Written Assignment 2

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Thomas Edison State College *

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110

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Political Science

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Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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1) The Constitution lists the powers of and limits on the federal government, but the Bill of Rights lists the guaranteed freedoms of the people. List four rights, each from a different amendment, and explain each. Are the rights you have chosen absolute? What is the Lemon test? Explain. [MO2.1, MO2.3] a) First Amendment – The Right to free speech and religion. This means as long as your speech or religion does not infringe on another person’s rights or call to action for violence, the government cannot censor or forbid it. This is not an absolute right since there are certain restrictions on it, such as you can’t cause public chaos or call for/incite immediate violence, and speech concerning children in an education setting is also restricted. b) Second Amendment – the right to bear arms and for states to maintain a well-regulated militia. This means private citizens are allowed to own firearms and that states are allowed to maintain a militia. This is not an absolute right since many states have laws that restrict access to firearms. c) Third Amendment – the government is not allowed to house soldiers in private citizens homes. This means that the government cannot house any soldier or military member in your home unless absolutely necessary. Also not absolute since it says there are ways to house soldiers in a citizens home. d) Fourth Amendment – It is illegal to conduct unreasonable search and seizure. This means that in order for the government or police to search or seize any person or property they must have a warrant issued (some exceptions apply). Also not absolute since there are many many exceptions such as exigent circumstances, public spaces, inevitable discovery, and “good faith” exception. e) The Lemon Test is a test used to determin if a law or government action might favor a religion should be allowed. Essentially, laws and government actions must not cause undue burden and not favor any religion. It has three criteria: i) “The action or law must not lead to excessive government entanglement with religion; in other words, policing the boundary between government and religion should be relatively straightforward and not require extensive effort by the government.” ii) “The action or law cannot either inhibit or advance religious practice; it should be neutral in its effects on religion.” iii) “The action or law must have some secular purpose; there must be some non- religious justification for the law.” 2) Consider the Brandenburg v. Ohio case (1969). What is the current test limiting free speech, what is symbolic speech, and is any speech protected? [MO2.1, MO2.3] a) If the speech incites immediate violence, a criminal act, a genuine threat, is a defamation of character it is not protected. Symbolic speech is a form a communication to express an idea that does not explicitly use writing or speaking. Almost all other forms of speech not expressly restricted is protected, such as advocacy of a hypothetical revolution or the burning of the US Flag. 3) The due process clause has wide application. Explain procedural due process and its relationship to the exclusionary rule, unreasonable searches and seizure, the plain view exception, good faith exceptions, and other rights of the accused. [MO2.1, MO2.3] a) Due Process is the concept that there is a set of procedures to ensure a person is tried impartially by the government and that the government does not unduly restrict the

persons ability to pursue “life, liberty, or property”. The exclusionary rule helps due process by ensuring that any evidence found without a warrant, violating the Fourth Amendment, is inadmissible in court. This is directly related to unreasonable search and seizure, which prevents police from taking property or “evidence” without just cause and a warrant. The plain view exception allows evidence to be used if the police officer could see it without the need of a warrant. The good faith exception is if a police officer is using a search warrant correctly and it later turns out that the warrant is invalid, the evidence found can still be used. All these exceptions and rules are set to establish a widespread way to ensure Due Process. 4) Is there a right to privacy specifically listed in the Constitution? Explain. Discuss the importance of the Griswold v. Connecticut case (1965). How did the court define a right that didn’t exist prior to the case? Which amendment was interpreted to include this right? How did this right expand in subsequent years? [MO2.1, MO2.2, MO2.3] a) It is not explicitly stated in the Constitution. It is implied by the first four Amendments and the 9 th and 10 th but never explicitly called out. The court used the ruling in Griswold v Connecticut to define explicitly the right to privacy and further expanded it to include non-married citizens in 1972. Many amendments were used to interpret this right such as the 9 th , 14 th , 1 st , 3 rd , and 4 th . 5) Explain the difference between civil liberties and equal rights (civil rights). What do “classes within society” have to do with equal rights? Discuss changes over time in the interpretation of the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. [MO2.1, MO2.2, MO2.3, MO2.4] a) A civil liberty is a protection granted by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other Amendments. A civil right is the legal right to be treated equally under the law. These civil rights are upheld regardless of the “class within society” an individual is a part of. This has been proven and expanded overtime with amendments, laws, and court rulings to cover race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, disability status, etc. 6) With regard to equal protection of various classes of people, the Court applies the rational basis test or the strict-scrutiny test. Explain rational basis and strict-scrutiny as well as what it means to say that race and national origin are suspect classifications. [MO2.2, MO2.3, MO2.4] a) Rational Basis Test is a test to determine if a law or restriction is acceptable. It determines this by deciding if treating an individual differently is “rationally related to a legitimate government interest.” The person challenging the discriminatory practice owns the burden of proof. Strict-Scrutiny is nearly the opposite in that the government owns the burden of proof to show that there is a good reason and government interest in treating a specific group of people differently than others. A suspect class is a group of people that all fall under a similar criteria and may be more prone to discrimination. In Hirabayashi v. United States and Korematsu v. United States several classes were recognized as “suspect classes” such as race, national origin and alienage, and religion. These classes are subject to further analysis because they are more prone to discrimination and as such fall under Strict-Scrutiny. 7) Explain de jure discrimination and de facto discrimination. How did affirmative action programs attempt to end both? Summarize Bakke v. California (1978). What impact did it have on affirmative action programs? [MO2.2, MO2.4]

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