Civil Liberties: The First Amendment
In order to understand and process all of the legal complexity associated with civil liberties and related
court cases, you need to complete the following assignment. These terms and cases only apply to the
First Amendment. Additional terms and cases will follow, as we move through the unit.
1.
Read pages 93 – 111. All of these pages apply just to the First Amendment! This should show
you how much importance one should attach to this particular portion of the Bill of Rights.
2.
Define each of the following terms. TRY to put these in your own words, in order to show you
actually understand the terms and are not just copying definitions from the book.
civil liberties
First Amendment
14th Amendment
due process clause
incorporation doctrine
3.
establishment clause
free exercise clause
prior restraint
libel
slander
symbolic speech
commercial speech
shield laws
right to assemble
right to associate
Create a legal brief, using www.oyez.org –complete the following components for EACH of the
cases below—putting each case on a 5 X 7 card, will earn extra points for your grade
a. brief facts of the case/background
b. the issue or question
c. the Court’s ruling/decision (and number, such as 5 to4) and WHY
d. the significance of the case as it relates to civil liberties
CASES
Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)
Gitlow v. New York (1925)
Roth v. US (1957)
Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
Miller v. California (1973)
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)
NY Times v. Sullivan (1964)
Engel v. Vitale (1962)
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Schenck v. US (1919)
Both the terms and the court case “briefs” will be due on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. You will have class
time on Monday to work on this assignment.