Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Final

Illinois v. Gates (1983)

anonymous letter, get a warrant, new rule: Totality of Circumstnaces. replaced Aguillar-Spinelli test for probable cause with 'totality of circumstances' test.

Exceptions to the Exclusionary Rule

* Inevitable Discovery * Good Faith

Reconstruction

1865-1877. The period after the Civil War when the federal government took action to rebuild the South. the period of rebuilding the South and readmitting Southern states into the Union.

Brown II

1955. ordered school desegregation implemented "with all deliberate speed".

Fundamental rights (level of scrutiny)/ education?

A basic right of the American system or one that is indispensable in a just system. are those rights that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty". Important rights of citizens that are established in a constitution.

Safford Unified School District v. Redding (2009)

A strip search of an 8th-grade girl was ruled unconstitutional. strip search for "drugs" case; deemed unreasonable search

Good faith

A true and honest effort to uphold the law. (as in Good Faith Effort). Acting honestly and fairly, with good intentions and full disclosure.

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

Allowed the use of race as a general factor in law school admissions at University of Michigan. upheld Bakke decision. case that approves use of race as one factor in college admissions. no college acceptance or rejection is based automatically on a variable such as race. Colleges and universities have a legitimate interest in promoting diversity. Issue: Equal Protection Clause Precedent: Race can be a determinant in college admissions. Upheld the affirmative action policy of the University of Michigan Law School.

Reckless behavior

An activity that increases the risk of harm.

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)

Busing students to promote integration is constitutional.

United States v. Jones (2012)

Court found that police use of a GPS tracker constituted a 'search' and required a valid warrant. GPS tracking is not unconstitutional, but the placement of the GPS was.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

Eliminated segregation in schools because it was unconstitutional. Separate but equal is unconstitutional. overruled Plessy v. Ferguson and making segregation of public school students unconstitutional. overturned separate but equal, segregated schools violate equal protection under the 14th amendment.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Extended the Exclusionary Rule to the states, increasing the protections for defendants. Evidence illegally gathered by the police may not be used in a criminal trial. Began exclusionary rule. Courts cannot use evidence attained by police illegally. Defines "unreasonable search and seizure" and regulates the use of warrants to obtain evidence. Ruled that all evidence obtained illegally is inadmissible in a state court.

Reed v. Reed (1971)

Gender discrimination violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. landmark case in which the Supreme Court for the first time upheld a claim of gender discrimination. Laws of discrimination favoring men over women without any reasonable merit are unconstitutional. arbitrary gender-based classification violates equal protection under 14th amendment. prohibits all gender-discriminatory legislation [husband-wife inheritance conflict]. Laws that treat men differently from women are unconstitutional.

Intermediate scrutiny (test/ who it covers/ who has the burden)

Gender. Is the state's action substantially related to an important governmental interest? A type of scrutiny that says laws that treat people differently - often by age - can be reasonable. Shared burden of proof between government and challenger. based on gender or legitimacy of children.

Exigent circumstances

Generally, an emergency situation that allows a search to proceed without a warrant. 1. destruction of evidence 2. lives are threatened 3. suspect escape is imminent

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Held that colleges and universities may consider a person's race as one factor in admission policies. Schools can't use admission quotas and admit students solely on the bais of their race. reverse discrimination is not allowed; no saving a set number of places for minorities. Allowed affirmative action to be one of the several factors in the college admissions process. using a quota system based on race is unconstitutional. Racial quotas are unconstitutional (but race can be a factor in admissions).

Olmstead v. United States (1928)

Held that wiretapping was not a unreasonable search and seizure. 1928; Upheld wiretapping without a warrant. Overturned by Katz v. United States.

Exclusionary Rule

Improperly gathered evidence may not be introduced in a criminal trial. Evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment cannot be used in a court of law. A judicial policy prohibiting the admission at trial of illegally seized evidence.

Plessy v. Ferguson - dissent

Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented, and predicted the court's decision would become as infamous as Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). Justice Harlan was from Kentucky, which was a border state during the Civil War. Harlan said, in part: The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty. But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. It is therefore to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a state to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case.

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 dissent

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a sharply worded short dissent in which he accused the plurality of misusing and misapplying previous Supreme Court precedents including Brown v. Board of Education. He concluded by saying that the current Court has greatly changed and that previously:"[I]t was...more faithful to Brown and more respectful of our precedent than it is today. It is my firm conviction that no Member of the Court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today's decision.". Justice Stephen G. Breyer, in the principal dissenting opinion, dismissed Justice Kennedy's proposed alternatives to the labeling and sorting of individual students by race and, in a surprisingly emotional 20-minute speech from the bench, denounced the majority opinion. "It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much," Justice Breyer said of the Court's decision. In the Justice's 77-page written opinion he called the ruling a "radical" step away from the established law that would take from communities a critical tool used for many years in the prevention of resegregation.

Jim Crow laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites. Southern laws that required racial segregation in places of public accommodation. segregation laws enacted in the South after Reconstruction.

Federal laws/ sexual orientation

Laws that apply to the entire country.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal.". Seperate but equal facilities based upon race is constitutional. Ruled that separate but equal facilities for African Americans are constitutional. Established separate by equal. Gave Supreme Court approval to Jim Crow laws. Upheld separate-but-equal facilities for white and black people on railroad cars. upheld racial discrimination: "separate but equal".

Terry v. Ohio (1968)

Police can search and seize if they have probable cause. Stop and frisks do not violate the Constitution under certain circumstances. stop-and-frisk on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or armed. Reasonable suspicion is a belief beyond a hunch. "Stopping and frisking" with a reasonable suspicion is allowed by the 4th amendment. Permits police to "stop and frisk" suspects without search warrant.

Hudson v. Michigan (2006)

Police must wait a reasonable amount of time before they break down the door. The exclusionary rule does not apply to violations of the knock and announce rule. Police do not have to "knock-and-announce" before entering a building.

City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. (1985)

Possessing an intellectual disability is not a quasi-suspect classification calling for a heightened level of scrutiny, but nevertheless, the requirement of a special use permit for a proposed group home for people with intellectual disabilities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because no rational basis for the discriminatory classification could be shown, and in the absence of such justification, the classification appeared to be based on irrational prejudice against the intellectually disabled.

Right To Privacy

The right to a private personal life free from the intrusion of government.

Sexual orientation discrimination (what level of scrutiny)

Rational basis

Civil War amendments

Refer to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution.

Katz v. United States (1967)

Required all police to carry a search warrant before wiretapping phones to gain intelligence. An individual in a public phone booth has the right to privacy. Expectation of Privacy. Reasonable expectation of privacy.

Search/Seizure

Search/Seizure In the context of American constitutional law, intrusion into someone's privacy. Taking a possession through a legal process.

Defacto segregation

Segregation by unwritten customs or traditions. Segregation that is based on residential patterns and is not imposed by law. Racial segregation that happens by fact instead of by law.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

State law schools had to admit black students, even if separate law schools for blacks existed (SCC) Separate but equal professional schools are inherently unequal. guaranteed African Americans admission to Texas's graduate and professional schools. Unconstitutional for a school for blacks to be grossly unequal to the actual university. separate graduate schools based on race are inherently unequal. challenged separate but equal.

Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)

Struck down use of "bonus points" for race in undergrad admissions at University of Michigan. Affirmative action in college admissions is OK but must be limited. no set numbers may be used in determining the value of race in college admissions. Racial quotas overturned at University of Michigan. The university has 20% of the points reserved for minorities, thus encouraging quotas. ALLOWED the use of RACE as general factor in law school admissions at University of Michigan.

United States v. Leon (1984)

Supreme Court decision announcing the "good faith" exception to the exclusionary rule. "good faith exceptions" to stop guilty people from going free bc of improperly collected evidence. Illegally obtained evidence may be used in a trial if it was gathered in good faith. Police dept searched and seized evidence, but not all of it had a warrant. illegally obtained evidence be used in trial if gathered in good faith.

Arizona v. Gant (2009)

The decision that police need probable cause and evidence to search a vehicle after the owner is arrested.

Inevitable discovery

The police can use evidence if it would have inevitably been discovered. Illegally obtained evidence is admissible if police would have "inevitably" discovered it. If the evidence would have been discovered anyway through lawful means, it will be admissible. The police can use evidence if it would have been found anyway.

Strict scrutiny (test/ who it covers/ who has the burden)

The standard by which the Supreme Court judges classifications based on race. suspect traits (race, religion), BOR and fundamental rights, political speech. is the most stringent standard of judicial review used by United States courts.

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)

The student assignment plan of Seattle Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools does not meet the narrowly tailored and compelling interest requirements for a race-based assignment plan because it is used only to achieve "racial balance." Public schools may not use race as the sole determining factor for assigning students to schools. Race-conscious objectives to achieve diverse school environment may be acceptable.

Stop and Frisk

To remove any weapons the person may be carrying. allows police to stop a person given a reasonable suspicion of a criminal act. to "pat down" or search someone who the police believe is acting suspiciously. Terry v. Ohio.

San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)

Unfair school funding for poor districts, 14th amendment doesnt guarantee equality.

United States v. Virginia (1996) (VMI case)

VMI must admit women. A Supreme Court ruling holding that a state-supported school could not exclude women. Government can't finance an all-male military school. struck down a military institute's long-standing male-only admission policy (VMI). Male-only admissions policies at state-supported military academies were unconstitutional.

Diversity & affirmative action

Variety, such as of ethnic or national groups.

Rational basis scrutiny (test/ who it covers/ who has the burden)

What is the level of scrutiny for classifications based on disability? A standard of judicial review that examines if the legislature was reasonable.

Magistrate

a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice. A judge. A court official who hears cases in the lowest court of law.

Busing

achieving racial balance by transporting students to schools across neighborhood boundaries. transporting children to different school districts in order to integrate schools. The means of transporting students via buses to achieve school integration in the 1970s. Method for desegregation and creating more racially diverse schools.

Trespass v. Reasonable expectation of privacy

entry to another's property without right or permission. The unauthorized intrusion on, or improper use of, property belonging to another person. The wrongful damage to, or interference with, the property of another. (v.) Unlawfully enter the boundaries of some else's property. The test to analyze whether privacy should be protected. situations where you are in your zone of privacy when you should always be entitled to privacy. Home, rentals, hotels Business Automobile Personal Effects

Craig v. Boren (1976)

established the "intermediate scrutiny" standard for determining gender discrimination. held liquor laws must require same age for men/women. Men not able to buy beer unless 21, women 18.

Affirmative Action (standard, current case)

policy that gives special consideration to women and minorities to make up for past discrimination. Designing remedies for overcoming racism and sexism by taking race and sex into account.

Romer v. Evans (1996)

prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. State laws designed to deny basic civil rights to gays and lesbians are unconstitutional. Claims Colorado law discriminating against homos violates 14th amendment, Equal Protection.

Probable Cause

reasonable cause for issuing a search warrant or making an arrest; more than mere suspicion. (law) evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search and seizure. reasonable grounds (for making a search, pressing a charge, etc.). Reasonable grounds, a reasonable suspicion of crime. A reasonable opinion, provable by facts, that a crime has been committed.

Dejure segregation

segregation that is mandated by law and imposed by the government. Segregation by law- Civil Rights Acts of '64/'65 stopped it.

"with all deliberate speed"

the term they used for how fast they should integrate the schools. stated in Brown II to get schools to desegregate faster. Supreme court decision of Brown case; States should end segregation soon, but without a time table. Earl Warren.