American Government Powerpoint Presentation (CATHERINE OWENS ONLY)

KEYGirl36

unitii_chapter4presentation.pdf

Home >Government homework help >American Government Powerpoint Presentation (CATHERINE OWENS ONLY)

Chapter 4

4-2

The Constitution: The Bill of Rights

and the Fourteenth Amendment

 Selective incorporation of free expression rights

 Fourteenth Amendment due process clause prevents states

from abridging individual rights

 Supreme Court engaged in selective incorporation—

invoking Fourteenth Amendment to apply Bill of Rights to

the states

4-3

The Constitution: The Bill of Rights

and the Fourteenth Amendment

 Selective incorporation of fair trial rights

 Initial resistance by the Supreme Court to invoke selective

incorporation to protect the rights of the accused in the

states

 Change in the 1960s: Court begins to assert and protect

rights of accused

4-5

Freedom of Expression  The early period: the uncertain status of the right of free

expression

 Sedition Act, 1798

 Espionage Act, 1917

 Schenck v. United States (1919)

 Clear-and-present-danger test

4-6

Freedom of Expression  The modern period: protecting free expression

 Early cold war—freedom of speech abridged in interest of

national security; protected after 1950s

 Imminent lawless action test

 Symbolic speech protected, but less completely than verbal

speech

4-7

Freedom of Expression  Free assembly

 Some restrictions allowed, based on national security or

disruption of daily life

 Press freedom and prior restraint

 “Pentagon Papers”

 New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

 Prior restraint disallowed under extreme burden of proof on

government

4-8

Freedom of Expression  Libel and slander

 Libel: publishing material that falsely damages a person’s

reputation

 Slander: spoken words that falsely damage a person’s

reputation

 Libel against public officials requires malicious intent

4-9

Freedom of Expression  Obscenity

 Material must lack “redeeming social value”

 Material must be “patently offensive”

 “Reasonable person” to be judge of “community standards”

 Supreme Court distinction between obscenity in public and

in home

4-10

Freedom of Religion  The establishment clause

 Government may not favor one religion over another

 Government may not favor religion over no religion

 “Wall of separation” versus “excessive entanglement”

 The Lemon test—conditions for acceptable government

action

4-11

Freedom of Religion  The free-exercise clause

 Government prohibited from interfering with the practice of

religion

 Government interference allowed when exercise of religious

belief conflicts with otherwise valid law

 Government may not prohibit free exercise of religion

4-12

The Right to Bear Arms  Widely accepted view that the Second Amendment

blocked the federal government from abolishing state

militias

 In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) the Court ruled

that “the Second Amendment protects an individual right

to possess a firearm”

4-13

The Right of Privacy  Griswold v. Connecticut: Americans have a “zone of

privacy” that cannot lawfully be denied

 Abortion

 Protected as a right of privacy in Roe v. Wade, and upheld

when challenged

 Sexual relations among consenting adults

 Anti-sodomy laws in states struck down by Supreme Court

in 2003

4-14

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Procedural due process: procedures that authorities must

follow before a person can lawfully be punished for an

offense

 Suspicion phase

 No police search unless probable cause that crime occurred

(Fourth Amendment)

 Not a blanket protection; some warrantless searches allowed

based on situation

4-15

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Arrest phase

 Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination

 Miranda v. Arizona: no legal interrogation until suspect has

been warned his/her words could be used as evidence

 Miranda warning

4-16

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Trial phase

 Legal counsel and impartial jury

 Fifth Amendment: suspect cannot be tried for federal crime unless

indicted by grand jury; states not required to use grand juries

 Sixth Amendment: right to legal counsel before and during trial

 Right to speedy trial

4-17

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Trial phase

 The exclusionary rule

 No admission of illegally obtained evidence

 1960s expansion of exclusionary rule

 Exceptions: inevitable discovery; good faith

4-18

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Sentencing phase

 Eighth Amendment prevention of “cruel and unusual

punishment” of convicted persons

 Supreme Court generally allows states to decide

punishments, but has limited aspects of death penalty

4-19

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Appeal: one chance, usually

 No constitutional guarantee of appeal; but federal and states

allow at least one appeal

 Federal law bars in most instances a second federal appeal

by a state prison inmate

4-20

Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes

 Crime, punishment, and police practices

 Supreme Court rulings have affected police practices

 Miranda

 Some poor or arbitrary application of rights

 Racial profiling

 Tough sentencing policies popular, but prison overcrowding

an issue

4-21

Rights and the War on Terrorism  WWII detention of Japanese Americans

 Detention of enemy combatants

 Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)

 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006)

 Surveillance of suspected terrorists

 USA Patriot Act

 Warrantless wiretapping

4-23

The Courts and a Free Society  Americans embrace freedom of expression as an abstract

virtue

 Americans favor limits of freedom of expression in

particular instances

 Judicial system the primary protector of individuals’ rights

4-24

What’s Your Opinion?  What can be done to safeguard individuals’ due process

rights?

 Who is responsible when due process rights are violated?

 Is it possible to make the justice system foolproof? If so,

how?