AP US GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Public Policy

THE FIRST AMENDMENT

1. Define "civil liberties."

The Bill of Rights--Then and Now

2. Who or what was the Bill of Rights intended to protect citizens against?

3. Discuss Barron v. Baltimore and its resulting principle. [What did the court rule in this

case and why?]

4. What happened in Gitlow v. New York?

5. Explain how the court's interpretation of the 14th

Amendment began the development of

the incorporation doctrine. What is selective incorporation?

Freedom of Religion

6. There are two clauses contained in the First Amendment dealing with religion – the

establishment clause and the free exercise clause. What did the establishment clause seek

to prevent?

7. How does the court determine whether the establishment clause is violated in cases of aid

to church-related schools? Explain the three questions considered by the Court in the

Lemon test.

8. What did the free exercise clause seek to prevent?

9. In defending the rights contained in the free exercise clause, what distinction has the

court made?

Freedom of Expression

10. Identify and explain why the right to speech is NOT an unlimited right.

11. What kinds of activities do and do not constitute "speech?"

12. What is it that all freedom of expression cases have in common?

Prior Restraint

13. Define prior restraint.

14. Describe Near v. Minnesota & New York Times v. United States

Free Speech and Public Order

15. What happened in Schenck v. US? Explain the Court’s decision and the clear and

present danger doctrine.

16. Where lays the biggest conflict between a free press and the need for public order?

Free Press and Fair Trials

17. What two amendments come into conflict in a trial?

18. Must courtroom proceedings be open to the press? All of them?

19 Must reporters disclose their sources to a judge? What are shield laws?

Obscenity

20. Is obscene speech protected? Explain the test in Miller v California that the Court

devised to determine if materials are obscene.

Libel and Slander

21. Differentiate between libel and slander.

22. What must a public figure prove to win a libel or slander case?

Symbolic Speech

23. What is symbolic speech? Is it protected? Provide an example to back your conclusion.

24. Identify and explain the ruling in the Tinker v Des Moines case.

25. Identify and explain the ruling in the Texas v Johnson case.

Commercial Speech

26. Describe the Court’s regulation of commercial speech.

Regulation of the Public Airwaves

27. Why can the government regulate the airwaves in ways that it is not permitted to do with

the print media?

Freedom of Assembly

28. a) What are the two rights associated with freedom of assembly?

b) How can the right to assemble be constitutionally restricted?