AP US Government & Politics — Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

What AP US Government & Politics Unit 3 covers

The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 3 into 11 topics:

1. 3.1 The Bill of Rights
2. 3.2 The First Amendment: Freedom of Religion
3. 3.3 The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech
4. 3.4 The First Amendment: Freedom of the Press
5. 3.5 The Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms
6. 3.6 Amendments: Criminal and Due Process Protections
7. 3.7 The 14th Amendment and Selective Incorporation
8. 3.8 Balancing Individual Freedom with Public Order and Safety
9. 3.9 Social Movements and Equal Protection
10. 3.10 Government Responses to Social Movements
11. 3.11 Affirmative Action

AP US Government & Politics Unit 3 practice questions

• A state passes a law banning a small religious group from holding meetings. A court strikes it down. The protection that shielded that group from the government is best labeled a what?

  A civil liberty — a constitutional shield from arbitrary government interference.

• Anti-Federalists refuse to ratify the Constitution unless specific protections are added. The result becomes the first ten amendments. What document did this produce, and what was its original reach?

  The Bill of Rights — the first ten amendments, originally binding only the federal government.

• A right listed in the Bill of Rights means one thing in 1791 and something broader in 2014 after a phone-search case. What explains how the same words can shift over two centuries?

  Courts keep reinterpreting the Bill of Rights, so its protections evolve.

• New York has public school students recite a short, voluntary, nondenominational prayer each morning. Parents sue. The Supreme Court strikes it down. Which clause did the prayer violate?

  Engel v. Vitale (1962): a state-written school prayer violates the Establishment Clause.

• Amish parents pull their kids out of school after 8th grade, breaking a state law requiring attendance until 16. The Court sides with the parents. What principle did this protect?

  Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): Free Exercise let Amish families pull kids from school.

• Students wear black armbands to school to protest a war. Administrators suspend them, fearing disruption that never actually happens. The Court rules for the students. What did this establish?

  Tinker v. Des Moines (1969): symbolic speech is protected absent real disruption.

• During wartime, a man mails 15,000 pamphlets urging young men to dodge the draft. He's convicted, and the Court upholds it. What test came out of this case?

  Schenck v. United States (1919): speech with a 'clear and present danger' can be restricted.

• A city says a protest can happen, but only between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and below a set noise level — without touching what protesters can say. What kind of restriction is this?

  A time, place, and manner regulation — content-neutral limits generally allowed.

+ 27 more AP US Government & Politics cards in the app.

Key terms in Unit 3

These 12 terms show up in the Unit 3 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP US Government & Politics key-term reference.

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Clear and Present Danger
• Equal Protection Clause
• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
• McDonald v. Chicago (2010)
• Schenck v. United States (1919)
• Selective Incorporation
• Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)