Amex final review guide

Number of Justices

9

current Chief Justice:

John roberts

Precedent

A legal decision that serves as an authoritative rule or pattern for future, similar cases.

Due process rights

The constitutional guarantee that all legal proceedings will be fair

and that the government will respect all legal rights owed to a person (found in the 5th and 14th Amendments).

The exclusionary rule

A legal rule preventing evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights (like illegal searches) from being used in a court of law.

Double jeopardy

The legal principle that prohibits an individual from being tried twice for the same crime after an acquittal or conviction.

Eminent Domain

The power of the government to take private property for public use, provided the property owner is given just compensation.

1st amendment

Freedom of speech

Freedom of petition

Freedom of assembly

Freedom of press

Freedom of religion

Freedom of expression

2nd amendment

Right to bear arms

4th amendment

protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

5th amendment

Charged infront of a grand jury

Right to remain silent

Double jeopardy

Due process

Emminent domain

6th amendment

To be told charges

Right to a speedy and fair trial

Right to face prosecution witness

Right to a defense lawyer

8th amendment

Punishments fair bases on crime

Protects against excessive bail fines

9th amendment

Protects all rights not mentioned

Free Expression

The constitutional right to express ideas, opinions, and beliefs without government censorship or retaliation.

First Amendment Limitations:

Freedom of speech is not absolute. Limitations include

incitement to imminent lawless action, defamation (libel and slander), obscenity, and speech

that creates a "clear and present danger."

Right to Protest

Protected under the rights to peaceably assemble and petition the

government, though local governments can enforce reasonable restrictions on the "time,

place, and manner" of the protest.

Free Exercise Clause

Part of the 1st Amendment preventing the government from interfering

with a person's practice of their religion.

Establishment Clause

Part of the 1st Amendment prohibiting the government from establishing

an official national religion or unduly favoring one religion over another.

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Ruled that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to

freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Protected symbolic speech (wearing

black armbands to protest the Vietnam War) as long as it doesn't cause a material disruption.

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988):

Ruled that school administrators can exercise prior restraint and censor student-led school newspapers if the censorship is reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.

Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986):

Ruled that schools can discipline students for using lewd, vulgar, or offensive language in a school setting.

Morse v. Frederick (2007):

 Ruled that school officials can prohibit students from displaying messages that promote illegal drug use (e.g., the "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" banner) at school-sanctioned events.

NJ v. T.L.O. (1985):

Ruled that school officials do not need a warrant or probable cause to search a student; they only need "reasonable suspicion" to maintain safety and order.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Prohibited by the 8th Amendment; its definition evolves over time based on societal standards of decency.

Methods of Execution:

Include lethal injection (the most common modern method), electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing squad.

Sentencing

The formal legal punishment given to a convicted criminal, which must be proportional to the severity of the crime committed.

Roper v. Simmons (2005)

 Ruled that executing individuals who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes violates the 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

13th amendment (1865)

Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime.

14th amendment (1868)

Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the US; guaranteed equal protection under the laws and due process at the state level.

15th amendment (1870)

Prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

19th amendment (1920)

Granted women the right to vote (women's suffrage).

24th amendment (1964)

Abolished the use of poll taxes in federal elections.

26th amendment (1971)

Lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18.

Methods Used to Prevent Voting in the South:

Poll taxes: Requiring citizens to pay a fee before voting (disproportionately affecting Black and low-income voters).

Literacy Tests: Intentionally difficult, biased reading and civics tests administered by white officials.

Grandfather Clauses: Allowed citizens to bypass literacy tests/taxes if their grandfathers had voted before 1867, exempting poor whites while excluding Black citizens.

Intimidation and Violence: Physical threats and violence carried out by groups like the KKK.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896):

Ruled that the "separate but equal” doctrine was constitutional and legalized segregation.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Said segregated schools are unconstitutional.

 Reconstruction (1865-1877)

 Period of when the South was rebuilding itself and becoming part of the North once again. They were adapting to the new laws.

Jim Crow Laws:

Laws enforcing racial segregation

separate schools, buses, restrooms

“white only” “colored” signs

bans on interracial marriages

De jure segregation

in law, Jim Crow laws

De facto segregation

 in practice, Residential Patterns

Sharecropping

was when freedmen used land from their former masters by paying with crops.  Employers also provided seeds and tools. Tenant farmers rent land from a landowner and pay with cash or part of their crops.

Lynching

The illegal, extrajudicial killing of an individual by a mob, historically used as a systematic tool of terror and racial control against Black Americans in the South. 

The Ku Klux Klan

At first the main objective of white supremacy organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White Brotherhood, the Men of Justice, the Constitutional Union Guards and the Knights of the White Camelia was to stop black people from voting. After white governments had been established in the South the Ku Klux Klan continued to undermine the power of blacks. Successful black businessmen were attacked and any attempt to form black protection groups such as trade unions was quickly dealt with. The Klan is inflicting summary vengeance on the colored citizens of these citizens by breaking into their houses at the dead of night, dragging them from their beds, torturing them in the most inhuman manner, and in many instances murdering."

Alice Paul

A prominent suffragist and strategist who used aggressive protests, hunger strikes, and parades to secure the passage of the 19th Amendment; she also authored the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

 Carrie Chapman Catt

A suffragist leader and president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) who implemented the "Winning Plan" to lobby for state and national voting rights.

Harriet Tubman

became a abolitionist before 1861, working with other abolitionist in the North and in Canada to help the enslaved. She played a major role in the Underground Railroad, a secret network that was built for slaves. She rescued nearly 70 slaves from the tortures environment 

Dolores Huerta

A civil rights activist and labor leader who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the UFW) alongside César Chávez, fighting for the rights of agricultural workers.

Charles Hamilton Houston

A prominent Black lawyer and NAACP Litigation Director known as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow" for his legal strategy that chipped away at segregation, paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education.

Stonewall Riots (1969)

A series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ+ community in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City; widely considered the catalyst for the modern gay liberation movement.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)

A policy introduced in 1993 that barred openly gay, lesbian, or bi individuals from serving in the US military; it was officially repealed in 2011.

Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

 A 1996 federal law that defined marriage strictly as a union between one man and one woman, allowing states to refuse to recognize same-gender marriages granted by other states. It was struck down by the Supreme Court in Windsor (2013) and Obergefell (2015).

Same-Sex Marriage

Legalized nationwide in 2015 following the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Current Concerns of LGBTQ+ Americans

 Include debates over transgender healthcare access, non-discrimination protections in housing and employment, and restrictions on school curricula regarding gender and orientation.

Roe v. Wade (1973):

A landmark Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion under the privacy implied by the 14th Amendment. (Note: This precedent was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022).

Title IX (1972):

 A federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding, which dramatically expanded opportunities for women's high school and college sports.

Woodrow Wilson's Argument

 President Wilson initially resisted the women's suffrage movement but eventually supported the 19th Amendment by arguing that women's contributions to the war effort during World War I made their enfranchisement a vital democratic necessity.

University of California v. Bakke (1978)

 A Supreme Court case that upheld affirmative action by allowing race to be one of several factors in college admissions, but banned the use of explicit racial quotas.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; a civil rights organization founded in 1909 to fight prejudice, lynching, and Jim Crow segregation through legal battles and activism.

The Jungle

A 1906 novel by Upton Sinclair that exposed the unsanitary and dangerous conditions of the American meatpacking industry, leading to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)

 A tragic industrial fire in New York City that killed 146 garment workers (mostly young immigrant women) due to locked exit doors; it led to widespread factory safety regulations and strengthened labor unions.

AFL (American Federation of Labor)

A national federation of labor unions founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers, focusing on securing better wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions for skilled craft workers.

National Farm Workers Association

A labor union founded in 1962 by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta to organize and advocate for higher wages and safer conditions for migrant farmworkers.

Farm Workers Strike in Delano (1965–1970)

A massive strike and international boycott of table grapes led by Filipino and Mexican farmworkers against grape growers in California, resulting in the first major union contracts for agricultural laborers.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA - 1990):

A civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and public spaces, requiring "reasonable accommodations" to be made.

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924:

The United States government gave citizenship to Native American people by passing the Snyder Act (Indian Citizenship Act). Native Americans had been explicitly denied citizenship, first in the United States Constitution and, later, through the 14th Amendment. However, while the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 ensured that all Native Americans born within the United States had citizenship, the Act failed to fulfill the promise of citizenship because Native Americans were not also granted voting rights.

Economics

The social science that studies how individuals, governments, firms, and nations make choices on allocating scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants.

Needs vs. Wants

Something that is required for survival vs Something that is desired, but not required for survival.

Factors of Production

Land includes natural resources not created by human effort. Capital includes equipment and factories used in production. Labor includes people with all their efforts and abilities. Entrepreneurs are individuals who start a new business or bring a product to the market.

Opportunity Cost

The value of the next best choice (how much the other choice is worth to you).

Economic Indicators

• GDP (Gross Domestic Product): The total monetary value of all finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period.

• Stock Market/Dow Jones: Measures the performance of major publicly traded companies, reflecting investor confidence and market health.

• Unemployment Rate: The percentage of the total labor force that is actively seeking employment but currently without a job.

Monopoly

A market structure characterized by a single seller selling a unique product with no close substitutes, giving the company complete control over prices.

Main Cause of the Civil War:

Deep-rooted disagreements over the institution of slavery, specifically its expansion into new western territories, and the balance of states' rights versus federal authority.

Advantages of the South:

 Experienced military leadership (e.g., Robert E. Lee), fighting a defensive war on familiar home territory, and strong initial motivation to defend their way of life.

Advantages of the North:

Larger population, superior industrial capabilities (manufacturing weapons and supplies), a vast railroad network for troop movement, and a functional navy to blockade Southern ports.

Inflation and its causes

A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. It is caused by demand-pull (demand outpaces supply), cost-push (rising costs of wages and raw materials), or an increase in the money supply.

Assassination of Lincoln:

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., just days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.

Abolitionist Movement:

organized and collective effort in the 1800s to gain rights for enslaved people by abolishing slavery.

Presidential Succession

The official order of who takes over the US presidency if the President dies, resigns, or is removed from office:

1. Vice President

2. Speaker of the House

3. President pro tempore of the Senate

4. Secretary of State (followed by the remaining Cabinet secretaries in order of department creation)