Essay on Chapter 5 Review Questions

Submitted By Libby-McDowell
Words: 988
Pages: 4

1. What is the common definition of a right?
2. What do rights imply?
3. What is/are the difference(s) between civil liberties and civil rights?
4. What rights are protected I the First Amendment?
5. What makes the 2nd Amendment so controversial?
6. What do the 4, 5, 6 and 8th amendments focus on?
7. Does the government have the right to take your property and if so, from where do they get that right?
8. What is the purpose of the 9th Amendment?
9. Describe what each of the following Amendments do: 13, 14, and 15.
10. With the exception of the 21st Amendment, what type of right was addressed in all Amendments after the 15th (that dealt with defining or securing rights)?
11. How did the Bill of Rights, which originally limited only the federal government, come to limit the states as well?
12. What happened in the Barron v Baltimore case and did the Supreme Court rule the Bill of Rights applied to state in that situation?
13. What clause in the 14th Amendment did the court use to rule the Bill of Rights applied to the states as well as the federal government?
14. What is the incorporation doctrine?
15. What is the total incorporation view and was it adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court?
16. What is the distinction between the establishment clause and the free exercise clause, and in what Amendment are they found?
17. Why as history linked Thomas Jefferson with the establishment clause?
18. Compare the pre and post 1960s standards applied to relations between religion and government.
19. When the text talks about the establishment clause and quotes Stephen Carter as saying it “is designed to limit what the state can do, not what the church can do,” what does that mean?
20. What is the “belief – conduct “ distinction that is discussed in your text?
21. How does the “belief conduct” distinction differ from the balancing test?
22. What is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act?
23. Name three types (not examples) of speech that are not protected by the First Amendment.
24. From reading the section that deals with regulation of political speech, why do you think political speech receives more protection than other types of speech; and do you agree with the majority opinion or the dissenting opinion in the 2011 case that dealt with the picketing of soldier funerals?
25. What is symbolic speech and is it protected by the First Amendment?
26. Do public school junior high and high school students have the same first amendment protection for political speech within the school and why?
27. Why is the burning of a cross by the KKK sometimes considered protected speech and sometimes is not protected?
28. What is the difference between libel and slander?
29. Is it harder or easier for a public official to sue someone for defamation; and what, if anything, do they have prove before they can recover in the lawsuit?
30. As noted in your text, the 1973 abortion case of Roe v Wade was one of the most controversial decisions of the Supreme Court. Since abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, how did the court reach the determination that a woman had a constitutional right to abortion?
31. What is the Mexico City Policy and what does the handling of this federal restriction (by different presidents) tell you about the uniformity or disparity between political parties – in reference to this issue?
32. Is there a difference between obscenity and pornography? If so, what is the distinction? If not, why?
33. In what two areas has the Supreme Court been more tolerant of governmental efforts to regulate the display or distribution of sexual materials?
34. How successful has Congress been in banning distribution of obscene materials to minors through the Internet.
35. From your reading of the various First Amendment issues discussed in this morality and sexual