Name____________________________
AP US Government and Politics STUDENT NOTES
Week of 9/3 – 9/6
Tuesday, September 3rd: Read pages 113 – 127
Learning Objectives:
4.5 – Describe the right to bear arms protected by the 2nd Amendment and its limitations.
4.6 – Characterize defendants’ rights and identify issues that arise in their implementation.
4.7 – Outline the evolution of a right to privacy and its application to the issue of abortion.
4.8 – Assess how civil liberties affect democratic government and how they both limit and expand the
scope of government.
1.) Explain the District of Columbia v. Heller court case.
2.) How is the 2nd Amendment right NOT unlimited?
3.) The majority of the Bill of Rights focuses on the rights of people accused of crimes. Why was this?
4.) What is unreasonable search and seizure? Where is it located in the Constitution?
5.) What is the exclusionary rule? How did the Court rule in Mapp v. Ohio?
6.) What can the USA Patriot Act do?
7.) What is the 5th Amendment? Be sure to understand the basics of the Miranda v. Arizona case.
8.) What does the 6th Amendment guarantee?
9.) What is a plea bargain? Why do lawyers use this strategy?
10.) According to the text, is the death penalty considered cruel and unusual punishment? Why or why
not?
11.) Explain the case of Griswold v. Connecticut and how it relates to privacy and the Roe v. Wade case.
Practice Questions:
_____1.) Which of the following is NOT a constitutionally permissible limitation on the Second
Amendment right to bear arms?
A.) Background checks for gun buyers
B.) Mandatory trigger locks
C.) Prohibitions on concealed weapons
D.) Limits on the possession of firearms by the mentally ill and by felons
E.) Restrictions on dangerous and unusual weapons not typically used for self-defense
_____2.) Obtaining evidence in a haphazard or random manner, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, is
known as
A.) bounty hunting.
B.) unreasonable search and seizure.
C.) a violation of privacy.
D.) cruel and unusual punishment.
E.) an Ariel search.
_____3.) In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court
A.) ruled that various portions of the Bill of Rights cast “penumbras” protecting a right to privacy,
including a right to family planning.
B.) overturned a woman’s legal right to abortion.
C.) ruled that the state of Connecticut could legally ban the sale of contraceptives under state
police powers of the Tenth Amendment.
D.) held that abortion was a woman’s legal right.
E.) overturned a Connecticut state sodomy law.
Wednesday, September 4th: Read pages 133 – 143 (to Rights of Other Minority Groups)
Learning Objectives:
5.1 – Differentiate the Supreme Court’s three standards of review for classifying people under the equal
protection clause.
5.2 – Trace the evolution of protections of the rights of African Americans and explain the application of
nondiscrimination principles to issues of race.
1.) Examine table 5.1 on page 136 and in your own words describe what the standards of review mean and
applying them.
2.) Outline African American Civil Rights from Slavery to Voting Rights. Identify important Supreme
Court cases and federal law.
Sample questions:
_____1.) Where is the guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” found?
A.) in the Bill of Rights
B.) in the Supreme Court’s decision in Korematsu v. United States
C.) in the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education
D.) in the Fourteenth Amendment
E.) in the preamble to the Constitution
_____2.) Which is responsible for enforcing the Voting Rights Act?
A.) Congress
B.) County Boards of Elections
C.) State governments
D.) The U.S. Justice Department
E.) The Equal Opportunity Commission
Thursday, September 5th: Read pages 143 – 153 (to Other Groups Active Under the C.R. Umbrella)
Learning Objectives:
5.3 – Relate civil rights principles to progress made by other ethnic groups in the United States.
5.4 – Trace the evolution of women’s rights, and explain how civil rights principles apply to gender issues.
1.) How have civil rights principles affected Native Americans?
2.) How have civil rights principles affected Hispanic Americans?
3.) How have civil rights principles affected Asian Americans?
4.) How have civil rights principles affected Arab Americans and Muslims?
5.) What is the ERA?
6.) Explain the Reed v. Reed Supreme Court Case.
Practice M.C. Questions
_____1.) The 1954 Supreme Court case that extended protection against discrimination to Hispanics was
A.) Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez.
B.) Hernandez v. Texas.
C.) Thornburg v. Gingles.
D.) Miller v. Johnson.
E.) Hunt v. Cromartie.
_____2.) In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court first declare gender discrimination
unconstitutional?
A.) Faragher v. City of Boca Raton
B.) Reed v. Reed
C.) Stanton v. Stanton
D.) Craig v. Boren
E.) Dothard v. Rawlinson
Friday, September 6th: Read pages 153 – 161
Learning Objectives:
5.5 – Show how civil rights principles have been applied to seniors, people with disabilities, and gays and
lesbians.
5.6 – Trace the evolution of affirmative action and assess the arguments for and against it.
5.7 – Establish how civil rights policy advances democracy and increases the scope of government.
1.) In what ways have civil rights been applied to seniors?
2.) In what ways have civil rights been applied to people with disabilities?
3.) In what ways have civil rights been applied to gays and lesbians?
4.) What is affirmative action? What are the arguments for AND against it?
Sample questions:
_____1.) ______ requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” and prohibits employment
discrimination against people with disabilities.
A.) The Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975
B.) The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
C.) The Civil Rights Act of 1964
D.) The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
E.) The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
_____2.) In its 1995 ruling in Adarand Constructors v. Pena, the Supreme Court
A.) changed direction and began to curtail federal use of affirmative action programs.
B.) outlawed discrimination against women in the construction industry.
C.) mandated an expansion of federal affirmative action programs.
D.) upheld federal affirmative action programs as constitutional.
E.) broadened the scope of state and local affirmative action programs that it considers
constitutional.
_____3.) In which case did the Supreme Court decide that a compelling interest for promoting diversity
on campus existed?
A.) Reed v. Reed
B.) Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County
C.) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
D.) Grutter v. Bollinger
E.) Brown v. Board of Education
_____4.) In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), the Supreme Court
A.) held that the school district’s use of race in voluntary integration plans violated the Fourteenth
Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.
B.) held that the school district’s use of race in voluntary integration plans was constitutional.
C.) held that school districts inherently possessed an inherent interest in remedying the effects of
past segregation and, thus, could consider race in their strategies toward integration.
D.) ruled that school districts could consider race as a primary factor in preventing resegregation of
public schools.
E.) overturned previous rulings that prohibited the consideration of race in determining the
boundaries of public school districts.