AP Government Exam Review Project

1. Shannon Cabrey, A2 (Terms #21-25) AP Government ExamReview Project

2. Term 21: Checks and Balances • Definition: A system of distribution of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, in relatively equal proportions, such that each branch has the ability to counter the actions of the other two and thus prevent the entire government from being controlled by any single branch. • Application/Example: First, the legislative branch can pass a law.  The way the executive branch checks that is by either agreeing with it or vetoing it. Second, the judicial branch apprehends the laws.  The executive branch checks that by choosing all the justices in the court. Third, the executive branch can veto a bill.  The legislative branch checks that by looking at it again and possibly cancelling the veto. A recent example involves Barack Obama's administration breaking new ground in its construction of an imperial presidency -- an executive who increasingly acts independently of Congress at home and abroad. Obtaining a U.N. Security Council resolution has legitimated U.S. bombing raids under international lawin taking the country into a war with Libya. But the U.N. Charter is not a substitute for the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress, not the president, the power "to declare war."

3. Term 22: Judicial Review & Marbury vs. Madison • Definition: This historic court case established the concept of Judicial Review or the ability of the Judiciary Branch to declare a law unconstitutional. This case brought the Judicial Branch of the government on a more even power basis with the Legislative and Executive Branches, and thereby set the precedent for numerous historic decisions in the future. • Application/Example: The purpose of judicial review is to ensure that public authorities don't go beyond the powers given to them by parliament and that they don't abuse those powers. A recent example involves a landmark High Court ruling involving a Christian foster couple unwilling to compromise their views on homosexuality. A judicial review took place after Eunice and Owen Johns - who had applied to re-register as foster parents said to social workers they could not tell a child a "homosexual lifestyle" was acceptable. The Oakwood couple sought clarification of the law because the Johns' views meant they could not meet the minimum requirements of equality and diversity for foster caregivers. High Court judges ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation "should take precedence" over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.

4. Term 23: The 1st Amendment • Definition: Freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly; the right to petition the government. • Application/Example: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the freedom of exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. A recent example of an application of the 1st Amendment has to do with the internet. Institutions that are required to uphold First Amendment free-speech rights generally must uphold these rights in cyberspace as well. For higher education, this means, for example, that public colleges and universities have limited ability to filter incoming or outgoing Web pages or Usenet newsgroups based on content.

5. Term 24: The Second Amendment • Definition: The right to bear arms. • Application/Example: The meaning of the Second Amendment depends upon who you talk to.  The National Rifle Association, which has the Second Amendment (minus the militia clause) engraved on its headquarters building in Washington, insists that the Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to possess and carry a wide variety of firearms.  Advocates of gun control contend that the Amendment was only meant to guarantee to States the right to operate militias.  An example of this application would be that in 2008, the U. S. Supreme Court, in District of Columbiavs. Heller, struck down a Washington, D.C. ban on individuals having handguns in their homes.  Writing for a 5 to 4 majority, Justice Scalia found the right to bear arms to be an individual right consistent with the overriding purpose of the 2nd Amendment, to maintain strong state militias. 

6. Term 25: The Third Amendment • Definition: Troops may not be quartered in homes during peacetime. • Application/Example: "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.” This law was extremely important to our Founding Fathers, but it is not so well known to modern Americans. America's Founders had just experienced the quartering of troops on their private property by the British government during the Revolutionary War and before. Today most of our troops are quartered in military bases here in the United States in order to avoid such a conflict.

7. Works Cited • http://law.yourdictionary.com/checks-and-balances • http://valocalgovernment.tripod.com/id34.html • http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/24/obama_s_unconstitutional_war • http://www.judicialreview.info/Judicial_Review_Examples.HTML • http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/#tab-section • http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/beararms.htm • http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/third-amendment.html