Civil Liberties

Stenberg v Carhart

5-4 Court ruled that a Nebraska partial Birth Abortion statues was unconstitutional lyrics vague because it failed to contain an exemption for a women's health. The laws was then unenforced and called in to question 29 other states law.

Hate Speech: R.A.V. v City of St. Paul (1992)

A St. Paul, Minnesota ordinance made it a crime to enrage in speech or action likely to arouse "anger, alarm, or resentment" on the bases of race, color, creed, religion, or gender. In the 2003 Court narrowed this definition, ruling that state governments could restrain hate speech if it had an intent of racial discrimination. To prevent disruption of university activity some universities have also created free speech zones that restrict the time, place, or manner of the speech

Selective Incorporation

A judicial doctrine whereby most but not all of the protections found in the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the state via the 14 Am.

Maranda v. Arizona

A landmark Supreme Court ruling held that the fifth am. Requires that individuals arrested for a crime must be advised of their right to remain silent and to have counsel present

Robert A. Levy

A lawyer, who worked as a constitutional fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute , decided it was time to test the legality of the statue, of the ban on guns set by the D.C.

Abington School District v Schempp (1963)

A year later, the Court ruled that state-mandated Bible readings or recitation of the Lord's prayer in public schools was also unconstitutional

Right to privacy

Definition: the right to be left alone; a Judicially created principle encompassing a variety of individuals actions protected by the penumbras cast by several constitutional amendments, including first amendment, third, fourth, ninyj, and fourteenth amendment. 1. As early as 1928, Justice Louis Brandeis hailed privacy as "the right to be left alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men" it was not until 1965 that the Court attempted to explain the origins of this right.

Birth control

Easy access to birth control wasn't always the case. Many states banned the sale to minors or prohibited the display of contraceptives. One of the last states to do away with this law was Connecticut. It outlawed the sale of them and prohibited physicians from discussing them with the pacients until the supreme court ruled it unconstitutional.

Gitlow vs New York

Gitlow, a socialist, was arrested for distributing copies of a "left-wing manifesto" that called for the establishment of socialism through strikes. Gitlow was convicted under a state criminal law, which punished advocating the overthrow of the government by force. Court nationalizes the Bill of Rights for the "first" time ("Incorporation Doctrine"). By the 1960's, the Court will apply almost all of the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states through the 14 Amendment's Due Process Clause.

Double Jeopardy Clause

Part of the fifth am. that protects individuals from being tried twice for the same crime in the same jurisdiction

Palko v Conneticut

Selective Incorporation was set out by the case. Frank Palko had been charged with first-degree murder. He was convicted instead of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The state of Connecticut appealed and won a new trial; this time the court found Palko guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death.Does Palko's second conviction violate the protection against double jeopardy guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment because this protection applies to the states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause?The Supreme Court upheld Palko's second conviction. In his majority opinion, Cardozo formulated principles that were to direct the Court's actions for the next three decades. He noted that some Bill of Rights guarantees--such as freedom of thought and speech--are fundamental, and that the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause absorbed these fundamental rights and applied them to the states. Protection against double jeopardy was not a fundamental right. Palko died in Connecticut's electric chair on April 12, 1938.

Webster v Reproductive Health Service

State - required fetal viability tests in the second trimester even though the tests increase the cost of an abortion considerably. Court also upheld Missouri's refusal to allow abortion to be performed in state-supported hospitals or by state - funded doctors or nurses. After Webster states began to in act stricter legislations.

Miranda rights

Statements that must be made by the police informing the suspect of his or her constitutional rights protected by the fifth am. Including the right to an attorney provided by the court if the suspect can not afford one

Brandenburg v Ohio (1969)

The Court fashioned a new test for deciding whether restain kinds of speech could be regulated y the government the direct incitement test

Roe V Wade

The Court found that a woman's right to an abortion was protected by the right to privacy that could be implied from specific guarantees found in the bill of rights applied to the states through the 14 am. 1. Justices Balckmun dived pregnancy into three stages A. A women's right to pregnancy gave her in absolute right in consultation with a physician, free from state interference, to terminate her pregnancy. B. The state's health interest gives them the right to regulate abortion but only to protect the women's health. C. Only when the fetus becomes potentially viable that the court said states interest in potentially outweighed a woman's privacy interest. Even in the third trimester abortion to save the life or health of the woman were to be legal. 2. Representative Henry Hyde persuaded congress to ban the use of medical funds for abortion for poor women and it was upheld in a later case.

Tenth Amendment

The final part of the Bill of Rights that defines the basic principles of American federalism in stating that the powers not delegated to the national government are reserved to the states or go to the people

Lemon Test

Three-Part test created by the Supreme Court for examining the Constitutionality of religious establishment issues 1. Had a legitimate secure purpose 2. Neither advanced nor inhibited religion 3. Did not foster an excessive governmental entanglement with religion ALSO in 1981, the Court ruled unconstitutional a Missouri Law prohibiting the use of state university buildings for religious worship, law has been used to ban religious groups from using school facilities

Fighting Words

Words that, "by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of peace," Fighting words are not subject to the restrictions of the 1 am. Was said in the case, Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire 1. Include Profanity, obscenity, and threats 2. Words do not have to be spoken fighting words could also come in a form of symbolic expression" man wore a shirt with slang words and walked into a courtroom"

The Sixth Amendment and Jury Trial

1. A person accused must enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial in which a group of the accused's act as a fact-finding, a deliberative body to determine innocent or guilty. Also the right to confront witnesses against him or her. The Court says that jury trials must be available if a prisoner is sentenced to six or more months of trial. Impartiality is a requirement of jury trials that jad undergone significant change, with the method of selecting jurors being the most frequently challenged part of the process. Lawyers have used per empty challenges which allow them to dismiss minorities from juries, especially when the defendant is a member of a minority.

Fifth Amendment: Self-Incriminatiom and Double Jeopardy

1. It provides that the individual being accused the right to bring their case before a grand jury of citizens who are charged with determining whether there is enough evidence for a case to go to trial 2. ALSO taking the fifth, meaning no accused person has to defend them self prove them self innocent. They do not have to answer questions and the failure to answer can not be used as evidence meaning that they are guilty. Lawyers can not use any of the defendants words if they were not given voluntarily.

The fourth Amendment: and search and siege

1. The fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable search and siege. It also sets out what may not be searched unless a warrant is issued 2. The purpose was to deny the national government the right to search houses unreasonably. 3.However, the Supreme court has allowed it so that the police can search: 1. The person arrested 2. Things in plain view of the accused person 3. Things or places that the arrested person could touch or reach or are otherwise in the arrestees immediate control 4. Warrantless searches are done if the police thinks that someone is c omitting or is going to commit a crime. In this case the officer could stop and frisk the individual under suspicion. In 1989 the Court ruled that their need to be a reasonable suspicion for stopping a suspect a much lower standard than probable cause. Searches could also be done without a warrant of consent is given from the owner. However if someone objects than they can't.

The Sixth Amendment: and the Rights to counsel

1. The sixty amendment guarantees to any accused person the Assistance of Counsel in his defence. In the past it meant that the individuals hire an attorney to his defense. Since many criminals are too poor to afford a lawyer, this was provided to help them with a little assistance. This was first requested in capital cases (death penalty is a possibility) eventually attorneys were provided to the poor in all federal criminal cases. 1. Gideon v Wainwright : a 51 year old was charged with breaking into a Panama City Florida pool hall and stealing beer, wine, and some from a vending machine. Since he was too poor to afford an attorney he was sent to five years in jail. He found this very unfair and wrote a writ of certiorari and then it was said that state's must provide an attorney to indigent defendants in felony cases. However, the Burger and Rehnquist Court expanded this rule first it was only applied to felonies, and later to many cases where probation and future penalties were possibilities. In 2008 the Court also ruled that the right to counsel began at the accused's first appearance before a judge. In 2005 the Court ruled that the sixth Amendment requires lawyers to take reasonable steps to preparing for their clients trial and sentencing including examine their prior history.

Towards Reform: Civil Liberties and Combating terrorism

1. USA PATRIOT ACT: violated the first amendment free spec ch guaranteed by barring those who have been subjected to search orders from telling anyone about those orders, even in situations where no secrecy could be proven. Also after 911 members of the media were told to say only the good aspects of US efforts to combat terrorism 2. Fourth Amendment: the USA Patriot Act enhances the ability of governments to curtail specific search and seizure in four areas. A.it allows the government to examine individuals private records help by third parties.B. it allows government to search private property without owner notice. C.Acording to American Civil Liberties Union Act, expands a narrow exception for the 4 am. That has been created for the collection of foreign intelligence information. The act expands an exception for spying that collects addressing information about where and to whom communications are going.

Slavery, The Civil War, and Rights Curtailments

After the public out cry of the Alien Sedition Act the national government stopped intervening with freedom of speech. But the State governments did not have to by that time the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states. So any talk or article about abolitionists or any positive information about slavery became a punishable offense in the north. In the south supporters of slavery enacted laws to prohibit publication of any anti-slave sediment. Southern postmasters for example refused to send out abolitionist newspapers, this led to some sort of censorship in the U.S. mail.

Incorporation Doctrine

An interpretation of the Constitution that holds the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment requires that the state and local governments must also guarantee the rights stated in the Bill of Rights

The Rights of Criminal Defendants

Article 1of constitution guarantees writs of habeas corpus, court order in which a judge asks the authorities to prove that someone is being help lawfully and allows prisoner to be free of judge does not agree with governments case. And also the person charged has the right to know what charges are made against them. 2. It also prohibits ex post facto laws, which means to make an act punishable if if it was legal before made into a crime 3. Also prohibits bill of attainder, a law declaring an act illegal without a judicial jury 4. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth am. Supplement these right with a variety of procedural guarantees, often called due process rights

Due Process Clause

Clause contained in the fifth and fourteenth amendment ; over the years it has been constructed to guarantee to individuals a variety of rights

Prior Restraint

Constitutional Doctrine that prevents the government from prohibiting speech or publication before the fact: generally held to be in violation of the first amendment

Christian Legal Society v Martinez

Court Ruled that the university of California Hastings College of Law could deny recognition and therefore funding to the Christian Legal Society because the group limits its membership to those who share same common faith orientation.

Engel v Vitale(1962)

Court ruled that a recitation in public school classroom of a brief nondenominational prayer drafted by the local school board was unconstitutional

Nebraska Press Association v. Stewart

Court ruled that any attempt by the government to prevent expression carried "a heavy presumption' against its constitutionality" , Press had a gag on not being able to describe the grusume happeneing s of a crime. Still judges are allowed to issue gag orders affecting parties lawsuit or time limit ppress coverage of case.

Lemon v Kurtzman

Court tried to carve out three a three-part test for laws dealing with religious establishment issues.

Freedom of Assembly and Petition

Dejonge v Oregon, incorporated the freedom of assembly clause to apply to the states

Freedom of Speech and press

Democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas. One of the most volatile interpretations to the constitution was this part of the first amendment. The speech and press clause have not been absolutely banned against government regulations. Over the year the judicial branch has taken a hierarchical approach on what the government can and cannot regulate with some liberties getting more protection than others. However, thoughts have had the greatest protection and actions or deed ave the least and words come right in the middle.

Second Amendment: Right to keep and Bear Arms

During colonial times white men were supose to keep guns at home to keep guns at home because of Native Americans and European Powers. The local militia was viewed as the best way to keep orders and protect liberty 1. Second Amendment added to ensure that Congress could not pass a law to disarm state militia. This amendment appeased anti-federalists who at the time we're scared the new government would take that away from them. Also the right to revolt against governmental tyranny. 2. Also in the Dred Scott case the justices viewed carrying a gun as a citizens right not slaves right or women's right. 3. In 1934 Congress passed the National Firearms Act because of the increase of organized crimes that occured as a result of prohibition. The act imposed taxes on automatic weapons and sawed off shotguns.

The Civil War,

During the civil war President Lincoln made it unlawful to print any criticisms of the national government or of the Civil War. Suspending the freedom of press in the first amendment. He went as far as arresting editors and newspaper people who did not abide by this law eve though the Court said it was unconstitutional. After the civil war states still went as far as arresting those who wrote or spoke badly of the government. Between 1890 and the mid 1900 about hundred were arrest for sedition. By the dawn of the twentieth century public opinion in the U.S. had grown increasingly hostile towards commentary of Socialists and Communists who appealed to growing immigrants population. By the end of WW1 over thirty stats had passed laws for sedition. And more than 1,900 individuals and over one hundred newspapers were prosecuted for violations. However, by 1925 states authority to regulate speech was severely restricted by the Court's decision to incorporate the free press portion of the first am. in Gitlow vs New York

Protected Speech and Press: Limiting Prior Restraint

Even though Congress tried to limit speech and press through the Alien Sedition Act in 1798, the Supreme Court did not take a firm stance until the 1970s

The Establishment Clause

Even though religion plays a major role in the government today, the Court have been strict to when it comes to separating church and state when issues of mandatory prayer in schools are involved.

Stromberg v California

First time Court acknowledged freedom of speech. Court overturned a camp directors convictions from a state statue prohibiting display of the red flag , a symbol of opposition of the U.S. government.

Partial Birth Abortion Act

In March 1996 and 1998 congress tried to restrict abortion rights. So they passed and sent Bill Clinton this bill a specific procedure used in late'term abortions. The president vetoed this. Yet, states still passed it . 3. By 2003 the Republicans controlled the white house and both congresses and facilitates passage of the act.

The Fourth and Fifth Amendments

In Weeks v U.S. the Supreme Court adopted the Exclusionary rules: Judicially created rules that prohibits police from using illegal seized evidence at trials 1. Mapp v Ohio: Waren Court decided that deterring police misconduct was most important. In 1961 Waren Court ruled that any evidence found in a search in seizure in violation of the Constitution is inadmissionable in a state court. 2. In 1976 the Court noticed that the Exclusionary rule deflects the true findings and let the guilty person go. After this the court has carved out some "good faith exceptions" to the Exclusionary rule, allowing the use of tainted evidence in a variety of special cases especially when police have a search warrant, in good faith, and conduct the search and the warrant is valid enough it can't be invalid. Another exception is "inevitable discovery", illegal evidence could be introduced only if it would have been likely to be discovered in the course of continuing investigation. As of 2006 the court ruled unanimously that any evidence collected under am anticipatory warrant one presented by the police, but not yet authorized by a judge is not acceptable.

Abortion

In the early 1960s two birth related strategies occured. Several deformed babies were born to women who had taken the drug thalidomide and a national wide measles epidemic resulted in the birth of babies with several problems. The increasing medical safety of abortion and growing women's right movement combined to put pressure on the legal medical establishment to support laws that would allow women have a safe and legal abortion 1. By 1960s about 14 states have voted to liberalize their abortion policy. And 4 discriminalized abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. In 1973 members of the Court agreed with this. The women whose case became the pro-life and pro-choice groups was Norma McCorvey an itinerant circus worker. A mother of a toddler she could not care for and can't leave another in her mother's care she decided to get an abortion. She was unable to get a safe abortion and was frightened by the condition she found of getting an illegal one. She was unable to give an abortion and gave birth and put baby up for adoption. The lawyers used the name Jane Roe for Norma as they challenged the Texas law enforced by Henry Wade the district attorney for Dallas County.

Griswold v Connecticut

Involved a challenge to the constitutionality of an 1879 Connecticut law prohibiting the discussion about and sale of birth control. Several of the justices decided that various portions of the Bill of Rights including the first, third, fiurtb, ninth, and fourteenth am. cast what the Court's called "penumbras" (unstated liberties on the infringes or in the shadow of more explicit stated rights) thereby creating a zone of privacy, including a married couples right to plan a family. Later the Court expanded the right to privacy to include the right of unmarried individual's to have access to contraceptives l.

Substantive due process

Judicial interpretation of the fifth and fourteenth amendments' due process clause that protects citizens from arbitrary or unjust state or federal law

Planned parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey

Justice O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter said that Pennsylvania could limit abortions so long as it regulations did not a pose an undue burden on pregnant women. So it took away the trimester approach and substituted the undue burden standard for the trimester approach used in Roe.

Homosexuality

Lawrence v Texas six members of the Court overruled it's decision in Browers v Hardswick which had upheld anti-sodomy laws - and found Texas law unconstitutional

Libel and Slander

Libel: Written statement that defames a person's character 1. Suing for libel in any other country is easy but in the U.S. one has to show truth and that is the absolute defense against libel 2. New York Times Co. v Sullivan: Case in which the Supreme Court concluded that "actual Malice" must be proven to support a finding of a libel against a public figure Slander: Untrue spoken statements that defame the character of a person

Guarantees are not always true?

Mormons practices polygamy, after the U.S. ban on this, letting them practice this even though it is a law, would bring in other practices like human sacrifice

Protecting the wrongfully Convicted

Northwestern University students found that 13 men were released that were on death row 2. Democratic Governor of Maryland followed suit after receiving evidence that blacks we more likely to be send to death row than whites, but republican governor that followed lifted the stray. 3. Illinois governor Ryan continued his anti-death penalty crusade after taking 167 death row inmates and giving them life imprisonment. 4. House v Bell (2006): Court ruled in Tennessee that death row inmates who had exhausted other federal appeals was entitled to an exception to more stringent federal appeal rules due to DNA and related evidence suggesting his innocence. However, in 2009 that convicted inmates do not have constitutional right to DNA tesing.

Selective Incorporation and the Fundamental Freedoms

Not all of the Bill of Rights have been made to apply to the stats through due process clause of the 14 am. Instead the Court has used the process of Selective Incorporation to limit the rights of states by protecting against abridgment of fudemental freedoms

Ninth Amendemnt

Part of the Bill of Rights that amkes it clear that enumerating rights in the Constitution or Bill of Rights does not mean that others do not exist

First Amendment

Part of the Bill of Rights that imposes a number of restrictions on the federal government with respect to civil liberties, including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

DC v Heller

Provisions of the District of Columbia Code made it illegal to carry an unregistered firearm and prohibited the registration of handguns, though the chief of police could issue one-year licenses for handguns. The Code also contained provisions that required owners of lawfully registered firearms to keep them unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or other similar device unless the firearms were located in a place of business or being used for legal recreational activities. Dick Anthony Heller was a D.C. special police officer who was authorized to carry a handgun while on duty. He applied for a one-year license for a handgun he wished to keep at home, but his application was denied.Do the provisions of the District of Columbia Code that restrict the licensing of handguns and require licensed firearms kept in the home to be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment? The ban on registering handguns and the requirement to keep guns in the home disassembled or nonfunctional with a trigger lock mechanism violate the Second Amendment. Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion for the 5-4 majority.

McDonald v City of Chicago

Several suits were filed against Chicago and Oak Park in Illinois challenging their gun bans after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller. In that case, the Supreme Court held that a District of Columbia handgun ban violated the Second Amendment. There, the Court reasoned that the law in question was enacted under the authority of the federal government and, thus, the Second Amendment was applicable. Here, plaintiffs argued that the Second Amendment should also apply to the states. The district court dismissed the suits. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed. Does the Second Amendment apply to the states because it is incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges and Immunities or Due Process clauses and thereby made applicable to the states? (5-4 for Mcdonald) the Court reasoned that rights that are "fundamental to the Nation's scheme of ordered liberty" or that are "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition" are appropriately applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court recognized in Heller that the right to self-defense was one such "fundamental" and "deeply rooted" right. The Court reasoned that because of its holding in Heller, the Second Amendment applied to the states. Here, the Court remanded the case to the Seventh Circuit to determine whether Chicago's handgun ban violated an individual's right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.

Symbolic Speech

Symbols, signs, and other methods of expression generally considered to be protected by the first amendment

Clear and Present Test

Test articulated by the Court to draw the line between protected and unprotected speech; the "Court" looks to see whether the words used could create a clear and present danger that will bring about substantive evil that congress seeks "to prevent"\ 1. Under this test anti-war leaflets will be permissible during peace time, but during WW1 they opposed to much of a danger to be permissible. 2. Also Schneck is famous for Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's saying that crying "Fire!" in a crowded theater is not considered protected speech.

Direct Incitement Test

Test articulated by the Supreme Court in Brandenburg v Ohio that holds that advocacy of illegal actions is protected by the first am. unless imminent lawless action is intended and likely to occur 1. The requirement of "imminent lawless action" makes it difficult for the government to punish speech and publications and is consistent with the Framers' notion of the special role played by the elements in a democratic society

The Incorporation Doctrine: The Bill of Rights Made Applicable to the States

The Bill of Rights were made to restrain the power of the federal government to infringe on the rights and liberties of the citizens. However, in Barron v Baltimore the U.S. Supreme court ruled that the Bill of Rights only pertained to the national government not the state. 1. In 1868, however, the fourteenth amendment was added, and it suggested that some or all of the Bill of Rights could restrain the power of the state government as well making it apply to the states as well. 2. Over the course of the century the Court has rejected many arguments urging it to interpret the due process clause 3. In 1897, the Court began to increase its jurisdiction on the states

First Amendment Guarantees Freedom of Religion

The Framers distaste for a national church or religion was reflected in the Constitution. Article VI, " no religious test shall ever be required for a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States"

Due process Rights

The Military Comission act also eliminates the right to bring any challenge to *detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinements* of detainees. It allows the government to declare someone ad an enemy combatant and to allow that person to go to jail. However the Robert Court found part of it unconsitutional finding that detainees could challenge their extended incarnation in federal court. They have no right to an attorney and they have no access to evidence used against them.

Gonzales Carhart

The Robert court said the direction they were hiding with abortion cases. The law contained no exemption for the health of the mother. This case has empowered states to enact abortion regulations with new gusto.

U.S. v Miller

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the act, stating that the 2 amendment was intended to protect a citizens right to own ordinary militia weapons and not sawed off shotguns.

Schenck v US

The Supreme court said that congress had the right to restrict freedom of speech, if it was present danger that will bring about substantive evils that congress has a right to prevent,

Near v Minnesota

The U.S. Supreme Court further developed this doctrine by holding that a state law violated the First Amendments' freedom of the press

Roots of Civil Liberties: The Bill of Rights

The anit- federalist stressed about the government that was going to be built and if the national government was trusted to be able to hold up the freedom already granted to the citizens by the states (speech,religion,, unreasonable search and siege, and trial by jury)

D.C. v Heller

The court ruled that the second amendment protected an individual's right 5 own a firearm for personal use. 1. Because of this city council and states adapted new gun control laws and requin gun registrations and prohibiting as sultry weapons and large capacity magazines.. it also incorporated the second Am.

Establishment Clause

The first clause of the first amendment ; it directs the national government not to sanction an official religion.

Free Exercise Clause

The free exercise clause could post difficult questions to solve and it is not absolute. 1. When secular laws come into conflict with religious laws, the right o exercise ones religious belief is often denied

Civil Rights

The government protected rights of individuals against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government or individuals

WW1 and Anti-Governmental Speech

The next major national efforts to restrict freedom of speech and press did not occur until congress, at the urge of the president Woodrow Wilson during WW1. They passed the Espionage Act in 1917, nearly 2,000 citizens were convicted of violating this law, which made it illegal to urge resistance to of the draft and nay anti-war leaflets.

Civil Liberties

The personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge by the law, constitution, or judicial interpretation. They place limitations on the power of the national government to restrain or dictate an individual's actions. 1. resolutions of civil liberties questions often fall to the judiciary, which must balance the competing interest of the federal government and the people.

First Amendment Guarantee: Freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and petition

The remaining parts of the first amendment have been scrutinized by the federal government. For example the Court allows in times of war for congress and the executive branch to put restraints on the first amendment freedoms.

Free exercise clause

The second clause of the first amendment; it prohibits the U.S. government from interfering with a citizen's right to practice his or her religion

Fundamental Freedoms

Those rights defined by the Court to be essential to order, liberty, and justice, and therefore entitled to the highest standard of review.

The Eighth Amendment and Cruel and Unusual Punishment

U.S is the only western nation to put people to death for commuting a crime. 1.there are tremendous regional difference in the imposition of the death penalty, with the south leading in the number of men and women executed each year. 2. The Supreme Court says the death by public shooting or electrecution is not cruel or unusual punishment was not the same as inflicted torture 3. Furman v Georgia : the supreme court effectively put an end to capital punishment, at least in the short run. The Court ruled that because the death penalty often was imposed in an arbitrary manner, it constituted cruel and Unusual Punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. After this state legislative enacted new laws designed to meet the Court's objections to the arbitrary nature of the sentence. 3. Gregg v Georgia: georgia's rewritten death penalty statue was ruled constitutional by the Court in 7-2 decision. The ruling did not deter the NAACP or LDF from continuing to bring death penalty cases before the Court. In 1987 a 5-4 decision the Court ruled that imposition of the death penalty even though it appears to discriminate against African Americans was not unconstitutional and did not violate the equal protection clause. 4. McClesky v Zant: produced a new standard making it more difficult for for death-row inmates to file repeat appeals. One Justice, Lewis Powell, said he regretted his vote and wished he could have voted the other way. The case has exclude two types of people from the death penalty mental and under 18 years of age.

Obscenity

U.S. Court bases what is obscene based on an English common-law test that have been set out in 1868 "Whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprive and crrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publications of this sort might fall" 1. Roth v U.S. the Roth test was brought forth , "The material in question had to be utterly without redeeming social importance " and articulated a new test, "Whether to the average person, appying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest" 2. President Nixon made the growth of porn a major issue and said when he gets elected he will choose judges that do not coddle criminals and purveyors porn.

Second Amendemet

Unlike the other amendments the second amendments was payed little to now attention, before 2008 the court has not directly considered the amendment in nearly 70 years, although gun control was a hot topic in the national and state legislature. 1. Federal gov't was also active in legislating firearm issues by (placing wait time on purchase of weapons, prohibiting ownership of certain types of weapons), many states have enacted similar restrictions. 2. D.c has passed total law on ban gun ownership in 1976, and the laws went relatively unchanged.

The Bill of Rights was not Necessary- Federalist

When George Madison of Virginia proposed to add the Bill of Rights at the Constitutional Convention, he was defeated unanimously. Why did they not think it was necessary? 1. Was not necessary in a constitutional republic founded on the idea of popular sovereignty and inalienable, natural rights. Also most states government already gave bill of rights, so federal guarantee was unnecessary 2. Alexander Hamilton said it would be dangerous (in Federalist No. 48) He said there are already enumerated powers, and why state prohibitions if there is no power to do them? 3. A national bill of rights would be hard to enforce. It would largely depend on public opinion and the spirit of the people and the national government

The Alien and Sedition Act

When the first amendment was ratified it was thought to protect against prior restraint. However, in 1798 the Federalist Congress along with President John Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Act. Which banned any criticism of the national government by the growing number of Democratic Republicans. It made it so any scandalous, lies, writing about the United States government was a criminal offense. However, in the election of 1800 which led to the election of Thomas Jefferson a vocal opponent of the act. He pardoned all who were convicted under their provision and the Democratic- Republican Congress allowed the acts to expire before the Federalist controlled Court ruled the constitutionality of it.

Bill of Rights

the first ten amendments to the U.S. constitution, which largely guarantee specific rights and liberties