Government Week 7
According to the Supreme Court, which of the following kinds of searches may (without violating the Fourth Amendment) be conducted without a warrant?
A search of an automobile when police have probable cause for believing the owner of the vehicle is guilty of a crime. A search when police have reason to worry that someone is about to destroy evidence. A search incident to a lawful arrest. Evidence obtained that is left "in plain view" from where a police officer has a legal right to be.
Which of the following claims is/are made in this section of the textbook?
Americans (on average) have a higher level of religious devotion than do the people of other wealthy democratic countries. The First Amendment protects religious freedom through the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. Religious freedom is the freedom to develop and live according to one's own religious beliefs insofar as doing so does not interfere with the same freedom of others
Which of the following claims is/are made in this section of the textbook?
Civil liberties pertaining to criminal justice establish rules and procedures that the executive and judicial branches must follow when investigating, accusing, convicting, and punishing criminal suspects and convicts.
Which of the following claims is/are made in this section of the textbook?
Currently, an act of Congress (the Religious Freedom Restoration Act) provides greater protection for the free exercise of religion against federal government action than does the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Today, religious citizens in many states enjoy the protections of the Sherbert Test through legislative statutes at the federal and state level aimed at securing the free exercise of religion.
In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court became the first court anywhere to declare that a constitution protects a right of personal privacy through a constitutional command that "no person shall be deprived of ... liberty ... without due process of law."
False
Which of the following statements about trends in religious beliefs in the United States is true?
From 2007 to 2014, the percentage of Americans claiming no religious affiliation increased by several points. From 2007 to 2014, the percentage of Americans identifying as Christian dropped by several points.
Which of the following claims is/are made in this section of the textbook? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
None of these choices are correct
Which of the following government actions has NOT been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court for violating the Establishment Clause?
Public funding for "school vouchers" that could be used by parents to help pay for tuition at private religious schools.
Which of the following claims is/are made in this section of the textbook about the constitutional right of consenting adults to engage in intimate sexual relations without interference by government? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
Roe v. Wade (1973) established that the right to personal privacy in the Constitution is implied by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, due to the Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) decision, in the earliest stages of pregnancy, government MAY enact policies discouraging abortion so long as the government does not place an "undue burden" on a woman's decision to have an abortion. The constitutional right to decide to have an abortion is based on the idea that the Constitution protects a right of "personal privacy" in which government may not legitimately intrude.
Which of the following has the U.S. Supreme Court NOT (yet) declared to be a "search" that is protected by the Fourth Amendment
Spying on criminal suspects using a drone.
Which of the following claims is/are made about constitutional abortion rights in this section of the textbook? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
The Supreme Court of Georgia declared the State of Georgia's anti-sodomy law unconstitutional (under the Georgia Constitution) five years before the U.S. Supreme Court declared all such state laws unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution. According to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), laws prohibiting sodomy within the privacy of one's home violate the right to personal privacy protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Which of the following actors could have violated the freedom of speech protected by U.S. Constitution prior to the U.S. Civil War?
The U.S. Congress The President of the United States
Which of the following claims is/are made in this section about the role of federal courts (including the U.S. Supreme Court) in the enforcement of civil liberties?
The U.S. Supreme Court has incorporated most of the civil liberties in the Bill of Rights through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment much more narrowly than its author, John Bingham, intended. Since the Fourteenth Amendment made the U.S. Constitution a source of civil liberties binding upon state governments, anyone who thinks a state (or local) government has violated a civil liberty can sue that government in federal court in order to try to get that government's action declared unconstitutional.
Which of the following is NOT a part of the Lemon Test (for determining whether or not a government policy unconstitutionally "establishes" religion) ...
The law must not have anything to do with any aspect of religion whatsoever.
Today, the U.S. Constitution protects the right to free speech from violation by all but one of the following actors. Which one of the following actors is NOT legally required by the U.S. Constitution today to respect the freedom of speech?
The private owner of a saloon in Georgia
Why (if it all) does it matter that nearly all the criminal justice rights in the Bill of Rights have been incorporated?
This means nearly all the criminal justice rights of the U.S. Constitution provide protection against state and local government abuse, and this is important because most criminal law enforcement activities take place at the state and local levels.
Which of the following is/are true about "incorporation" and/or "unenumerated constitutional rights"?
Unenumerated constitutional rights are nowhere explicitly mentioned anywhere in the text of the Constitution. "Incorporation" refers to when the U.S. Supreme Court holds that a civil liberty from the Bill of Rights applies to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause is central to both incorporation and unenumerated constitutional rights.
Conservatives tend to ...
accept a role for religion in government policy so long as government does not force anyone to participate in religious activities against their will and does not endorse or promote one religion over another.
Liberals tend to ...
be supportive of the Lemon Test. think the Establishment Clause requires a strict separation of church and state.
The U.S. Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ...
established that the Sixth Amendment requires government to provide an attorney to any criminal defendant who requests an attorney but cannot afford one. is the reason why state governments now directly employ over 15,000 Public Defenders who each year provide legal counsel to millions of criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire their own attorneys.
According to this section of the textbook, the right against self-incrimination ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
guarantees that any defendant standing trial for a crime may choose to not take the stand to testify and may refuse to answer questions if he or she does take the stand. guarantees that if a criminal defendant chooses to not to testify against oneself at trial, jurors may not consider the refusal to testify as evidence of the defendants' guilt. guarantees that criminal suspects may refuse to answer questions from police after being arrested.
Miranda v. Arizona (1966) ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
held that if a criminal suspect does not intentionally waive his or her right to remain silent (after being fully informed about the right), then any statements made by the suspect may not be used against him or her at trial. established that criminal suspects at the time of arrest must be told that they have a right to remain silent and to be warned that anything they say could be used against them in court.
The "exclusionary rule" ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
holds that if government seizes evidence through an unconstitutional search, then the evidence may not be admitted into court. became required for all criminal prosecutions in the land (i.e., not only federal prosecutions) in the case Mapp v. Ohio (1961).
According to the U.S. Supreme Court (and/or widespread agreement), under which of the following circumstances is a punishment "cruel and unusual" and, thus, in violation of the Eighth Amendment? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
if capital punishment is inflicted on someone guilty of a crime that did not result in the death of the crime's victim. if the punishment involves burning someone at the stake. if capital punishment is inflicted on a convicted murderer who was under 18-years-old at the time the murder was committed. if capital punishment is inflicted on someone who is mentally ill.
When it comes to religious freedom, "strict scrutiny review" ...
is the second phase of the Sherbert Test. requires that a government action that interferes with religious practice be ruled unlawful unless (1) the government interference with religious practice is the result of pursuing a "compelling government interest," and (2) there was no other effective way to pursue the compelling government interest that would have placed less of a burden on the free exercise of religion. is applied today by courts when applying the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which requires the federal government to exempt persons from laws and regulations that have the effect of interfering with such persons' free exercise of religion unless such interference can withstand strict scrutiny.
When it comes to the Eighth Amendment, conservatives are more likely than liberals to think ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
only the specific punishments that the Founding Fathers considered "cruel and unusual" should be considered cruel and unusual today
The Belief-Action Distinction ...
refers to the Supreme Court's doctrine that informed its interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause from the late 1870s until the early 1960s. refers to the Supreme Court's early (and now abandoned) doctrine that held the Free Exercise Clause only protects the freedom of religious belief and does NOT protect the freedom to behave or act according to religious beliefs.
The Sherbert Test ...
replaced the Belief-Action Distinction as the Court's primary approach to deciding Free Exercise Clause cases. has two phases. was (temporarily) abandoned by the Court in the early 1990s when it decided that the Free Exercise Clause requires "strict scrutiny review" only if a law in question is not neutral toward religions and does not aim at restricting religious practice. became the Court's primary approach to deciding Free Exercise Clause cases in the early 1960s. requires the application of "strict scrutiny review" if it is shown that (1) a person has a claim involving a sincere religious belief, and (2) the government action in question is an actual burden on the person's ability to act on that belief.
Unenumerated constitutional rights are ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
said to be implied by the Constitution. a topic of disagreement in the ideological conflict known as the "Culture War." widely understood to be implicitly protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Free Exercise Clause ...
says "Congress shall make no law ... prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]." is a part of the First Amendment.
According to the Supreme Court ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)
the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury only applies for criminal charges carrying either the death penalty or a maximum sentence of more than six months. the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial means that charges against a defendant must be dropped if there is too long of a delay before trial. the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury requires the pool of prospective jurors be drawn at random so that the pool comes close to reflecting the demographic composition of the community from which it is drawn.
