GOV-Vocab Ch.19

Process of Incorporation

Through a series of Supreme Court rulings, the Bill of Rights were slowly imposed on state and local governments by re-interpreting the 5th and 14th Amendments. For example, prior to incorporation only the federal government was restrained by the first amendment's prohibition on laws restraining free speech, free press, and no state religion. At that time state/local governments were only restrained by their respective state constitutions. Since the 1st was incorporated, no government at any level may violate the 1st. Not all of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated. For example, the right to trial by jury in civil trials has not been incorporated yet.

Shield Law

A shield law is a law which protects people from legal inquiry. Shield laws are most commonly used to protect journalists and reports when people ask them about their sources. The shield law protects them from giving away sources or confidential information. Shield laws permit journalists to assure their sources that they will remain confidential, allowing journalists to get better stories. It is not a national law, about thirty states have the shield law.

Alien

An alien is anyone who is not a citizen of the United States but resides here. To fall under this classification in the U.S, you need to have a green card or have had one in the last year. You also fall under the U.S. classification of an alien if you have been in the U.S. for more than 31 days during the current year. Aliens do not have the same rights as citizens. However if you have a green card you have more rights than if you don't have a green card like being able to live in the U.S. permanently, work here, and you are protected by all the laws.

Civil Liberties

Civil Liberties are rights and freedoms given to people from the government in the Constitution and protections against government actions. Many of these are seen in the first amendment and the Bill of Rights as a whole. Some of these rights include the right to speech, press, petition, assembly, and religion. There are many other rights as well, as stated in the ninth amendment. Civil liberties are the very foundation of the United States. It wasn't until civil liberties were being denied that Americans started talking about resistance and independence.

Civil Rights

Civil rights refer to positive government actions that are to create equality for all Americans and our natural rights. The purpose of Civil Rights is to end discrimination of race, gender, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation and any other distinctions. Some examples of civil rights laws are affirmative action rulings, The Americans with Disabilities Act, and Vermont's recent Civil Union statute. The idea of Civil Rights was prominently introduced by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If we were not protected by civil rights than we could be discriminated against and would not be able to exercise are rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Content Neutral

Content neutrality refers generally to publications that are without bias, representing all views fairly. In the context of free speech law, recent U.S. Supreme Court cases have based the outcome in some free speech cases largely on whether the law restricting free speech was content based or content neutral.

Libel

Libel is a published or written form of slander or defamation. In other words it is a a statement that is damaging to the reputation or character of a person or entity. Libel might appear in a magazine, book, newspaper, internet, or in a radio or television broadcast. A false charge that is spoken but not published is considered slander. Libel involves false statements knowingly presented as fact. In the United States opinion is protected as a tenant of freedom of speech. Citizens have the right to comment on public figures and entities, including government and officials. Entertainment, parody, editorials and criticisms are not libel as long as they are presented for amusement or stated as mere opinion and do not have the intention to harm.

Parochial

Parochial is a church related term, often used to describe a parochial school. A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. This is related to the Pierce vs. Society of Sisters case in 1925. This case states that the law made parents send their children to public schools in order to eliminate parochial schools. However, the court decided that this law was unreasonable and interfered with parenting.

Picketing

Picketing is a tactic that is used to express dissatisfaction. This form of protest generally involves a group of protestors. Protesters will often form a picket line to disrupt traffic, carry signs or shout to get attention. Whether or not this action is legal depends on the location and the compliance with laws. People picket when they want to communicate a message or influence a decision. This tactic usually involves a group of picketers congregating outside of a place about which they have complaints.

Right of Association

Right of association is the right to associate with others in order to promote certain causes. This right is included in the freedom of assembly and petition. The right to form groups, to organise and to assemble together with the aim of addressing issues of common concern is a human right. The ability to organise is an important means by which citizens can influence their governments and leaders. The right to freedom of association and assembly is protected.

Sedition

Sedition is defined as actions or words intended to lead to or encourage the overthrow of a state. Most nations have laws against sedition, although nations, like the United States, which value free speech have tried to protect their citizens' right to criticize their governments. In the United States, several sedition laws have been attempted, like the Sedition Act of 1798 and the Espionage Act of 1917, which was designed to put a stop to anti-war speeches and protests. In the American South, the Confederacy used such laws to prosecute abolitionists before and during the Civil War. Prosecution for an act of sedition is rare, but it does happen.

Seditious Speech

Seditious speech is the act of speaking with the goal of revolting against the government. In the United States, sedition was first made illegal in the Sedition Act of 1798. The Sedition Act of 1798 was a failure and expired in 1801, but the act of making sedition illegal has come and gone in different forms throughout the history of the United States. There are few convictions of seditious speech. However a few include the Sedition Act of 1798 that was used by President John Adams to prosecute supporters of his opponent,Thomas Jefferson.

Slander

Slander is one of two types of defamation, which is issuing a false statement about another person that harms that person. Slander is verbally or orally telling one or more people a lie about another person that causes harm to that person's reputation. While slander is not a crime, it is a civil matter and can become the basis for a lawsuit. Damages in a slander case are difficult to prove, and there are certain guidelines that are must be met for something to be considered slander.

Symbolic Speech

Symbolic speech is the expression of opinions or positions by means other than the spoken or written word. The United States Supreme Court has ruled on multiple occasions that symbolic speech is a form of free speech and is protected under the law. The classic example of symbolic speech is flag burning. Several Supreme Court cases have struck down laws against flag burning, arguing that they infringe upon the free speech rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution. Symbolic speech itself is not addressed or discussed in the Constitution. . Protecting freedom of expression in the form of spoken word, writing, and freedom of the press would have been viewed as important, but the drafters of the Constitution might not have thought about nonverbal expressions such as works of art, the wearing of symbols, and so forth.

Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. They are called this because they set out specific rights of American citizens in order to ensure that those rights are not infringed. These amendments were ratified on December 15, 1791. The Bill of Rights is modeled on many other similar documents, for example the Magna Carta, the bill of rights written in England in 1215. The Bill of Rights wouldn't have existed at all, were it not for the Anti-Federalists. The Anti-Federalists did not want to ratify the Constitution, because they thought the government would be too strong. Although the Constitution sets out a framework for American government, it does not provide any specific rights to citizens. So the Anti-Federalists proposed to have a Bill of Rights. This is important to a democracy because it limits the government powers and gives people rights. It is important today because we citizens still have those first ten rights written in the Bill of Rights that impacts everyone's lives in numerous ways.

Due Process Clause

The Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment in the Constitution promises that no one can have their life, liberty or property taken away without due process. It also means the government cannot punish people without acting on the authority of some written law and no state can deny a person of a right that is essential. The idea of a due process was first seen in the Magna Carta of 1215. In 1925, the Gitlow vs. New York case prompted the due process clause. The case of Gitlow v. New York dealt with a number of Constitutional amendments and state governments and their ability to uphold civil liberties seen in the Constitution. Benjamin Gitlow was a socialist and did not believe in how the United States governed its people. To spread his views, Gitlow published a number of papers and magazines which ultimately talked bad about the United States government. The Federal Government did not like Gitlow's efforts and so they were afraid that Gitlow's words would start an uprising against the government. The United States Supreme Court found that Benjamin Gitlow was guilty of his crimes. However, the court also found that the individual state governments were not allowed to deny their residents the civil and human rights expressed within the United States Constitution, and therefore starting the idea of the due process clause as seen in the fourteenth amendment.

Establishment Clause

The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law respecting an establishment of religion. This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another. It basically enforces the idea of the separation of church and state. It also prohibits the government from preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion. This is the basis of the separation of church and state. Since the adoption of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, this clause serves the function of religion in our government.

Free Exercise Clause

The Free Exercise Clause is a component of the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution that states that the government cannot interfere with the exercise of religious faith and allows each person to believe what they wish to believe religiously. It is paired with the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, in the section that says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This clause has been interpreted to mean that the religious freedoms of people in the United States are protected and that the government cannot be involved in the practice and expression of faith. However, the courts place some limits on the exercise of religion. For example, the First Amendment protects human sacrifice even if some religion required it and practicing polygamy, as seen in the Reynolds v. U.S. case.

Assemble

The fourteenth amendment's due process clause protects the rights to assemble and petition against government and state actions. To assemble is to gather people to express views. The due process clause protects the people's right to influence public opinion and bring their opinions to attention. The right to assemble is important because allows people to meet, as a group, to discuss issues that might go against what the current government supports without the fear of disobeying the law. This is an important part in a democracy by giving the people the right to speak up and maybe even influence the government.

Prior Restraint

The idea of prior restraint prohibits government from banning expression of ideas prior to their publication. Prior restraint is based on the principle that Freedom of the Press is essential to a free society. Prior Restraint is important to the right to a free press because if the government could prevent what is published or said, then people wouldn't be able to say and write many things. An example of this is New York v. U.S., or the Pentagon Papers. The Supreme Court of the United States held said that the Government failed to have the proof needed to justify a prior restraint of expression when attempting to stop the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing contents of a classified study.