AP®︎ U.S. Government & Politics: Topic 3.6 Flashcards

Prohibits punishments that are cruel and unusual, including penalties or sentencing practices the Supreme Court finds impermissible in type, proportionality, application, or administration

The principle that the Eighth Amendment may be interpreted according to contemporary standards of acceptable punishment rather than only standards at ratification

Invalidated the death sentences before the Court amid concerns that broad, unguided discretion made capital punishment arbitrary, unpredictable, and discriminatory, temporarily halting executions without declaring the death penalty inherently unconstitutional

Upheld a revised death penalty law using separate guilt and sentencing proceedings, aggravating circumstances, and automatic review, allowing executions to resume

Held that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment

Held that a person may not be executed for a crime committed before age 18

Held the death penalty disproportionate for the rape of a child when the victim did not die and death was not intended

Protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, especially for lawful self-defense, while permitting some government firearm regulation

Held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, independent of militia service, to possess an operable handgun for lawful self-defense in the home

Applied the individual Second Amendment right to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment and invalidated Chicago’s handgun ban

Protects against unreasonable government searches and seizures and requires warrants to rest on probable cause and particularly describe what may be searched or seized

A privacy interest whose government violation can constitute a Fourth Amendment search even without physical trespass

Information about communications, such as participants, time, duration, routing, location, or associations, rather than necessarily their substantive content

Held that recording dialed telephone numbers with a pen register was not a Fourth Amendment search because the caller conveyed them to the phone company

Held that obtaining extensive historical cell-site location records is a Fourth Amendment search that generally requires a warrant supported by probable cause