GOVT 2305 Chapter 4 Civil Liberties: Protecting Individual Rights

The USA Patriot Act

*All of these answers are correct. -was enacted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. -allowed the creation of a phone records-gathering program by the NSA. -increased the capacity of the federal government to combat terrorism domestically. -grants the government new powers of surveillance.

Since the 1950s, what has been the government's approach to free speech?

-The Supreme Court has ruled that spoken words do not pose a true threat to national security, so Americans can speak their minds politically. -Not a single individual has been convicted solely for criticizing the government's war policies. -The Supreme Court has ruled that national security must truly be at risk before the government can limit speech.

Why was the National Security Agency's wiretapping of phone calls and e-mail messages originating in the United States, first revealed by The New York Times in 2005, controversial?

-The wiretapping had been authorized by President George W. Bush without approval from the courts. -The NSA had collected data on nearly every call made by Americans.

The free-exercise clause

-has been interpreted to mean that Americans can not always act on their religious beliefs if they conflict with other laws. -is part of the First Amendment. -has been interpreted to mean Americans can hold any religious belief of their choosing.

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.

England's ______ gave members of Protestant sects the right to worship freely and publicly. The first Amendment reflects this tradition.

Act of Toleration

In the Constitution, procedural due process is protected in various ways by the

All of these answers are correct. (4th, 5th, 6th & 8th Amendments)

What was the main conclusion of the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller and 2010 decision in McDonald v. Chicago?

Citizens are allowed to own guns for legitimate purposes, such as for protecting the home.

What is the question at the heart of the debate over the Second Amendment?

Does the amendment give individuals the right to possess weapons?

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

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

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

None of these answers is correct.

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.

Which of the following countries comes closest to the United States in terms of the percentage of its citizens who are behind bars?

Russia

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

The doctrine of prior restraint was detailed in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971). Prior restraint is when government prohibition of speech or publication before it is published/said. It was ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court except in extreme circumstances of public safety or national security. In court it must show clearly that there would be a threat/danger in result of it being published. (do not copy & paste)

Where is the Bill of Rights located in the U.S. Constitution?

The first ten amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights.

What unique circumstance existed at the time of the Korematsu v. United States decision?

The nation was at war.

The exclusionary rule is based on the Supreme Court decision in

Weeks v. United States (1914).

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.

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 prisoner

In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot lawfully

ban sexual relations between consenting same-sex adults.

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

cannot be prohibited even though it may be offensive.

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

clear and present danger.

The exclusionary rule restricts the ability of

courts to admit illegally obtained evidence during a trial.

The legal safeguards that prevent the government from depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property without adhering to strict legal procedures are known as

due process protections.

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

In Engle v. Vitale (1962), the Supreme Court ruled against the reciting of prayers in public schools on grounds it violates the

establishment clause.

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

The establishment clause prohibits government from

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

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

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 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 Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners should generally appeal their cases first

in state courts.

Which of these groups is typically more protective of individual rights?

judges

The Sedition Act of 1798

made it a crime to publish stories that were harshly critical of the president.

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 Bill of Rights protects some civil liberties, including freedom

of speech. of the press. of assembly.

The Supreme Court has generally held that those convicted in state courts and who appeal on the grounds that their federal constitutional rights were violated are limited to

one appeal.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments

provide that no person can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

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.

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

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

The inevitable discovery exception

states that exclusion of physical evidence that would have been found anyway has no effect on the fairness of a trial. allows admission of tainted evidence in certain cases. was developed in the case of Nix v. Williams (1984).

The Supreme Court has ruled that the right of free assembly

takes precedence over the possibility that the exercise of the right might have undesirable consequences.

Which of the following acts of legislation after the September 11 terrorist attacks gave government greater surveillance power to monitor phone calls and emails without a warrant or court order?

the USA Patriot Act

What are the religious clauses in the First Amendment?

the establishment clause & the free-exercise clause

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 Brandenburg v. Ohio 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

Which of the following is NOT considered a Sixth Amendment protection?

the right to bear arms

Griswold v. Connecticut was a case dealing with

the right to privacy.

Griswold v. Connecticut is the landmark case that established the right to privacy. The case involved the question of whether a state can prohibit

the use of contraceptives by a married couple.

The USA Patriot Act was passed

to combat terrorism.

In Hamden v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of secret military tribunals to try detainees accused of terrorism was ______, as detainees were entitled to a trial affording all the guarantees contained in the Constitution.

unconstitutional

The Supreme Court has recently employed the Eighth Amendment to ban which of the following?

-the death penalty for the mentally ill -the death penalty for juveniles -life sentences without parole for juveniles.

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

The imminent lawless action test

-says that for speech to be restricted, it must be directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action. -has two criteria for speech advocating the unlawful use of force. -says that speech must be likely to produce lawless action.

From the late 1950s to 2010, how many Americans have been convicted solely for criticizing the government's war policies?

0

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

Fourth Amendment.

Which of the following cases established that law enforcement officers must advise detainees of their rights, including the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney, before beginning questioning in a criminal investigation?

Miranda v. Arizona

law enforcement officials sometimes controversially rely on the practice of ________ ________, the assumption that certain groups of people are more likely to commit particular crimes.

Racial Profiling

Which of the following best describes the subject under consideration in Roe v. Wade?

abortion

The Bill of Rights initially applied to which level or levels of government?

federal only

Gideon v. Wainwright required the states to

furnish attorneys for poor defendants in felony cases.

The attempt to block the publication of material considered to be harmful is known as ______ restraint.

prior

What was the name of the 1798 law that criminalized any speech or writings critical of the government, Congress, or the president?

the Sedition Act

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatant detainees were protected by which of the following?

the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice & the Geneva Convention

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

the implication of the right to privacy by the freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

Which of the following constitutional protections were at issue in the Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona?

the right to remain silent & the right to an attorney

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