Gov. Test Three

section 1 gives the Court judicial power and allows Congress to establish inferior courts; section 2 defines the Court's original and appellate jurisdictions

power of federal courts to review the acts of the other branches of government and the states

established the three-tiered structure of the federal courts: 1) district courts; 2) circuit courts, which can take appeals; and 3) the Supreme Court (originally only 6 justices)

• established the Court as a co-equal branch (expanded the sc�s power)
• claimed the right of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison (1803) decision
• est. the Court's authority over state courts, including declaring state laws invalid
• established the supremacy of the federal government over state governments in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
• ended the practice of seriatim ("in a series") individual opinions; established a single "opinion of the court," so all justices spoke with one voice (not common today)

• supreme court - highest court (may have different names in different states)
• appellate courts - hear appeals from trial courts
• trial courts - where cases begins (and end, if no appeal)

authority a court has to hear and decide the issues in a case

determining the facts of a case; trial court�s authority

power to review and/or revise the decision of a lower court

the state prosecutes criminals to protect individual safety and property: felonies, misdemeanors, offenses; usually plea bargains, so no trial

regulates business and contractual relationships: lawsuits filed by injured parties ("plaintiffs"); but usually settle out of court

• Supreme Court - final judicial authority and interpreter of the Constitution; decisions are binding on all other courts
• courts of appeals.- aka circuit courts; now strictly appellate courts for the district courts; 13 courts: circuits 1-11, plus "D.C. Circuit" and "Federal Circuit" courts; usually the "court of last resort;" has no original jurisdiction
• district courts - at least one in each state, each staffed by a federal judge: 94 courts, has no appellate jurisdiction; each district also has a U.S. Attorney

prior judicial decision that sets a rule for settling similar cases that come later

reliance on past decisions or precedents in new cases; allows for continuity and predictability, but is not applied uniformly; Latin, "let the decision stand"

• appointed by the president - usually a partisan or ideological choice
• "advice and consent" - the Senate may reject or stall appointees on the same bases
• Congress can impeach
• "judges" characteristics - judicial, legal, or government experience; temperament; ABA rating; political connections; there are no specific requirements
• senatorial courtesy - senators often choose (or veto) federal district judges (and U.S. Attorneys) for their states
• originalism - uses the Framers- original intentions to interpret the Constitution

• competence - some judicial or governmental experience
• ideology or policy preferences
• rewards - for friends, party activists, or allies
• political support - to please a special interest or demographic group; can include religion, race, or gender

• very political
• appointment by president
• investigations by special interest groups, FBI, ABA, & Senate Judiciary Committee
• ABA's vetting role was started by Eisenhower, ended by Bush
• lobbying by interest groups
• hearings in Senate Judiciary Committee - questions usually focus on ideology, issues
• vote in the full Senate - but lower court nominees have been blocked by filibuster, holds

nominated by Reagan in 1987, defeated by liberal interest groups and Senators in floor vote; many judicial appointees since then have been "Borked"

very important now; do research, summarize the facts and issues in each case, and help justices write opinions; in 2005, the justices had 34 clerks (most had 4)

• "friend of the court;" a third party which files a legal brief in an attempt to influence a
• court-s decision

No. 4 in the Dept. of Justice, handles U.S. government appeals to the Court; the Court usually accepts 70 - 80% of the cases the U.S. petitions for

• Three types
• The "opinion of the court" is the majority's ruling
• In a concurrence, a justice agrees with the result, but not the scope and/or reasoning, of the opinion
• A dissent, explains a justice's disagreement with the opinion
• written for the majority, in concurrence, or dissenting

• judicial restraint - courts should allow most acts by Congress and the president, or else policy will be made by unelected and unaccountable judges
• judicial activism - courts should exercise broad powers to further their ideas of justice, especially in cases of equality and personal liberty; e.g. Roe v. Wade, Lochner

carried out by "the implementing population:" judges, lawyers, public officials, police, administrators, corporations, etc.

personal rights and freedoms that government should not shrink by law, constitution, or judicial interpretation (can force join army, smoking illegal)

first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution; largely guarantees specific rights and liberties

guaranteed rights protecting citizens from arbitrary or unjust application of the laws; applied primarily to criminal procedural rights, but also to other processes

holds that state and local governments must also guarantee due process rights; those rights have been selectively made applicable to the states, via the Fourteenth Amendment

• Freedom of Religion
• establishment clause - "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . ." Congress can�t establish a state church
• free exercise clause - ". . . or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Congress can't interfere with beliefs, but may limit actions; e.g., no polygamy, no peyote use

• Prior restraint - prohibits government from prohibiting speech; at first, was the only First Amendment protection (following the British model of the day)
• Alien and Sedition Acts - 1798 Federalist laws that banned publication of any -false, scandalous writing against the government of the United States;� Anti-Federalist Jefferson pardoned those convicted, and the new Congress allowed the acts to expire
• unprotected speech - includes libel, fighting words, obscenity, and lewdness (S.C., 1942)
• libel - untrue written statements that defame a person's character; truth is an absolute defense against the charge; see N.Y. Times v. Sullivan (1964)
• slander - untrue spoken statements that defame a person's character

• National Firearms Act (1934) - imposed taxes on automatic weapons (machine guns) and sawed-off shotguns; upheld in U.S. v. Miller (1939)
• Brady Bill (1993) - imposed 5-day waiting period on handgun purchases
• D.C. v. Heller (2008) Supreme Court affirmed personal (not militia-based) right to bear arms; but not applied to the states (yet)

• sets out what may not be searched without a warrant (many searches can be)
• warrants can only be issued under �probable clause;- government can't use "general warrants" as British Parliament had done

• the accused do not have to testify; involuntary statements are not admissable
• "taking the Fifth" - heard in high-profile investigations
• Miranda v. Arizona (1966) - created "Miranda rights" and required police to advise people of their constitutional rights when arresting them

• police may not use illegally seized evidence at trial; asserted in Weeks v. U.S. (1914)
• applied to the states in Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
• since 1976, the Court has allowed limited "good faith" exceptions to the rule, as well as allowances for "inevitable discovery"

Gideon v. Wainright (1963) - required states to provide a court-appointed lawyer, if needed, in felony cases; later, also other offenses punished by imprisonment

• originally only the right to trial by a jury of white males
• later, minorities (1880) and women (1975) could not be excluded from jury pools
• 6th Amendment also requires the right to confront witnesses at trial

• validity of the death penalty was not questioned at the writing of the constitution
• constitution does not prohibit the death penalty

est. 1915, US- oldest, largest, most effective civil liberties organization; files lawsuits, lobbies state and federal governments; absolutist, so "extreme" liberal group

• created in the "penumbras" of constitutional rights - unstated liberties on the fringes or in the shadow of more explicitly stated rights
• birth control - Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) ruling struck down 1879 law that forbade distributing information about, or sale of, birth control; established "marital privacy
• Abortion
• Roe v. Wade (1973) - privacy right requires states to allow abortion; after the first "trimester," states only need allow abortion to preserve a mother's "life or death;" but
• Doe v. Bolton (1973) - defined "health" to include any reason throughout pregnancy
• Webster (1989) - preserved Roe by 5-4 vote; allowed states to not fund or support it
• Partial-born abortion ban - passed in 1996, 1998; signed in 2003, SC approved in 2006

government protection against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment based on race, sex, age, or national origin or disability

• American Anit-Slavery Society - founded 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison
• women's rights leaders - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott (Suz B Anthony) organized the
• Seneca Falls Convention (1848) - first women�s rights convention, in New York

• 13th Amendment - banned slavery in the United States; southern states were required to ratify it in order to be readmitted to the Union
• Black Codes - southern laws taking most legal rights from newly freed slaves; even worse than later segregation laws; laid the groundwork for Jim Crow laws
• 14th Amendment - guaranteed citizenship to all natural-born or naturalized persons; guaranteed "equal protection"
• 15th Amendment - guaranteed the right of male citizens to vote

• Jim Crow laws - southern laws creating "whites only" schools, theaters, hotels, and other public accommodations (segregation)
• Southern states denied voting rights with poll taxes, property-owning requirements, and literacy tests
• grandfather clause - allowed poor, illiterate men to vote if their grandfathers had voted before Reconstruction (i.e., whites only) (voting right denied with use of this)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) - allowed "separate but equal" segregationist laws; such laws and other public practices kept blacks as second-class citizens

National Association for the Advancement of colored people, 1909

Legal Defense and Educational Fund established to bring cases to the Supreme Court; Thurgood Marshall was its first head (& SC Justice 1967-91)

school segregation held unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; marked the beginning of the end of legal segregation

made southern school districts desegregate "with all deliberate speed"

Rosa Parks stays on the bus; boycott of bus system organized; Martin Luther King heads new Montgomery Improvement Association

• passed after 8-week philabuster
• banned discrimination in: voting, registration, public accommodations, public schools and facilities, and employment: created the EEOC
• outlawed discrimination in voter registration
• barred discrimination in public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce
• allowed the Justice Department to sue to desegregate public facilities and schools
• withheld federal funds from discriminatory state and local programs
• barred discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, or sex
• created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

• suffrage movement - drive for voting rights for women, 1890-1920; part of the broader Progressive movement
• 19th Amendment - guaranteed women the right to vote (1920)

• Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
• The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

• Enactment failed, but effected incrementally
• 1972 - ERA passed in Congress
• 1982 - ERA failed to be ratified in 38 states by deadline after Roe and other controversies; however, much of the ERA agenda has since been enacted anyway

Mexican-, Puerto Rican-, Cuban-Americans; more than 43 million (largest minority group now)

domestic dependent nations; about 2.7 million

gay marriage is biggest issue in 2000s

• needs grew after WWII, Korea, Viet Nam
• 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - guaranteed access to public facilities, employment, communications; required ramps, BRs, other accommodations (give disabled access)

- organized groups that try to influence public and corporate policy

• public interest groups - AARP, EDF, MoveOn, NAACP, NRA, NARAL, NRLC
• economic interest groups - AFL-CIO, AMA, NFIB, C of C
• governmental units - state & local governments
• Political Action committees (PACs) - fund-raising committee that represents an interest group by giving to candidates; has no members, just contributors

formed to fight slavery, alcohol (WCTU); railroads were very effective at getting what they wanted (anti-slavery, temperance, RRs)

American Federation of Labor (AFL) founded, 1886; merged w/Congress of Industrial Organizations to form AFL-CIO, 1955

National Association of participation (NAM) founded, 1895; U.S. Chamber of Commerce (C of C) founded, 1912

groups that represent specific industries

ACLU, NAACP, NOW, Common Cause, Public Citizen, etc.

Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, Business Roundtable, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), etc.

• Pro - enhance political participation and organize work toward a common goal
• Con - spend government funds and regulate (or stop regulation) for their purposes, often at everyone else's expense

• activities to influence legislation and gain support from political leaders for an interest group's positions
• lobbyists try to influence all 3 branches of government:
• Legislative - using and providing information, contact with public officials, campaign donations, etc.
• Executive - using expertise, contact with WH staffers and regulators
• Judicial - fighting lawsuits up the court system (litigating), filing amicus briefs, influencing selection of judges
• in each case, interest groups may also use grassroots organizing and/or protest activities

• candidate recruitment & endorsements - eg., EMILY's List, WISH List
• getting out the vote (GOTV) - ID prospective voters, get them to the polls; incl. ads
• rating the candidates for office - esp. ACU, ADA, etc.; see pp. 590, 604
• funding and using PACs

leaders - entrepreneurs, selling like businessmen

value that everyone, including non-members, gets benefit from

people don't join or support the group, but still get benefits