American Political sience

Review: The US Constitution

  Article I: Legislative branch   Article II: Executive branch   Article II: Judicial branch   Article IV: States   Article V: Amendment   Article VI: National supremacy   Article VII: Ratification

The Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights, 1791 •  Selective incorporation First Amendment •  Freedom of religion: establishment clause; free

exercise clause •  Freedom of speech and the press: absolutely

protected speech (political speech, symbolic speech, speech plus); not absolutely protected (libel, slander, obscenity/pornography, fighting words, commercial speech)

Second Amendment •  Right to bear arms

Rights of the criminally accused Fourth Amendment: security from

unreasonable searches and seizures; exclusionary rule

Fifth Amendment: rights of accused persons in criminal proceedings (right to a grand jury; protection from double jeopardy and self- incrimination)

Sixth Amendment: right to speedy trial and counsel

Eighth Amendment: protection from cruel and unusual punishment

Supreme Court cases: The criminally accused Mapp v. Ohio, 1961 •  Exclusionary rule Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963 •  Right to counsel Miranda v. Arizona, 1966 •  Protection against self-incrimination •  Right to counsel

Supreme Court cases: Right to privacy Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965 •  The Connecticut law forbidding the use of

contraceptives was unconstitutional Roe v. Wade, 1973 •  Right to abortion Lawrence v. Texas, 2003 •  Homosexuality (The Texas law classifying

homosexual intercourse as illegal sodomy violated the privacy of adults and was unconstitutional)

Civil Rights Thirteenth Amendment, 1865 •  abolition of slavery Fourteenth Amendment, 1868 •  equal protection clause •  due process clause Fifteenth Amendment, 1870 •  suffrage (African American men)

Supreme Court cases: Racial segregation Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 •  Separate but equal rule Brown v. Board of Education of

Topeka, 1954 •  School segregation was

unconstitutional

Supreme Court cases: Affirmative action Bakke v. The University of California, 1978 •  The use of a quota system based on race

was unconstitutional Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003 •  The use of a point system based on race was

unconstitutional Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003 •  Race can be a plus factor

California and affirmative action Proposition 209 (1996) •  Elimination of affirmative action

programs based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin

Clauses   Necessary and proper clause (elastic

clause)   Full faith and credit clause   Supremacy clause   Establishment clause   Free exercise clause   Equal protection clause