Notes
Civil liberties vs civil rights
Civil liberties are protections from government (the Bill of Rights). Civil rights are protections against discrimination, guaranteed by the government (the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause).
First Amendment
- Establishment Clause: government can't establish or favor a religion. Engel v. Vitale (1962): state-sponsored school prayer is unconstitutional.
- Free Exercise Clause: people may practice their religion. Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): Amish families could take children out of school after eighth grade.
- Free speech: Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) protected students' armbands protesting the Vietnam War as symbolic speech. Schenck v. U.S. (1919) created the "clear and present danger" test. Some speech isn't protected (true threats, defamation, obscenity).
- Free press: New York Times v. U.S. (1971) blocked prior restraint of the Pentagon Papers.
Other rights
- Second Amendment: McDonald v. Chicago (2010) applied the right to bear arms to the states.
- Fourth Amendment: protection from unreasonable searches; the exclusionary rule keeps illegally obtained evidence out of court.
- Fifth and Sixth Amendments: due process, the right to remain silent, and the right to a lawyer. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963): states must provide lawyers to poor defendants in felony cases.
- Selective incorporation: the Supreme Court has applied most of the Bill of Rights to the states, case by case, through the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause.
- Privacy: the Court found a right to privacy in earlier cases. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health (2022), the Court overturned Roe v. Wade, returning abortion regulation to the states.
Civil rights
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned "separate but equal" (Plessy v. Ferguson) in public schools.
- Social movements pushed for laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Title IX (1972), which bans sex discrimination in education.
- Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963) defended nonviolent civil disobedience against unjust laws.
- Debates continue over affirmative action and how to balance majority rule with minority rights.
Practice
Even a voluntary, nondenominational prayer was unconstitutional.
Students wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.
Amish families' religious practice outweighed the state's school requirement.
The government couldn't block publication of the Pentagon Papers.
It incorporated the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
McDonald v. Chicago incorporated the Second Amendment.
Segregated schools denied equal protection.
It greatly expanded girls' and women's sports.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
In a recent case, a public high school disciplined a student for wearing a T-shirt with a political message criticizing the governor. The school said the shirt might cause arguments.
(a) Identify the constitutional provision involved.
Show the answer and scoring guide
The First Amendment's protection of free speech (applied to states through the Fourteenth Amendment).
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(b) Explain how the facts of this case are similar to Tinker v. Des Moines (1969).
Show the answer and scoring guide
Both involve students expressing a political message through clothing or symbols at a public school, with no evidence of actual disruption.
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(c) Based on Tinker, explain how the court would likely rule.
Show the answer and scoring guide
For the student. Tinker held that schools can't restrict student speech unless it causes a substantial disruption; fearing arguments isn't enough.
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