Government Final Study Guide Essay

Submitted By kssavic
Words: 866
Pages: 4

Terms and Concepts Bill of Rights- first 10 amendments to the constitution. Ensured certain rights & liberties to the people
Civil Liberties- areas of personal freedom with which governments are constrained from interfering
Selective incorporation- The process by which certain of the guarantees expressed in the Bill of Rights become applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment
Double Jeopardy- the prosecution of a defendant for a criminal offense for which he has already been tried; prohibited in the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution
Miranda Rights- a warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody, or in a custodial situation, before they are interrogated.
Civil Rights- obligation imposed on government to take positive action to protect citizens from illegal action of government agencies as well as other citizens
De jure vs De facto segregation- De jure is the separation of people on the basis of race as required by by law. After the Civil War and the ending of slavery by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution by creating laws to require separate public facilities for blacks and whites. De facto is when racial separation that exists as a matter of custom rather than as a legal requirement. One neighborhood may include only whites, and another nearby neighborhood may include only blacks. However, this racial segregation may have developed informally in response to social and economic factors, not as a requirement of the law.

Constitutional Clauses

Expressed powers- specific powers granted from the constitution to the congress & president
Necessary & proper- gives congress authority to do whatever is “necessary & pro[er” to carry out its expressed powers.
Due process- the right of every citizen against arbitrary action by national or state governments. The government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law.
Seperate but equal- system of segregation giving different "colored only" facilities or services for blacks, with the declaration that the quality of each group's public facilities were (supposedly) to remain equal.
Equal protection- Part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". Can be seen as an attempt to secure the promise of the United States' professed commitment to the proposition that "all men are created equal" by empowering the judiciary to enforce that principle against the states.
Right to privacy
Right to counsel- is currently regarded as a constituent of the right to a fair trial, allowing for the defendant to be assisted by counsel (lawyers) and if he cannot afford his own lawyer, requiring that the government should appoint one for him, or pay his legal expenses.
Eminent domain- refers to the power possessed by the state over all property within the state, specifically its power to appropriate property for a public use.
Cruel & unusual- 8th Amendment - is a statement implying that governments shall not inflict suffering or humiliation on the condemned as punishment for crimes, regardless of their degree of severity.

Court Cases

Lemon vs Kurtzman- as a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Pennsylvania's 1968 Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which allowed the state Superintendent of Public Instruction to reimburse nonpublic schools (most of which were Catholic) for teachers' salaries who