Exam Notes: Percentages, Amendments, Civil Rights, and Judicial Decision Making

Percentage Vocabulary

  • Plurality: The most votes, but not necessarily a majority.
  • Majority: More than 50% (50% + 1).
    • Needed to pass legislation in each chamber of Congress.
    • Needed to confirm appointments to the Executive and Judiciary branches (Senate only).
  • Supermajority: A threshold above 50%.
    • 60% (or 3/5): Needed in the Senate to invoke cloture and end debate (stop a filibuster).
    • 67% (or 2/3): Needed in both chambers to override a presidential veto, ratify treaties, or convict a federal officer post-impeachment.

Amending the Constitution

  • Step 1: Proposal
    • By 2/32/3 of both houses of Congress (most common method).
    • By a national convention called by 2/32/3 of state legislatures (never used).
  • Step 2: Ratification
    • By 3/43/4 of state legislatures.
    • By 3/43/4 of state ratifying conventions (used once for the 21st Amendment).
  • The amendment process is intentionally difficult to ensure stability and broad consensus.
  • It exemplifies the principles of federalism and popular sovereignty.

Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

  • Civil Liberties
    • Definition: Protections from the government.
    • Purpose: Protect individual freedoms.
    • Focus: Individual freedoms.
    • Legal Basis: Bill of Rights, 14th Amendment (Due Process Clause) - incorporation to the states via Supreme Court cases.
    • Examples: Free speech, due process, protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
  • Civil Rights
    • Definition: Protections by the government.
    • Purpose: Ensure equality.
    • Focus: Group protections.
    • Legal Basis: 14th Amendment (Equal Protection Clause), legislation.
    • Examples: No racial discrimination, voting rights, employment non-discrimination laws.
  • Civil liberties protect against government abuse, while Civil rights protect against discrimination.

Amendments Expanding Voting Rights

  • 15th Amendment (1870): Cannot deny the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
  • 17th Amendment (1913): Direct election of U.S. Senators by the people.
  • 19th Amendment (1920): Women's suffrage (the right to vote).
  • 23rd Amendment (1961): Residents of Washington, D.C. can vote for President.
  • 24th Amendment (1964): Banned poll taxes in federal elections.
  • 26th Amendment (1971): Voting age lowered to 18.

Approaches to Judicial Decision Making

  • Judicial Activism
    • Belief: Judges should actively interpret the Constitution and laws to reflect current conditions and values; sometimes create new policy through rulings (active policymaker).
    • Courts strike down laws or government actions they see as unconstitutional.
    • Often involves broad interpretation of the Constitution.
    • Courts may step in to correct injustices when other branches fail.
    • Examples: Brown v. Board of Education & Roe v. Wade.
  • Judicial Restraint
    • Belief: Judges should limit their own power, avoid overturning laws unless clearly unconstitutional, and defer to elected branches (minimal interference).
    • Emphasizes stare decisis (precedent).
    • Judges avoid making policy or broad constitutional rulings.
    • Belief in a more literal/originalist interpretation of the Constitution.
    • Example: Plessy v. Ferguson (upheld "separate but equal," deferred to state laws).