Intro to American Politics — Comprehensive Mock Exam

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key civil liberties, civil rights, constitutional amendments, and landmark Supreme Court decisions from the Kutztown University Intro to American Politics Comprehensive Mock Exam.

Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

The Supreme Court decision that rejected the claim that the Fifth Amendment's protection against taking private property without just compensation applied to the states, establishing that the Bill of Rights originally applied only to the federal government.

Gitlow v. New York (1925)

The Supreme Court ruling that first applied freedom of speech and press protections against the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Selective Incorporation

The legal doctrine through which the Supreme Court has applied specific protections of the Bill of Rights to the states on a case-by-case basis using the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad v. Chicago

The Supreme Court decision that initiated the selective incorporation process by applying the Fifth Amendment's just compensation property protection to state governments.

Free-Exercise Clause (Broadly Applicable Criminal Laws)

The constitutional provision protecting religious practice, under which the Supreme Court has historically upheld neutral, generally applicable criminal prohibitions in cases involving practices such as polygamy and drug use.

Establishment Clause Interpretations

Three competing legal perspectives recognized in the notes regarding religion: a required strict separation of church and state, government neutrality toward religion, or a prohibition narrowly limited to establishing an official national religion.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

The landmark Supreme Court case that struck down Connecticut's state prohibition on the use of contraceptives, establishing a constitutional right to privacy.

Roe v. Wade (1973)

The Supreme Court decision that extended constitutional privacy protections to encompass abortion, defining it as a constitutional right.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores

The Supreme Court decision that struck down a mandate requiring certain employers to provide contraceptives as preventive care on free-exercise grounds.

Thirteenth Amendment

The Civil War amendment that abolished slavery throughout the United States, containing an explicit exception for punishment for a crime.

Fourteenth Amendment

The Civil War amendment that reversed Dred Scott, made Bill of Rights due-process requirements applicable to the states, and guaranteed equal protection of the laws.

Fifteenth Amendment

The Civil War amendment that constitutionally granted Black males the right to vote.

Strict Scrutiny

The highest and most demanding standard of judicial review, applied to governmental policies and laws that discriminate on the basis of race or treat race as a suspect classification.

Intermediate Scrutiny

The standard of judicial review applied by courts to governmental classifications based on gender.

Rational Basis Review

The default standard of judicial review under which most general laws are evaluated, presuming statutes to be valid as long as they are reasonably related to a legitimate government interest.

Executive Order 9981 (1948)

The presidential directive issued by Harry S. Truman to desegregate the United States Armed Forces.

Little Rock Central High School Desegregation (1957)

A 1957 civil rights confrontation where Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus resisted court orders desegregating school access to the Little Rock Nine, prompting President Eisenhower to dispatch National Guard troops and 101st Airborne Division paratroopers.

Greensboro Lunch-Counter Protest (1960)

A 1960 student-led sit-in protest against racial segregation that occurred at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The first comprehensive federal civil-rights legislation enacted since Reconstruction, pushed through Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson to outlaw discrimination in voting, employment, public accommodations, and education.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Federal legislation that suspended discriminatory literacy tests in six Southern states, authorized the Attorney General to replace local registrars, and produced a dramatic surge in Black voter registration and turnout.

Schenck v. United States

The World War I speech case where the Supreme Court rejected anti-draft pamphleteers' First Amendment claims under the Espionage Act by establishing the clear-and-present-danger test.

Brandenburg v. Ohio

The First Amendment speech ruling holding that advocacy of force or law violation cannot be punished unless it is directed to inciting and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

Cohen v. California

The Supreme Court case ruling in favor of a speaker whose generalized offensive expression was not directed at a specific individual, distinguishing it from fighting words.

Central Hudson Gas Co. v. Public Service Commission

The ruling establishing the modern test for commercial speech, requiring the government to prove that a regulation directly advances a substantial interest and is no more extensive than necessary.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

The Supreme Court case that incorporated the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule, prohibiting illegally seized evidence from being used in state criminal trials.

Miller v. California Obscenity Test

A three-part constitutional test determining obscenity based on whether the average person applying community standards finds a prurient appeal, whether it depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way under state law, and whether the work lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

The landmark defamation ruling requiring public officials to demonstrate actual malice—defined as knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth—in order to prevail in a libel suit.

Curtiss Publishing Co. v. Butts

The Supreme Court decision that extended the actual malice standard from New York Times v. Sullivan to apply to public figures as well as public officials.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The Supreme Court ruling that upheld racial segregation in public accommodations under the separate-but-equal doctrine.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

The landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down state-mandated school segregation, overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, denied states the power to discriminate by race, and met with massive resistance in the South.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

The Supreme Court decision that held a separate, segregated law school created for Black students unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.

R.A.V. v. St. Paul

The Supreme Court case striking down a municipal hate-crime ordinance that specifically penalized bias-motivated expression targeting listed groups as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.

Wisconsin v. Mitchell

The Supreme Court decision upholding a state law that imposed increased prison sentences and enhancements for crimes deliberately motivated by bias.

Snyder v. Phelps

The Supreme Court ruling upholding First Amendment speech protections for protesters picketing near military funerals on matters of public concern.

Title IX of the Education Act of 1972

A landmark federal statute prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

The constitutional amendment ratified in 1920 that granted women the right to vote across the United States.

Equal Pay Act of 1963

Federal legislation that outlawed wage discrimination based on sex across specified categories of employers.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

The historic 1848 gathering in New York that formally launched the organized movement calling for legal, social, and political equality for women.

McDonald v. Chicago

The Supreme Court decision that incorporated the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, applying it to state and local governments.

Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)

A group of Supreme Court decisions that rejected a Fourteenth Amendment property-rights challenge against a state-created slaughterhouse monopoly, sharply limiting the Privileges or Immunities Clause.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

The Supreme Court ruling that Black people were not citizens under the Constitution, a decision subsequently repudiated and reversed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Palko v. Connecticut

The Supreme Court case that declined to incorporate the Fifth Amendment's double-jeopardy prohibition against state governments, articulating a fundamental-rights test for selective incorporation.

Selma to Montgomery Marches (1965)

A series of 1965 civil rights demonstrations in Alabama advocating for voting rights, during which marching demonstrators encountered violent police resistance from Alabama state troopers.