AP Government: Freedom of the Press and SCOTUS Cases

Vocabulary flashcards covering landmark First Amendment prior restraint cases, the Espionage Act, and Fourteenth Amendment SCOTUS comparison concepts.

Prior Restraint

Government action that prevents the press or media from publishing or printing materials before publication.

Espionage Act

A 1917 law passed during World War I that prohibits transmitting or communicating classified national defense information to unauthorized persons.

Selective Service Act

A law passed during the World War I era establishing the military draft for 18-year-old men.

Schenck v. United States

A Supreme Court case establishing that speech encouraging people to dodge the military draft was not protected by the First Amendment because it posed a clear and present danger during wartime.

Clear and Present Danger

The legal doctrine established in Schenck v. United States allowing restrictions on free speech if the speech creates an immediate harm or threat to national security.

Pentagon Papers

A secret trove of classified documents exposing how multiple U.S. presidential administrations misled the public about America's role in escalating the Vietnam War.

Daniel Ellsberg

A military analyst who leaked the classified Pentagon Papers to the press to reveal government deception regarding the Vietnam War.

New York Times Co. v. United States

A 1971 Supreme Court case ruling 6-3 that the Nixon administration failed to justify prior restraint against publishing the Pentagon Papers under the First Amendment.

Equal Protection Clause

A provision of the Fourteenth Amendment used as the constitutional basis to prohibit state discrimination in cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Hernandez v. Texas.

Hernandez v. Texas

A unanimous Supreme Court case ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits discrimination against Mexican Americans in jury selection.

Amicus Curiae Brief

A written legal document submitted to a court by an outside party or interest group not directly involved in the case to offer opinion or guidance on a ruling.

Interest Group

An organized group of individuals or entities that attempts to influence public policy and judicial decisions to advance a specific agenda.