Civil Liberties

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Civil Liberties
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What are they?

• Personal freedoms that government cant abridge
• Protections against improper government action

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An Evolving Question

• Goosbumps series, horror
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, racism
• Its Perfectly Normal, sexual content
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, rape
• The Chocolate War, language and sexual content
• Catcher in the Rye, language
• Bridge to Terabithia, language
• Forever, sexual content
• My Brother Sam is Dead, violence and language
• Harry Potter series, occult themes

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14th Amendment

• No state shall make or enforce any law which
  shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
  citizens of the United States nor shall any
  state deprive any person of life, liberty, or
  property, without due process of law.

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Nationalizing the Bill of Rights

• Gitlow v. New York (1925)
• Selective incorporation

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1st AmendmentFreedom of Religion

• Establishment clause
• Congress shall make no law respecting the
  establishment of religion
  
• Accomodationists and separationists
• Lemon Test
• Secular purpose
• Primary effect neither enhances nor inhibits
  religion
  
• Excessive entanglements

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• Free exercise clause
• or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
• Beliefs versus actions
• Neutrality

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First AmendmentFreedom of Speech

• or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
  press
  
• Thoughts are protected
• The truth is protected

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Political Speech

• Espionage Act of 1917
• Clear and present danger
• Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)
• Direct incitement
• Symbolic speech

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The Press

• No prior restraint
• Libel and slander

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Obscenity and Pornography

• Miller v. California (1973) definition
• Community standards
• Specific sexual conduct defined by law
• Lacking serious artistic value

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2nd Amendment

• A well regulated Militia, being necessary to
• the security of a free State, the right of the
• people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
• infringed.
• National Firearms Act (1934)
• Militia weapons
• Brady Act (1993)
• State background checks

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The Criminally Accused

• 8th Amendment
• Cruel and unusual punishment
• Death penalty

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• The Case Law
• Furman v. Georgia (1972)
• Woodson v. North Carolina (1976)
• Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
• Prohibition on
• mentally retarded (2002)
• national consensus
• minors (2005)
• evolving standards of decency

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• 4th Amendment, Searches and seizures
• What can they search?
• With a warrant
• If arrested, you, plain view, immediate control
• Warrantless? With probable cause that crime is
  happening or about to happen
  

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• Self incrimination and counsel
• Miranda v. Arizona
• Gideon v. Wainright
• Exclusionary rule
• Tainted evidence not admissible

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Privacy

• The right to be left alone
• Inherent and implied
• Searches and seizures
• Expression and conscience
• 9th Amendment

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• Birth control
• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
• Unstated liberties, based on stated rights
• Abortion
• Roe v. Wade (1973)
• Many regulations permitted

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• Sexual conduct
• Sodomy laws in 15 states
• Lawrence v. Texas (2003)