AP Gov. Vocab 1-20
Terms
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- Wallace v. Jaffree
- 1985, rejected “meditation or voluntary prayer†because the purpose was to return prayer to school
- Griswold v. Connecticut
- 9th Amendment, right of Privacy
- 10th Amendment
- The constitutional amendment stating that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
- filibuster
- A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation try to talk it to death, based on the tradition of unlimited debate.
- Pluralist Theory
- A theory of government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies.
- Limited Government
- idea that certain things are out of bounds for government because of the natural rights of citizens. Limited government was central to John Locke’s philosophy in the 17th century and it contrasted sharply with the prevailing view of the divine rights of monarchs.
- John Locke
- “Treatise of Civil Governmentâ€, “Natural Rightsâ€
- Connecticut Compromise
- The compromise reached at the Constitutional Convention that established two houses of Congress: the House of Representatives, in which representation is based on a state’s share of the U.S. population and the Senate, in which each state has two representatives.
- Writ of Habeas Corpus
- A court order requiring jailers to explain to a judge why they are holding a prisoner in custody
- Federalist No. 10
- defending strong Republic government
- Federalist No. 51
- Checks & Balances, separate power
- Federalist No. 78
- Judicial review, find laws are not in the Constitution.
- Informal Constitutional Change
- Judicial interpretation and technology which has become known as the 4th branch of government.
- 26th Amendment
- lowered voting age to 18
- Federalism
- A way of organizing a nation so that two levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people. It is a system of shared power between units of government.
- Marbury v. Madison
- 1803 case, first asserted the right of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Establish the court’s power of judicial
- McCulloch v. Maryland
- An 1819 Supreme Court decision that established the supremacy of the national government over state governments. In deciding this case, Chief Justice John Marshall and his colleagues held that Congress had certain implied powers in addition to the enumerated powers found in the Constitution.
- Gibbons v. Ogden
- A landmark case decided in 1824 in which the Supreme Court interpreted very broadly the clause in Article I, section 8, of the Constitution giving Congress the power to regulate interstates commerce, encompassing virtually every form of commercial activity. The commerce clause has been the constitutional basis for much of Congress’s regulation of the economy.
- Texas v. Johnson
- A 1989 case in which the Supreme Court struck down a law banning the burning of the American flag on the grounds that such action was symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment.
- pork barrel
- The mighty list of federal projects, grants, and contracts available to cities, businesses, colleges, and institutions in the district of a member of Congress.
- Whips
- Party leaders who work with the majority leader to count votes beforehand and lean on wavers whose voters are crucial to a bill favored by the party.
- House Rules Committee
- An institution unique to the House of Representatives committee that. Along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.
- Oversight
- The process of monitoring the bureaucracy and its administration of policy, mainly through congressional hearings.
- Rider
- an amendment, typically unrelated to the bill itself, intended to be carried along on the back of another bill; often used by legislators to pass a bill that does not have enough support to pass on its own.