Civil rights

Civil Rights
Policies or government actions that are designed to protect people against discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals.

Civil liberties
freedoms to think and act without government interference or fear of unfair legal treatment.

fundamental liberties
Freedoms from government that are so essential that all governments must follow them.

majority-minority districts
Drawing district boundaries to give a minority group a majority in order to give an opportunity to elect a minority representative.

metadata collection
A set of data that gives information about other data. (example: cell phone contacts and connections are save so future investigations can use that data in an investigation).

Establishment Clause
Clause in the First Amendment that says the government may not establish an official religion.

Free Exercise Clause
the First Amendment guarantee that citizens may freely engage in the religious activities of their choice

Lemon Test
The three-part test for Establishment Clause cases that a law must pass before it is declared constitutional: it must have a secular purpose; it must neither advance nor inhibit religion; and it must not cause excessive entanglement with religion.

Separation of Church & State
the situation in which the government may not favor any religion or establish an official religion. It refers to the 1st Amendment's Establishment Clause.

Clear & Present Danger Doctrine
established in Schenck v United States (1919), it gives the government the right to censor free speech if, during national emergencies such as war, it can be proven that the result of the speech will significantly hurt national security.

Symbolic Speech
nonverbal communication, such as burning a flag or wearing an armband. The Supreme Court has accorded some symbolic speech protection under the first amendment.

Obscenity
any work that taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex by depicting sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and that lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Prior Restraint
government censorship of information before it is published or broadcast

Slander
the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.

Libel
A written defamation of a person's character, reputation, business, or property rights.

Incitement Speech
speech that is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action," ANDthe speech is "likely to incite or produce such action."

Exclusionary Rule
a law that prohibits the use of illegally obtained evidence in a criminal trial.

Writ of Habeas Corpus
A court order requiring jailers to explain to a judge why they are holding a prisoner in custody.

Time-Place-Manner Doctrine
laws concerning the time, place or manner of speech, that regulate some kinds of speech but not others, or that regulate speech expressing some views but not others are much more likely to be struck down than those that are content-neutral or viewpoint neutral, that is laws that apply to all kinds of speech and to all views.

Affirmative Action
A set of procedures designed to eliminate unlawful discrimination among applicants, remedy the results of such prior discrimination, and prevent such discrimination in the future. (by establishing equity)

Strict scrutiny
A heightened standard of review used by the Supreme Court to determine the constitutional validity of a challenged practice. Applies mostly to race, religion, and handicapped.

Separate but Equal Doctrine
the doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that African Americans could constitutionally be kept in separate but equal facilities

NOW
National Organization of Women, 1966, Betty Friedan first president, wanted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination

Pro-Life movement
a movement whose followers believe that abortion is murder and should not be conducted under any circumstances (or under limited circumstances involving the physical health of the mother)

Right to Privacy
the right to be left alone, which has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to entail individual access to birth control and abortions

Selective incorporation
The process by which provisions of the Bill of Rights are brought within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment, one liberty at a time, and so applied to state and local governments.

Due Process Clauses
amendment 5 and 14, due process= the gov't must see the necessary steps in order to deny a person life liberty and property

Procedural Due Process
Constitutional requirement that governments proceed by proper methods; limits how government may exercise power.

Substantive Due Process
Constitutional requirement that governments act reasonably and that the substance of the laws themselves be fair and reasonable; limits what a government may do.

Equal Protection Clause
A clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that forbids any state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. This clause is the major constitutional restraint on the power of governments and individuals to discriminate against persons because of race, national origin, or sex.

de jure segregation
segregation by law

de facto segregation
Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions or personal choice.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Legislation passed in 1990 that prohibits discrimination against a disabled person in employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and government activities.

Title IX of Education Act of 1972
forbids gender discrimination in federally subsidized education programs, including athletics

Voting Rights Act of 1965
A federal law designed to protect the voting rights of minorities be requiring the Justice Departments' approval of changes in political districts and other electoral procedures. The greatest law for giving African-Americans political power in the United States.