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PSC 21300 Civil Liberties Final Exam
Fall 2024
Due Date: Tuesday, December 14, 11:59
Instructions: You must answer question one and two other questions. Each answer should consist of a full 4-5 paragraph answer (a full paragraph is 5-7 sentences). You will be evaluated on how well you understand the course material and the comprehensiveness and insight of your answers.
1. Who is the civil libertarian? What is it that they seek to protect and who or what are they protecting it from? Identify and explain two concepts that are important to the civil libertarian. What would a society with no civil libertarians look like?
2. Why is the concept of reasonable suspicion so important in criminal court cases? Consider the case where a young man is leaving a residential building, makes eye contact with a police officer, and abruptly turns and walks in the opposite direction? In your opinion, did the police have reasonable suspicion to stop the young man and pat him down for a gun? (please note: one of the police officers had arrested individuals for possession or sale of cocaine and crack in the building).
3. Select a case that you are familiar with or a case on which you wrote a brief. What was the conflict in this case? If a civil libertarian were to look at this case, which side would they defend and why? Can you make a good argument for the non-civil libertarian side?
4. Holmes and Douglas each wrote powerful dissents against the political dissident and free speech cases. What did each justice focus on in their dissents? How did these dissenters prefigure the unanimous decision in Brandenburg?
5. It is April 22, 2025, and the Justice Department has just announced that it will indict the CEO and other executives at MSNBC. Five anchors have also been indicted. MSNBC has been charged with the Espionage Act of 2025, which now contains language suggesting that it is forbidden to criticize the president or other members of his administration. You have been asked to write a letter in support of MSNBC. What will you say? (To answer this question, I suggest you draw on what you learned when reading the Political Dissident and Freedom of Speech cases
