gov chap 4

The individual right that is widely regarded as the most basic of individual rights is

freedom of expression.

Gideon v. Wainwright required the states to

furnish attorneys for poor defendants in felony cases.

In the case of McNabb v. United States, Justice Felix Frankfurter defined the "history of liberty" primarily in terms of whether

governments had observed procedural guarantees.

The USA Patriot Act

grants the government new powers of surveillance, relaxed restrictions on the sharing of intelligence surveillance information with criminal investigators, gives intelligence agencies the authority to share crime-related information with law enforcement agencies, was enacted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Supreme Court

has generally protected symbolic speech, though less substantially than it has protected verbal speech.

Like all other rights, the right of free expression is

not absolute.

The conviction of members of the U.S. Communist Party in the early 1950s was initially upheld as a lawful restriction of the right

of free speech.

The Supreme Court's position on prior restraint of the press is that

prior restraint should apply only in rare circumstances, and it is better to hold the press responsible for what it has printed than to restrict what it may print.

In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the justices

reaffirmed the essential aspects of Roe v. Wade.

Justice Holmes's "clear and present danger" test holds that government can

restrict speech that threatens national security.

The inclusion of certain provisions of the Bill of Rights in the Fourteenth Amendment, so that these rights are protected from infringements by the state governments, is called

selective incorporation.

Explain the concept of prior restraint of the press. Include one example of how the Supreme Court has ruled on this issue

Prior restraint is government prohibition of speech or publication before the fact. The Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional, except in extreme circumstances of national security or public safety, as an illegal restraint on free expression. The burden of proof in such instances is on the government: it must clearly show that a grave danger would result from the publication. The doctrine of prior restraint was detailed in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971).

The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from

unreasonable searches.

Government can lawfully prevent a political rally from taking place

when it can demonstrate that harmful acts will necessarily result from the rally

Libel applies to defamation of an individual's reputation through the

written word.

The exclusionary rule states that

evidence obtained illegally is inadmissible in court.

According to the Supreme Court, prayer in public schools violates

the establishment clause.

Spoken words that are known to be false and harmful to a person's reputation are an example of

slander

In Schenck v. United States (1919), the Supreme Court ruled that

speech could be restricted when the nation's security is at stake.

The Supreme Court has reasoned that a right of privacy is provided by

the implication of said right by the freedoms in the Bill of Rights..

Which of the following, relative to the others, is typically more protective of individual rights?

the judiciary

________ has executed more convicted criminals in the past quarter century than any other state.

texas

Which of the following is the only country that comes close to the United States in terms of the percentage of its citizens who are behind bars?

Russia

In 2007 the Supreme Court reversed its stance on partial-birth abortion, largely due to the replacement of Sandra Day O'Connor with

Samuel Alito.

"You have the right to remain silent....Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law....You have the right to an attorney." This is called

the Miranda warning.

The Supreme Court upheld the use of tax-supported vouchers to attend private or parochial school in

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.

. In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the Supreme Court justices determined that

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

Which of the following amendments contains a due process clause?

14th

In the Constitution, procedural due process is protected by the

4-6th, 14th

Gideon v. Wainwright is to the Sixth Amendment as Mapp v. Ohio is to the

4th

Which constitutional amendment protects the individual against self-incrimination?

5th

The right to counsel is guaranteed by the ________ Amendment.

6th

The Miranda warning was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000 in

Dickerson v. United States.

Voluntary school prayer in the public schools was ruled unconstitutional in

Engel v. Vitale (1962).

Justice Stone argued in 1938 that

First Amendment rights are the basis of most other rights.

Since the 1980s, the Supreme Court has addressed the exclusionary rule by

None of these answers is correct.

Which of the following is correct with regard to obscenity and the law?

Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

Explain the concept of procedural due process and list several of the procedural rights protected by the Constitution. Do these rights apply to all levels of government? Explain.

Procedural due process refers to procedures or methods that government must follow before a person can legally be deprived of life, liberty, or property. The U.S. Constitution offers procedural safeguards designed to protect a person from wrongful arrest, conviction, and punishment. These procedures include prohibitions on unreasonable search and seizure, self-incrimination, double jeopardy, and excessive bail or fine, and include guarantees of legal counsel, jury trial, speedy trial, and the confrontation of witnesses. These rights apply to the federal government through the Bill of Rights and have been extended to cover state action by selective incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment.

According to the Supreme Court, which is true regarding freedom of assembly?

Public officials can regulate the time, place, and conditions of public assembly, provided the regulations are reasonable

The right to privacy was instrumental in which decision?

Roe v. Wade

What is meant by selective incorporation? Discuss the history of this process and its importance to the protection of individual rights.

Selective incorporation refers to the absorption of certain provisions of the Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech and press, into the Fourteenth Amendment. These rights are thereby protected from infringement by the states. After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was debated in Congress. There was no indication its framers intended it to protect First Amendment rights, such as freedom of speech and press, from state action. Seventy years later, the Supreme Court invoked the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause in a free speech case, which was followed by a series of cases that established the process of selective incorporation. In doing so, the Court declared certain rights to be a fundamental part of democratic society and, therefore, to be protected from state intervention. At first, the Court included only free expression rights in its interpretation. In the 1960s, selective incorporation was used also to protect fair trial rights.

Which of the following is true about the Sedition Act of 1798?

The Act prohibited malicious newspaper stories about the president.

Which of the following is true of the appeal process?

The Constitution does not guarantee an appeal after conviction, but the federal government and all states permit at least one appeal.

How did the Supreme Court's position on the rights of the accused in state courts change in the 1960s?

The Supreme Court began to protect the rights of the accused from action by the states.

How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment in recent years? Explain.

The Supreme Court has typically let Congress and the state legislatures determine the appropriate penalties for crime. It has upheld some challenged state punishments in high profile cases, and some states continue to have extremely high incarceration and execution rates. With regard to the death penalty, however, the Court has placed some limits on states' ability to execute prisoners, particularly mentally retarded and juvenile ones.

Discuss the differences between the First Amendment's establishment and free exercise clauses.

The establishment clause has been interpreted by the courts as meaning that the government may not favor one religion over another or support religion over no religion at all. Thus, a wall of separation must be maintained between church and state. The free exercise clause means that Americans are free to hold any religious beliefs they want, although they are not always free to act on their beliefs. The Supreme Court has allowed government interference when the exercise of religious belief conflicts with otherwise valid law.

According to the Supreme Court, prior restraint on the press is only acceptable if

the government can clearly justify the restriction.

What is the greatest restriction on appeals in the United States?

a federal law that bars in most instances a second federal appeal by a state prison inmate

The individual freedoms in the Bill of Rights were extended by the Fourteenth Amendment to include protection from deprivation of due process rights by

actions of state and local governments.

When can police legally begin their interrogation of a suspect?

after the suspect has been warned that his or her words can be used as evidence

What Illinois policy did the Supreme Court invalidate with its decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968)?

allowing the prosecution an unlimited number of challenges in capital cases

The inevitable discovery exception

allows the use of evidence that would have been discovered regardless by other means or through other forms of evidence.

The term "civil liberties" refers to specific individual rights that

are constitutionally protected from infringement by government

If a person yells "fire" in a crowded theater when there is no fire, and people are hurt in the ensuing panic, that individual abused his freedom of speech according to the doctrine of

clear and present danger

In Mapp v. Ohio, the selective incorporation process was extended to include

criminal proceedings in the states.

In a 2004 case involving the issue of whether a U.S. citizen accused of terrorist acts is entitled to constitutional protections, the Supreme Court held that such citizens

do have the right to a judicial hearing.

The Lemon test is designed to

ensure the secular nature of a government action.

The establishment clause prohibits government from

favoring one religion over another or supporting religion over no religion.

The freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and petition are found in

first amendment

In the Johnson flag-burning case, the Supreme Court ruled that

flag burning, although offensive, cannot be prohibited.