Gov't quiz 2
Terms
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- amicus curiae
- person, private groups or institutions, or gov't agency that is not a party to a case but participates in the case, (usually through submission of a belief) at the invitation of the court or on its own initiative
- spoils system
- selector of employees by gov't agencies on the basis of party loyalty , electoral support, and political influence
- gerrymandering
- drawing district boundary lines for political advantage
- ex post facto law
- retroactive criminal law that works against the accused forbidden under Article I of the Constitution
- petit juries
- panel of citizens that hears evidence in a civil lawsuit or a criminal prosecution and decides the outcome by issuing a verdict
- Diplomatic recognition
- power of the president to grant "legitimacy" to withhold it from a gov't of another nation (to determine or refuse to declare it "rightful")
- state decisis
- judicial precept that the issue has already been decided in earlier cases and the earlier decision needs only be applied in the specific case before the bench, the rule in most cases, it comes from the Latin for "the decision stands."
- impeachment
- equivalent of a criminal charge against in elected official, removal from office depends on the outcome of a trial
- grand jury
- jury charged only with determining when the sufficient evidence exists to support indictment of an individual on a felony charge, decision to indict does not represent a conviction
- bipartisanship
- agreement by members of both Democratic and Republican parties
- fiscal year
- yearly gov't accounting period, begins Oct 1 - Sep 30
- bureacracy
- depts, agencies, bureaus, and offices that perform the functions of gov't
- pocket veto
- effective, when congress adjourns within days of passing it and the president fails to sign it
- zero based budgeting
- method of budgeting that demands justification for the entire budget requests of an agency, not just its requested increase influencing
- gridlock
- political statements between the executive and legislative branches arising, when one branch is controlled by 1 major political party and the other branch by the other branch
- War powers resolution
- bill passed in 1973 to limit presidential war-making, it restricts when, why, and for how long a pres. can commit U.S. forces and requires notification of and, in many cases, approval by Congress
- oversight
- congressional monitoring of the activities of excutive branch agencies to determine, if the laws are being faithfully executed.
- override
- voting in Congress to enact legislation vetoed by the president, requires 3 votes in both the House and Senate
- judicial activism
- making of new law through judicial interpretations of the Consitiution
- plea bargaining
- practice of allowing defendants to plead guilty to lesser crimes than those with which they were originally charged in return for reduced sentences
- judicial review
- power of the courts, especially the Supreme Court, to declare federal laws of Congres, laws of the states, and actions of the president unconstitutional and invalid
- censure
- public reprimand to wrong doing given to a member standing in the chamber before Congress
- subcommittee
- specialized committee within standing committee, subcommittee recommendations must be approved by the full standing committee before submission to the floor.
- writ of habeas corpus
- court order directing public officials who are holding a person in custody to bring the prisoner into the court and explain the reasons for confinement, the right is protected by Article I of the Constitution
- appeal
- In general, requests that a higher court review the decided at lower level. In the Supreme Court, certain cases are designated as appeals under federal law, formally, these must be heard by the court
- Bicameral
- Any legislative body that consists of 2 separate houses. In the U.S., The senate represents50 state-wide voter constituencies, and the House of Reps represents voters in 435 separate districts.
- regulation
- development by the federal bureaucracy of formal rules for implementing legislation
- standing committee
- permanent committee of the House or Senate that deals with matters within a specified subject area
- executive privilage
- right of the president to with hold from other branches of gov't confidential communications within the excutive branch, although poised by presidents, it has been upheld by the Supreme Court only in limited situations
- statutory law
- laws made by an act of Congress or the state legislation, as opposed to Constitutional law
- cloture
- `vote to end debate - end a filibuster - which requires a 3/5 vote of the entire membership of the Senate
- constituency
- the voters in a legislator's home district
- Pork barreling
- legislation designed to make gov't benefits, including jobs and projects used as political patronage flow to particular district or state
- whips
- In both House and Senate, the principal assistant to the party leaders and next in command of those leaders.
- executive order
- formal regulation governing executive branch operations issued by the presidents
- writ of certiorari
- writ issued by the Supreme Court, at its discretion to order a lower court to prepare the record of a case and send it to the Supreme Court for review. Most cases come to the court as petitions
- free exercise clause
- clause in the first amendment to the constitution that prohibits gov't from restircting religious beliefs and practices
- shield laws
- laws in some reporters the right to release to name their sources or to release their notes in court cases, may be overturned by the courts when such proposals jeopardize a fair trial for a defendant
- deregulation
- lifting of gov't rules and bureaucratic supervision from business and professional activity
- filibuster
- delaying tactic by a senator or group of senators using the Senate's unlimited debate rule to prevent a vote on a bill
- majority opinion
- opinion in a case that is subscribed to by a majority of the judges who participated in the decision