First Amendment
This clause prevents government from sanctioning, recognizing, favoring, or disregarding any religion.
A: What is the establishment clause?
In 2008, the Court recognized an individual right to possess a handgun for self-defense in the home.
A: What is District of Columbia v. Heller?
A valid warrant requires probable cause, an oath/affirmation, and this description of the place and items.
A: What is particularity?
This doctrine applies most of the Bill of Rights to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment.
A: What is selective incorporation?
This 1969 student-speech case held that students don’t “shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
A: What is Tinker v. Des Moines?
This clause protects religious practice unless it’s illegal or threatens community interests.
A: What is the free exercise clause?
This 2010 case applied the Second Amendment to the states through selective incorporation.
A: What is McDonald v. Chicago?
Name one common warrant exception that balances order and liberty.
A: What are plain view, consent, border/airport screening, or reasonable-suspicion school searches?
This type of censorship stops publication before it happens and faces a “heavy presumption” against validity.
A: What is prior restraint?
Also called the Pentagon Papers case, it rejected prior restraint on national-security grounds.
A: What is New York Times Co. v. United States?
Name the three prongs of the Lemon test.
A: What are (1) a secular purpose, (2) a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and (3) no excessive government entanglement?
Even after Heller, the right is “not unlimited.” Name one commonly permitted limit the Court mentioned.
A: What are prohibitions on felons or the mentally ill, bans in sensitive places (like schools/government buildings), or restrictions on dangerous/unusual weapons?
In public schools, principals generally need this lower standard (not probable cause) to search students.
A: What is reasonable suspicion (reasonable cause)?
Public officials must prove this to win a libel case—knowing falsity or reckless disregard for truth.
A: What is actual malice?
This 1972 case allowed Amish parents to withdraw teens after eighth grade on free-exercise grounds.
A: What is Wisconsin v. Yoder?
This 1962 case struck down state-composed school prayer as an establishment violation.
A: What is Engel v. Vitale?
This 1993 federal law created waiting periods and background checks (later replaced by NICS in 1998).
A: What is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act?
This 2014 case held police generally need a warrant to search a cell phone’s digital contents.
A: What is Riley v. California?
List two elements of the Time, Place, and Manner test for speech restrictions.
A: What are content-neutrality, significant government interest, narrow tailoring, and ample alternative channels (any two)?
This 1919 case upheld convictions for anti-draft leaflets under the “clear and present danger” test.
A: What is Schenck v. United States?
Modern incitement doctrine requires intent and likelihood of this kind of lawless action.
A: What is imminent lawless action (from Brandenburg v. Ohio) ?
This 1934 law taxed/registered certain weapons like machine guns and sawed-off shotguns.
A: What is the National Firearms Act (NFA)?
This 2018 case required a warrant to obtain historical cell-site location data (metadata).
A: What is Carpenter v. United States?
In the Miller obscenity test, “SLAPS” stands for this kind of value.
A: What is serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value?
These two cases protected flag burning as expressive conduct.
A: What are Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman?