Unit 4 AP GOV Vocab

Affirmative Action

Government or institutional policies that provide advantages to historically disadvantaged groups (e.g., racial minorities, women) in education, employment, or contracting to address past discrimination and promote diversity; subject to strict scrutiny under the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Bill of attainder

A legislative act that declares an individual or group guilty of a crime and imposes punishment without a judicial trial, violating separation of powers and due process; explicitly prohibited by Article I, Section 9 (federal) and Section 10 (states).

Civil Liberties

Specific individual rights and freedoms protected from government infringement, primarily those enumerated in the Bill of Rights (e.g., speech, religion, due process) and applied to states via selective incorporation.

Civil Rights

Protections ensuring equal treatment under the law and preventing discrimination based on characteristics like race, gender, or religion; often requires affirmative government action under the 14th Amendment.

Clear and present danger doctrine (or test)

Judicial standard from Schenck v. United States (1919) allowing government to restrict speech that creates an immediate and imminent threat to public safety or order.

Commerce Clause

Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution, granting Congress authority to regulate commerce among states, with foreign nations, and Indian tribes; broadly interpreted to expand federal power.

Double Jeopardy

Fifth Amendment provision prohibiting prosecution for the same offense after acquittal, conviction, or certain mistrials; promotes finality in judgments (applies to states via 14th Amendment).

Dye process (Due process of law)

Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment requirements that government follow fair legal procedures (procedural due process) and not infringe fundamental liberties (substantive due process).

Dual Citizenship

Legal status where a person holds citizenship in two countries simultaneously, recognized under U.S. law but carrying potential obligations to both (e.g., taxes, military service).

Eminent Domain

Government's power under the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause to seize private property for public use, provided "just compensation" is paid; applied to states via the Fourteenth Amendment.

Equal Protection Clause

Fourteenth Amendment provision requiring states to treat all persons equally under the law; triggers different levels of judicial scrutiny based on classification (strict for race, intermediate for gender, rational basis for others).

Establishment Clause

First Amendment prohibition against government establishing or favoring any religion, promoting separation of church and state.

Ex post facto law

Laws that retroactively criminalize innocent acts, increase punishment, or alter trial rules to defendant's disadvantage; banned by Article I, Sections 9 and 10 for Congress and states.

Exclusionary Rule

Court-made remedy excluding evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment from trial to deter police misconduct; applies to states via Fourteenth Amendment.

Fighting Words

Narrow category of face-to-face personal insults likely to provoke immediate violent retaliation, unprotected under First Amendment.

Fifth Amendment

Protects against abuse of federal judicial power: grand jury for serious crimes, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, due process, and takings without compensation.

First Amendment

Prohibits Congress from abridging freedoms of religion (establishment/free exercise), speech, press, assembly, and petition; incorporated to states.

Free Exercise Clause

First Amendment right to freely practice one's religion without undue government interference, subject to strict scrutiny for burdens.

Freedom of Assembly

First Amendment right to gather peacefully and petition government for redress of grievances, subject to reasonable time/place/manner restrictions.

Freedom of the Press

First Amendment protection against government censorship of publication, especially prior restraint.

Grand Jury

Fifth Amendment requirement for a panel of citizens to review evidence and determine if probable cause exists for indicting on serious federal crimes (felonies); not incorporated to states.

Habeas Corpus (Writ of Habeas Corpus)

Constitutional safeguard (Article I, Section 9) allowing courts to review lawfulness of detention and order release if unjustly held; suspendable only in rebellion or invasion.

Fourteenth Amendment

Post-Civil War amendment granting citizenship to all born in U.S., due process and equal protection against states, and incorporating most Bill of Rights protections via selective incorporation.

FIfteenth Amendment

Prohibits federal and state governments from denying voting rights based on race, color, or previous servitude; enforced historically by Voting Rights Act.

Lemon Test

Three-prong Establishment Clause analysis from Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971): law must have secular purpose, primary effect neither advancing nor inhibiting religion, and avoid excessive government entanglement with religion (later modified).

Libel

Written false statement that harms reputation and is published to a third party; unprotected speech where public figures must prove "actual malice."

Majority-minority districts

Electoral districts drawn so racial minorities comprise a majority of voters to ensure proportional representation under Voting Rights Act Section 2, avoiding vote dilution.

Miranda rights (or rule)

Supreme Court requirement that police inform custodial suspects of rights to silence and counsel before interrogation to protect against self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment).

Non-protected speech

Categories of expression outside First Amendment safeguards due to lack of social value and high harm potential, like obscenity, defamation, fighting words.

Obscenity

Sexually explicit material unprotected by First Amendment if it meets Miller v. California (1973) test: appeals to prurient interest, depicts offensive sexual conduct by community standards, lacks serious literary/artistic/political value.

Poll taxes

Fees imposed as a prerequisite for voting, designed to disenfranchise poor and minority voters; banned by Twenty-Fourth Amendment for federal elections and ruled unconstitutional for state elections under Equal Protection Clause.

Prior Restraint

Government action preventing publication or speech before it occurs, presumptively unconstitutional under First Amendment as prior censorship.

Privacy rights

Implied constitutional right to personal autonomy and freedom from unwarranted government intrusion, derived from "penumbras" of Bill of Rights via substantive due process (Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments).

Regulatory Taking

Government regulation (not physical seizure) that deprives property owner of all economically viable use, requiring just compensation under Fifth Amendment Takings Clause.

Rights of a person accused of a crime

Constitutional protections in Fourth through Eighth Amendments for criminal defendants, including unreasonable searches, self-incrimination, counsel, speedy trial, and cruel punishment.

Selective Incorporation

Process by which the Supreme Court uses Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause to apply specific Bill of Rights protections against states on a case-by-case basis (not wholesale).

Separate but equal (rule)

Doctrine upholding racial segregation in public facilities if provided "separate but equal" accommodations; overturned as perpetuating inferiority.

Slander

Spoken (oral) false statement that harms reputation and is communicated to a third party; unprotected speech where public figures must prove "actual malice."

Strict Scrutiny

Most rigorous judicial standard of review for laws burdening suspect classifications (race, national origin, religion) or fundamental rights; government must show compelling interest and narrow tailoring (least restrictive means).