Gov 2 WT Test 2 Prof. Fraise
Equality through law slide
Equal rights (civil right) civil liberties
critical thinking de jure vs. de facto
In law and government, de jure describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, de facto describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally recognized. You can not alter reality with a court order; it takes money and time to alter reality.
Crime punishment and police practices
Miranda vs. Arizona racial profiling minorities
Voting rights act 1965
Shelby county vs. Holder 2013
free speech Notes for the slide
Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning enforcement of the Espionage Act of 1917 during World War I. A unanimous Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., concluded that defendants who distributed fliers to draft-age men, urging resistance to induction, could be convicted of a criminal attempt to obstruct the draft. In this opinion, Holmes said that expressions which in the circumstances were intended to result in a crime, and posed a "clear and present danger" of succeeding, could be punished. The clear and present danger doctrine was replaced in 1969 with Brandenburg v. Ohio's "imminent lawless action" test. Brandenburg clarified what constituted a "clear and present danger" and overruled Whitney v. California (1927), which had held that speech that merely advocated violence could be made illegal. Under the imminent lawless action test, speech is not protected by the First Amendment if the speaker intends to incite a violation of the law that is both imminent and likely. While the precise meaning of "imminent" may be ambiguous in some cases, the court provided clarification in Hess v. Indiana (1973) which found that Hess's words did not fall outside the limits of protected speech, in part, because his speech "amounted to nothing more than advocacy of illegal action at some indefinite future time," and therefore did not meet the imminence requirement. The two legal prongs that constitute incitement of imminent lawless action are: Advocacy of force or criminal activity does not receive First Amendment protections if (1) the advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and (2) is likely to incite or produce such action. Westboro Baptist Church is an N. American church known for its use of inflammatory hate speech, especially against gays, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, atheists, Muslims, Jews, Romani people, U.S. soldiers and politicians. The church has been involved in actions since at least 1991, when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity at Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church. In addition to conducting protests at military funerals, the organization pickets celebrity funerals and public events. Symbolic speech is a legal term used to describe actions that purposefully and discernibly convey a particular message or statement to those viewing it. Symbolic speech is recognized as being protected under the First Amendment as a form of speech, but this is not expressly written as such in the document. Symbolic speech is distinguished from pure speech, which is the communication of ideas through spoken or written words or through conduct limited in form to that necessary to convey the idea.
Libertarian:
an advocate or supporter of a political philosophy that advocates only minimal state intervention in the free market and the private lives of citizens.
religion and politics chart
attend church vote republican
Affirmative action slide de jure discrimination
de facto discrimination
How the U.S. Differs: National Pride
declining
the influence of public opinion on policy
delegate trustee
Bill of Rights
the ten amendments that list the rights the federal gov. disobliged to protect
Appeal: one collateral appeal in federal court and one direct appeal
there is NO constitutional guarantee of appeal
How the 50 states differ: incarceration rates chart
tx one of the higher incarceration rates
Women have made substantial gains in appointive and elective offices
-1st women to serve on the Supreme court: Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed in 1981 -1st woman on the national ticket of a major political party: Geraldine Ferraro as the Democratic PArty's vice presidential nominee, 1984 (she lost) -1st woman to head a major party's national ticket: Hillary Clinton in 2016 (she lost) -Woman hold less than one in four U. S. congressional seats, however, election of woman is a rising trend in politics
The struggle for equality: Women Women's
1848 Equal rights amendment 1923
The changing face of Immigration chart
1965 2001-2010 2019-2023 highest level and continue to rise
Right to Bear arms slide
2nd amendment district of Columbia vs. Heller McDonald vs. Chicago
Bill of rights: selective list of Due process Protection
4th, 5th, 6th, 8th amendments search and siezure arrest self-incrimination double jeopardy due process counsel prom &reasonable proceeding bail cruel and unusual punishment
Other disadvantaged Groups Age Discrimination In Employment Act Of 1967:
A federal statute protecting "certain applicants and employees" 40 years of age and older from workplace age discrimination in hiring, firing and promotions. The 1975 amendments to the Older Americans Act established four priority services for the elderly: transportation, home services, legal and other counseling, and residential repair and renovation. The amendments also established minimum spending requirements for the priority areas for States.
critical thinking what level of gov. is ruled by de jure vs. de facto?
All levels of government in the U.S. must abide by the equal protection and due process rights of citizens.
problems with polls
Also the placement of the question within the group of polled questions can affect the respondent's answer, leading a respondent to a preferred response.
Discrimination:Superficial Differences, Deep Division
As president and before, Lincoln was a complex man who supported the union of the states above all else. He supported the proposed Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress before Lincoln came into office and was then awaiting ratification by the states. That proposed amendment would have protected slavery in states where it already existed. A few weeks before the war, Lincoln sent a letter to every governor informing them Congress had passed a joint resolution to amend the Constitution. Lincoln was open to the possibility of a constitutional convention to make further amendments to the Constitution. Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that he had no intention, or inclination, to abolish slavery in the Southern states. Lincoln cited his plans for banning the expansion of slavery as the key source of conflict between North and South. The failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 signaled that legislative compromise was impossible. By March 1861, no leaders of the insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Meanwhile, Lincoln and the Republican leadership agreed that the dismantling of the Union could not be tolerated. He supported the passage of the 13th Amendment banning slavery in 1865, in the ending days of the war. Courts often hold that antidiscrimination law protects "immutable" characteristics, like sex and race. Immutable means cannot be changed. Thus the danger to constitutional sex protections if sex can truly be changed at will.
The exercise- clause slide NOTES
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. ___ (2014), is a landmark Supreme Court decision allowing a closely held for-profit corporation to be exempt from a regulation its owners religiously object to, if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law's interest, pursuant to the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It is the first time that the Court has recognized a for-profit corporation's claim of religious belief, but it may be limited to closely- held corporations. The decision does not address whether such corporations are protected by the free-exercise clause. Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 U.S. ___ (2018), was a case in the Supreme Court dealing with whether owners of public accommodations (i.e., businesses) can refuse services based on First Amendment claims of free speech and free exercise of religion, and therefore be granted an exemption from laws ensuring non-discrimination in public accommodations — specifically, by refusing to provide creative services, such as making a wedding cake for a gay couple - on the basis of the owner's religious beliefs. Colorado's Civil Rights Commission, under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, found that the bakery had discriminated against the couple. In a 7-2 decision, the Court ruled that the Commission did not employ religious neutrality, violated Masterpiece's rights to free exercise, and reversed the Commission's decision. The Court did not rule on the broader intersection of anti-discrimination laws, free exercise of religion, and freedom of speech, due to the complications of the Commission's obvious lack of religious neutrality and obvious hostile, anti-religious attitudes and actions. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion expressly stated that the Commission's review of the baker's case exhibited hostility towards his religious views. All the concurring opinions agreed the Commission exhibited actual, inappropriate and unconstitutional hostility towards Phillips' religious beliefs.
The struggle for Equality Asian Americans
Chinese and Japanese male laborers were brought to the western states as laborers in mines and railroads in the mid to late 1800's -in 1892, Congress suspended asian immigration NOTES ON SLIDE -Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 (1974), was a Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously decided that the lack of supplemental language instruction in California public school for students with limited English proficiency violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court held that since non-English speakers were denied a meaningful education, the disparate impact caused by the school policy violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the school district was to provide students with "appropriate relief."
The struggle for equality: Women Women's job equality
For various reasons women earn less on average than men -82% of that male employees -comparable worth policies that would give women and men equal hourly pay for jobs that require similar training and education -single-parent families are headed by women about one in 3 live below the poverty line, aka "feminization of poverty"
Other disadvantaged Groups LBGT community
Formerly barred from U.S. military service and had limited federal employment protections -Such prohibitions no longer exist in federal and many state laws -Legal protections in some jurisdictions for the transgendered -U.S. has seen a rapid swing in public opinion toward acceptance of same-sex marriage in the last 2 decades, particularly among younger adults
Trial Phase: rights to a fair trial slide 1
Grand juries are a holdover from the early British common law dating back hundreds of years. Deeply-rooted in the Anglo-American tradition, the grand jury was originally intended to protect the accused from overly-zealous prosecutions by the English monarchy. In the early phases of the development of the U.S. Constitution, the Founding Fathers have decided to retain the Grand Jury system as a protection against over-zealous prosecution by the central government. Although the Supreme Court in Hurtado v. California in 1884 refused to incorporate the Grand Jury system to all of the states, most states have independently decided to retain a similar form of Grand Jury, and currently, all but two states (Connecticut and Pennsylvania) have the grand jury. Congressional statutes outline the means by which a federal grand jury shall be impaneled. Ordinarily, the grand jurors are selected from the pool of prospective jurors who potentially could serve on a given day in any juror capacity. At common-law, a grand jury consists of between 12 and 23 members. Because the Grand jury was derived from the common-law, courts use the common-law as a means of interpreting the Grand Jury Clause. While state legislatures may set the statutory number of grand jurors anywhere within the common-law requirement of 12 to 23, statutes setting the number outside of this range violate the Fifth Amendment. Federal law has set the federal grand jury number as falling between 16 and 23. A person being charged with a crime that warrants a grand jury has the right to challenge members of the grand juror for partiality or bias. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who your accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against you. It has been most visibly tested in a series of cases involving terrorism, but much more often figures in cases that involve (for example) jury selection or the protection of witnesses, including victims of sex crimes as well as witnesses in need of protection from retaliation.
The right to Privacy slide
Griswold v. Connecticut Roe v. Wade Lawrence vs. TX
Detention of enemy Combatants
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006), is a case in which the Supreme Court held that military commissions set up by Congress and the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lacked "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949." Of course, no terrorist or enemy combatant captured in Afghanistan was ever a signatory or a protected persons under any Geneva Convention because neither Afghanistan, Al Qaida or any other non-state actor captured there ever signed any such convention, although the U.S. was a signatory. Oh well, such a minor detail to an outcome-oriented supreme court judge.
The struggle for Equality Hispanic Americans
Hispanic Americans are one of the oldest ethnic groups in the nation, 1st arriving in the New world in 1492 -Colonized Florida, New Mexico, California, Texas and Arizona Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the U.S. AND THE LARGEST RACIAL Are ETHNIC MINORITY GROUP -Recent civil rights action has centered on immigrants -Periodically targeted by heightened legislative or law enforcement efforts because of criminal activities -Pres. Obama deported more Hispanics than Bush or Trump
Americans' beliefs about the origins of Life slide NOTES
In American schools, the Genesis creation narrative was generally taught as the origin of the universe and of life until Darwin's scientific theories became widely accepted. While there was some immediate backlash, organized opposition did not get underway until the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy broke out following World War I; several states passed laws banning the teaching of evolution while others debated them but did not pass them. The "Scopes Monkey Trial" was the result of a challenge to the law in Tennessee. Scopes lost his case, and further states passed laws banning the teaching of evolution. In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled on Epperson v. Arkansas that allowing the teaching of creation, while disallowing the teaching of evolution, advanced a religion, and therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the constitution. Creationists then starting lobbying to have laws passed that required teachers to "Teach the Controversy," but that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard. See Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987)(case concerning the constitutionality of teaching creationism, where the Court considered a Louisiana law requiring that where evolutionary science was taught in public schools, creation science must also be taught. The Court ruled that this law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because the law was specifically intended to advance a particular religion. It also held that "teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction."). The status of creation and evolution in public education has been the subject of substantial debate and conflict in legal, political and religious circles for decades. Globally, there is a wide variety of views on the topic. Internationally, evolution is taught in science courses with limited controversy, with the exception of a few areas of the United States and several Islamic fundamentalist countries. In the U.S., the Supreme Court ruled the teaching of creationism as science in public schools to be unconstitutional, irrespective of how it may be purveyed in permissible theological or religious instruction. Intelligent design (ID) has been represented as an alternative scientific explanation to evolution in recent decades. The Supreme Court has not ruled on whether ID is permissible under the constitution, or not.
The right to Privacy slide NOTES
In Griswold v. Connecticut the Supreme Court ruled that a state's ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. Roe v. Wade was the legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court first recognized a right to obtain an abortion, affirming that access to safe and legal abortion is a constitutional right. In Lawrence, the Court held that while homosexual conduct is not a fundamental right, intimate sexual relationships between consenting adults are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Critical thinking establishment clause free-exercise clause:
In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with the Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The relevant constitutional text is: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...". In 1971, the Supreme Court heard the case of Lemon v Kurtzman (403 US 602). In the case, the Court decided that a Rhode Island law that paid some of the salary of some parochial school teachers was unconstitutional. One of the results of this case is the Lemon Test used to determine if a law violates the 1st Amendment. The Lemon Test is not immutable, however, it has stood as a guide for lower courts ever since 1971. The following is taken from the Lemon opinion and establishes the rules of the test: Three ... tests may be gleaned from our cases. First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.
Election mandate:
In politics, a mandate is the authority granted to the winning candidate by a constituency to legitimately act as its representative and to achieve governmental polity changes publically espoused by the winning candiate.
Critical thinking: exclusionary rule
In the United States, the exclusionary rule is a legal rule, based on constitutional law, that prevents evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights from being used in a court of law. This is considered a prophylactic rule formulated by the judiciary in order to protect a constitutional right. The exclusionary rule may, in some circumstances, be considered to follow directly from constitutional language such as the Fifth Amendment's command that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" and that no person "shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."
limits on the publics influence
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in which the authors propose that the mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self- censorship, and without overt coercion", by means of the propaganda model of communication. Herman and Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, unbiased and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order. Based on a series of case studies — including the media's dichotomous treatment of "worthy" versus "unworthy" victims, "legitimizing" and "meaningless" Third World elections, and devastating critiques of media coverage of the U.S. wars against Indochina — Herman and Chomsky draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media's behavior and performance. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political policies is "manufactured" in the public mind due to this propaganda. The theory posits that the way in which corporate media is structured creates an inherent conflict of interest that acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces.
Press Freedom and Libel Law slide Notes
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the First Amendment to the Constitution's protection of the freedom of speech limits the ability of American public officials to sue and recover damages for defamation. Specifically, it held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or person running for public office, not only must he or she prove the normal elements of defamation — publication of a false defamatory statement to a third party — he or she must also prove that the statement was made with "actual malice," meaning that the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded the truth.
Conflict ideas: pro-life vs. pro-choice chart
Note that a clear majority of Republicans agreed in 2016 that Roe should not be overturned, but nearly all Democrats believed that. Thus the right to an abortion is one of the major planks of the Democratic Party (along with pro-gun control up to and including confiscation and banning, expansion of gay rights, and taking mention of God out of all schools and government generally, except perhaps in specially- limited circumstances where that can not be banned).
opinion Dimensions
Salience is the state or condition of being prominent. The Oxford English Dictionary defines salience as "most noticeable or important." The concept is discussed in communication, semiotics, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and political science. It has been studied with respect to interpersonal communication, persuasion, politics, and its influence on mass media. In politics, it is usually ranked on a numerical scale from one (most important) to five or ten (least important of those ranked). Intensity's definition is the quality or state of being intense; especially an extreme degree of strength, force, energy, or feeling for a subject, policy, idea or person. Direction is similar to trend, as in which direction is the trend line, up or down or neutral?
critical thinking Sample: Population: sampling error push poll Sampling bias
Sample: a relatively small group or subset of individuals that accurately reflects the views of a larger group of individuals. Population: the larger group of individuals whose opinions are sought to be discerned. A sampling error is a statistical error that occurs when an analyst does not select a sample that accurately represents the entire population. Sampling bias is one (of many) possible source of sampling errors, wherein the sample is chosen in a way that makes some individuals less likely to be included in the poll. A push poll is an ostensible (appearing to be true, but not necessarily so; pretended, professed) opinion poll in which the true objective is to sway voters using loaded or manipulative questions.
Critical thinking: Selective incorporation
Selective incorporation is a court-made Constitutional doctrine that protects American citizens from their states' enacting of laws that could infringe upon their rights. Selective incorporation is not a law, but a doctrine that has been established and confirmed by the United States Supreme Court. Essentially, selective incorporation enables the federal government to place limits on the states' legislative power where that power is used against state citizens in violation of their federal constitutional rights.
secondary socializing Agents: peers, media, leaders, and events
Socialization is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained." You can't learn what you are not taught. Sources of public opinion come from news coverage and other media. In general, public opinion tends to follow what opinion is being expressed in popular culture and news coverage. Although, distrust in the media generally is at a multi-decade high. From WWII through the Vietnam War the news media was generally trusted to be fair and accurate. After the Vietnam War the public no longer trusted the government because the Johnson administration had repeatedly lied to the public. That level of media distrust ratcheted up again during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations due to demonstratively biased coverage, reaching an all-time high during the Trump administration (whose mainstream media coverage reached an unprecedented 97% negative coverage due to media bias, genuine hostility and partisan animosity).
Levels of court review for laws that treat Americans differently CHART
Strict scrutiny intermediate scrutiny Reasonable basis
selective incorporation
Supreme Court initially resisted invoking selective incorporation to protect the rights of the accused in the states
how the 50 states differ: Minority Group Population in the States Chart
TX 41% and higher range
Other disadvantaged Groups Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA):
The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government' programs and services. As it relates to employment, Title I of the ADA protects the rights of both employees and job seekers. The ADA also establishes requirements for telecommunications relay services. Title IV, which is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), also requires closed captioning of federally funded public service announcements.
Right to Bear arms slide NOTES
The District of Columbia city government had a law that banned handgun possession, making it a crime to carry an unregistered firearm, and prohibiting the registration of handguns; providing separately that no person may carry an unlicensed handgun, but authorized the police chief to issue 1-year licenses; and required residents to keep lawfully owned firearms unloaded and dissembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device. Heller, a D. C. special policeman, applied to register a handgun he wished to keep at home, but the District refused. He filed suit seeking, on Second Amendment grounds, to enjoin the city from enforcing the bar on handgun registration, the licensing requirement insofar as it prohibits carrying an unlicensed firearm in the home, and the trigger-lock requirement insofar as it prohibits the use of functional firearms in the home. The district court dismissed the suit, but the D. C. Circuit reversed, holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess firearms and that the city's total ban on handguns, as well as its requirement that firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional even when necessary for self-defense, violated that right. Upon the City's appeal to the Supreme Court, the Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. Further, a careful reading of history confirms that individual right. The Court held that the first clause of the Second Amendment that references a "militia" is a prefatory clause that does not limit the operative clause of the Amendment. Additionally, the term "militia" should not be confined to those serving in the military, because at the time the term referred to all able-bodied men who were capable of being called to such service. To read the Amendment as limiting the right to bear arms only to those in a governed military force would be to create exactly the type of state-sponsored force against which the Amendment was meant to protect people. Because the text of the Amendment should be read in the manner that gives greatest effect to the plain meaning it would have had at the time it was written, the operative clause should be read to "guarantee an individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation." This reading is also in line with legal writing of the time and subsequent scholarship. Therefore, banning handguns, an entire class of arms that is commonly used for protection purposes, and prohibiting firearms from being kept functional in the home, the area traditionally in need of protection, violates the Second Amendment.
sentencing phase: Cruel and unusual punishment slide
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." This amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from imposing unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants, either as the price for obtaining pretrial release or as punishment for crime after conviction. The clause is the most important and controversial part of the Eighth Amendment. In some ways, it is shrouded in mystery. What does it mean for a punishment to be "cruel and unusual"? How do we measure a punishment's cruelty? And if a punishment is cruel, why should we care whether it is "unusual"? The clause clearly prohibits "barbaric" methods of punishment, so if the federal government tried to bring back the rack, or thumbscrews, drawing and quartering, or gibbets as instruments of punishment, such efforts would pretty clearly violate the Eighth Amendment.
Arrest phase: protection against self-incrimination
The Fifth Amendment also protects criminal defendants from having to testify if they may incriminate themselves through their testimony. A witness may "plead the Fifth" and not answer if the witness believes answering the question may be self-incriminatory. In the landmark Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), ruling, the United States Supreme Court extended the Fifth Amendment protections to encompass any situation outside of the courtroom that involves the curtailment of personal freedom. Therefore, any time that law enforcement takes a suspect into custody, law enforcement must make the suspect aware of his or her rights. Known as Miranda rights, these rights include the right to remain silent, the right to have an attorney present during questioning, and the right to have a government-appointed attorney if the suspect cannot afford one. However, courts since 1966 have slightly narrowed the Miranda rights, holding that police interrogations or questioning that occur before taking the suspect into custody does not fall within the Miranda requirements, and the police are not required to give the Miranda warnings to the suspects before taking them into custody, and their silence in some instances can be deemed to be implicit admission of guilt. If law enforcement fails to honor these safeguards, courts will often suppress any statements by the suspect as violating the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, provided that the suspect has not actually waived the rights. An "actual waiver" occurs when a suspect has made the waiver knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. To determine if a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver has occurred, a court will examine the totality of the circumstances, which considers all pertinent circumstances and events. If a suspect makes a "spontaneous statement" while in custody prior to being made aware of the Miranda rights, law enforcement can use the statement against the suspect, provided that police interrogation did not prompt the statement. The Fifth Amendment right does not extend to an individual's voluntarily prepared business papers because the element of compulsion is lacking. Similarly, the right does not extend to potentially incriminating evidence derived from obligatory reports or tax returns. And, to be self-incriminating, the compelled answers must pose a "substantial and 'real,' and not merely a 'trifling or imaginary hazard'" of criminal prosecution.
Public opinion and the boundaries of action
The Republican Revolution, Revolution of '94 or Gingrich Revolution refers to the Republican Party (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate. The day after the .94 election, conservative Democrat Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama changed parties, becoming a Republican; on March 3, 1995, Colorado senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell switched to the Republican side as well, increasing the GOP senate majority. Rather than campaigning independently in each district, Republican candidates chose to rally behind a single national program and message fronted by Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich. They alleged President Bill Clinton was not the New Democrat he claimed he was during his 1992 campaign but was a "tax and spend" liberal. The Republicans offered an alternative to Clinton's policies in the form of the Contract with America. The gains in seats in the mid-term election resulted in the Republicans gaining control of both the House and the Senate in January 1995. Republicans had not held the majority in the House for forty years, since the 83rd Congress (elected in 1952). Large Republican gains were made in state houses as well when the GOP picked up twelve gubernatorial seats and 472 legislative seats. In so doing, it took control of 20 state legislatures from the Democrats. In addition, this was the first time in 50 years that the GOP controlled a majority of state legislatures. Discontent against the Democrats was foreshadowed by a string of elections after 1992, including the capture of the mayoralties of New York and Los Angeles by the Republicans in 1993. In that same year, Christine Todd Whitman captured the New Jersey governorship from the Democrats and Bret Schundler became the first Republican mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, which had been held by the Democratic Party since 1917. Republican George Allen won the 1993 Virginia Governor election while Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison took a U.S. Senate seat from the Democrats in the 1993 special election.
The establishment clause slide NOTES separationism accommodationism
The phrase "separation between church & state" is generally traced to a January 1, 1802, letter by Thomas Jefferson, addressed to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, published in a Massachusetts newspaper. Jefferson's metaphor of a "wall of separation" was cited by the Supreme Court. In Reynolds v. United States (1878) the Court wrote that Jefferson's comments "may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the [First] Amendment" (holding that religious duty was not a defense to a criminal indictment). In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Hugo Black wrote: "In the words of Thomas Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of separation between church and state" (holding the Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights applied to State law). In contrast to separationism, the Supreme Court in Zorach v. Clauson (1952) upheld accommodationism, holding that the nation's "institutions presuppose a Supreme Being" and that government recognition of God does not constitute the establishment of a state church as the Constitution's authors intended to prohibit, thus a school district allowing students to leave school for part of the day to receive religious instruction is not an unconstitutional accommodation to religion. These cases show that courts have not always interpreted the constitutional principles as absolute, and the proper extent of separation between government and religion in the U.S. remains an ongoing subject of debate and litigation. The Lemon test comes from Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), and is used to determine if a law violates the 1st Amendment. The three-part Lemon test, while criticized and modified through the years, remains the main test used by lower courts in establishment clause cases.
surveillance of suspected terrorists
USA patriot act National Security agency (NSA)
critical thinking 2 questions in picture what factor limits the influence of public opinion on the policy choices of public officials?
What factors limit the influence of public opinion on the policy choices of public officials? Inconsistencies in citizens' policy preferences. There are polls that say one thing, then other polls saying people want something entirely different. Polls aren't always accurate because of question order and wording, people who are unfamiliar with the issue, and participation factors. Many citizens lack an understanding of issues, whether they are small and simple or big and important ones. The public aren't always informed enough or even attentive enough to understand or dictate what officials will do. Politicians can easily make things sound good. A minority of citizens can truly be said to be politically well informed. A college education does not guarantee that a citizen 22 will have more than a passing familiarity with public affairs. Certain policy actions are outside the boundaries of public acceptability. The greater the level of public involvement, the more likely officials will respond to public sentiment. As the public shift their view, policy tends to shift in the same direction, particularly on issues that engage large numbers of citizens. Public opinion has a significant influence on government but seldom determines exactly what government will do in a particular instance. It serves to constrain the policy choices of officials but also is subject to their efforts to mold and channel what the public is thinking. Officials are attentive particularly to public opinion on highly visible and controversial issues of public policy.
Other disadvantaged Groups American Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975:
When it was passed in 1975 as P.L. 94-142, it guaranteed a free appropriate public education to each child with a disability. This law had a impact on millions of children with disabilities in every state and each local community across the country. The four purposes of the law articulated a compelling national mission to improve access to education for children with disabilities.
Trights, 14th amendment, and selective incorporation Notes
When the Bill of Rights was ratified, courts held that its protections only extended to the actions of the federal government and that the Bill of Rights did not place limitations on the authority of state and local governments. However, the post-Civil War era, beginning in 1865 with the Thirteenth Amendment, which declared the abolition of slavery, gave rise to the incorporation of other Amendments, applying more rights to the states and people over time. Gradually, various portions of the Bill of Rights have been held to be applicable to state and local governments by incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Prior to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and the development of the incorporation doctrine, the Supreme Court in 1833 held in Barron v. Baltimore that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal, but not any state governments. Even years after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) still held that the First and Second Amendment did not apply to state governments. However, beginning in 1897 though 1925 and into the 1960s, a long series of United States Supreme Court decisions interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to "incorporate" most portions of the Bill of Rights, making these portions, for the first time, enforceable against the state governments.
critical thinking what what role has politics played in legal rights?
Without active political movements, there would most probably be no change or the securing or recognizing of legal rights for disadvantaged groups.
Populist:
a person, especially a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
Identity politics:
a tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics. Oxford Dictionaries© Oxford University Press). Identity politics is a political approach and analysis based on people prioritizing the concerns most relevant to their particular racial, religious, ethnic, sexual, social, cultural or other identity, and forming exclusive political alliances with others of this group, instead of engaging in more traditional, broad-based party politics. Those who prioritize their particular type of identity politics may promote their group's interests without regard for the interests of larger, more diverse political groups that are based in shared theory.
Asian Americans
are an upwardly mobile group -Most Asian culture emphasize family-based self-reliance, with a strong emphasis an educational achievement -highest % of 2-parent families of any racial group -highest median family income -highly educated, but underrepresented politically and managerial jobs NOTES ON SLIDE -Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry. The term refers to a panethnic group that includes diverse populations, which have ancestral origins in East Asia, South Asia, or Southeast Asia, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. This includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other Asian."
Voting rights act 1965 before 1965
before 1965
The struggle for equality: black Americans
civil rights act 1964
The free exercise- clause slide
controversial clause
Ideological:
definition is of, relating to, or based on ideology. An ideology is a collection of normative beliefs and values that an individual or group holds for other than purely epistemic reasons. In other words, these rely on basic assumptions about reality that may or may not have any factual basis. The term is especially used to describe systems of ideas and ideals which form the basis of economic or political theories and resultant policies. There are tenuous causal links between policies and outcomes owing to the large numbers of variables available, so many key assumptions must be made.
fourteenth amendments
due process clause prevents the state from bridging individual rights
14th Amendment equal protection slide 1
equal protection clause brown vs. board of education of Topeka
public opinion polls
estimate sample population sample error -Polls designed to "push" a point of view, called "push polls," are different. They are designed to support a preferred outcome or message, not to accurately assess current public opinion. With the widespread demise of land line residential phones and hostility to pollsters, polling sampling has gotten harder. The polling companies claim they have is right, now, but election results consistently show that polls get it wrong more often than they get it correct. In statistics, sampling error is incurred when the statistical characteristics of a population are estimated from a subset, or sample, of that population. Since the sample does not include all members of the population, statistics on the sample, such as means and quartiles, generally differ from the characteristics of the entire population, which are known as parameters. For example, if one measures the height of a thousand individuals from a country of one million, the average height of the thousand is typically not the same as the average height of all one million people in the country. Since sampling is typically done to determine the characteristics of a whole population, the difference between the sample and population values is considered an error. Exact measurement of sampling error is generally not feasible since the true population values are 3 unknown. Sampling bias is a possible source of sampling errors, wherein the sample is chosen in a way that makes some individuals less likely to be included in the poll.
right and the war on terrorism slide, Supreme court held exclusion order
exclusion zone
Probable cause
exists when there is a fair probability that a search will result in evidence of a crime being discovered. Probable cause is not equal to absolute certainty. That is, a police officer does not have to be absolutely certain that criminal activity is taking place. Probable cause generally refers to the requirement in criminal law that police have adequate reason to arrest someone, conduct a search, or seize property relating to a crime (such as a gun or knife). "Probable cause" is a stronger standard of evidence than a "reasonable suspicion," but weaker than what is required to secure a conviction (which is evidence showing guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt").
primary socializing agents: family, school, and church
family -Gallup polls and other statisticians have turned in the same percentage — about 40 percent of the population—of average weekend church attendees for the past 70 years. However, different research reveals another picture of how many Christians in American attend a local church on any given Sunday. A study published in 2005 in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion by sociologists C. Kirk Hadaway and Penny Long Marler that the number of people worshiping each week is close to 17.7 percent— 52 million people - instead of the pollster-reported 132 million (40 percent).
how the 50 states differ: party loyalties in the states
gallup org. polling
group orientations
group affinity
Party identification chart
hese figures have been consistent over the last several decades. Among Democrats, about one third self identify as "hard left" or extreme liberals.
Civil rights act of 1968
housing, redlining
political ideology
ideological leaning
An exigent circumstance,
in the criminal procedure law of the United States, allows law enforcement, under certain circumstances, to enter a structure without a search warrant or, if they have a "knock and announce" warrant, without knocking and waiting for refusal. It must be a situation where people are in imminent danger, evidence faces imminent destruction, or a suspect's escape is imminent. Once entry is obtained, the plain view doctrine applies, allowing the seizure of any evidence or contraband discovered in plain view during the course of actions consequent upon the exigent circumstances.
Struggle for equality Full-blooded Native Americans
including Alaska Natives, currently number more than 2 million -half live on or near federal resevations -Federal authority is defined by treaty terms -State gov. have no direct authority on resevations -Current policy goals of the federal gov. include retention of native cultures, self-gov. and economic self-sufficiency -Tribal -state conflicts persist over casino gaming and law enforcement efforts
Trial phase: the right to a fair trial slide 2 inevitable discovery exception plain view exception Good Faith Exception to Exclusionary Rule:
inevitable discovery exception plain view exception Good Faith Exception to Exclusionary Rule: An exception to the exclusionary rule barring the use at trial of evidence obtained pursuant to an unlawful search and seizure. If officers had reasonable, good faith belief that they were acting according to legal authority, such as by relying on a search warrant that is later found to have been legally defective, the illegally seized evidence is admissible under this rule. Arizona v. Evans is an example of the good faith exception in action: officers relied on a search warrant that turned out to be invalid. In Davis v. U.S., the Supreme Court ruled that the exclusionary rule does not apply when the police conduct a search in reliance on binding appellate precedent allowing the search. Under Illinois v. Krull, evidence may be admissible if the officers rely on a statute that is later invalidated. InHerring v. U.S., the Court found that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applied when police employees erred in maintaining records in a warrant database. Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431 (1984), was a Supreme Court case that created an "inevitable discovery" exception to the exclusionary rule. The exclusionary rule makes most evidence gathered through violations of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, inadmissible in criminal trials as "fruit of the poisonous tree." In Nix, the Court ruled that evidence that would inevitably have been discovered by law enforcement through legal means remained admissible.
An enemy combatant
is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, directly engages in hostilities for an enemy state or non-state actor in an armed conflict. Unlawful combatants are subject to capture and detention; in addition, they are subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals.
Hispanics' income
is below the national average, but the effect is somewhat buffered by the fact the the family is internal to Hispanic culture -More than 4,00 hispanic Amarican hold public office -in congress, on the Supreme Court, in presidential politics -About half of all Hispanic Americans are registered to vote -Potential political force in states lake TX, CA, AZ, FL -lower than average voting record, especially by males
freedom of expression
is the most basic of democratic right, but like all rights, it is not unlimited Initially the status of the right of free expression was uncertain -Sedation Act of 1798 -today free expression is vigorously protected by the courts; but it can be denied if it endangers national security, wrongly damages others' reputations, or deprives others of their rights
Political socialization
is the process by which people form their ideas about politics.
Creationism
is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, the Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. In its broadest sense, creationism includes a continuum of religious views, including some Christian, Islamic and Hindu faiths.
Selective perception
is the tendency not to notice and more quickly forget stimuli that cause emotional discomfort and contradict our prior beliefs. For example, a teacher may have a favorite student because they are biased by in-group favoritism. The teacher ignores the student's poor attainment. Conversely, they might not notice the progress of their least favorite student. Selective perception is a form of bias that causes people to perceive messages and actions according to their personal frame of reference.
The establishment clause slide
lemon test establishment clause
Opinions on Same-Sex Marriage Chart
opposed 20 years ago now majority support
party Identification
partisanship
Political socialization: The origins of Americans' opinions
political socialization agents of socialization
The struggle for Equality Native Americans
population decreased from 5 to 10 million, when white settlers 1st arrived, to less than a million by 1900 -Not granted citizenship until 1924 -Indian Bill of Rights passed in 1968 provided for constitutional guarantees for Native Americans on reservations -PROTESTS LED TO GREATER CONTROL OVER THEIR own affairs -1972 "trail of Broken Treaties" protest NOTES ON SLIDE -About one third of the Native American population, about 700,000 persons, live on an Indian Reservation in the United States. About another 17% live off but near a reservation. Reservation poverty and other factors have led to persisting social problems on Native American reservations. Disparities between many aspects of life at the national level and at the reservation level, such as quality of education, healthcare, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, violence, and suicide rates significantly demonstrate the lack of opportunities between reservations and the rest of the country.
Press Freedom and Libel Law slide
prior restraint libel slander
suspicion phase: unreasonable search and seizure slide
probable cause warrantless search
Right of persons accused of crimes slide
procedural due process Substantive due process is a principle allowing courts to protect certain fundamental rights from government interference. Substantive due process is the notion that due process not only protects certain legal procedures, but also protects certain rights unrelated to procedure such as deprivation of property.
the measurement of public opinion
public opinion election results election mandate President Obama famously said "I have a pen," when he could not get what he wanted through Congress, he achieved it through executive orders. Election mandate: In politics, a mandate is the authority granted to the winning candidate by a constituency to legitimately act as its representative and to achieve governmental polity changes publically espoused by the winning candiate.
libel
publishing material that falsely damages a person's reputation in writing
14th Amendment equal protection slide 2
reasonable-basis test strict-scrutiny test suspect classification
civil rights act of 1964
some form of discrimination are still lawful
Bipartisanship,
sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system, in which opposing political parties find common ground through compromise. This is in contrast to partisanship.
Civil Liberties
specific individuals rights, such as the right to a fair trial, that are constitutionally protected against infringement by gov.
Bill of rights: A selected list of 1st amendment protection
speech press assembly religion
First Amendment slide
speech press assembly religion
Slander
spoken words that damages a person's reputation in writing
The struggle for equality: black Americans slide 2 Dr king's dream
substantial progress in elective office ex: Obama
Immigration over time chart 1900-2016
today, the immigrants' share of the population is already the highest level in U.S. history. Throughout American history whenever immigration rises it produces public and political calls to change policies in order to slow immigration.
Affirmative action slide
university of cali regents vs. Bakke adarand vs. pena Grutter vs. bollinger fisher vs. university of TX
Partisanship,
where an individual or political party only adheres to their interests without compromise; an adherent or supporter of a person, group, party, or cause, especially a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance. It has been debated among political theorists that in practice, each party advances their own political agenda at the expense of the other party because of the conflicting ideologies.