Chapter 4, Sec 2

• Town High School is a public high school. It is getting ready for graduation. They invite a both a Baptist minister and a Rabbi to come to graduation and give a prayers at the ceremony, which is located in the school auditorium.

• How do you personally feel about this?• Does this violate the 1st Amendment?

• At Town High School, a group of students wants to get together, before school and pray. They pray quiet, with no teachers present. However, other students see them, and it makes some students uncomfortable. The school tells them to stop.

• How do you personally feel about what they are doing?

• Do they have a right under the 1st Amendment.

• Mr. Scarecrow loves animals. He believes that it is wrong to make fur coats out of animals. He goes a fur shop located in downtown Birmingham and walks up and down the side walk outside on a public sidewalk with a sign that says “Fur coats are murder!”

• How do you feel about what he is doing? • Does he have a right? • What if he comes inside the store (private property)?• What if the store is in a mall, which is all private

property?

• Mr. Bear doesn’t like ASFA. He makes a sign that reads, “ASFA is a bad school, and all the students are bad”, and carries it. He walks back and forth on the public side walk in front of the school. Dr. M. goes out and tries to persuade him to stop, but he won’t.

• How do you feel about what he is doing? • Does he have a right?• Suppose Mr. Bear comes inside the building, and

carries it around the lobby?

• Mr. Lion and other members of his church thinks that being gay is against the will of God. They are angry because our government now lets gay people serve in the military.

• Whenever a soldier dies in the war (whether or not the soldier was gay; that’s not the point), they go and carry signs saying that soldiers are dying because the U.S. military is going against God’s will by letting gay soldiers serve in the military. They stay on public property, but near enough for people at the funeral to see. This is deeply upsetting to the families of the dead soldiers.

• How do you feel about what he does? • Does he have a right?

• "Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and -- as it did here -- inflict great pain. However, on the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority

• In 1999, Congress passed a law against selling “Crush Videos” (videos of people torturing animals, often women crushing them their feet with high heels) in interstate commerce.

• How do you feel about the videos?• Do the makers of these videos have a right?

2nd Amendment• Read the 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.”

2nd Amendment

a. What right does it protect? The right to bear arms-own & carry weaponsb. What was a militia when the 2nd Amendment was

written? (p. 106) A small local military group made up of

volunteer soldiers for the defense of the community. c. How have the courts said that the government can

control, but not prohibit weapons? Laws can require a license, and determine who can get a license. Laws can restrict the type of firearms.

3rd Amendment• Read the 3rd Amendment. “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be

quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

• “Quartered” means “housed—placed in a citizen’s home to live temporarily”. How does the 3rd Amendment protect us?

• What historical circumstance of the period just before the American Revolution is the 3rd Amendment a response to? (p. 106) The “Coercive/Intolerable Acts” passed to punish Boston for the Boston Tea Party, required colonists to house British soldiers.

4th Amendment

• “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and

• no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

• Read what it says on pp. 103-104 about the 4th Amendment.

• a. What two rights are guaranteed in the 3rd Amendment.

• 1) No unreasonable searches & seizures• • 2) No warrants without “probably cause”

4th Amendment

• What is a search warrant? A court order (from a judge) allowing law

enforcement officers to search a suspects home or business.

• How much evidence does a judge have to have before he/she issues a search warrant?

“Probably cause”: Strong reason to believe the search will probably turn up evidence of criminal activity.

5th Amendment• Read the 5th Amendment: • (1) No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or

otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,

• (2) nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;

• (3) nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,

• (4) nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

• (5) nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

5th Amendment-SIMPLIFIED• 1) No trial for a serious crime unless a person has been indicted by a grand

jury.

• 2) A person found not guilty may not be put on trial again for the same crime.

• 3) Accused persons may not be forced to testify against themselves (“take the 5th Amendment”; “The right of an accused to remain silent”.)

• 4) Your life, liberty and property (John Locke’s words) cannot be taken without “due process of law”—unless established, reasonable and fair legal procedures have been followed.

• 5) No one can be deprived of their property by the government without just compensation. The government has the right to take private property for public use, when necessary for the common good, but it must pay the owner.

5th Amendment• What is an indictment? What is a grant jury?• * A formal charge, upon determining that there is enough evidence to• put the person on trial

* A group of citizens who review the evidence and give a preliminary finding. • • • Against what does what requirement of a indictment protect us?• Against being put to the expense and misery of a criminal trial when• there isn’t really much evidence that the person is guilty. • • • What is “double jeopardy”?• Being put on trial again for the same offense after you have been found• not guilty of the offense. • • • What practices in history doest the right of an accused to remain silent protect against?

– Torturing an accused person to try to force him to confess. • •

5th Amendment• What is “self incrimination”? • testifying against yourself when you have been• accused of a crime. The idea is that no one should be able to• torture you into a confession. • • What is due process of law? • Established, reasonable & fair legal• procedures• • • What is eminent domain?

– The right of the government to take private property for public use when necessary for the common good, but government must pay the owner for it.

6th Amendment• Read the 6th Amendment: “ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall

enjoy the right: • (1) to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury . . . .

– Trials have to happen within a reasonable time, and cannot be secret;– Right to trial by jury

• (2)to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; Right to be told what the charges are

• (3) to be confronted with the witnesses against him– Right to be in court and hear the witnesses against him-

• (4) to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor – Right to force witnesses to come by means of a subpoena

• (5) to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense– Right to a lawyer. If a defendant can’t pay for one, and he is in danger of going to

jail, the court will provide one.

7th Amendment

• Read the 7th Amendment: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

• A suit at common law is a civil case, a case where one person is suing another; not a criminal case.

8th Amendment• Read the 8th Amendment: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive

fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” – What two rights are guaranteed by the 8th Amendment?

• 1) no excessive bail• 2) no cruel or unusual punishment•

– What is bail? - Money or property you pledge to pay if you do not show up for court. If the accused does not show up for court, the bail money or property is kept.

– What is cruel or unusual punishment? • This depends on what society believes is cruel and unusual. Obviously

torture is cruel and unusual. • Some people today say that forms of execution that cause pain are

cruel and unusual.

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