Federal Government | Chapter 4: Supreme Court and 4th Amendment Challenges
Griswold v. Connecticut was a case dealing with ______.
the right to privacy
In following the Eighth Amendment, the Supreme Court has used which of the following tests to determine if an action constitutes cruel and unusual punishment?
- determining if a punishment is "unnecessarily cruel" - determining whether a punishment is "disproportionate to the offence" - determining if a punishment violates "fundamental standards of good conscience and fairness"
The Bill of Rights protects a number of civil liberties, including freedom ______.
- of the press - of speech - of assembly
What has the Supreme Court ruled concerning police use of modern technology, such as listening or thermal-imaging devices, to investigate a subject?
A search warrant is required, just as it would be for other circumstances.
In which case did the Supreme Court rule that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm unconnected to service in a militia?
District of Columbia v. Heller
Which of the following is a description of the plain view exception?
Evidence found in plain sight is admissible even if a suspect was stopped for another, unrelated infraction.
True or false: In a 1992 cases involving a St. Paul, Minnesota, city ordinance, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can restrict hate speech as it causes "anger or alarm."
False
True or false: The right to appeal after conviction is guaranteed in the Constitution.
False
Which amendment to the United States Constitution protects individuals from testifying against themselves in a court of law?
Fifth
Match the constitutional amendment to the right(s) it protects.
First Amendment = right to speech, press, assembly and religion Second Amendment = right to bear arms Fourth Amendment = protection against unreasonable search and seizure Fifth Amendment = protection against self-incrimination and double jeopardy Sixth Amendment = right to a jury trial, an attorney, and to confront witnesses Eighth Amendment = protection against cruel and unusual punishment
Match the Supreme Court case with the freedom incorporated into the states.
Fiske v. Kansas = freedom of speech Near v. Minnesota = freedom of press Hamilton v. Regents, U of C = freedom of religion DeJonge v. Oregon = freedom of assembly
In 1993, a Wisconsin law that allowed lengthier sentences for hate crimes was challenged as a violation of the First Amendment. How did the Court rule?
It upheld the law because it was not aimed at free speech but at actions that were not protected by the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court upheld the forced relocation of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II in which of the following cases?
Korematsu v. United States
The Supreme Court determined that privacy rights extend to consensual activity between same-sex partners in ______.
Lawrence v. Texas
In which of these cases did the Supreme Court rule that the Second Amendment, with some restrictions, prohibited state and local governments from effectively banning gun ownership?
McDonald v. Chicago
What was challenged by Lawrence v. Texas (2003)?
Texas's sodomy laws
In a 2020 case, what did the Supreme Court rule concerning a Montana law denying scholarship funds for children attending religious schools but granting them for children attending private secular schools?
The Court overturned the law, ruling that states cannot disqualify private schools solely because they are religious.
The Supreme Court decision in Schenck v. United States established which principle?
The federal government can restrict free expression but it does not have unlimited authority to do so.
What unique circumstance existed at the time of the Korematsu v. United States decision?
The nation was at war.
Why was the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' phone records, as revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013, ruled unlawful by a Federal appellate court?
The program had not been authorized by Congress.
True or false: Although it is a core principle for most Americans, the right to privacy is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.
True
True or false: The Supreme Court ruled that school administrators have discretion in searching student lockers for drugs and weapons, as they are responsible for student safety.
True
Passed by Congress soon after the 9/11 attacks, the law that allows the FBI and other intelligence agencies to access personal information and records without consent from targeted individuals is known as the ______.
USA Patriot Act
The exclusionary rule is based on the Supreme Court decision in ______.
Weeks v. United States
The importance of listing individual rights in the Constitution is that it gives individuals who feel that their rights have been violated ______.
a basis for taking the alleged violation into a court of law for a ruling by a judge
According to this test, before speech can be restricted, the government must clearly demonstrate that a citizen's expression presents a very obvious and real danger to the public safety.
clear-and-present-danger test
The USA Patriot Act was passed in order to ______.
combat terrorism
Concerning symbolic speech, the Supreme Court has generally held that government regulation of the ______ of a message is unconstitutional. (This was illustrated by a Texas flag-burning case; the state of Texas actually burns old flags to dispose of them.)
content
The Eighth Amendment protects people convicted of crimes from ______.
cruel and unusual punishment
Which of the following is likely to convince a judge that police should be issued a search warrant?
establishing probable cause for believing a crime has been committed
Match the clause with its description.
establishment clause = requires government neutrality toward religious institutions free-exercise clause = prohibits the government from interfering with individuals' practice of their religion
The ______ clause of the First Amendment bans the state from helping religious institutions, whereas the ______ clause bans the state from restricting the free practice of religion by individuals.
establishment; free-exercise
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
In its rulings in Riley v. California (2014) and United States v. Wurie (2014), the Supreme Court acknowledged that the decisions would ______.
impact law enforcement's ability to combat crime
The barrier to restrict speech established in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) is best described as ______.
imposing
The Supreme Court has ruled that, despite the exclusionary rule, evidence discovered under a faulty warrant is admissible if the police have acted ______.
in good faith
In Gitlow v. New York (1925), the Supreme Court ruled that the Bill of Rights protects ______.
individuals from actions by state governments as well as the federal government
As a result of changes in sentencing policies, the U.S. prison population, per capita, ______.
is the largest in the world
Which of these groups is typically more protective of individual rights?
judges
The Sedition Act of 1798 attempted to ______.
make it a crime to publish stories that are harshly critical of the president
Which of the following allows the admission of evidence that was immediately visible in the course of stopping a person for another infraction?
plain view exception
In the case of New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that ______.
prior restraint is unconstitutional without a compelling argument for the restriction
Which term describes the set of procedures authorities must follow before a person can be lawfully punished for an offense?
procedural due process
According to the establishment clause, the government is required to ______.
remain neutral toward all religions
The Supreme Court has upheld a law banning what is termed a "partial-birth abortion." In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg maintained that the law ______.
risks women's lives and health
In a 2010 CNN survey, 2 in 5 Americans stated that individuals arrested by police on suspicion of terrorism ______.
should not be read their Miranda rights
Freedom of ________ is the right of individual Americans to hold and communicate thoughts of their choosing.
speech
In Mapp v. Ohio (1961), the Supreme Court extended the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure to action by _________ governments.
state
In a case involving protester Gregory Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag was protected specifically as ______ speech.
symbolic
In the process of selective incorporation, which is the amendment that the Supreme Court relies on to apply most, but not all, of the provisions of the Bill of Rights to actions by the state governments?
the Fourteenth Amendment
Today, most of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights are protected from action by which of the following?
the federal and state governments
Which of the following allows the admission into trial of otherwise excludable evidence if the evidence was obtained by police who thought they were following proper procedure?
the good faith exception
In the 1963 Gideon case, the Supreme Court established that ______.
the government must provide lawyers to individuals who cannot afford their own attorney
In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) the Supreme Court developed which of the following tests that expanded protections for Americans to voice political opinions?
the imminent lawless action test
The 1977 Supreme Court case that provided guidance on the allowable restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly upheld which of the following?
the right of an American Nazi Party group to hold a parade in Skokie, a city with a large Jewish population that included Holocaust survivors
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects ______.
the right of the people to keep and bear arms
The free-exercise clause has been interpreted to mean that ______.
- Americans cannot always act on their religious beliefs if they conflict with other laws - Americans can hold any religious belief of their choosing
Which of the following are true of the inevitable discovery exception?
- It allows admission of tainted evidence in certain cases. - It states that exclusion of physical evidence that would have been found anyway has no effect on the fairness of a trial.
Which of the following statements are true of 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 the assumption that society has an interest in encouraging media and citizens to express themselves freely.
Which of the following are considered civil liberties?
- right to a fair trial - freedom of religion - freedom of speech
Which of the following statements are true concerning the Supreme Court's decisions involving symbolic speech?
- The Supreme Court has ruled that burning an American flag is a protected form of symbolic speech. - The Supreme Court has protected symbolic speech nearly as vigorously as actual speech.
In order for police roadblocks to check drivers to be legal, they must conform to which of the following?
- They must be systematic and not arbitrary. - They serve an important highway safety objective.
The establishment clause of the Constitution restricts which of the following?
- government from favoring one religion over another - government from supporting religion over no religion
For the government to restrict speech, the imminent lawless action test requires ______.
- that the speech must be directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action - that the speech must actually be likely to produce lawless action - that it satisfy two criteria for speech advocating the unlawful use of force
Which of the following amendments contribute to ensuring criminal due process?
- the Fourth Amendment - the Fifth Amendment - the Sixth Amendment - the Eighth Amendment
In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatant detainees were protected by which of the following?
- the Geneva Convention - the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice
In which decade did the election of "tough on crime" candidates lead to state legislatures enacting stiffer penalties for crime while also limiting judges' abilities to reduce sentences for nonviolent crimes of first-time offenders?
1990s
In what year, in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, did the Supreme Court finally address the issue of how the Second Amendment should be interpreted?
2008
According to the ______ doctrine, government can aid a religious organization so long as the aid is nonreligious in nature and the government doesn't favor one religion over another.
accommodation
In its rulings in Riley v. California (2014) and United States v. Wurie (2014), the Supreme Court compared the search of a suspect's cell phone or similar electronic device to ______.
an exhaustive search of a suspect's home
Under the Fifth Amendment, suspects charged with a ______.
federal crime cannot be tried unless indicted by a grand jury
The Bill of Rights initially applied to which level or levels of government?
federal only
A false written statement about other people that harms their reputation is known as _____________, whereas a false verbal statement about other people is known as ____________.
libel; slander
Civil _______ refer to individual rights, such as the freedom of speech and religion, while civil ______ refer to equality under the law for different groups such as racial or religious minorities.
liberties; rights
The Supreme Court has ruled that the right of free assembly ______.
takes precedence over the mere possibility that the exercise of the right might have undesirable consequences
In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court ruled that restrictions on abortion were legal so long as they didn't place an ______ ____ on a woman's right to obtain an abortion.
undue burden
What are the religious clauses in the First Amendment?
- the establishment clause - the free-exercise clause
The Bill of Rights protects civil liberties related to criminal procedure, including which of the following?
- the right to a jury trial - protection from unreasonable searches - the right to an attorney - protection from self-incrimination
The Second Amendment protects and supports which of the following?
- the right to keep and bear arms - a well-regulated militia
Which of the following constitutional protections were at issue in the Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966)?
- the right to remain silent - the right to an attorney
What constitutional amendment is of special significance for the Supreme Court when considering how to best protect individual rights from action by state and local governments?
Fourteenth
The exclusionary rule restricts the ability of ______.
courts to admit illegally obtained evidence during a trial
The Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners should generally appeal their cases first ______.
in state courts
Which of the following is a right of the accused that is protected by the Fifth Amendment?
to have a grand jury weigh the prosecution's evidence
The Supreme Court consistently ruled that the George W. Bush administration's practice of denying constitutional and legal protections to enemy combatants was ______.
under the jurisdiction of the United States courts
