week 10
Bill of Rights - The first 10 amendments to the Constitution. They include rights such as freedom of speech and religion and due process protections (e.g., the right to a jury trial) for persons accused of crimes.
Civil liberties - The fundamental individual rights of a free society, such as freedom of speech and the right to a jury trial, which in the United States are protected by the Bill of Rights.
Clear-and-present-danger test - A test devised by the Supreme Court in 1919 in order to define the limits of free speech in the context of national security. According to the test, government cannot abridge political expression unless it presents a clear and present danger to the nation’s security.
Due process clause (of the Fourteenth Amendment) - The clause of the Constitution that has been used by the judiciary to apply the Bill of Rights to the actions of state governments.
Establishment clause - The First Amendment provision stating that government may not favor one religion over another or favor religion over no religion, and prohibiting Congress from passing laws respecting the establishment of religion.
Exclusionary rule - The legal principle that government is prohibited from using in trials evidence that was obtained by unconstitutional means (e.g., illegal search and seizure).
Freedom of expression - Americans’ freedom to communicate their views, the foundation of which is the First Amendment rights of freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
Free-exercise clause - A First Amendment provision that prohibits the government from interfering with the practice of religion.
Imminent lawless action - A legal test that says government cannot lawfully suppress advocacy that promotes lawless action unless such advocacy is aimed at producing, and is likely to produce, imminent lawless action.
Lemon test - A three-part test to determine whether a law relating to religion is valid under the religious establishment clause. To be valid, a law must have a secular purpose, serve neither to advance nor inhibit religion, and avoid excessive government entanglement with religion.
Libel - Publication of false material that damages a person’s reputation.
Prior restraint - Government prohibition of speech or publication before the fact, which is presumed by the courts to be unconstitutional unless the justification for it is overwhelming.
Procedural due process - The constitutional requirement that government must follow proper legal procedures before a person can be legitimately punished for an alleged offense.
Right of privacy - A right implied by the freedoms in the Bill of Rights that grants individuals a degree of personal privacy upon which government cannot lawfully intrude. The right gives individuals a level of free choice in areas such as reproduction and intimate relations.
Selective incorporation - The process by which certain of the rights (e.g., freedom of speech) contained in the Bill of Rights become applicable, through the Fourteenth Amendment, to actions by the state governments.
Slander - Spoken falsehoods that damage a person’s reputation.
Symbolic speech - Action (e.g., the waving or burning of a flag) for the purpose of expressing a political opinion.
Chapter 5:
Affirmative action - Programs designed to ensure that women, minorities, and other traditionally disadvantaged groups have full and equal opportunities in employment, education, and other areas of life.
De facto discrimination - Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, ethnicity, and the like that results from social, economic, and cultural biases and conditions.
De jure discrimination - Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, ethnicity, and the like that results from a law.
Equal-protection clause - A clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that forbids any state to deny equal protection of the laws to any individual within its jurisdiction.
Equal rights (civil rights) - The right of every person to equal protection under the laws and equal access to society’s opportunities and public facilities.
Reasonable-basis test - A test applied by courts to laws that treat individuals unequally. Such a law may be deemed constitutional if its purpose is held to be “reasonably” related to a legitimate government interest.
Strict-scrutiny test - A test applied by courts to laws that attempt a racial or an ethnic classification. In effect, the strict-scrutiny test eliminates race or ethnicity as legal classification when it places minority-group members at a disadvantage.
Suspect classifications - Legal classifications, such as race and national origin, that have invidious discrimination as their purpose and therefore are unconstitutional.