AP US Government Study Guide Unit 3

Unit 3 Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments of the constitution that protect individual liberties and rights of the people of the United States that the government cannot take away from its citizens. The government's job and purpose is to protect these rights since they are “god-given”. They are also meant to protect rights, not give them. Civil Liberties - the limitations that are put on the government; actions the government can’t take as they may interfere with your personal freedom. Ex. 1st amendment Civil Rghts - guarantees of equal citizenship and protects citizens from discrimination by majorities. Ex. the right to vote First Amendment - Freedom of Religion The First Amendment prevents the federal government from supporting an established religion and protects citizens’ free exercise of religion. This amendment is split into two parts: the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. The establishment clause prevents the US from using religion as a guiding point for laws to be made and makes sure that they don’t endorse any specific religion.. The free exercise clause does not allow anyone to be prevented from being part of a certain religion. It does not mean that any religious practice is okay. There are limits to what certain parts of a religion that could be practiced. An example could be a sacrifice. The police can arrest you for holding sacrifices. An example of a SCOTUS case would be Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972). In this case, the state of Wisconsin fined Amish families that refused to send their children to school after the eighth grade. Yoder argued that it went against the free exercise clause of the First Amendment because higher education went against their religious beliefs. The court ruled in favor of the Amish families, saying their First Amendment right outweighed the state’s want to push their attendance. First Amendment - Freedom of Speech Part of the First Amendment allows for people to speak as they please. However, this right does have restrictions. It was made initially to allow constituents to freely express their grievances with the government. However, this does not mean you are allowed to speak freely to anyone else. There are limits such as obscenity, clear and present danger, plus time place and manner restrictions. A very important SCOTUS case involving this issue was Schenck v. United States. Schenck was an anti-war activist who sent out 15,000 flies telling men to resist the draft for the first world war. He was arrested under the Espionage Act, which prohibited interference with military operations. Schenck argued that it went against his First Amendment right, eventually leading this case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ended up voting against Schneck, saying his freedom of speech did not apply because of time, place, and manner restrictions. Another important Supreme Court case was Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. In this case, Iowa students were trying to wear black armbands in order to protest the Vietnam war. The court ruled in favour of Tinker because it was a form of symbolic speech which does not go against the First Amendment because the school system is part of the government so they were essentially protesting the government, something that is completely allowed. First Amendment - Freedom of the Press This part of the First Amendment prevents Congress from making any laws allowing censorship of the press, essentially trying to prevent them from publishing information. Just like freedom of speech, there are limitations to freedom of the press such as libel, which is lying about what someone or something did that leads to a damaged reputation. An important case that deals with this idea is New York Times v. United States. The United States wanted to restrain the New York Times from publishing the history of the Pentagon Papers, documents that included classified information on Vietnam. The case made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court, where they ruled in favor of the New York Times, saying that publication did not pose an immediate threat to the country. Second Amendment - Right to Bear Arms The Second Amendment allows the people the individual right to have firearms. This is one of the most argued rights because of the limitations that are trying to be placed on this subject. Selective Incorporation The 14 amendment of the constitution talks about how the national government cannot take away your rights but it doesn’t mention anything about this same thing applying to the state governments, meaning that the Bill of Rights didn’t apply to the state governments. Over time, the Supreme Court has made rulings on certain court cases to make sure that the Bill of Rights applies to the state governments as well. However, not every part of the Bill of Rights has been applied to the states through selective incorporation. Major court cases involving selective incorporation include Tinker v. Des Moines, where the Supreme Court ruled symbolic speech is valid in schools and cannot be punished as it applies to all levels of government. Another good example would be the case of Roe v. Wade. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman’s ability to get an abortion in the first trimester could not be prohibited because it falls under the right to privacy which could not be limited by states. This made it unconstitutional for states to make abortions illegal. Due process in the Right to Privacy The Supreme Court has interpreted that the due process clause of the 14th amendment prevents state governments from taking away people's rights to privacy. The right to privacy is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution but over time, the Supreme Court has begun to include it in its rulings such as in Roe v. Wade. There are limitations to this idea especially when it comes to public safety. Social Movements and Equal Protection During the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, pushing for social justice for black and other minorities. The social movement led to a change in policies that our government makes. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevented discrimination based off of sex, gender, race and other factors. Government Responses to Social Movements The pressure from social movements causes the government to make changes legislatively. An example being the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an act preventing the discrimination of a person based off of sex, gender, race, and other factors. The Supreme Court in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education invalidated previous actions the government had used in order to discriminate against certain groups of people. This case made it so that segregation could be looked at as unconstitutional because it goes against the equal protection clause of the constitution. Balancing Minority and Majority Rights Depending on the ideological standpoint of the Supreme Court, the cases that they deal with may have major effects on minorities and majorities. An example would be with the separate but equal doctrine. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities for coloured people didn’t go against the 14th amendment because it was separate but still equal. That idea was overruled with Brown v. Board of Education, as the Supreme Court ad ruled just because the facilities are separate doesn't mean that they are actually equal, essentially violating the 14th amendment. Affirmative Action Starting in the 1960sm the government began using affirmative action to help minorities have equal opportunities in the United States. Since then, the Supreme Court has been making rulings on affirmative action to determine whether or not it is constitutional. The Court has had mixed feelings about idea based on the fact that it is constitutional because the constitution only mentions things about how race classifications influences cannot harm a minority but is unconstitutional because it’s helping to promote the benefits of specific groups to get ahead.