Learning Objective 5.6

L.O.- Explain the origin and significance of the right to privacy 

The Right to Privacy

• Right to privacy: right to be left alone
• protected by the first, third, fourth, ninth, and fourteenth amendments

Birth Control

• Penumbras: unstated liberties.

• A couple has the right to plan a family in private.

• A Connecticut statute was rule unconstitutional because it violated marital privacy by showing info about the sales of contraceptives. 

Abortion

• Roe v. Wade: case that found a woman's right to abortion was protected by the right to privacy. 

• Abortion is a topic that is still controversial to its constitutionality today

Homosexuality

a flag that represents homosexuality 

• In 2003, the Supreme Court prevented states from criminalizing private sexual behavior
• this invalidated the laws of 14 states

Learning Objective 5.5

L.O.- Analyze the rights of criminal defendants found in the Bill of Rights 

Rights of Criminal Defendants

• Writs of habeas corpus: prisoners have a right to know what charges are being made against them.
•  Bills of attainder: laws declaring an act illegal without a judicial trial. 
• Article I prohibits this.

Search and Seizures

• Fourth Amendment: protects people from unreasonable searches by the federal government. 

• The police is allowed to search a person arrested, things in plain view of an accused person, and things or places in an arrestee's immediate control.
• police can search when suspicion occurs.
• The police must obtain a warrant or consent to search a place.

Self-Incrimination and Double Jeopardy 

• Fifth Amendment: protects those who have been charged with a crime.
• allows people to a grand jury, protects against self-incrimination, and prevents the national government from denying a person life, liberty, or property without the due process of law. It also prevents the national government from taking property without just compensation.  

• Miranda v. Arizona: A court case that requires that individuals arrested for a crime must be advised of their right to remain silent and to have counsel present. 
• Miranda Rights: statements made by police to criminals when arrested, telling them of their rights that are protected by the 5th amendment.

• Double jeopardy clause: protects individuals from being tried twice for the same offense in the same jurisdiction.
• part of the fifth amendment.

Exclusionary Rule

• Exclusionary rule: rule that prohibits the police form using illegally seized evidence at trial.
• adopted because of Weeks v. U.S.
• In Mapp v. Ohio the Warren Court ruled that "all evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Constitution is inadmissible in a state court." 

Sixth Amendment and the Right to Counsel & Jury Trials

• Sixth amendment: sets out the basic requirements of procedural due process for federal courts to follow in criminal trials
• A criminal has the right to counsel
• The legal responsibility for the government to provide every defendant in a criminal action with legal representation that also must be deemed effective.
• "lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries 

• A person accused of a crime can have a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury

Eighth Amendment  and Cruel and Unusual Punishment

a typical room where a lethal injection would occur

• Eight amendment: prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
• "excessive bail shall no be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
• The death penalty is constitutional by lethal injection but it's not used for those who are mentally challenged or are under the age of 18

Learning Objective 5.4

L.O.- Summarize changes in the interpretation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. 

The Second Amendment

• The second amendment ensures the right to keep and bear arms, and that Congress couldn't pass laws to disarm state militias.
• This amendment also preserves the right to revolt against governmental tyranny.  

• In 1934, the National Firearms Act imposed taxes on automatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns. 

• In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a case that the 2nd amendment protects a person's right to own a firearm for personal use.
• This prohibits assault weapons and large magazines

Learning Objective 5.3

L.O.- Outline the First Amendment guarantees of and limitations on freedom of speech, press, assembly, and petition

First Amendment

• Part of the bill of rights that imposes a number of restrictions on the federal government with respect to civil liberties, including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
• has been subject to varying degrees of scrutiny and has had leeway during certain times such as war.
  

Freedoms of Speech and the Press

• Prior restraint: doctrine that prevents the government from prohibiting speech or publication before the fact.

• The Alien and Seditions Acts banned any criticism of the Federalist government by the growing numbers of Democrats and Republicans. 

• During the civil war, freedom of speech and criticisms against the government were seen as unlawful because of Abraham Lincoln.
• The Supreme Court said these practices were unconstitutional. 

• Clear and present danger test: test by the Supreme Court to draw the line between protected and unprotected speech. 
• Direct incitement test: test articulated by the Supreme Court that holds that advocacy of illegal action is protected by the 1st amendment unless imminent lawless action is intended and likely to occur. 

Protected Speech and Press

• Some speech is protected by the constitution although it may be questionable to citizens or the government.

• Symbolic speech: symbols, signs, and other methods of expression generally considered to be protected by the 1st amendment. 
• Ex: burning the american flag
• Ex: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
• if symbols promote something illegal or is put into action, then it is not protected under the first amendment
• The first amendment also protects offensive hate speech.

Unprotected Speech and Press

•  Unprotected speech includes speech such as libel, fighting words, obscenity, and lewdness.
• libel: untrue written statements that defame a person's character.
• slander: untrue spoken statements that defame a person's character.
• fighting words: words that inflict injury or incite an immediate breach of peace
• obscenity/lewdness: refers to speech that is offensive to one's morals (pornography)

Freedom of Assembly and Petition

• If the words spoken or actions taken are unconstitutional, then the can no longer be protected by the 1st amendment

• The Supreme Court does not deal with many petition cases

Learning Objective 5.2

L.O.- Describe the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion

Freedom of Religion

• The freedom of religion is mentioned in the first amendment.
• Establishment clause: first amendment, first clause; directs the national government to not sanction an official religion.
• Free exercise clause: first amendment, second clause; prohibits the U.S. government from interfering a person's right to practice her or her religion.

Establishment Clause

• The establishment clause states that the government can not sanction an official religion
• For establishing a religion, the Supreme Court has come up with a 3-part test that examines the constitutionality of religious establishment issues known as the Lemon Test. 
• Lemon Test: in order for a practice to be constitutional, it must have these 3 things...
1. A legitimate secular purpose.
2. Neither advance nor inhibit religion.
3. Doesn't foster an excessive government entanglement with religion. 

Free Exercise Clause

• The free exercise clause requires that a state or national government cannot unfairly target one religion. 

Learning Objective 5.1

L.O.- Trace the constitutional roots of civil liberties

• Anti-Federalists feared that the national government would have too much power, so they decided that they wanted a Bill of Rights to ensure that the freedoms already granted to citizens would uphold.
• Federalists opposed a Bill of Rights because of three reasons:
1. It is unnecessary because the country is founded on the idea of popular sovereignty and inalienable, natural rights. 
2. A bill of rights would be dangerous because the government has enumerated powers so why would there need to be a bill that says what the government can't do even though they don't have the power to do it.
3. It would be impractical to enforce. Its validity would rely on public opinion and the spirit of the people and the government.
• Soon, James Madison proposed that he would support the Bill of Rights in order to gain a seat in the House of Representatives, and quickly a draft of the Bill of Rights was made.
• A proposed Bill of Rights was sent to the states for ratification in 1789.

• By 1791, most of the provisions had been approved by the states.

• The Bill of Rights:
• The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees specific rights and liberties.
• The ninth and tenth amendment note that the Bill of Rights is not exclusive.
• The ninth amendment: makes it clear that having enumerating rights in the Bill of Rights or Constitution does not mean that other rights do not exist.
• The tenth amendment: defines the basic principle of American federalism in stating that the powers not delegated to the national government are reserved to the states or to the people.

Incorporation Doctrine

• The Bill of Rights was intended to limit the power of the national government; but in 1868, the fourteenth amendment says that the Bill of Rights will apply to the states as well.

• Due process clause: clause contained in the 5th and 14th amendment that guarantees a variety of rights to individuals.
• Substantive due process: a judicial interpretation of the 5th and 14th amendments' due process clause  that protects citizens from arbitrary or unjust state or federal laws.
• Incorporation doctrine: holds that the due process clause requires that state and local governments must also guarantee the rights stated in the Bill of Rights.

Selective Incorporation and Fundamental Freedoms

• Selective incorporation: judicial doctrine whereby most but not all of the protections in the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the states via the 14th amendment.
• Fundamental freedoms: rights defined by the Supreme Court to be essential to order, liberty, and justice and therefore entitled to the highest standard of review.