The Bill of Rights

• Outlines the rights of the people, protecting them from potential abuses by the national government

  First Amendment: Freedom of…

  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of Religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

• Called the establishment clause, this component of the First Amendment to the Constitution defines the right of the citizens to practice their religions without governmental interference → separates church and state

“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

• This component protects the citizens’ right to free expression versus the government’s interest in limiting speech and the press in the interest of the safety of the country and its citizens

“Congress shall make no law respecting . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

• The final clause of the First Amendment is centered around the rights of people to gather in places they want and express their point of view without government interference, the freedom of association, and by extension the right to present their point of view to a governmental body

The Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

• Although the historical intent of the Second Amendment was the right of each state to maintain an armed militia, it has been interpreted as the right of individuals to own firearms

  • Lots of controversy about this

The Fourth - Seventh Amendments: Due Process

• Deal with the due process rights of individuals (procedural rights that protect individuals from governmental interference)

Fourth Amendment

• Declares that probable cause is necessary to legitimize a search of an individual in any way

Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, Seventh Amendment Procedural Due Process

• Procedural due process can be viewed as a series of steps established by the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments that protect the rights of the accused at every step of the investigation and limit how governmental power may be exercised

  • How evidence is gathered: Fourth Amendment

  • The charges made by the police upon arrest (habeas corpus → a writ of liberty that directs the police to show cause why a person may be held for a crime)

  • The formal indictment (formal list of charges) and interrogation, with allowances made for obtaining lawyers/witnesses

  • The trial (speedy and public trial, guarantees against self-incrimination, trial by an impartial jury)

  • The right to confront witnesses

Eighth Amendment: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

• As part of the procedural due process, an accused has the right to post bail, an amount of money set by the court to guarantee that the person will return to stand trial

• What does “cruel and unusual” mean?

Ninth Amendment: Undefined Rights

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny . . . others retained by the people.”

• Called by some the elastic clause of the Bill of Rights, the Ninth Amendment guarantees that those undefined rights not listed anywhere in the Constitution cannot be taken away

The Fourteenth Amendment

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

• The equal protection clause and due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment are provisions that protect the equal rights of individuals

Equal Protection and Selective Incorporation

• Paved the way for selective incorporation: the process by which the United States Supreme Court has applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

  • Specific provisions of the Bill of Rights that were initially only applicable to the federal government were also applied to state and local governments, thereby limiting their power to infringe upon the rights of individuals.

• The Fourteenth Amendment became the basis of the civil rights movement

• Cases used three-fold criteria:

  • Reasonable classification - the distinction drawn between persons and groups

  • Rational basis test - determines if the legislative intent of a law is reasonable and legitimate and serves the public good

  • Strict scrutiny test - places the burden on the states to prove that laws that discriminate fulfill a “compelling governmental interest”

Civil Rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Activists such as Martin Luther King influenced the political process through mass demonstrations such as the March on Washington in 1963, and elected officials responded by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Made discrimination in public accommodations such as hotels and restaurants illegal

  • Addressed issue of equal employment and “comparable worth”

  • Had an anti-gender-discrimination provision

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally made the Fifteenth Amendment a reality

• The act addressed voting requirements, gave the attorney general the power to determine which states were in violation of the law, and prohibited states from passing their own restrictive voting laws without “preclearance” from the Department of Justice