Willis Wang
U.S. Government
Chapter 4 Master Outline
I. United States v. Jones
A. The Court upheld the decision made by the lower courts, which argued that the
method to obtain evidence is not admissible and the police did not have a warrant
B. Court argued that attaching a small device to a car’s undercarriage cannot be counted
as “unreasonable search”
II. Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches
III. Civil liberties are different from civil rights
A. Civil liberties: specific individuals rights, including freedom of speech
1. Difficult to maintain civil liberties because of:
a. Huge national government
b. Enormous corporations
c. Social media
d. Urban crowding
e. Vulnerability to terrorist acts
f. Tracking devices
g. Devices that eavesdropping on conversations
B. Civil rights: members of differing groups are treated equally by the government
C. Each time the Court made a ruling that includes Bill of Rights to the states, the
concept of judicial federalism appeared more often
IV. Barron v. Baltimore
A. Barron contended for just compensation of property under the Fifth Amendment
B. Bill of Rights, for the first time, had meaning to citizens
C. Bill of Rights used to apply to State governments
V. Selective Incorporations of Free Expression Rights
A. Fourteenth Amendment includes a due process clause that prevents states from
depriving people’s life, liberty, and property
B. Gitlow v New York
1. Court argued that the New York law that advocating the violent overthrow of the
U.S. government is illegal
a. Citizens are protected by the First Amendment
2. Near vs. Minnesota
a. Jay Near constantly made insult remarks toward blacks, Jews, Catholics, and
labor union leaders
b. Court ruled in his favor and rejected the state’s decision, which ban his
publications
c. Selective incorporation: the process by which certain of the rights listed in the
Bill of Rights can be used and apply through the Fourteenth amendment to
actions by the state government
d. Ex. In Gitlow case, the Court selectively incorporated the First Amendment
guarantee of free expression into the Fourteenth Amendment
C. Selective Incorporations of Fair Trial Rights
1. Free-expression rights were more deserving of federal protection because they are
“ the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom.”
2. In 1960, the Supreme began to protect the rights
a. Mapp v. Ohio
1. The police searched at Mapp’s house under the reason that she held a
fugitive but later on found obscene materials
2. The Court ruled that the police had acted unconstitutionally, citing the
Fourth Amendment
a. Evidence obtained through an unconstituiaonl serach cannot be used to
against the accused
b. Court ruled that defendants in state criminal proceedings must:
i. Provide a lawyer in felony cases if the accused cannot afford one
ii. Cannot be compelled to testidy against themselves
iii. Have the right to remain silent
iv. To have legal consel at the time of arrest
v. Right to confront witnesses to testidy against them
vi. Granted to a speedy trial
vii. Cannot be subject to double jeopardy
VI. Freedom of Expression
A. Freedom of expression: the right of individual Americans to hold and communicate
thoughts of their choosing
B. Does not apply such circumstances:
1. Endangers nationals security
2. Wrongly damages the reputation of others
3. Deprives others of their basic rights
C. The Early Period: The Uncertain Status of the Right of Free Expression
1. First attempt: Sedition Act of 1798, which made it a crime to print criticisms
against presidents and national officials
2. During the Civil War era, government can restrict free expression
3. Clear and present-danger
a. The government needs to clearly show that spoken or written expression
presents a danger before it can prohibit the expression
D. The Modern Period: Protecting Free Expression
1. Conflicts between national security interests and free expression
a. Free Speech
1. Schenck v. United States
a. Cannot speak against/ questions war efforts in World War I
2. Court upheld convictions eleven members of U.S. Communist Party when
fear of Soviet Union sentiment increases
3. In Vietnam and Iraq wars, however, no one was convicted for criticizing
the government’s war policies
4. Brandenburg v. Ohio
a. Ohio convicted his malicious comment of “revenge” at the KKK rally
b. The Court upheld the decision and argued that states cannot prohibit
speech unless it meets two criteria: “ directed at inciting or producing
imminent lawless action” and “likely to produce such action”
c. Aka Imminent lawless action
5. Applies to hate speech
a. Hate speech does not necessarily lead to hate crimes such as assault
that are motivated by racial or other prejudice
6. Synder v Phelp
a. WBC’s protest at Synder’s funeral service was directed at what WBC
claims is America’s tolerance of gays and lesbians
b. Court upheld the decision, arguing that although “hurtful”, the words
are protected by the Fist Amendment
7. Symbolic Speech
a.
Burning draft case
i. The Court concluded that the federal law prohibiting the
destruction of draft cards was intended to protect the military
manpower needs and fail to protect free speech against government
policy
b. Burning American flag is a lawful form of expression
8. Free Assembly
a. DeJonge v Oregon
i. DeJonge had the right o organize a Communist Party
a. However, in the case Dennis v. United States, due to pervasive
fear of communist, the Court decided that Dennis was charged
as being the leader of the Communist Party
b. Court upheld a lower court ruling against a prevention of parade by the
American Nazi Party
c. Court also argued that before government can lawfully prevent a
speech or rally, it must demonstrate that the event will cause harm
b. Press Freedom and Prior Restraint
1. New York Times Co v. United States
a. The Time’s publication of the Pentagon Papers claim that officials
deceive the norm about Vietnam War
b. The Court argued that the claim could not be blocked by the
government
c. Unacceptability of Prior restraint ( government prohibition of speech
or publication before it occurs)
d. One of the exceptions is wartime reporting
c. Libel and Slander
1. False information harmful to a person’s reputation through:
a. Libel: published
b. Slander: spoken
2. New York Times Co v. Sullivan
a. Court overruled an Alabama state court that had found the New York
Times guilty of libel for publishing an advertisement that claimed
Alabama officials had mistreated student civil rights activists.
b. Difficult to prove that publication recklessly or deliberately
disregarded the truth
c. No federal officials has won a libel judgment against a news
organization since the Sullivan ruling
d. Obscenity
1. Not protected by the First Amendment
2. Miller v California
a. Materials need to meet these criteria:
i. Must depict sexual conduct in a patently offensive way
ii. The material must precisely described in law as obscene
iii. Material has no redeeming social value
3. Differences between obscene materials in public places and those in the
home
a. The Court upheld an Ohio law that made it a crime to possess
pornographic photographs of children
b. The Court made the act of the purchase of such material encourages
producers to use children in the making of pornographic mateirals a
crime
i. Expand to ban to the extent that includes computer-generated or
digitally altered images
E. Freedom of Religion
1. The establishment Clause
a. The establishment clause: government may not favor one religion over another
or support religion over no religion
b. Engel v. Vitale
1. Establishment clause prohibits the reciting of prayers in public schools
2. Bans on religious displays on public property
a. Many public buildings display religious symbols
b. Van Orden v. Perry
i. Court rejected a suit asking for the dismantling of a display of the
Ten Commandments on a monument at the Texas state capitol
c. Mc. Creary Country v. American Civil Liberties Union
i. Courts structk down the display of Ten Commandments on the
walls of two Kentucky courthuses
3. Wall of separation
a. A strict separation of church and state
4. accommodation doctrine
a. government to aid religious activity if no preference is shown
i. Lemon v. Kurtzman
a. Lemon test is derived from this case
i. The statute must have a secular legislative purpose
ii. Its principal or primary effect must be one that neither
advances nor inhibits religion
iii. Statute must not foster an excessive government
entanglement with religion
c. The Free-Exercise Clause
1. Free exercise clause: Americans are free to hold any religious belief of
their choosing
2. Employment Division v. Smith
a. Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s refusal to grant unemployment
benefits to a person fired for using peyote, even though its use was a
ritual of the person’s religion
2. The Right to Bear Arms
a. Mapp v Ohio (1961)
1. Police who found evidence without a legitimate warrant cannot be used in
the court
b. Disagreements as to whether individuals to have the rights to possess weapons
( originally only apply to militias)
c. District of Columbia v. Heller
1. The Court struck down a District of Columbia law that banned the
possession of handguns but not rifles or shutfuns within the district’s
boundaries
d. McDonald v. Chicago
1. The Court also struck down a law that prohibits possession of handgun
e. Roe v. Wade (1972)
1. The Court ruled that abortions are constitutionally protected
3. The Right of Privacy
a. Abortion
1. Roe v. Wade
a. Gave women full freedom to choose abortion during the first three
months of pregnancy
b. Texas originally ban abortion except to save the life of the mother
c. Efforts made by the antiabortion activists
i. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
ii. Planned Parenthood v. Casey
d. Gonzales v. Carhart
i. The first time Supreme Court upheld a ban on the use of particular
type of abortion
ii. Issues lies at the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act which
provides for a fine and prison term of physicians who perform an
abortion during the birth process even it threatens mother’s life
4. Consensual Sexual Relations among Same-Sex Adults
a. Rights of privacy did not extend to consensual sexual relations among adults
of the same sex
b. Lawrence v. Texas
1. Court concluded that Texas’s sodomy law violated the right of privacy
implied by the grant of liberty in the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process
clause
5. Rights of Persons Accused of Crimes
a. Procedural due process: procedures that authorities must follow before a
person can lawfully be punished for an offense
b. Article I Section 9
1. A person can seek a writ of habeas corpus
a. Article I Section 9
2. 5th and 14th Amendment provide that no person can be deprived of life,
liberty, or property without due process of law
6. Suspicion Phase: Unreasonable Search and Seizure
a. The Fourth Amendment provides protection against speculative or arbitrary
police action
b. Normally, police cannot act until they have a search warrant
c. Whren v United States
1. Court concluded that officers’ motives was irrelevant as long as an officer
in some situations might reasonably stop a car for the infraction in
question.
d. Court allows warrantless searches in some circumstances
1. Police roadblocks to check drivers for signs of intoxication are fine
a. Roadblocks serve an important highway safty objective
e. Police cannot physically enter a home without a search warrant
1. Ferguson v Charleston
a. Patients in public hospitals cannot be forced to take a test for illegal
drugs if the purpose is to report to police those patients who test
positive
2. Board of Education of Independent School District No.92 of Pottawatomie
County v. Earls
a. Court argued that random drug test of high school students does not
violate the ban on unreasonable searches
3. Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders
a. Law enforcement officials can strip search anyone arrested of a crime
b. Court concluded that police have the authority to conduct a thorough
search despite slightest chance of threat
f. Arrest Phrase: protection against Self-Incrimination
1. Fifth Amendment protest individuals from the age-old practice of coerced
confession
2. Miranda v Arizona
3. The Supreme Court concluded that the police had not informed him of his
right to remain silent and to have legal assistance
4. “Miranda warning”
5. Missouri v. Siebert
a. The strategy in which police often use tap or video recorders intends to
undermines the Miranda warning
6. Escobedo v Illinois (1964)
a. The Court ruled Escobedo’s due process rights of self-incrimination
and right to counsel were violated
g. Trial Phase: The Right to a Fair Trial
1. Legal Counsel and Impartial Jury
a. Under the fifth Amendment, suspects charged with a federal crime
cannot be tried unless indicated by a grand jury
b. Johnson z Zerbst
i. Court concluded that criminal defendants must be provided a
lawyer at government expense if they cannot afford legal counsel
c. Right to a speedy trial and to confront witnesses against them
i. Witherspoon v Illinois
a. The Court invalidated Illinoi’s policy of allowing the
prosecution an unlimited number of challenges in capital cases
d. The Exclusionary Rule
i. The exclusionary rule bars the use of such evidence ( obtained
through violation of defendants’ rights)
ii. United States v Leon
a. Court concluded that evidence found through faulty warrant
was acceptable because the police had acted in “good faith”
iii. Inevitable discovery exception ( Nix v. Williams)
a. Court concluded that even though Williams’ rights have been
violated, police had other evidence that would have enabled
them to find the girl’s body
h. Sentencing Phase: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
1. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment of those
convicted of crime
2. Panetti v Quarterman
a. Court concluded that death penalty for mentally retarded is a violation
of cruel and unusual punishment
3. Broaden the ban on extreme punishment of juneiles to include life without
parole in nonhomicide cases
7. Appeal” One Chance, usually
a. At least one appeal has been given to the accused
b. Felker v Turpin
1. Prevents frivolous and multiple federal court appeals
2. Bowels v Russell
a. Court didn’t give a chance to appeal even it’s because a federal judge
had given the inmate’s lawyer the wrong date
8. Crime, Punishment, and Police Practices
a. Racial profiling
1. A study conducted in 1999 found that 80 percent of the motorists stopped
and searched by Maryland State Police on Interstate but 20 percent were
white
b. Minorities and the poor receive harsher sentences than to middle-class white
persons convicted of comparable crimes
c. U.S.A has the largest prison population in the world
9. Rights and the War on Terrorism
a. Detention of Enemy Combatants
1. People in Guantanamo Bay received abusive treatments
2. Hamdi v. Rumsfled
a. One of the detainees who is a U.S> citizens but raised in Saudi Arabia
has the right to heard in U.S. Courts
b. Hamdan v. Rumsfled
i. Court concluded that the secret military tribunals were unlawful
because they did not provide minimal protection detainee’s rights
F. Undefined Rights
1. Undefined rights not listed a anywhere in the Constitution cannot be taken away
2. United States v Lopez (1995)
a. Supreme Court ruled the Gun-Free School Zone Safety Act unconstitutional
1. Gun-Free School Zone Safety Act: forbid people to possess guns within
1000 yards of a school
3. Gonzales v Oregon (2006)
a. The Supreme Court ruled that federal government could not block Oregon’s
Assisted Suicide Law
4. National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius (2012)
a. Supreme Court ruled that the Obamacare constitutional
1. Obamacare aka Affordable Care Act
2. Congress violated the Tenth Amendment ’s interstate commerce clause by
imposing a penalty on those who do not pay for health insurance
3. Congress has the authority to collect a fee if health insurance was not
bought