Brief overview of the American Legal System, for use with section 15.2&3

1. Types of Laws
For use with section 15.2

2. What are the three types of
law?
 criminal law, civil law and public law
◦ criminal law to protect people from deliberate
or reckless harm; laws directly written to limit
people’s behavior to keep society orderly and
safe
◦ civil law to find remedies when two people
come into conflict when there is no law
broken
◦ public law to guide people’s actions in order
to be fair and equitable to everyone, such as
Constitutional law, administrative
law, statutory law

3. What is the adversary court
system?
 the system in the United States in which
the courtroom serves as an arena in
which lawyers for opposing sides present
their strongest cases
◦ going back to trial by combat, there has been
a long history of facing off against your
opponent when trying to determine an
outcome
◦ today the opponents compete in their
knowledge and use of the laws not physical
strength or fighting prowess
◦ plaintiff (prosecution) and defendant question
witnesses, show evidence all in an attempt to

4. In a court case, what is the
difference between the plaintiff and
the defendant?
 The plaintiff is the party that brings the
charges, and the defendant is the
party that is accused
◦ defendant is the one attempting to
maintain his innocence
◦ plaintiff is the one complaining
◦ in a criminal case, the plaintiff is called the
prosecution and represents society and is
referred to as “the people”

5. What are four examples of
felonies?
 murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery
◦ crimes against people:
murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery
◦ crimes against property: burglary, arson

6. What is a legal case called when
it goes to court?
 a lawsuit
◦ Any case in court is considered a lawsuit
however, civil cases are more commonly
referred to as lawsuits than criminal cases

7. What situation is an example of
tort law?
 A person may suffer an injury and
claim that another party is responsible
because of negligence
◦ a person will sue for injury, damages, and
punitive damages
◦ punitive damages are a penalty against
the defendant designed to prevent the
defendant from committing the action
again as well as deter other from taking
the same action

8. Which American fought against
segregation: John Peter Zenger or Ida
Wells-Barnett?
 Ida Wells-Barnett
◦ in the Zenger case, a precedent was set
allowing the media to criticize government
officials upholding freedom of the press
(before the US had a Constitution!)
◦ as an African-American, Wells-Barnett
had a personal interest in seeing racism
and segregation end; her writings kept
segregation in the media’s attention and
would not allow whites to ignore the issue
and problems

9. What are two types of public, or
constitutional, law?
 administrative law, statutory law
◦ administrative law are the rules and
procedures that guide the executive
branch and departments in the way they
carry out laws
◦ statutory law are laws that regulate
behaviors and procedures to be followed
by citizens; violation of these are usually
not considered crimes, unless so stated in
the statute

10. The American Legal System
For use with section 15.3

11. What is an ex post facto law?
 a law that would allow a person to be
punished for an action that was not
illegal when it was committed
◦ this primarily protects individuals from
holding unpopular views and conducting
unpopular (though legal) actions as
protest of the government; in this way, the
government can not respond with a law
that can have the person arrested

12. What do the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments guarantee?
 due process of law
◦ the 5th Amendment goes a long way to
describe the rights and procedure for
those accused of a crime
◦ the 14th Amendment extends the
protection of the Constitution to also be
protections against the states

13. Why do Americans need to fulfill
their legal responsibilities?
 to ensure that our legal system works
as it should and that our legal rights
are protected
◦ if each of takes part as requested, we will
protect the system in the hopes that it will
continue to work if we should ever need it
to work for us

14. What is a search warrant?
 a judge’s authorization to make a
search

15. What is the purpose of a grand
jury?
 to decide whether the government has
enough evidence to bring someone to
trial
◦ usually consists of 12-24 randomly
selected citizens
◦ they review evidence and reports that are
presented by district attorneys to see if
there is enough suspicion to put an
individual on trial for a crime

16. What is the term for the negotiation between a
defense attorney and a prosecutor to reduce a
defendant's sentence?
 plea bargaining
◦ allows the prosecutor to offer the
defendant a lower crime to get cases off
the courts’ busy dockets
◦ ensures that a criminal pays his “debt to
society” by serving jail time while making
it easier for the courts to handle more
cases

17. What did the Supreme Court
determine in the case Furmanv.
Georgia?
 that the death penalty as then
administered was unconstitutional
under the Eighth Amendment
◦ to clarify, the (Supreme) Court ruled that
using the death penalty as a punishment
was not considered cruel and unusual
punishment
◦ it did rule that since it was being used
disproportionately (more) against African-
Americans and the poor that the
punishment was not being applied fairly

18. Why might a judge deny bail?
 if the accused person poses a significant
risk to the community or if the person is
unlikely to return for trial
◦ remember, bail is collateral that allows the
defendant to go home instead of wait in jail
until the trial; it ensures that the defendant
return or else they will not get their collateral
back
◦ when there is a threat that the person may
commit more crimes or that they may flee
and not return, the judge will not grant bail
and require the defendant to be held in
prison until the court date