AP Government - CHAPTER 18 TAKE-HOME TEST
CIVIL LIBERTIES
Please answer the following questions in detail. Each question is worth 25 points. Your responses
should be done on a computer, double-spaced, using a 12-point font (Arial or Times New Roman).
1. Apply your knowledge of the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution to the following hypothetical situations.
(You can find useful information in our text.) Do you believe the actions taken by the authorities are in violation
the Constitution? Why or why not? Provide evidence to support your conclusions.
A) The police see Colin W. standing at a bus stop on a downtown street where there is extensive drug dealing.
They stop and search him and find drugs in his pocket.
B) After Martin B. checks out of the team hotel, the police ask the hotel manager to turn over the contents of the
wastebasket, where they find notes planning a murder. The police bring the notes to a judge and obtain an
arrest warrant.
2. On the back of this page is the syllabus of the Supreme Court case Edwards v. South Carolina (1962 - 1963).
Research and analyze the case, and answering the following questions:
A) What is the root cause of the conflict?
B) Which Amendment(s) are most relevant to the case? What part(s) of the Amendments are specifically
involved?
C) Summarize the arguments on both sides. Distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant facts.
D) What did the Supreme Court decide?
E) Do you agree with the Court’s decision? Why or why not?
SUGGESTION: You might want to use the following websites for your research:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/search/search.html
http://www.oyez.org/
Syllabus
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
372 U.S. 229
Edwards v. South Carolina
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH CAROLINA
No. 86 Argued: December 13, 1962 --- Decided: February 25, 1963
Feeling aggrieved by laws of South Carolina which allegedly "prohibited Negro
privileges," petitioners, 187 Negro high school and college students,
peacefully assembled at the site of the State Government and there
peacefully expressed their grievances "to the citizens of South Carolina, along
with the Legislative Bodies of South Carolina." When told by police officials
that they must disperse within 15 minutes on pain of arrest, they failed to do
so, and sang patriotic and religious songs after one of their leaders had
delivered a "religious harangue." There was no violence or threat of violence
on their part or on the part of any member of the crowd watching them, but
petitioners were arrested and convicted of the common law crime of breach
of the peace, which the State Supreme Court said "is not susceptible of exact
definition."