Ch. 4 POLS 229

Weeks vs. USA (1914)

" the tendency of those who execute the criminal laws of the country to obtain convictions by means of unlawful searches and enforced confessions... Should find no sanction in the judgment of courts" - Adopted the "exclusionary rule"

Roe vs Wade

- 1973 - Abortion - Gave women full freedom to choose abortion during the first three months (1st trimester) of pregnancy

Lemon Test

- Created after Lemon vs. Kurtzman - 3 point test - States that the policy must have non-religious purpose, the principle must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and the policy must not foster "an excessive government entanglement with religion"

In following the Eighth Amendment, the Supreme Court has used ____, ____, and ____ test to determine if an action constitutes cruel and unusual punishment

- Determining whether a punishment is "disproportionate to the offense" - Determining if a punishment is "unnecessarily cruel" - Determining if a punishment violates "fundamental standards of good conscience fairness"

Mapp vs. Ohio (1961)

- Incorporated the "exclusionary rule" and made it applicable to the states

Miranda vs. Arizona (1966)

- Incorporated the Miranda Rights - Protects the right to remain silent , and the right to an attorney

Free speech is usually protected in the United States unless it :

- Presents a clear and present danger to others - leads to imminent and lawless action - Involves false commercial advertising claims

True statements about libel and slander

- Public officials can usually be criticized freely without fear the writer or speaker will have to pay for damages due to libel or slander. - Laws on libel and slander are based on assumption that society has an interest in encouraging media and citizens to express themselves freely

Which of the following statements are true concerning the right of assembly:

- Regulations of public assemblies must be applied fairly to all groups - Individuals cannot hold an assembly at a busy intersection during rush hour - Public officials can regulate the time and place of assemblies

Inevitable Discovery Exception

- States that exclusion of physical evidence that would have been found anyway has no effect on fairness of a trial - Allows admission of tainted evidence in certain cases - was developed in the case of Nix vs. Williams (1984)

Miranda Warning

1. You have the right to remain silent. 2. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. 3. You have the right to talk to a lawyer, and have him/her present with you while you are being questioned. 4. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you before questioning, if you wish. 5. You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not answer any questions or make any statements *created in Kansas City, Missouri* *must knowingly and willingly waive rights*

Slander

A false verbal statement about other people

Libel

A false written statement about other people that harms their reputation

Wall of Separatine Doctrine

A strict separation of church and state

Symbolic Speech

Action not words, still protected by the 1st amendment

Accommodation Doctrine

Allows government to aid religious activity if no preference is shown toward a particular religion and if assistance it is of non-religious nature

Free-exercise Clause

Americans are free to hold any religious belief of their choosing and bans the state from restricting the free practice of any religion

Imminent Lawless Action

An imposing barrier to any government attempt to restrict speech The test: - has two criteria for speech advocating the unlawful use of force to be prohibited - says that speech must be likely to produce lawless action - says that for speech to be restricted, it must be directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action

Griswold vs. Connecticut

Challenged state law prohibition of the use of contraceptives such as condoms or birth control even by married couples. The Court ruled that individuals have a " Zone of [personal] privacy" that the government cannot lawfully invade "emanations" led to "penumbras" which contained a generalized right to privacy

Johnson vs. Zebst (1938)

Criminal defendants in federal cases must be provided a lawyer at government expense if they cannot afford one

10th Amendment

Due process Clause from Federal

Plain View Exception

Excludable evidence can be admitted in trial if discovered in plain sight in the process of arresting a suspect for another infraction - created in Whren vs. United States (1996)

Good Faith Exception

Excludable evidence can be admitted in trial if police believed they were following proper procedures

1st Amendment

Freedom of Speech, Press, Assembly and Religion

Regarding freedom of the press, the Supreme Court has generally upheld the principle of no prior restraint. This principle means that:

Government generally cannot stop the news media from reporting a story

Establishment Clause

Government may not favor one religion over another or support religion over no religion and bans the state from helping religious institutions also restricts the establishment of an official religion

Prior Restraint

Government prohibition of speech or publication before it occurs

Engel vs. Vitale (1962)

Held that the establishment clause prohibits the reciting of prayers in public schools

Powell vs. AL 1932

Incorporated access to counsel Special Circumstances rule

Gideon vs. Wainwright 1963

Incorporated full right to counsel Rejected and overruled the "special circumstances rule"

Racial Profiling

Is the targeting of individuals from particular groups, such as Blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims.

The Supreme Court determined that privacy rights extended to consensual activity between same-sex partners in

Lawrence vs. Texas

The Sedition Act of 1798

Made it a crime to print harshly critical newspaper articles about the president

Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992)

Pennsylvania created law that requires a minor to have a parent or guardian consent before obtaining an abortion

Reconstruction Act

Placed southern states under military rule until they ratified the 14th amendement

Riley vs. California & United States vs. Wurie

Police can search and seize physical evidence but they cannot search or seize contents of a cell phone without a warrant

Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services

Prohibited abortions from happening in state funded medical facilities

1917 Espionage Act

Prohibited forms of dissent that could have harmed the nations effort in WWI

8th Amendment

Protection against cruel and unusual punishment

5th Amendment

Protection against self-incrimination or double jeopardy

4th Amendment

Protection against unreasonable search and seizure

Bill of Rights

Ratified in 1791, the first ten amendments lists a set of rights that the federal government is obliged to protect

Procedural due process

Refers to the procedures that authorities must follow before a person can lawfully be punished for an offense.

The establishment clause and free-exercise clause are related to :

Religion

6th Amendment

Right to jury trial, right to an attorney, and right to confront witnesses

United States vs. Leon (1984)

Ruled that evidence discovered under a faulty warrant was admissible because the police acted in "good faith" - created the "good faith exception"

Indianapolis vs. Edmund

Ruled that narcotic roadblocks serve a general law enforcement purpose rather than one specific to highway safety and therefore violates the 4th Amendment requirement that police must have a warrant

New York Times Co vs. United States

Ruled that prior restraint is unconstitutional without a compelling argument for the restriction

Gitlow vs. New York

Ruled that states do not have complete power over what their residents can legally say

Columbia vs. Heller

Ruled that the second amendment protects an individual (s) right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in the militia and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense in one's home [federal]

Gonzales vs. Carhart (2007)

Supreme Court held a ban on the use of a particular type of abortion, act was called the "Federal Partial-Birth Ban Act"

Bowers vs. Hardwick (1986)

Supreme Court held that the right of privacy did not extend to consensual sexual relations among adults of the same sex.

McDonald vs. Chicago

The Supreme Court through selective incorporation applied the Heller standard to state and local law

Due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

The idea that the state must use procedures under the law before depriving someone of life, liberty, or property and was created after the civil war

The Patriot Act

The law passed by Congress, soon after 9/11 attacks, that allows the FBI and other intelligence agencies to access personal information and records without consent from targeted individuals

Exclusionary Rule

The legal principle that the government is prohibited from using evidence that was obtain unconstitutionally in trials - was adopted in Weeks vs. USA (1914) - was incorporated in Mapp vs. Ohio (1961)

Incarceration Rates in the United States

The number of federal and state prisoners has more than doubled since 1990. The United States has the largest prison population in the world on a per capita basis. Most state legislatures have enacted stiffer criminal penalties in the past two decades.

Selective Incorporation

The process by which the Supreme Court makes certain parts of the Bill of Rights applicable through the Fourteenth amendment actions by state governments

Freedom of Expression

The right of individual Americans to communicate thoughts of their choosing

2nd Amendment

The right to bear arms, and protects a well-regulated militia

Why was the National Security Agency's wiretapping of phone calls and email messages originating in the United States, first revealed by The New York Times in 2005, controversial?

The wiretapping had been authorized by President George W. Bush without approval from the courts. The wiretapping was specifically prohibited by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.

The Supreme Court consistently rules that the George W. Bush administration's practice of denying constitutional and legal protections to enemy combatants was:

Within the president's power as commander-in-chief

Which legal provision requires law enforcement officials to appear before a judge to specify the reason detaining an individual

Writ of habeas corpus

Under the 5th Amendment, suspects:

charged with a federal crime cannot be tried unless indicted by a grand jury

Escobedo vs. Illinois (1964)

extended the right to counsel to the custodial stage merged 6th and 5th amendment

Felker vs Turpin (1996)

law is designed to prevent frivilous and multiple federal court appeals: inmates can have multiple state appeals and only one federal appeal

Since the 1950s, what has been the government's approach to free speech?

- The Supreme Court has ruled that spoken words do not pose a true threat to national security, so Americans can speak their minds politically - Not a single individual has been convicted solely for criticizing the government's war policies - The Supreme Court has ruled that national security must truly be at risk before the government can limit speech