Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

9th Amendment

" The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be constructed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." This amendment basically states that there are other rights not directly stated in the Constitution that cannot be violated as well.

Franchise

A right or privilege. In the context of American politics, it means the right to vote.

10th Amendment

" The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Since the Founders of the Constitution made a Constitution with the people as the ultimate power, it gave the people the power that was not directly for another body of government.

Separation of Church and State

A basic principle of American government that no single religion should be favored by government over other religions, nor should government interfere with the right to practice or not practice religious beliefs. This term was used in 1802 by President Thomas Jefferson to explain his understanding of the protection of religious freedom afforded by the Constitution.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

A criminal sanction or penalty that is not in accord with the moral standards of a humane and compassionate society. The Eighth Amendment prohibits such punishments.

Indictment

A formal charge by a grand jury accusing a person of having committed a crime.

Affidavit

A formally sworn statement

Self Incrimination

A guarantee found in the Fifth Amendment against being compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against oneself.

Grand Jury

A panel of jurors designated to inquire into alleged violations of the law in order to ascertain whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant trial. Contrasted with the "petite jury", usually composed to twelve people, of an ordinary trial.

Affirmative Action

A plan or program intended to remedy the effects of past discrimination in employment, education, or other activity and to prevent its recurrence. Such programs may or may not include preferential policies in which a group or groups are preferred over others in the award of some benefit.

Compelling State Interest

A public or common good claimed to take precedence over individual interests or, in some cases, rights.

Due Process of Law

A requirement stated in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments that treatment by state and federal governments in matters of life, liberty, or property of individuals be reasonable, fair, and follow known rules and procedures.

Equality of Opportunity

A right guaranteed by both federal and many state laws against discrimination in employment, education, housing, or credit rights due to a person's race, color, sex, and sometimes sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, handicap.

Adversary System

A system of justice in which court trials are essentially contest between accuser and accused that take place before an impartial judge or jury.

Inquisitorial System

A trial system in which a judicial office or set of officials acts as both prosecutor and judge, questioning witnesses, examining evidence, and reaching a verdict

Political Rights

All rights of a citizen in a free society that are clearly expressed and guaranteed by the Constitution and implied by natural laws.

Established Church

An official, state-sponsored religion, such as those in dozens of countries that have official state religions, including Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Eastern Orthodox , Buddhism , Islam, and others. States with established churches include Argentina, Denmark, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

Warrant

An order by a judge authorizing a police officer to make an arrest or search or perform some other designated act.

Gag Rule

Any rule restricting open discussion or debate on a particular issue.

Freedom of Expression

As provided for in the First Amendment, the right to make known one's attitudes, thoughts, or feelings in a variety of contexts, such as speech, writing, and the arts.

Equality of Condition

Equality in all aspects of life, such as wealth, standards of living, medical care, and working conditions.

Fundamental Rights

Fundamental Rights such as those to life, liberty, and property; founded on human principles and the foundation of existence.

Public Forum

Geographical places in a community, such as streets, parks, or virtual reality sites, where people can express and exchange their views.

Enfranchisement

Giving the right to vote to a person or category or persons.

Time, Place, and Manner Restrictions

Government regulations that place restrictions on free speech. These regulations, specifying when, where, and in what way speech is allowed, are applied when unrestricted free speech will conflict with the rights of others.

Classes and Categories of Individuals

Groups of individuals within a society who can be recognized in the law as having certain rights. For example, laws may grant such rights to children, the mentally ill or disabled, veterans, and those who hold professional qualifications, such as teachers, doctors, attorneys, building contractors, and airplane.

Rational Basis

In U.S. constitutional law, the lowest level of scrutiny applied by courts deciding constitutional issues through judicial review.

Intermediate Scrutiny

In U.S. constitutional laws, the middle level of scrutiny applied by courts deciding constitutional issues through judicial review.

Search

In the context of American constitutional law, intrusion into someone's privacy.

Seizure

In the context of U.S. constitutional law, interference with a person's property or freedom of movement.

Autonomy

Independence, freedom, or the right to self-governance.

Substantive Due Process

Judicial interpretations of the due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution requiring the content of law to be fair and reasonable.

Bail

Money or other security given to obtain an arrested person's release from legal custody, which is forfeited if the individual subsequently fails to appear before the court for trial.

Rights

Moral or legal claims justified in ways that are generally accepted within a society or the international community.

Right to Counsel

Part of the right to a fair trial, allowing for the defendant to be assisted by an attorney, and if the defendant cannot afford counsel, requiring that the state appoint an attorney or pay the defendant's legal fees.

Plea Agreement

Pleading guilty to a lesser crime than that charged by a prosecutor.

Libel

Published words or pictures that falsely and maliciously defame a person.

Reasonableness

Quality of what a rational and fair minded person might say.

De Jure Segregation

Racial or other separation not mandated by law.

De facto segregation

Racial or other separation not mandated by law.

Probable Cause

Reasonable grounds for presuming that a crime has been or is in the process of being committed. Provided for in the Fourth Amendment.

Reverse Discrimination

The argument that preferential policies found in certain affirmative action programs discriminate against majority groups.

Separate But Equal

The argument, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) but later reversed, that racially segregated public facilities are constitutional if those facilities are of equal of opportunity.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights lists many basic rights that the federal government may not interfere with and must protect. Nearly all these rights are now also protected from violation by state government.

Right to Associate

The freedom to meet with others political or any other lawful purposes.

Right to Petition

The legal claim that allows citizens to urge their government to correct wrongs and injustices or to take some other actions.

Civil Disobedience

The nonviolent refusal to obey laws that citizens regard as unjust or in protest of specific public public policy.

Free Exercise Clause

The part of the First Amendment stating that Congress shall make no laws that prevent people from holding whatever religious beliefs they choose or that unfairly or unreasonably limit the right to practice religious beliefs.

Establishment Clause

The part of the First Amendment that prohibits the government from declaring an official religion.

Procedural Due Process

The principle that government must respect all, not some , of a person's legal rights. Government must not subject individuals to unreasonable, unfair, or arbitrary treatment.

Preferred Position

The principle that the right of free expression occupies a higher position than other rights given in the Constitution.

Incorporation

The process through which the U.S. Supreme Court has applied the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to extend the reach of the Bill of Rights to include protection from interference by states.

Double Jeopardy

The provision in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that a person may not be tried twice for the same crime.

Civil Rights

The right belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship. In the United States, the term refers especially to the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of Congress. These include civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from discrimination.

Right to Assemble

The right or legal claim provided for in the First Amendment that allows people to meet to discuss and express their beliefs, ideas, or feelings, especially in a political context.

Exclusionary Rule

The rule established by the U.S. Supreme Court that evidence unconstitutionally gathered by law enforcement officers may not be used against a defendant in a trial.

Capital Punishment

The use of the death penalty by a judicial system.

Broad Interpretation

The view that the First Amendment prevents government from providing any aid to any religion.

Literal Interpretation

The view that the First Amendment prohibits only the establishment of an official government religion.

Economic Rights

Those rights essential to citizens that allow them to earn a living, to acquire and transfer property, and to produce, buy, and sell goods and services in free markets.

Personal Rights

Those rights of individuals in their private capacity, such as the rights to life and liberty, as distinguished from the political rights of citizens, such as the right to vote and to hold public office.

Negative Rights

Those rights that prohibit government from acting in certain ways; rights that are not to be interfered with.

Positive Rights

Those rights that require overt government action, as opposed to negative rights that require government not to act in specific ways. Examples of positive rights are those to public education and, in some cases, to medical care, old age pensions, food, or housing.

Strict Scrutiny

Under U.S. constitutional law, the second highest level of scrutiny used by courts reviewing federal law for constitutional legitimacy.

Seditious Libel

Written language that seeks to convince others to engage in the overthrow of a government.

Prior Restraint

a censorship of the national press that cannot be placed by federal or state governments except under very narrowly defined circumstances, as is the guarantee of free press under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Use Immunity

a guarantee government prosecutors give to a witness to not use the witness's self-incriminating compelled testimony as evidence against the witness in a subsequent criminal prosecution; witness who receives use immunity may be prosecuted but based only on evidence not gathered from the protected testimony.

Symbolic Speech

an act that conveys a political message, though not in a written or spoken way, such as burning flag; many forms are seen as offensive and controversial.

Least Restrictive Means

if a restriction of expression is necessary, it should use the least restrictive method to achieve its goal.

Clarity

laws or restrictions on expression must be specific and clear in what is permitted or not permitted by them.

Obscenity

offensive, graphic, inappropriate, or explicit material and/or speech lacking any literary, artistic, political, or scientific value that people may not necessarily like and want to limit

Reasonable Suspicion

standard that requires less than probable cause but is more than a hunch; requires the combination of specific facts and certain circumstances for officers to reasonably suspect a person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity.

Good-Faith Exception

the exemption to the exclusionary rule in that if a police officer acted upon a legally issued warrant that was declared invalid afterwards, all evidence collected could still be used in trial because the officer acted in "good faith" with the warrant; created by United States v. Leon (1984).

Equality of Opportunity

the guarantee that every citizen has an equal chance to do whatever they choose to do.

Equality of Results

the guarantee that every citizen will achieve what they choose to do... the equality of results cannot be guaranteed the equal amount of success that someone else earns.

Neutrality

the principle where any restriction on speech must be neutral—in essence, all restrictions on expression must not favor one group more than another.

Imminent Danger

the principle where punishment for uttering inflammatory sentiments allowed only if there is an threat that the sentiments could incite an unlawful or rebellious act.

Narrow Interpretation

the view that the First Amendment prohibits government from giving one religious group preferred treatment