Judiciary+and+Civil+Rights

Judiciary and Civil Rights


 * 1) Magruder’s Book: Chapters 18 and 21
 * 2) Steps to a 5: Chapters 14 and 15


 * 1) Make sure you know the precedents of cases
 * 2) Make sure you know the important/big cases highlighted in class (there is a link of most of them below)
 * 3) Know your judges (Warren, Roberts etc)
 * 4) Know the specifications and requirements for judicial appointments, which you can find in Article 3
 * 5) Know the precedents of Civil Rights cases, especially Plessy and Brown


 * 1) **Constitutional Courts**: Federal Courts created by Congress under Article III of the Constitution and the Supreme Court. They have a broad range of authority.
 * 2) **Legislative Courts**: Courts that hear cases arising from the powers given to Congress under Article I (Territorial Courts, U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces). They have a narrow range of authority.
 * 3) **Writ of Certiorari:** An order by the court directing a lower court to send up the records of a case for review that is needed to let the court interpret law or decide a constitutional question. This occurs when the court is petitioned.
 * 4) **Majority Opinion**: A majority of the justices agree on the decision and its reasons.
 * 5) **Dissenting Opinion**: A justice or justices who disagree with the majority opinion and the reasons for dissent.
 * 6) **Concurring Opinion:** A justice who agrees with the majority opinion but not the reasoning behind the decision.
 * 7) **Judicial Activism**: A philosophy that holds that the court should play an active role in determining national policies. Advocates of this apply the Constitution to social and political questions, especially in cases where constitutional rights have either been violated or not even existent for a group of people. This is also called judicial intervention and was the trademark of theWarren Court in the 1950s and 1960s.
 * 8) **Judicial Restraint**: A philosophy that holds that the court should avoid taking the initiative on social and political questions, operating strictly within the limits of the Constitution and upholding acts of Congress unless the acts clearly violate specific provisions of the Constitution. Advocates of this believe the court should be more passive and want the court to limit the use of its judicial power, preferring the executive and legislative branches to lead the way in regards to policymaking.
 * 9) **Civil Liberties:** Constitutional freedoms guaranteed to all citizens.
 * 10) **Civil Rights:** Positive acts of government designed to prevent discrimination and prove equality before the law.
 * 11) **Bills of Attainder:** Prohibits a person being found guilty of a crime without a trial.
 * 12) **Establishment Clause:** “Congress shall make no law respecting an **establishment of religion**, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (First Amendment)”. A clause that prohibited Congress to establish any religion as the national religion, nor favor one religion over another, nor tax American citizens to support any one religion. This lead to the separation of church and state.
 * 13) **Free Exercise Clause:** “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting **the free exercise** thereof (First Amendment)”. A clause that guarantees the right to practice any religion or no religion at all. Over time, the Supreme Court has ruled that although religious belief is absolute, the practice of religious beliefs may be restricted, especially if the religious belief comes in to conflict with criminal laws.
 * 14) **Substantive Due Process:** The policies of government or the particular subject matter of the laws determining what the law is about and whether the law is fair or if it violates constitutional protections.
 * 15) **Procedural Due Process:** Method of government action, or how the law is carried out according to established rules and procedures.
 * 16) **Affirmative Action:** A policy designed to correct the effects of past discrimination. Many issues of affirmative action are race or gender based. The 1978 Supreme Court Case //Regents of the University of California v. Bakke// ruled that affirmative action quotes used by university in their admissions policies were unconstitutional. These reserved seats to people of a certain race. The court decided that Bakke was denied equal protection because the university used race as the sole criterion for admissions.
 * 17) **Equal Protection Clause:**Constitutional guarantee that everyone should be treated equally.
 * 18) **The Warren Court:** Were active from 1953-1969. This court was very liberal and practices judicial activism. They greatly expanded civil liberties and civil rights. Some key cases are //Brown v. Board of Education// which declared segregation unconstitutional, and the cases //Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)// and //Miranda v. Arizona (1966)// which expanded the rights of criminal defendants.
 * 19) **The Burger Court:** Were active from 1969-1986. Chief Justice Burger, who Nixon thought would be conservative, was a major disappointment to many conservatives due to the many liberal decisions his court made. Some key cases //Roe v. Wade// in 1973 that permitted abortions, //US v. Nixon// in 1974 which struck down the notion of Nixon having executive privilege, and //Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1973)// which ruled against racial quotas in college admissions.
 * 20) **The Rehnquist and Roberts Court:** The Rehnquist court limited many of the earlier courts decisions but did not reverse any major decisions. The Roberts Court has continued to show this conservative nature but has also proven to be quite unpredictable with Justice Kennedy the swing vote in many cases.
 * 21) **Stare Decisis:** Legal principle requiring judges to respect past precedents.


 * 1) Which of the following best explains the principle of stare decisis?
 * 2) It requires that at least four Supreme Court justices agree to hear a case.
 * 3) It encourages presidents to take judicial experience into account when nominating judges.
 * 4) It encourages judges to follow precedent when deciding cases.
 * 5) It reinforces the philosophy of judicial activism.
 * 6) It increases the number of cases judges are require to hear.
 * 7) // Griswold v. Connecticut // and //Roe v. Wade// are similar Supreme Court cases in that both cases are based on the
 * 8) Rights of gay men and lesbian women
 * 9) Right of privacy
 * 10) Right to an abortion
 * 11) Right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment
 * 12) Right of women to equal protection before the law
 * 13) // Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka // (1954) was a significant Supreme Court ruling because it
 * 14) Placed limitations on the federal government and affirmed the rights of people and of the states
 * 15) Made it illegal for members of the communist party to be schoolteachers
 * 16) Upheld laws allowing for the internment of ethnic groups during wartime
 * 17) Applied the freedom of press provisions of the First Amendment to the states by means of the Fourteenth Amendment
 * 18) Held the “separate but equal” concept to be a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
 * 19) Which of the following is true of most federal judges appointed by the president?
 * 20) They serve ten-year terms.
 * 21) They serve as long as the appointing president stays in power.
 * 22) They serve for life on good behavior unless removed by the president.
 * 23) They serve for life on good behavior unless impeached and convicted be Congress.
 * 24) They serve for life and are not subject to congressional impeachment
 * 25) The difference between an appellate court and a district court is that an appellate court
 * 26) Conduct trials by jury
 * 27) Has original jurisdiction
 * 28) Reviews previous court decisions
 * 29) Hears civil cases but not criminal cases
 * 30) Does not follow the principle of stare decisis

//This website reviews a lot of the cases that might show up on the AP://

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//An interesting article on judicial activism://

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//Political cartoons//


//This picture shows a humorous jab at the Supreme Court's famous Citizens United ruling.//



//A graph humorously criticizing how partisan the Supreme Court has been over the years.//