AP Government and Politics Civil Liberties- Chapter 5

Civil Liberties

Chapter 5.1... Trace the constitutional roots of civil liberties

Describe: In 1787, state constitutions protected personal liberties such as speech, religion, freedom, and trial by jury. However, once the Constitution was made in 1787 many people believed there should be a Bill of Rights. The only opposition to that idea was Federalists, who argued against a Bill of Rights, saying...

1. A bill of rights was unnecessary in a constitutional republic founded on the idea of popular sovereignty and inalienable, natural rights. Most state constitutions contain bill of rights, so federal guarantees were unnecessary
2. A bill of rights would be dangerous, Alexander Hamilton says since the national government was a government of enumerated powers, why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?
3. A national bill of rights would be impractical to enforce, its validity would depend on public opinion and the spirit of the people and government

Despite the opposition, the Bill of Rights was amended into the Constitution in 1791.
The Incorporation Doctrine made States applicable to the Bill of Rights.
  Supreme Court Cases/Trends involved with The Incorporation Doctrine and The Selective Incorporation.

• Barron v. Baltimore (1833), Supreme Court ruled that the Bill of Rights limited only the actions of the US government and not those of the states
•   In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the US Constitution, this amendment suggested the possibility that some of the protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights might be interpreted to prevent state infringement of those rights
• Until the end of the century, the Supreme Court rejected argument of those rights interpret the due process clause (the clause in the 5th and 14th amendments, has been construed to guarantee to individuals a variety of rights)
• In 1897, the Court began to increase jurisdiction over the states, and it began to hold states to a substantive due process (interpretation of the 5th and 14th amendments protects citizens from unjust state or federal laws)
• Benjamin Gitlow, a member of the Socialist Party, printed 16,000 copies of a manifesto, convicted of violating a New York state law, conviction was upheld in Gitlow v. New York (1925) the US supreme court noted that the states were not completely free to limit forms of political expression (first step of the incorporation doctrine)
•   In Near v. Minnesota (1931) the Supreme Court further developed the incorporation doctrine by holding that a state law violated the First Amendment's freedom of the press
• In Plako v. Connecticut (1937), Frank Palko was charged with murder for killing two Connecticut police officers, found guilty of a lesser charge of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment,but  Court said that the due process clause bound states only to those rights that were essence to liberty. It was overruled in 1969. This set the rationale for selective incorporation.

  Explain: A bill of rights was suggested in Congress, and although facing opposition from Federalists, was passed in 1791. At first this bill was not applicable to states, but throughout the following century it became applicable to states, and was able to protect citizens from unjust state or federal laws.

  Give an Example: Freedom of religion is a civil liberty guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

Chapter 5.2... Describe the First Amendment Guarantees: Freedom of Religion
Describe: Before the Bill of Rights states, like Virginia, barred the use of state dollars to fund any place of religious worship in Virginia, called the bill for Religious Freedom, passed in 1786.
  Clauses of the First Amendment

1. Establishment clause- Directs the government not to sanction an official religion
2. Free Exercise clause- Prohibits the US government from interfering with a citizen's right to practice his or her religion

Supreme Court Cases/ Trends involving the Establishment Clause

• Engel v. Vitale (1962), The Court ruled that the recitation in public school classrooms of a nondenominational prayer drafted by the local school board was unconstitutional
•   In Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the Court ruled that state-mandated Bible reading or recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public schools was also constitutional
• In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), The Court tried to carve out a three-part test for laws dealing with religious establishment issues, the Lemon test says, a practice or policy is constitutional

1. .   Had a legitimate secular purpose
2.        Neither advanced nor inhibited religion
3.        Did not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion

•     In 1981, the Court ruled unconstitutional a Missouri law prohibiting the use of state university buildings and grounds for " purposes of religious worship." The law had been used to ban religious groups from using school facilities
•    In 1995, the Court signaled that it was willing to lower the wall even further, in a case involved the University of Virginia, a 5-4 majority held that the university violated the free speech rights of a fundamentalist Christian group when it refused to fund the group's student magazine
•    In 2010, in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the Court ruled that the University of California Hastings College of Law could deny recognition and therefore funding  to the Christian Legal Society because the group limited its membership to those who shared a common faith
•     For over 25 years the Court allowed books only as an aid to religious schools, but in 200, the court voted 6-3 to uphold the constitutionality of a federal aid provision that allowed the government to lend books and computers to religious schools
•     In 2002, a 5-4 vote, the Court concluded that governments can give money to parents to allow them to send their children to private schools
•     In 1992, the Court continued its unwillingness to allow organized prayer in public schools by finding unconstitutionality of saying a prayer at a middle school graduation
•    In 2000, the Court ruled that student-led prayer at high school football games violated the establishment clause
•    In 2005 the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision upheld the continued vitality of the Lemon test in holding that a privately donated courthouse display, which included the Ten Commandments was a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause
•    In 2010, the Court reversed course, saying that a white cross erected on a World War 1 memorial on federal lands was constitutional 

      Supreme Court Cases and Trends regarding the Free Exercise Clause

•     In 1965, a case involving three men who were denied objector deferments during the Vietnam War because they did not apply to "traditional" organized religions, the Court ruled that believe in religion was not essential for recognition of conscientious objector
•    In 1987 the Court ruled that Islamic prisoners could be denied the right to hold religious services for security reasons
•    In 1993 the Court ruled that members of the Santeria Church, had the right to sacrifice animals during religious services
•    In 2000, Congress made the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which made the use of peyote in religious services legal
•    As a result in 2006, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 found that the use of hoasca tea, known for hallucinations, was a permissible free exercise of religion for members of a Brazilian-based church

Explain: Both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause over the years have become less strict regarding religion and have made the wall between church and state much higher compared to what used to be. The Lemon Test is the new precedent as to whether a religion is legal.

  Give an Example: All the Supreme Court cases mentioned above, specifically in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, has raised the wall between church and state.

Chapter 5.4... Summarize changes in the interpretation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms
  Describe: Before the Constitution most colonies required all white men to keep and bear arms, and all white men were assumed to protect their settlements from Indians and other European powers.
  Supreme Court Cases and Trends involving the Second Amendment

• Barron v. Baltimore (1833) refused to incorporate the Bill of Rights to the state governments, prevented federal review of those state laws
•     In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) Chief Justice Taney listed the right to own and carry arms as a basic, right of citizenship
•     In 1934, Congress passed the National Firearms Act in response to the increase in organized crime that occurred in the 1920s and 1930s as a result of prohibition, it imposed taxes on automatic weapons and sawed-off shotgun 
•       In 1939 in the U.S. v. Miller, a unanimous Court upheld the constitutionality of the act, stating that the Second Amendment was intended to protect a citizen’s right to own ordinary militia weapons and not sawed-off shotgun
•     D.C. v. Heller in 2008, the Court ruled that the second amendment protected an individual’s right to own a firearm for personal use in Washington D.C.

       Explain: These Supreme Cases continue to show that citizens of the United States have the ability to carry and bear arms.
       Give an Example: In Supreme Court cases mentioned above, the verdict has been that citizens and carry and bear arms, however recently with mass shootings, citizens are asking the Supreme Court to once again review their previous decisions, and whether it should continue to apply.
     
        Chapter 5.6... Explain the origin and significance of the right of privacy
        Describe: Issues such as Birth Control, Abortion, and Homosexuality lie under this amendment.    
        Supreme Court Cases and Trends regarding the The Right to Privacy 

•        In Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 involved a challenge to the constitutionality of an 1879 Connecticut law prohibiting the dissemination of information about and or the sale of contraceptives, Connecticut statue was ruled unconstitutional because it violated marital privacy
•      In Roe v. wade in 1973 The Supreme Court found that a woman’s right to an abortion was protected by the right to privacy that could be implied from specific guarantees found in the Bill of Rights applied to the states through the 14^th amendment
•        In 2000 the Court ruled 5-4 in Stenberg v. Carhart that a Nebraska partial birth abortion statute was unconstitutionally vague because it failed to contain an exemption for a woman’s health
•     In 2007, a 5-4 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, Justice Kennedy’s opinion for the majority upheld the federal act although, like the law at issue in Stenberg, it contained no exceptions for the health of the mother; this ruling was viewed as a significant step toward reversing Roe v. Wade altogether
•       In Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, six members of the Court overruled its decision in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 which had upheld anti-sodomy laws—and found that the Texas laws was unconstitutional

     Explain: Over the years, the Supreme Court takes a variety of stances regarding the Right to Privacy, all which are mainly current issues. Their significance is that since these ideas were not really around during the forming of the Constitution the Supreme Court had to create the precedent, and thus it was entirely on the Supreme Court's views regarding Privacy issues such as Birth Control, abortion, and Homosexuality.

      Give an Example: These Supreme Court Cases mentioned above show how the Supreme Court has changed its stance on these issues, and how on other issues they have held firm. In Roe v. Wade, for example, the Court allowed Abortion, creating a stance upon that issue.

     

      Chapter 5.7...Evaluate how reforms to combat terrorism have affected civil liberties

      Describe: The war on terrorism has affected the First Amendment. Both the 2001 USA Patriot Act and the 2006 Military Commissions Act contains issue. The 2001 Act, bars those who have been subject to search orders from telling anyone about those orders, even in situations where no need for secrecy can be proven, and it also lets the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate citizens who choose to exercise freedom of speech with no need to prove that any parts of the speech might be labeled illegal. The USA Patriot Act also allows the government to examine private records held by third parties, a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and it expands the government's right to search private property without notice to the owner. Under the 2006 Military Commissions Act the administration eliminated the right to bring any challenge to transfer, treatment, trial of detainees, allowed government to jail these people indefinitely without any opportunity to file a writ of habeas corpus. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled parts of the act unconstitutional finding that any detainees could challenge their extended incarceration in federal court. Lastly, the eighth amendments prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment has also changed in order for the government to attempt to get information out of prisoners held in secret offshore prisons, known as black sites.
     Explain: In order to fight terrorism the government has disregarded parts of the Bill of Rights.
     Give an Example:An example of one interrogation technique that could be considered as a cruel and unusual punishment is water boarding.

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