ap gov unit 3

• Bill of Rights


  Designed specifically to guarantee liberties and rights
• Civil liberties

  Personal freedoms protected from arbitrary governmental interference or deprivations by constitutional guarantee
• Public interest

  The welfare or well-being of the general public
• Establishment Clause

  Prevents the federal government from establishing a national religion
• Free exercise clause

  Prevents governments from stopping religious practices
• Wall of separation


  Created by Thomas Jefferson, church and state are separated due to the varying religions of the nation
• Clear and present danger

  Created to balance the act between competing demands of free expression and a government needing to protect a free society
• Obscene scene

  Languages and images that are so offensive to the average citizen that governments have banned them
• "Breathing space"

  Even false statements must be protected
• Libel

  False statements in print about someone that defames or damages that person's reputation
• Prior restraint

  The right to stop spoken or printed expression in advance (BEFORE)
• Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act

  Established a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases to allow for a background check
• Gun Control Act

  Ended mail-order sales of all firearms and ammunition and banned the sale of guns to felons, fugitives, and illegal drug users, people with mental illness, and those dishonorably discharged from the military
• National Firearms Act

  Required registration of certain weapons, imposed a tax on the sale and manufacture of certain guns, and restricted the sale and ownership of high-risk weapons
• Second Amendment

  The right to bear arms
• Eighth Amendment

  Prevented cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail
• Fourth Amendment

  No unreasonable searches and seizures
• Metadata

  All the cell phone communication information minus the actual conversation
• Writs of assistance

  Broad search warrants that enabled British soldiers to search any vessel, warehouse, home, or wagon
• Due process

  Fundamental fairness that ensures legitimate government in a democracy
• Just compensation clause

  A city must provide just compensation when taking private property for public use
• Selective incorporation

  The process of declaring only certain, or selected, provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states rather than all of them at once
• Exclusionary rule

  This states that evidence the government finds or takes in violation of the Fourth Amendment cannot be used in trial
• Due Process Clause in Fifth Amendment

  Established that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"
• Procedural due process


  Addresses the manner in which the law is carried out
• Public safety exception

  Courts have said that if the officer was acting in the name of public safety, a delayed reading or failure to read the warning would not necessarily exclude confessions or statements at court
• Sixth Amendment

  Right to an attorney
• USA Freedom Act

  Has altered the government's access to phone data, and prevents the government easy access to metadata by them having to receive a warrant for it
• Hyde Amendment

  Prevents federal funding that might contribute to an abortion
• Substantive due process

  Places substantive limits on what liberties the government can take away or deprive a citizen of
• Defamation

  Damaging someone's reputation by false statements
• 15th Amendment

  Right to vote
• 24th Amendment

  Outlaws poll tax
• Strict scrutiny

  The highest standard of judicial review
• Voting Rights Act of 1965

  Allowed federal registrars to register voters and outlawed literacy tests and other discriminatory tests in voter registration (prohibits racial discrimination when voting)
• Equal Rights Amendment

  A constitutional amendment stating that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied… on the account of sex" *FAILED AMENDMENT*
• civil rights are government guarantees of political equality
• civil Liberties protect individuals from governmental interference 
• civil liberties are limited when they infringe on the public interest
• Lemon v. Kurtzman

  • A court ruled that New York could not use state funds to pay catholic school teachers
  • For something like this to be constitutional it would need to pass the Lemon Test

  1. Have a secular (no religious) purpose
  2. Neither advance nor prohibit religion
  3. Not foster excessive government entanglement with religion