GOVT 2305-810 - Test 1 (respaldo)

AMENDMENTS

1st Amendment - Freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition (Free exercise clause).

2nd Amendment - Right to bear arms.

3rd Amendment - Citizens do not have to house soldiers.

4th Amendment - No unreasonable search or arrest.

5th Amendment - No double jeopardy or no witness against yourself.

6th Amendment - The right to a speedy and public trial.

8th amendment - No excessive bail or cruel punishment.

9th Amendment - People get rights not listed in Constitution.

10th Amendment - States' rights. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

13th amendment - Abolition of Slavery (with exceptions such as forced labor in jails).

14th amendment - If you are born or naturalized in the U.S. then you are a citizen of the U.S.

15th amendment - You cannot prevent a person from voting because of race, color, or creed.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

1774 - British adopt Coercive Acts to punish the colonies for the Tea Party in Boston

1774 - First Continental Congress rejects plan of union, but adopts Declaration of American Rights denying Parliament’s authority over internal colonial affairs.

1775 - Battles of Lexington and Concord.

1775 - Second Continental Congress assumes role of revolutionary government.

1775 - Second Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry speech.

1776 - Adopts Declaration of Independence

1776 - Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

September 17, 1787 - Members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution

Shay's rebellion - Armed uprising in Western Massachusetts in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry an in opposition to the state government’s increased efforts to collect taxes on both individuals and their trades.

DIVISION OF POWERS

Separation of Powers - Refers to the division of a government into branches, each with separate responsibilities, powers, and prohibitions.

Legislative Branch - The Congress conformed by two bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Executive Branch - The president of the United States.

Judicial Branch - The Supreme Court

KNOWN CLAUSES

Commerce Clause - Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 3, se le otorga al Congreso de los Estados Unidos, para que pueda regular el comercio con las naciones extranjeras entre los diferentes Estados y las tribus americanas; lo cual, implica que el comercio de los distintos estados está supeditado a un control a nivel federal.

Necessary and Proper Clause - Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 18. Also called the Elastic Clause, Coefficient Clause and Basket Clause, concludes section 8’s list of enumerated powers by vesting in Congress the authority to use all means “necessary and proper” to execute those powers:

• Enumerated powers:

  • To lay and collect taxes

  • Pay debts and borrow money

  • Regulate commerce (Commerce Clause)

  • Coin money

  • Establish post offices

  • Protect patents and copyrights

  • Establish lower courts

  • Declare war

  • Raise and support an Army and Navy.

Due Process Clause - Found in both the 5th and 14th Amendments, which prohibit the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due process of law.

Free Exercise Clause - Clause in the 1st Amendment that protects citizens’ right to practice their religion as they please, so long as the practice does not run afoul of a “public moral” or a “compelling” government interest.

Full Faith and Credit Clause - Art 4, Sec 1, state courts respect the laws and judgments of courts from other states.

Supremacy Clause - Art. 6, Clause 1, prohibits states from interfering with the federal government’s exercise of its constitutional powers, and from assuming any function that are entrusted to the federal government.

Grandfather Clause - Refers to a section of a law, regulation, or other legal document that limits how changes will be applied to legal relations and activities existing prior to the change. Legislators, regulators, and businesses often negotiate grandfather clauses to make the changes apply only to new activity.

• For example, legislators requiring power plants to be carbon neutral may allow currently operating power plants to be grandfathered for ten years, giving them ten years to prepare for the change.

HISTORICAL FIGURES

Patrick Henry

• American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): “Give liberty or give me death”

James Madison

• Helped write the Bill of Rights.

• Fourth president of US.

• Promoted the Constitution of the U.S.

• Important leader in the House of Representatives.

• Founding Father.

• Federalist papers.

Samuel Adams

• Leader of the Boston’s Sons of Liberty.

• Participated in the Boston Tea Party.

• Founding Father.

Benjamin Franklin

• The First American.

• Ambassador of America in France.

• Founding Father.

Alexander Hamilton

• Founding Father.

• Treasury Secretary during George Washington presidency.

• Credit plan.

• Federalist papers.

George Washington

• First president of US.

• Founding father.

CONCEPTS

Concurrent Federalism - Powers that are shared by both the federal government and state governments. This includes the power to tax, build roads, and create lower courts.

Liberty - Human right.

Democracy - System of government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the “people”.

Limitation on Powers -

Monarchy - A form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The legitimacy and authority of the monarch vary from restricted and largely symbolic, to fully autocratic. The succession of monarchs is hereditary.

Oligarchy - Form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.

Obscenity - Obscenity laws are concerned with prohibiting lewd, filthy, or disgusting words or pictures. Indecent materials or depictions, normally speech or artistic expressions, may be restricted in terms of time, place, and manner, but are still protected by the First Amendment.

Federalism - The separation of powers between the federal government and the states.

Segregation - Policy of keeping one group of people apart from another and treating them differently,

Republic - Refers to a state in which political power rest with the power through their representatives.

Ideology - Set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group.

HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

Magna Carta - Historical document limiting the power of the monarchy. In 1215, King John signed the document under threat of civil war and reissued, with alterations, in 1216, 1217, and 1225. By declaring the sovereign to be subject to the rule of law and documenting the liberties held by “free men,” the Magna Carta provided the foundation for individual rights in Anglo-American jurisprudence.

Declaration of Independence (1776) - Document signed by the Second Continental Congress.

Constitution (1787) - The supreme law of the U.S.

Missouri Compromise (1820) - A federal legislation of the U.S. that balanced desires of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north.

New Jersey plan - It granted each State equal vote in the Congress. This plan maintained the form of government under the Articles of Confederation while adding powers to raise revenue and regulate commerce and foreign affairs.

Virginia plan - It distributed the representation depending of the population of each state.

Emancipation proclamation - Issued by president Abraham Lincoln in January 1st, 1863, the third year of the civil war, in which declared that “that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Declaration of Rights and Resolves - Issued by the First Continental Congress, it condemned British Parliament and King George III for interfering in colonial matters and granted each colony the right to a colonial treasury and legislature.

LEGAL CASES

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) - The ruling in this Supreme Court case upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races."

• The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people.

Miranda warning (1966) - notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection from self-incrimination. Named for the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1966 decision Miranda v. Arizona.

• “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.”

Gideon Rule (1963) - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Gideon, guaranteeing the right to legal counsel for criminal defendants in federal and state courts.

Black Codes (1865) - Roots in the Slave Codes. Numerous laws adopted in the states of the former Confederacy after the American Civil War that were intended to maintain white supremacy.

• Slave Codes - set of rules based on the concept that enslaved persons were property, nor persons. Laws to protect both the property and the property owner from the danger of slave violence.

Articles of Confederation - Adopted by the Continental Congress on 1777, served as the U.S’s. first constitution.

Poll Tax - Also known as Head Tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual without reference to income or resources. Levied by the governments of John of Gaunt in the 14th century, Charles II in the 17th and Margaret Thatcher in the 20th century. In the US, voting poll taxes have been used to disenfranchise impoverished and minority voters.

• Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era - In the U.S., especially in the South, was a series of laws, new constitutions, and practices that were deliberately used to prevent black citizens from registering to vote and voting.

Civil Liberties - Guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process.

Confederation - Political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action.

• The Confederate States of America was a unrecognized breakaway republic in the South from 1861 to 1865. The Confederacy compromised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the U.S. during the American Civil War.

Federalist Party - Early U.S. national political party that advocated a strong central government. Party of Alexander Hamilton.

Bicameral Government - is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single group.

Bill of Rights - The first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. It spells out Americans' rights in relation to their government. It guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual—like freedom of speech, press, and religion.

Affirmative Action - Refers to a set of policies and practices within a government seeking to benefit marginalized groups. Support for affirmative action has been justified by the idea that it may help with bridging inequalities in employment and pay, increasing access to education, and promoting diversity, social equality and redressing alleged wrongs, harms, or hindrances, also called substantive equality.

Check and Balances - A constitutional mechanism giving each branch some oversight and control of the other branches. Examples are the presidential veto, Senate approval of presidential appointments, and judicial review of presidential and congressional actions.

Social Contract Theory - An actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled or between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each.

Politics - is the process through which individuals and groups seek agreement on a course of common, or collective, action—even as they disagree on the intended goals of that action.

Block grant - Grant-in-aid of a specified amount from the fed. to individual states and local governments to help support various broad purpose programs, such as law enforcement, social services, public health, and community development.

Interest Groups - any association of individuals or organizations, usually formally organized, that, on the basis of one or more shared concerns, attempts to influence public policy in its favor.

Symbolic speech - non-verbal, non-written forms of communication, such as flag burning, wearing armbands and burning of draft cards.

Citizen - a person who legally belongs to a country and has the rights and protection of that country.

Warrant (for arrest) - Issued by a court, supported by a signed and sworn affidavit showing probable cause that a specific crime has been committed, and that the person named in the warrant committed said crime.