The power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive to be unconstitutional
Judicial review
Law passed in 1993 to make it easier for Americans to register to vote
Motor-Voter Bill
A journalist who searches through the activities of public officials and organizations seeking to expose conduct contrary to the public interest
Muckraker
A legislative act pronouncing a person guilty of a crime, without trial
Bill of attainder
A law that makes criminal an act that was legal when it was committed
Ex post facto
A court that maintains the status quo or mirrors what the other branches of government have established as current policy
Restraint
A test of ideological purity, a way of finding out a person's views on a controversial subject such as abortion or gay marriage
Litmus Test
Cases heard by the Supreme Court that do not come on appeal and that "affect ambassadors, consuls, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party."
Original Jurisdiction
A former rule of the FCC that required broadcasters to give time to opposing views if they broadcast a program giving one side of a controversial issue
Fairness Doctrine
An electoral system, used in almost all American election, in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not receive a majority of the votes
Plurality
A legal concept by which earlier court decisions serve as models in justifying decisions in subsequent cases
Precedent or Stare decisis
Theory first advanced by Madison and Jefferson and then later by John C. Calhoun that the states had the right to declare a federal law null and void if the states thought it violated the Constitution
Biology Lab Midterm
