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Civil Rights And Civil Liberties Court Cases

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Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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  • Match each statement with the correct term.
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This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Illegal to discuss overthrowing the government [free speech]






2. The Court fashioned the direct incitement test for deciding whether certain kinds of speech could be regulated by the government. This test holds that advocacy of illegal action is protected by the First Amendment unless imminent action is intended a






3. Identified an implied right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution using the 1st - 3rd - 4th - 5th - and 9th amendment. Hint: This case involved birth control and married couples... relate this somehow to the Griswold family vacation movies?






4. Concluded that the U.S. Congress lacked the constitutional authority to bar slavery in the territories; this decision narrowed the scope of national power while it enhanced that of the states. Also declared that slaves couldn't sue since they weren't






5. Overturning Furman v. Georgia - the case ruled that Georgia's rewritten death penalty statute is constitutional.






6. Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely because of their race.






7. Ruled that the First Amendment protected radical and revolutionary speech - unless it posed a 'clear and present danger'. (overt action required) [Free Speech]






8. When a government operates a 'limited public forum -' it may not discriminate against speech that takes place within that forum on the basis of the viewpoint it expresses—in this case - against religious speech engaged in by an evangelical Christian






9. You can burn the flag [symbolic speech]






10. The Court ruled that an all-male jury did not violate a woman's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.






11. This case was an unsuccessful attempt to challenge Pennsylvania's restrictive abortion regulations.






12. Law aimed at preventing laws which substantially burden a person's free exercise of their religion. Also - attempted to reign in the Courts' decisions against religious practices.






13. Censorship did not violate the student's First Amendment rights of free speech; decision which held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First






14. Challenged a Louisiana statute requiring that railroads provide separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites. The Court found that separate but equal accommodations did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.






15. The Court held that in order to be obscene - material must be 'utterly without redeeming social value.'






16. Death penalty is not 'cruel and unusual punishment' in cases of murder [8th]






17. The Court ruled that public schools could compel students—in this case - Jehovah's Witnesses—to salute the American Flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance despite the students' religious objections to these practices. [Free exercise]






18. The Supreme Court ruled that all vestiges of de jure discrimination must be eliminated at once.






19. The Court ruled that keeping drunk drivers off the roads may be an important governmental objective - but allowing women aged eighteen to twenty-one to drink alcoholic beverages while prohibiting men of the same age from drinking is not substantially






20. Incorporated the free speech clause of the First Amendment - ruling that the states were not completely free to limit forms of political expression.






21. (no burning draft card) [symbolic speech]


22. The Supreme Court used this case to end capital punishment - at least in the short run.






23. Held that the Justice Department does not have the authority to block physician assisted suicides.






24. Case wherein the Supreme Court adopted the exclusionary rule - which bars the use of illegally obtained evidence at trial.






25. Case wherein the Supreme Court began to formulate rules designed to make it easier for states to regulate obscene materials and to return to communities a greater role in determining What is obscene.






26. Unsuccessful attempt to challenge Georgia's sodomy law. The case was overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.






27. Selectively incorporates freedom of the press -The Court ruled that a Minnesota law that targeted publishers of 'malicious' or 'scandalous' newspapers violated the First Amendment






28. Due process in suspension or expulsion






29. Supreme Court decision that said it was unconstitutional to keep Mexican-Americans off of juries.






30. A landmark case in the area of U.S. criminal procedure - in which the United States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against 'unreasonable searches and seizures' may not be used in criminal






31. A case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment required that government demonstrate a compelling government interest before denying unemployment compensation to someone Who was fired b






32. The Army accused chief counsel - Roy Cohn - of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to G. David Schine - Who was a former McCarthy aide and a friend of Cohn's. McCarthy counter-charged that this accusation was made in bad faith - in ret






33. This Act prescribed fines up to $10000 and prison up to 20 yrs for a variety of loosely defined antiwar activities. [free speech]






34. Tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans and limited speech [free speech]






35. Follow-up to Brown v. Board of Education - this case laid out the process for school desegregation and established the concept of dismantling systems 'with all deliberate speed.'






36. The Court overturned the conviction of a director of a Communist youth camp under a state statute prohibiting the display of a red flag.






37. Nonverbal communication - such as burning a flag or wearing an armband. The Supreme Court has accorded some symbolic speech protection under the first amendment.






38. Defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over 'indecent' material as applied to broadcasting; some kid over heard Filthy Words routine on TV - so the dad sued. [obscenity]






39. Law must be clearly secular - not prohibiting or inhibiting religion - and there should be no excessive entanglement






40. Extended 1981 ruling to high schools for use of facilities by religious groups after hours [est. clause and schools]






41. You may believe whatever you wish - but you may not be able to exercise that belief.






42. The Supreme Court said that the Second Amendment protects a pre-existing - private - individually-held right - to keep arms and to bear arms - without regard to a person's relationship to a militia.






43. The Court voted to uphold the constitutionality of the university of Michigan law school's affirmative action policy - which gave preference of minority students.






44. Religious organization can obtain federal grants to help solve societal problems [exception to lemon v. kurtzman]






45. Set the Court's rationale of selective incorporation - a judicial doctrine whereby most but not all of the protections found in the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment.






46. The Fourteenth Amendment did not impose specific limitations on criminal justice in the states - and that illegally obtained evidence did not necessarily have to be excluded from trials in all cases.






47. All defendants must be informed of legal rights before they are arrested [5th]






48. Names attached to five cases brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1857. In 1883 - the Supreme Court decided that discrimination in a variety of public accommodations could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private discrimi






49. Limitation on the scope of Tinker ruling. prohibiting certain styles of expression that are sexually vulgar.






50. Defendants were charged and convicted for inciting resistance to the war effort and for urging curtailment of production of essential war material. They were sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Act did not violate ci