Constitutional Law Midterm Study Materials Flashcards

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Barron v. Baltimore

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Held that the Fifth Amendment’s protections (like the takings clause) applied only to the federal government, not the states. This established that the Bill of Rights did not originally constrain state action.

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Dred Scott

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A slave, Dred Scott, was held not to be a citizen of the United States, so the Court asserted no jurisdiction. The decision also held Congress lacked authority to ban slavery in the territories and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

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Slaughterhouse Cases

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Interpreted the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment narrowly, holding it protected only a limited set of national citizenship rights. The decision rejected broad protections of fundamental rights under P&I and limited incorporation via that clause.

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Due Process Clause

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Provides that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. It serves as the vehicle for both procedural protections and incorporation of certain Bill of Rights protections against the states.

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Incorporation

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The doctrine that selected provisions of the Bill of Rights apply to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Incorporation occurred selectively over time rather than all at once.

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Selective Incorporation

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The process by which the Supreme Court has applied most, but not all, Bill of Rights protections to the states on a case-by-case basis. Not all amendments were incorporated; historically exceptions include the Third Amendment and the Seventh Amendment jury right.

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Lochner era

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Early 20th-century doctrine holding that economic rights such as freedom of contract were substantive liberties protected by the Due Process Clause. The era ended as courts shifted to defer to economic regulation and apply rational basis review.

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Carolene Products Footnote 4

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Identifies categories deserving more exacting judicial scrutiny: laws affecting Bill of Rights rights, political process rights, and laws targeting discrete and insular minorities. The footnote is foundational for heightened scrutiny doctrines.

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Glucksberg test

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A modern test for identifying fundamental rights: the asserted right must be deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty, and it must be described with care and specificity. If it fails this historical test, courts apply rational basis review.

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Procedural Due Process

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Focuses on the fairness of governmental procedures when depriving life, liberty, or property. It asks whether the government followed adequate processes like notice and a hearing before taking away protected interests.

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Matthews v. Eldridge test

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A three-factor balancing test to determine how much process is due: (1) the private interest at stake, (2) the risk of erroneous deprivation and the value of additional safeguards, and (3) the government’s interest, including fiscal and administrative burdens. Courts apply these factors to calibrate procedural protections.

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Property Interest

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A protected interest for procedural due process requires more than a unilateral expectation; it requires a legitimate claim of entitlement created by statute, contract, or established policy. Examples include welfare benefits and tenured employment when law or contract creates entitlement.

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State Action

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Due process protections only apply when government action (or its delegation) deprives someone of life, liberty, or property. Private conduct generally falls outside constitutional constraints unless the state is sufficiently involved.

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Rational Basis Review

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Default standard where a law is presumed constitutional and will be upheld if it is rationally related to any legitimate government interest. The challenger bears the burden of proving the law is arbitrary or irrational.

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Strict Scrutiny

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The highest level of judicial review; the government must show the law is narrowly tailored to a compelling interest. It applies to laws burdening fundamental rights or classifying on the basis of suspect traits like race or national origin.

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Reverse Incorporation

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Doctrine that the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause incorporates equal protection principles to constrain the federal government. It ensures the federal government cannot discriminate on grounds like race under Fifth Amendment analysis.

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Fundamental Right Categories

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Typical categories include marriage, procreation and contraception, family and childrearing, refusing medical treatment, interstate travel, and voting. Courts scrutinize laws affecting these rights with heightened standards.

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Presumption of Constitutionality

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Under rational basis review, laws are presumed valid and challengers must show there is no conceivable rational relation to a legitimate government purpose. This presumption underlies judicial deference in many economic and social regulation cases.