| A | B |
|---|
| Civil liberty | freedom that protect an individual from the government or nation where they live |
| 14th Amendment | grants citizenship to all American-born male individuals |
| Due Process | idea that the government must respect all the legal rights that are owed to a person by law |
| Free exercise clause | individuals have the right, according to Supreme Court interpretation, to practice their religion as they see fit to a degree |
| Libel | a written or oral statement that unjustly and unfavorably creates a negative impression of a person |
| Commercial speech | speech that is done on behalf of a company of individual for the intent of making a profit |
| Probable clause | in U.S. criminal law, this is the standard the police must reach in order to make an arrest, conduct a search, or obtain a warrant |
| Exclusionary rule | legal practice in the U.S. that holds under Constitutional law that evidence collected in a manner that violated the defendant’s constitutional rights is sometimes inadmissible for a criminal prosecution |
| Self-incrimination | one does not have to testify against one’s self or spouse |
| Plea bargaining | settling a case without a trial by making an agreement with the judge, defense, and prosecutor |
| Griswold v Connecticut | the Supreme Court ruled that a law banning married couples from contraceptives was unconstitutional because it violated the right to marital privacy |
| Roe v Wade | legalized abortions |
| Ex post facto law | a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of an act, and this is not legal in the U.S. |
| Pure speech | speech that is pure from defilements and the use of vulgar language, threats, gossip, deceit, sarcasm, etc. To put it positively, speech that a kind, gentle, truthful, and spoken only when someone has something good or meaningful to say |
| Obscenity | repulsive by reason of crass disregard for moral or ethical principles (what is considered obscene or inappropriate is generally judged by community standards meaning there are different expectations in different places- such as Las Vegas versus Branson, Missouri) |
| Right to counsel | an individual has a right to an attorney and, if one cannot be afforded, to have an attorney appointed to them |
| Civil rights defined | the nonpolitical rights of a citizen, especially the right of personal liberty guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendment |
| Equal protection clause | part of the 14th amendment, this provides the judicial branch the ability to enforce the principle of “all men are created equal” to the states |
| Plessy v Ferguson | according to the Supreme Court, separate but equal facilities are allowed (this is reversed later by Brown v Board of Education) |
| Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenberg | the Supreme Court ruled that busing students to promote racial equality was constitutional |
| Civil Rights Act of 1964 | designed to end segregation (enforced Brown v Board of Education and expanded it) |
| 5th Amendment provisions | protects against illegal indictments, prevents people from having to incriminate themselves, prevents double jeopardy, and creates the rules for Eminent Domain (which is when the government can force people to sell property at a reasonable fair market value when they can show need- example, they need the space to create an air force strip) |
| White primary | a primary where only whites were allowed to be involved |
| Voting Rights Act of 1965 | outlawed literacy tests as a means to decide whether or not people could vote |
| 19th Amendment | made it legal for women to vote |
| Comparable worth | a reform effort to pay different job titles the same based on their value to their employer regardless of gender predominance of those working in such titles |
| Jim Crow laws | laws put in place to keep blacks from acquiring fair treatments and rights (including segregation, literacy tests, poll taxes, etc.) |
| NAACP | an organization that fights for the rights of blacks |
| De facto segregation | segregation that occurs but is not legally supported |
| 1st Amendment provisions | freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the rights to petition and assemble |
| Incorporation clause | legal doctrine by which the Bill of Rights, either in full or part, is applied to the states through the 14 amendment’s due process clause |
| Establishment clause | in the 1st amendment, this establishes that Congress cannot make a law respecting an establishment of religion |
| Prior restraint | a legal term referring to a government’s actions that prevent communications from reaching the public |
| Symbolic speech | act that speaks one’s mind without necessarily using words |
| Shield laws | legislation designed to provide news reporters with the right to refuse to testify as to where they received information during a newsgathering process |
| Search warrant | granted after the police show probable clause, this is approved by a judge and allows the police to search a specific location at a specific time for a specific item(s) |
| 15th Amendment | made it legal for black men to vote |
| 6th Amendment | right to a fair and speedy trial, notice of accusation being made, the right to confront one’s accusers, and the right to counsel |
| 8th Amendment | no excessive bail or fine and no cruel and unusual punishment |
| Bill of attainder | an act of legislature declaring a person guilty of crime and imprisoning them without a benefit of trial (this is illegal in the U.S. according to the Constitution) |
| Sedition | term that refers to covert conduct, such as speech or organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending towards insurrection against the established order (basically trying to encourage people to rise up against their government) |
| Right to a fair trial | includes items such as trial by jury, speedy trial, right to an attorney, etc. |
| Miranda rights | police are legally required to inform individuals of their rights before being arrested or questioned |
| Right to a jury trial | individuals accused of a crime have the right to have a trial by their peers |
| Affirmative action | an active effort to improve the employment and educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women, in modern terms, it also refers to the promotion of rights for disadvantaged persons |
| Dred Scott v Sanford | the Supreme Court decided that freed slaves were still not citizens |
| Brown v Board of Education | reversed Plessy v Ferguson and decided that separate but equal facilities was not enough, this ended segregation in schools |
| Civil rights movement | the movement to try and acquire equal rights for blacks, and eventually Hispanics |
| Suffrage | the right to vote |
| Poll tax and Grandfather clause | ways to prevent blacks from voting even after they had acquired the right to vote |
| 24th Amendment | established that 18 years old could vote (before this you had to be 21) |
| Korematsu v US | the Supreme Court decided that putting Japanese-Americans into internment camps during WWII was Constitutional |
| Equal Rights Amendment | a proposed (but never passed) amendment which intended to guarantee that equal rights existed under all federal, state, and local laws for individuals of both genders |
| Regents of California v Bakke | decided quota systems based on race was unconstitutional |
| Separate but equal doctrine | the idea established in Plessy v Ferguson that separate but “equal” facilities were ideal |
| De jure segregation | segregation imposed by the law |
