Chapters 5-6 & 13-14

Terms in this set (76)

The principle that government does not violate the establishment clause as long as it does not confer an advantage to some religions over others. Alternative view to Strict separation. Government does not violate the establishment clause so long as it does not confer an advantage on some religions over others.

Civil Liberties

The limits on government that allow people to freely exercise their rights. They are the limits we put on governing bodies (and the majorities that elect them) so that individuals can exercise their rights and freedoms.
Example: The Islamic Center at Ground Zero is a classic case.

Clear and Present danger

Court doctrine that permits restrictions of free speech if officials believe that the speech will lead to prohibited action like violence or terrorism.

Double Jeopardy

The principle that an individual cannot be tried twice for the same offense. ("Jeopardy of life and limb" refers to the old colonial practice of punishing people by lopping off an ear or damaging other limbs.) Without this provision, the government could simply keep trying people over and over.

Establishment Clause

In the First Amendment, the principle that government may not establish an official religion.

Exclusionary Rule

The ruling that evidence obtained in an illegal search may not be introduced in a trial. Supreme Court threw out the conviction and in Mapp V. Ohio (1961, decided 6-3) devised the rule. Evidence obtained in an illegal search may not be introduced in a trial. Even evidence that clearly proves someone is guilty of a crime may not be used if it was improperly obtained.

An exception and permitted evidence obtained in illegal search

Expression inherently likely to provoke violent reaction and not necessarily protected by the First Amendment.

Free Exercise Clause

In the First Amendment, the principle that government may not interfere in religious practice.

A jury that does not decide on guilt or innocence but only on whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial. They meet secretly and hears only from the prosecutor, to determine if their is enough evidence to go to a trial jury of six to twelve individuals to hear the case.

Crime stemming from prejudice based on someone's personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.

Hostile statements based on someones personal characteristics such as race ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation

Hard-and fast boundaries between what is lawful and what is not.

Judicial standards

Guiding principles that help government make judgment calls.

Miranda Warnings

A set of rights that police officers are required to inform suspects of, including the right remain silent. The Constitution aimed to protect citizens from torture and coerced confessions

Miranda V. Arizona (1966)

The Court ruled that ny evidence acquired before the warning would not be admissible in court.

Prior Restraint

Legal effort to stop speech before it occurs-in effect, censorship.

Selective Incorporation

The extension of protections from the Bill of Rights to the state governments, one right at a time. The Supreme Court decides, case by case, which rights apply to state governments.

Fifth Amendment

Strict Separation

The strict principles articulated in the Lemon test for judging whether a law establishes a religion. Tries to separate church and state using the Lemon test.

Lemon V. Kurtzman

The Court ruled on a Pennsylvania law that paid teachers who taught nonreligious subjects in church-affiliated (mainly Catholic) School. The Court forbade the practice promulgated what became known as the Lemon test for judging what government actions are permissible. First, the law must have a secular purpose. Second, its principal effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion. Last it must not excessively entangle government in religion.

Symbolic Expression

An Act, rather than actual speech, used to demonstrate a point of view.

USA Patriot Act

Law passed due to 9/11 attacks; sought to prevent further terrorist attacks by allowing greater government access to electronic communications and other information; criticized by some as violating civil liberties

1963 March On Washigton

A 19th century movement demanding an immediate and unconditional end to slavery.

Affirmative Action

Direct, positive steps to recruit members of previously underrepresented groups into schools, colleges, and jobs; sometimes involves setting aside positions for members of these groups (known as quotas)

A slogan that emphasized pride in black heritage and the construction of black institutions to nurture black interests. It often implied racial separation in reaction to white racism.

Brown V. Board of Education

The landmark Supreme Court case that struck down segregated schools as unconstitutional

A defiant movement expressing pride in Latino origins and culture in the face of discrimination

The freedom to participate in the full life of the community to vote, use public facilities, and exercise equal economic opportunity

Civil Rights Act of 1964

1964; banned discrimination in public acomodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and to speed school desegregation; this and the voting rights act helped to give African-Americans equality on paper, and more federally-protected power so that social equality was a more realistic goal

A lawsuit filed on behalf of an an entire category of individuals, such as all people in public housing in a state or all the female managers of large company

Compromise of 1850

A complicated compromise over slavery that permitted territories to vote on whether they would be slave or free. It also included a fugitive slave law forcing Northerners to return black men and women into bondage and permitted California to enter the Union as a free state.

De Facto Discrimination

More subtle forms of discrimination that exist with out a legal basis

De Jure Discrimination

Discrimination established by laws

Disproportionate Impact

The effect some policies have of discriminating , even if discrimination is not consciously intended

The Senate's only approved method for halting a filibuster or lifting a legislative hold. If sixty senators-three-fifths of the body, changed in 1975 from the original two-thirds-vote for cloture, the measure can proceed to vote

Committee Hearing

A temporary collection of House and Senate members appointed to work out a comprise version of legislation that passed both chambers in different forms

Committee Markup Session

A gathering of a full committee to draft the final version of a bill before the committee votes on it. Markups open to the public are often standing-room only.

Conference Committe

A temporary collection of House and Senate members appointed to work out a compromise version of legislation that passed both chambers in different forms.

Congressional Caucus

A group of House or Senate members who convene regularly to discuss common interests; they may share demographic characteristics, geography, or issue concerns.

A legislative item, usually included in spending ("appropriations") bills, that directs Congress to fund a particular item in one House district or senator's state

Rule unique to the U.S. Senate that allows any senator to hold the floor indefinitely and thereby delay a vote on a bill to which he or she objects. Ended only when sixty senators vote for cloture.

The full chamber, either in the House of Representatives or the Senate. A bill "goes to the floor" for the final debate and vote.

King of the Hill Rule

A special rule governing floor consideration of a bill. A series of amendments on the same topic may all win majority approval, but only the last amendment receiving a majority vote- "king of the hill" is incorporated into the bill.

Legislative Hold

An informal way for senator to object to a bill or other measure reaching the Senate floor. The action effectively halts Senate proceedings on that issue, sometimes for weeks or longer.

President Pro Tempore

Majority-party senator with the longest Senate service

Reapportionment

Reorganization of the boundaries of House districts, a process that follows the results of U.S. census, taken every ten years. District lines are redrawn to ensure rough equality in the number of constituents represented by each house member

A congressional vote in which all members votes are recorded, either by roll call (Senate) or electronically (House)

Unanimous Consent

A Senate requirement, applied to most of that body's business, that all senators agree before an action can proceed.

The constitutional procedure by which a president can prevent enactment of legislation passed by Congress

A Congressional vote in which the presiding officer asks those for and against to say "yea" or "nay", respectively, and announces the result. No record is kept of House or Senate members voting on each side.

Central Clearance

The OMB'S (Office of Management and Budget) authority to review and "clear" (or approve) anything a member of the administration says or does in public. All members from the secretary of defense to an analyst in the Small Business Bureau, must submit every speech they make, opinion piece they write, congressional testimony they deliver and policy the propose to the OMB for its approval. Without approval they may not say or publish a word.

The Individual responsible for managing the president's office. The president's gatekeeper, traffic cop and coordinator. Other important offices include speech writers, White House counsel (the president's official lawyer) and legislative affairs team

Members of the permanent executive-branch bureaucracy who are employed on the basis of competitive exams and keep their positions regardless of the presidential administration. Who remain from one administration to the next?

Delegated Powers

Powers that Congress passes on to the president. "Take care that the laws be faithfully executed" Congress passes legislation that aims to improve hospital care. It delegates power to the executive branch, which issues a detailed rule saying that hospitals will receive lower federal payments if patients develop infections after surgery.

Executive Office of the President (EOP)

The agencies that help the president manage daily activites. In modern times, influence over the president has leaked steadily into the Executive Office of the President, made up of agencies that help a president manage his daily activities. Many are experts who stay on from one administration to the next. President Franklin D. Roosevelt organized the EOP in 1939; it now has about 1,800 people.

Executive Order

A presidential declaration, with the force of the law, that issues instructions to the executive branch without any requirement for Congressional action or approval. As chief executive, presidents wield powers that do no need to go through Congress. They can sign executive orders, with the force of law, setting guidelines for federal agencies. Contemporary administrations issue thirty to forty executive orders a year. Some are simply instructions for operating the executive branch: setting up a new council or office for example. Others involve controversial decisions. They can be issued with fanfare or executed secretly.

Expressed Powers

Powers the Constitution explicitly grants to the president. It grants the president a limited number of expressed powers, or explicit grants of authority. Most are carefully balanced by corresponding congressional powers.

Directly addressing the public in order to win support for oneself or one's ideas. As the only nationally elected official (excepting the vice president, who is elected as a package with the president), presidents develop a relationship with the people, which they cultivate by going public- directly addressing citizens in order to win support. Each new form of media- radio, television, Twitter, Facebook shifts the way presidents go public.

Imperial Presidency

A characterization of the American presidency that suggests it is demonstrating imperial traits and that the republic is morphing into an empire. Aurthur Schlesinger, Jr., a celebrated historian, warned of an imperial presidency, Very Powerful president, he feared become like emperors: they run roughshod over Congress, issue secret decisions, unilaterally deploy force around the world, and burst past the checks and balances limiting presidential power.

Inherent powers of the Presidency

Powers assumed by presidents, often during a crisis, on the basis of the constitutional phrase "The executive power shall be vested in the president. Modern presidents claim a third source of authority. Inherent powers. These are not specified in the Constitution or delegated by legislation, but are implicit in the vague Article 2 phrase, "The executive power shall be vested in a president." During a crises, presidents have often seized new "inherent" authority. During Civil War, for example President Lincoln to a series of unprecedented military actions with no clear legal basis.

The process by which Congress can overcome a presidential veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Political appointees

Top officials in the executive agencies, appointed by the president. Presidents appoint some four thousand political appointees who direct the executive agencies the res of the staff are civil servants who remain from one administration to the next.

Political Order

The set of institutions, interests, and ideas that shape a political era. Great presidents reconstruct the framework, launching a new order. Presidential scholar Stephen Skowronek describes each presidency as part of a great historical pageant: The rise and fall of Political orders. A political order is a set of ideas, institutions, coalitions that dominate an era. In Skowronek's telling, orders rise and fall in three steps. Every president fits somewhere in the cycle. 1. A new Order, 2.The order Refreshed, 3.The old Order Crumbles.

Signing Statements

Written presidential declarations commenting on the bill that is being signed into law. Presidents have increasingly issued signing statements as they sign a bill into law. These statements may offer their administration's interpretation of the law- one sometimes at odds with Congress's expressed ideas. President George W. Bush, reflecting his strong view of the unitary executive, used signing statements to challenge, limit, or reject an estimated 1,200 sections of congressional bills- roughly twice as many challenges as those put forth by all previous presidents combined.

Unitary Executive Theory

The idea that the Constitution puts the president in charge of executing the laws and that therefore no other branch should limit presidential discretion over executive matters. This view holds that the Constitution puts the president in charge of executing the laws, and therefore no one not Congress, not the judiciary, not even the people may limit presidential power when it comes to executive matters

The presidential power to block an act of Congress by refusing to sign it. When Congress passes a law, presidents have the authority to sign or veto it (veto means "I forbid" in Latin). As we saw in the last chapter, a veto blocks the legislation unless two-thirds of both chambers vote to override it, a very high bar to achieve. Presidents have ten days to return the legislation to Congress with a message explaining why they have rejected it. If the president does nothing, the bill becomes a law in ten days.

Engel v. Vitale:

1962 Supreme court ruled that New York's practice of starting the school day with prayer violated the establishment clause. The establishment clause is clearly designed to keep government officials from favoring one religion or religion over nonreligion. May graduations include prayer (NO) May students lead prayers at football games?(NO) May children recite "under God" during the Pledge of Allegiance? (NO definitive ruling has yet taken place.) May a city put up a Christmas display? (YES if it includes secular as well as rigious symbols- known sarcastically as the two reindeer rule.

1973 Supreme Court drew on the right to privacy and struck down a Texas law banning abortion. Court ruled that the right to privacy is "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." During the woman's first trimester of pregnancy. Changed the way American politics. Known as Pro Choice: the view the decision as essential to gender equality, for it enables women to control when ( and whether) they have children. From this perspective, Roe opens the door to vocations and careers for women.

Barron v. Baltimore:

1897 Supreme Court returned to the issues raised and ruled that State governments could not seize property without compensation. One phrase of the Fifth Amendment now applied to state and local government as well as the federal government.

2nd Amendment A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott sued for his freedom. He argued that he had been taken to live in a free territory before returning to Missouri and that as a result he should be free. Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that Scott was not free, because neither the territories nor the federal government had the power to limit slavery or give a black man rights.Ruled that no territory could restrict slavery, much less elevate blacks to citizenship. Dred Scott decision created an uproar. The Republican Party rose to national prominence by explicitly rejecting it.. A landmark Supreme Court decision holding that black men could not be citizens under the Constitution of the United States.

Plessy v. Fergusun:

1896 Supreme Court ruled that there was nothing inherently discriminatory in requiring separate but equal facilities for the black and white races. If one race be inferior to the the other Socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.

◦Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme Court decided that the state governments had no compelling interest in segregating schools. Segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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