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Civil Liberties and Public Policy
Chapter 4 of Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry
46
Civics
12th Grade
09/02/2012

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Term
Civil Liberties
Definition
  • legal constitutional protections against government
  • formally set down in the Bill of Rights
  • courts, police, and legislatures define their meaning
Term
Bill of Rights
Definition
  • the first 10 amendments to the constition
  • define such basic liberties as freedom of religion, speech, and press
  • gurantee defednants' rights
Term
First Amendment
Definition
the constitutional amendment that establishes the four great liberties: freedom of the press, of speech, of religion, and of assembly
Term
Barron v. Baltimore
Definition
the 1833 Supreme Court decision holding that the Bill of Rights restained only the national government, not the states and cities
Term
Gitlow v. New York
Definition
the 1925 Supreme Court decision holding that freedoms of press and speech are "fundamental personal rights and and liberties protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the states" as well as by the federal government
Term
Fourteenth Amendment
Definition
the constitutional amendment adopted after the Civil War that states, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws"
Term
due process clause
Definition
part of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing that persons cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property by the United States or state governments without due process of law
Term
incorporation doctrine
Definition
the legal concept under which the Supreme Court has nationalized the Bill of Rights by making most of its provisions applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment
Term
establishment clause
Definition
part of the First Amendment stating that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"
Term
free exercise clause
Definition
a First Amendment provision that prohibits government from interfering with the practice of religion
Term
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Definition

the 1971 Supreme Court decision that established that aid to church-related schools must

  1. have a secular purpose;
  2. have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion; and
  3. not foster excessive government entaglement with religion
Term
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris
Definition
the 2002 Supreme Court decision that upheld a state providing families with vouchers that could be used to pay for tuition at religious schools
Term
Engel v. Vitale
Definition
the 1962 Supreme Court decision holding that state officials violated the First Amendmentwhen they wrote a prayer to be recited by New York's schoolchildren
Term
School Distric of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp
Definition
a 1963 Supreme Court decision holding that a Pennsylvania law requiring Bible reading in schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment
Term
prior restraint
Definition
  • a government preventing material from being published
  • common method of limiting the press in some nations, but it is ususally unconstitutional in the United States, according to the First Amendment and as confirmed in the 1931 Supreme Court case of Near v. Minnesota
Term
Near v. Minnesota
Definition
the 1931 Supreme Court decision holding that the First Amendment protects newspapers from prior restraint
Term
Schneck v. United States
Definition
  • a 1919 decision upholding the conviction of a socialist who had urged young men to resist the draft during World War I
  • Justice Holmes declared that government can limit speech if the speech provokes a "clear and present danger" of substantive evils
Term
Zurcher v. Stanford Daily
Definition
a 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a proper search warrant could be applied to a newspaper as well as to anyone else without necessarily violating the First Amendment rights to freedom of the press
Term
Roth v. United States
Definition
a 1957 Supreme Court decision ruling that "obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press"
Term
Miller v. California
Definition
a 1973 Supreme Court decision that avoided defining obscenity by holding that community standards be used to determine whether material is obscene in terms of appealing to a "prurient interest" and being "patently offensive" and lacking in value
Term
libel
Definition
the publication of false or malicious statements that damage someone's reputation
Term
New York Times v. Sullivan
Definition
  • decided in 1964
  • established the guidelines for determining whether public officials and public figures could win damage suits for libel
  • individuals must prove that the defamatory statments were made with "actual malice" and reckless disregard for the truth
Term
Texas v. Johnson
Definition
a 1989 case in which the Supreme Court struck down a law banning the burning of the American flag on the grounds that such action was symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment
Term
symbolic speech
Definition
  • nonverbal communication, such as burning a flag or wearing an armband
  • the Supreme Court has accorded some symbolic speech protection under the First Amendment
Term
commercial speech
Definition
  • communication in the form of advertising
  • can be restricted more than many other types of speech but has been receiving increased protection from the Supreme Court
Term
Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Tornillo
Definition
  • a 1974 case in which the Supreme Court held that a state could not force a newspaper to print replies from candidates it had criticized
  • illustrated the limited power of government to restrict the print media
Term
Red Lion Broadcasting Company v. Federal Communications Commission
Definition
  • a 1969 case in which the Supreme Court upheld restrictions restrictions on radio and television broadcasting
  • these restrictions on the broadcast media are much tighter than those on the print media because there are only a limited number of broadcasting frequencies available
Term
NAACP v. Alabama
Definition
the Supreme Court protected the right to assemble peaceably in this 1958 case when it decided the NAACP did not have to reveal its membership list and thus subject its members to harassment
Term
probable cause
Definition
  • the situation occurring when the police have reason to believe that a person should be arrested
  • police are allowed legally to search for and seize incriminating evidence
Term
unreasonable searches and seizures
Definition
  • obtaining evidence in a haphazard or random manner
  • a practice prohibited by the Fourth Amendment
  • probable cause and/or a search warrant are required for a legal and proper search for and seizure of incriminating evidence
Term
search warrant
Definition
a written authorization from a court specifying the area to be searched and what the police are searching for
Term
exclusionar rule
Definition
the rule that evidence, no matter how incriminating, cannot be introduced into a trial if it was not constitutionally obtained
Term
Mapp v. Ohio
Definition
the 1961 Supreme Court decision ruling that the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures must be extended to the states as well as the federal government
Term
Fifth Amendment
Definition
a constitutional amendment designed to protect the rights of persons accused of crimes, including protection against double jeopardy, self-incrimination, and punishment without due process of law
Term
self-incrimination
Definition
  • the situation occurring when an individual accused of a crime is compelled to be a witness against himself or herslef in court
  • forbidden by the Fifth Amendment
Term
Miranda v. Arizona
Definition
the 1966 Supreme Court decision that sets guidelines for police questioning of accused persons to protect them against self-incrimination and to protect their right to counsel
Term
Sixth Amendment
Definition
  • a constitutional amendment designed to protect individuals accused of crimes
  • includes the right to counsel, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to a speedy and public trial
Term
Gideon v. Wainwright
Definition
the 1963 Supreme Court decision holding that anyone accused of a felony where imprisonment may be imposed, however poor he or she might be, has a right to a lawyer
Term
plea bargaining
Definition
a bragain struck between the defendant's lawyer and the prosecuter to the effect that the defendant will plead guilty to a lesser crime (or fewer crimes) in exchange for the state's promise not to prosecute the defendant for a more serious (or an additional) crime
Term

Eighth Amendment

Definition
  • the constitutional amendment that forbids cruel and unusual punishemnt, although it does not define the phrase
  • applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment
Term
cruel and unusual punishment
Definition
  • court sentences prohibited by the Eighth Amendment
  • the death penalty itself has not been held by the Supreme Court as cruel and unusual punishment
Term
Gregg v. Georgia
Definition
the 1976 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty
Term
McCleskey v. Kemp
Definition
the 1987 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty against charges that it violated the Fourteenth Amendment because minority defendants were more likely to receive the death penaly than were white defendants
Term
right to privacy
Definition
the right to a private personal life free from the intrusion of government
Term
Roe v. Wade
Definition
  • the 1973 Supreme Court decision holding that a state ban on all abortions was unconstitutional
  • forbade state control over abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy
  • permitted states to limit abortions to protect the mother's health in the second trimester
  • permitted states to protectthe fetus during the third trimester
Term
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Definition
a 1992 case in which the Supreme Court loosened its standard for evaluating restrictions on abortion from one of "strict scrutiny" of any restraints on a "fundamental right" to one of "undue burden" that permits considerably more regulation
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