Constitutional and Criminal Law Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, constitutional standards, legal doctrines, and landmark cases from the criminal law lecture notes.

First Amendment

A constitutional amendment that protects freedom of speech, protest, and religion, as well as hate speech.

Sentencing

The type of law that regulates the determination of guilt and punishment after a person has been found guilty.

Felony of 3rd Degree

A crime that carries a maximum punishment of not more than $7$ years.

Misdemeanor of 1st Degree

A crime that carries a maximum punishment of not more than $5$ years.

Common Law

The first and earliest source of criminal laws.

Unconstitutional as Applied

A term describing a law that is facially valid, but enforced in a way that impermissibly restricts or punishes the exercise of a constitutional right.

Defamation

A civil wrong defined as a false statement of fact to third parties which injures someone's reputation, against which proof that the statement was true serves as a defense.

Neutral Regulation

A law that regulates conduct or display without regard to message or content, such as "No billboards on Route 202".

Strict Scrutiny

The highest level of scrutiny used by courts in determining the validity of a law under the First Amendment.

Ex Post Facto Law

A retroactive law that increases the severity or punishment of a crime after it was committed, or punishes individuals without first giving them notice that their actions are illegal.

Miller Test

A $3$-prong test used by courts to evaluate obscenity.

Overbroad Law

A law that regulates conduct so broadly as to interfere with fundamental rights, potentially punishing protected conduct.

Criminal Law

The law that prohibits certain forms of conduct by defining crimes and establishing parameters of penalties.

Motive

In criminal law, the reason why a crime was committed.

Court of Common Pleas

The court in Pennsylvania where a criminal trial is held.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court

The highest court in Pennsylvania, consisting of a maximum number of $7$ justices.

Judicial Review

The authority of courts to invalidate laws and find them unconstitutional.

Procedural Law

The law that regulates the enforcement of substantive laws.

Mens Rea

The criminal intent of a defendant, which is not required in all crimes.

Stare Decisis

The common law doctrine of following precedent.

Void for Vagueness

A doctrine that invalidates laws as written where it is unreasonably difficult to know whether conduct is prohibited, causing men of common intelligence to guess at the statute's meaning.

Principle of Legality

The concept that a person cannot be guilty of a crime unless he has committed a specific offense against a law that provides a penalty.

Content-Based Regulation

A law that targets specific speech based on its message, such as "No Republican candidates can use billboards on Route 202" (which is not always unconstitutional).

Actus Reus

The criminal act required for guilt, which can sometimes be fulfilled by a legal failure to act.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

The burden of proof that the prosecution must satisfy to obtain a conviction.

Bill of Attainder

A legislative act inflicting punishment on an individual or an easily identifiable group of individuals without a trial, such as a law barring Communist members from holding labor union officer positions.

Felonies

A category of serious crimes that includes murder, robbery, and rape.

Wickard v. Filburn

A United States Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of the Agriculture Act of $1938$ under the Commerce Clause.

United States v. Lopez

A United States Supreme Court case holding that an activity must substantially affect interstate commerce to fall within Congress's Commerce Clause power, limiting regulation to $3$ limited categories of conduct.

Legislative Branch

The branch of government possessing the sole power to classify crimes.