AP GOPO - Foundational Documents & Landmark Court Cases

Federalist 10

• A strong, united republic would be more effective than the individual states at controlling “factions”

• A large republic will help control factions because when more representatives are elected, there will be a greater number of opinions. Therefore, it is far less likely that there will be one majority oppressing

  the rest of the people.

Brutus I

• An Anti-federalist series of essays designed to encourage New Yorkers to reject the proposed Constitution

• The immense power of the federal government requires the people to sacrifice their liberties

• A bill of rights was necessary to protect the people from the government

• Congress possesses far too much power: taxation, standing army, taxes, Elastic Clause

• A free republic cannot exist in such a large territory as the United States

• Judicial authority will broaden federal gov’t’s power (thus, tyranny)

Declaration of Independence

• All people created equal (Natural Rights of Life, Liberty, Property)

• Governments are created to protect these rights

• If Gov’t does not protect these rights, then the People have the duty to change/destroy

• Imperfect gov’ts should not be destroyed, only ones that seek to subject the People to Tyranny (destruction of Natural Rights)

Articles of Confederation

• Confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government.

• Limitations placed upon the central government rendered it ineffective at governing the continually growing American states

• Each state remains sovereign

• Unicameral legislature, each state one vote

• No President, No Judiciary

• Could not force taxation; No standing Army

Constitution

• Outline of federal gov’t structure, powers, and limits to those powers

• Three branches (L, E, J) [Sep. of P’s] that can limit each other [Ch & B’s]

• Federal system of government

• Constitution as Supreme Law

Bill of Rights

• 1-8: Individual Rights

• 9: Rights not listed are NOT denied to the People

• 10: Powers not given to Federal Gov’t nor denied to the states are State Powers

1st Amendment

Freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition

2nd Amendment

Right to bear arms

3rd Amendment

Citizens do not have to house soldiers

4th Amendment

No unreasonable search or seizure

5th Amendment

No double jeopardy or no witness against yourself

6th Amendment

The right to a speedy and public trial

7th Amendment

The right to a jury in civil matters of $20 and over

8th Amendment

No excessive bail or cruel and unusual punishment

9th Amendment

People get rights not listed in the Constitution

10th Amendment

Any rights not given to the federal government are given to the states and people

11th Amendment

Individual can not sue a state in a federal court

12th Amendment

Separate ballots for president and vice president

13th Amendment

Abolish slavery

14th Amendment

If you are born or naturalized in the U.S then you are a citizen of the U.S

15th Amendment

You cannot prevent a person from voting because of race, color, or creed.

16th Amendment

Income tax

17th Amendment

Popular election of U.S Senators

18th Amendment

Prohibition

19th Amendment

Right to vote for women

20th Amendment

President takes office on January 20th instead of March 4th.

21st Amendment

Repeal prohibition

22nd Amendment

President can only serve two terms

23rd Amendment

Washington D.C. residents can vote for president.

24th Amendment

Anti poll tax

25th Amendment

Lays down the rules for who becomes president if the president dies/resigns etc.

26th Amendment

18 year olds can vote

27th Amendment

Congress cannot accept a pay raise until next term.

Federalist 51

• Proposes a government broken into three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

• Each branch should be self-sufficient, but each should have some kind of power over the other in order for them to keep each other from taking over the government.

• The Legislative branch needs to be split further into the House of Representatives and the Senate because it's the most powerful branch, and members of the Judicial branch need to be chosen by the President with the Senate's approval because they want qualified candidates for a position that lasts

  for life.

• This style of government also helps keep down the power of factions, a recurring theme from

  Federalist 10.

Federalist 70

• Argues that unity in the executive branch is a main ingredient for both energy and safety. Energy arises from the proceedings of a single person, characterized by, "decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch," while safety arises from the unitary executive's unconcealed accountability to the people.

• Justifies executive strength by claiming that the slow-moving Congress, a body designed for deliberation, will be best-balanced by a quick and decisive executive.

• Also maintains that governmental balance can only be achieved if each branch of government (including the executive branch) has enough autonomous power such that tyranny of one branch over the others cannot occur.

• Makes the case for duration, meaning a presidential term long enough to promote stability in the government.

• Support can be defined as a presidential salary, which insulates government officials from corruption by attracting capable, honest men to office.

Federalist 78

• As “the weakest of the three departments of power,” the Judiciary needs strengthening.

• Without an independent judiciary, any rights reserved to the people by the Constitution “would amount to nothing,” since the legislature cannot be relied upon to police itself.

• Lifetime appointments, guaranteed “during good behavior” to insure that judges can resist encroachments from the legislature (to which presumably they would be vulnerable by means of bribes or threats)

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

• King argues that he and his fellow demonstrations have a duty to fight for justice.

• It is up to the oppressed to take charge and demand equality.

• Segregation is used to debase one population (blacks) while uplifting another (whites), which makes it immoral in the eyes of God. Immoral laws are laws that are neither just nor fair. According to St. Augustine's logic, unjust laws aren't actually laws, so they don't have to be followed. King believes people are under a moral obligation to oppose segregation by refusing to abide by the so-called laws that govern the practice.

• White Americans who say they agree with the notion of desegregation but criticize the manner in which civil rights activists go about achieving it are the biggest obstacle standing in the way of racial equality. The demeaning and "paternalistic" attitude of white moderates shows a lack of real understanding about the realities of segregation. It is this group that perpetuates the notion that time, not human intervention, will be the great equalizer—which discourages others to join the campaign for civil rights.

• The civil rights movement will ultimately be successful because "the goal of America is freedom."

Marbury v. Madison

A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established for the first time that federal courts had the power to overturn an act of Congress on the ground that it violated the U.S. Constitution

McCulloch v. Maryland

The Supreme Court ruled that Congress had implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution to create the Second Bank of the United States and that the state of Maryland lacked the power to tax the Bank.

United States v. Lopez

Possession of a handgun near a school is not an economic activity and doesn't have a substantial effect on interstate commerce, and therefore cannot be regulated by Congress. The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 is unconstitutional.

Engel v. Vitale

Voluntary prayer in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment prohibition of a state establishment of religion under the Establishment Clause

Wisconsin v. Yoder

Established the precedent that an individual's right to exercise their religious beliefs under the First Amendment takes priority over the state's interests in compulsory education

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District

Supreme Court held that the armbands represented pure speech that is entirely separate from the actions or conduct of those participating in it. The Court also held that the students did not lose their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech when they stepped onto school property

New York Times Company v. United States

Supreme Court decided that the president did not have the right to issue prior restraint against the NYT for printing material about the Pentagon Papers. President’s actions violated the paper’s first amendment rights

Schenck v. United States

The Court ruled that freedom of speech and freedom of the press under the First Amendment could be limited only if the words in the circumstances created "a clear and present danger."

Gideon v. Wainwright

The Supreme Court established that the Fourteenth Amendment creates a right for criminal defendants who cannot pay for their own lawyers to have the state appoint attorneys on their behalf.

McDonald v. Chicago

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment extends the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms to the states, at least for traditional, lawful purposes such as self-defense.

Brown v. Board of Education I & II

I. The Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the "separate but equal" principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case.

II. Decreed that the dismantling of separate school systems for Black and white students could proceed with "all deliberate speed," a phrase that pleased neither supporters or opponents of integration. Unintentionally, it opened the way for various strategies of resistance to the decision.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, and other associations.

Baker v. Carr

The Court held that there were no such questions to be answered in this case and that legislative apportionment was a justiciable issue. Concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection issues which Baker and others raised in this case merited judicial evaluation.

Shaw v. Reno

The case established that any legislative redistricting must be strictly scrutinized and that any laws related to racially motivated redistricting must be held to narrow standards and compelling government interests.

Obergefell v. Hodges

Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.

Dobbes v. Jackson

2022 Supreme Court case that reversed Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the decisions that originally asserted the fundamental right to an abortion prior to the viability of the fetus.