gov’s use of mandate

• placed greater scrunity on Unfunded Mandates by the federal gov

Real ID Act (2005)

• federal law requiring IDs to contain standardized anti-fraud security measures

• costs a lot, states need to pay

• ex of coercive federalism

Dual federalism

• Federal gov + states have exclusive authority in distinct spheres of jurisdiction

• layer-cake federalism

Lochner v New York

• NY’s "Bakeshop Act” regulating working hours was unconstitutional bc it violated 14th Amendment’s Due Process clause

• right to sell / buy labor is a “liberty of the individual” from the Constitution

• “freedom of contract”

Cloture motion

• only way to end fibuster

• support from 16 senators + 2/3rds vote to accept motion

Earmark

• setting aside parts of a budget 4 specific projects

  ex) setting aside parts of military budget 2 buy fighter jet

Logrolling

• 2 legislators agree to trade votes for each other’s benefit

• can create pork barrelling

Executive Agreement

• president's power to make agreements w foreign governments

• don't need Congress approval

Bully pulpit

• president using his prestigious role 2 influence national agenda

• coined by Teddy Roosevelt

Judicial Review

• power of judicial to rule on the Constitutionality of law

Courts of Appeals

• 12 federal courts that hear appeals from lower courts

• make sure law was handled correctly

• 3 judges + No jury + ONLY have appellate jurisdiction

District Courts

• 94 federal courts that hear original cases

• found in every state

• 1 judge + jury

• hear all federal crimes + make decision (first line of defense)

• only has original jurisdiction

Pendleton Civil Service Act

• federal jobs became based on merit instead of patronage

• assassination of James Garfield

D.C. v Heller 2008

• individual has right to possess loaded firearm in their homes

8th Amendment

• unconstitutional to give “cruel and unusual punishments” including death penalty

Double Jeopardy

• protection against being tried / punished twice 4 same crime

• has exceptions

Taking the Fifth

• refusing to be a witness of your own crime

Miranda v Arizona 1966

• established Miranda Rights

• right to remain silent

• mentally ill Ernesto Miranda was arrested and confessed, however it was self-incrimination

• 14th amendment was broken

Gideon v Wainwright 1963

• every criminal is entitled to legal counsel

• 6th Amendment (defendants right to attorney)

• Gideon was accused of burglary + denied a lawyer + convicted after representing himself, SC overturned charges

Due Process Clause

• natural rights of citizens cannot be taken w/o due process of law

Equal Protection Clause

• no person can be deprived of rights due to race

Title IX 1972

• amendment to Voting Rights Act

• sex discrimination in educational programs/activities

  ex) adding female athletics

Gritter v Bollinger 2003

• pro-affirmative action

• Uni of Michigan’s race factor did not violate Equal Protection Clause

Gratz v Bollinger 2003

• anti-affirmative action

• Uni of Michigan’s undergrad admissions policy was violation of Equal Protection Clause (too inflexible and not consider adequately circumstances)

Monetary Policy

• gov promotes economy by using control of money supply + interest rates

• determined by Federal Reserve

Fiscal Policy

• gov promotes economy by taxing and spending

• printing money, raising/lowering interest rates

Supply-side economics

• encourages tax cuts + deregulation

• Reaganomics

Obergefell v Hodges 2013

• legalized same-sex marriage across US

Mandates

• gov tells state to do smth in order to receive federal money

• ex) Clean Air Act, ADA (Americans w Disabilities)

Valence issue

• issue most voters will agree w (economic prosperity, helping elderly)

• leads to party cooperation

Position issue

• divided voters (gun control, death penalty)

Standing Committee

• most important committee

• handles bills in diff broad policy areas

Rules Committee

• most powerful committee

• ability to kill / quickly process a bill to be passed

Politico model

• combo of delegate + trustee models

• political side of representation (if constituents began 2 protest representatives vote, the representative will change response 2 represent their constituents)

Partisianship

• voting based solely on ones party

• can lead to gridlock

Gridlock

• gov cannot reach a decision

• can come from partisianship

Conference Committee

• when House + Senate pass different versions of same bill (need 2 iron out differences)

Amicus Curiae Brief

• voluntary advisors to a court of law in a particular case

Rule of Four

• at least 4 judges must agree to review case in order to take it

Iron Triangle

• Congressional subcommittee, bureaucratic agency, and interest group find it mutually beneficial 2 support each other

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• allowed fed gov to register voters in districts where less than 50% of African American adults were registered to vote

• fed gov could also register voters in places w discrimination

Rehabilitation Act of 1973

• defines an inaccessible environment as form of discrimination

Quota Systems

• requirements of business / organizations to meet certain # of minority members

Benchmark polls

• 1st type of polls used, often b4 candidate declared they're running

• used to gather info abt ppl’s views/concerns

Ex Post Facto Clause

• Congress cannot pass a law that punishes a person retroactively

• ex) person canot be punished for smth that wasn't a crime when committed

Full Faith and Credit Clause

• states must honor each other’s decisions

• ex) marriage in one state is valid in another

Privileges and Immunities Clause

• states can't treat newcomers worse than their own citizens

Political Action Committee (PAC)

• raises money w goal of supporting candidates

• limits that can donate to a candidate

Senate requirements

• 30 yrs +

• lived in state for 9+ yrs

House requirements

• 25 yrs +

• lived in state for 7+ yrs

President has _ days to veto bill

10

Supreme Court is compromised of

• 9 judges

• no jury

Policy agenda

• set of issues that gov prioritizes 4 discussion and action

Bureaucratic Theory

• bu

Constituency groups

• group of people represented by an elected official

delegate model

• direct mouthpiece for constituents’ expressed wishes

trustee model

• uses their own judgment to make decisions

District Courts have

• 94 trial-level courts

• hear federal criminal + civil cases

Congressional oversight

• holds executive branch accountable and ensure laws are fully implemented

• implied power from Article I