CORNELL NOTES Name: Mercedes Cross

Class: Block 1 Topic: Unit 5 Section 3 How do we balance the rights of

SHEET citizens with the common good?

Questions / Main Ideas Notes / Details / Definitions / etc.

Plessy v. Ferguson • Court rules separate but equal is constitutional in transportation
• Plessy’s 14th amendment rights as a citizen were violated.
• Jim Crow laws become justified in Southern states
Schenck v. U.S. (1919) • Charles Schenck: member of the socialist party hands out leaflets to not
support a draft during WWI.
• Supreme Court rules his behavior presents a clear and present danger to the
country.
• Freedom of speech and expression (civil liberties) can be curbed during
wartime.
Buck v. Bell (1927) • Supreme Court rules that compulsory eugenic sterilization is Constitutional.
• Reasons: promiscuity, disease, criminality, poor, uneducated etc…
• Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes says, “Three generations of
imbeciles are enough.”
Korematsu v. U.S. • Court ruled that Japanese Americans could be put into camps during war.
• Justified because it was an emergency?
• Violation of 14th amendment because 70-80,000 of 120,000 in camps were
citizens.
Smith Act/Dennis v. U.S. • 1940; Smith Act: Can’t advocate (talk about) for the overthrow of the
government.
• 1951; Dennis v. U.S.: Court says the Smith Act is Constitutional.
• 1957: Later overturned in Yates v. U.S. because advocacy (talking about it)
isn’t actually doing it.
McCarthyism • Early 1950s
• Senator Joe McCarthy accuses government officials and military personnel
of being Communist without showing evidence.
• People blacklisted, lost jobs, etc…
• Communists, teachers, unions, homosexuals, professors, actors, actresses,
playwrights.
• Civil liberties violated- free speech and expression
U.S. Patriot Act • Following 9/11
• Designed to squash terrorism and terrorist activities.
• Allows for surveillance of library records, work records, doctor’s records,
without court order
• Wiretaps of all suspect’s phones
• Spy on citizens
• Groups that are non-violent could be labeled terrorist groups.

Themes I see in the
information
Other Questions I may
have about the
information (Required)
Please list three things
you learned today
(Required)
Please explain how one
thing you learned today
relates to you. BE
SPECIFIC!!!!
Life, Liberty, Justice, Patriotism & Individual Rights
How can it be tolerated that non-violent people are labeled as threats?
1.) The progression of the Smith Act and Dennis v. U.S. case
2.) What the Buck v. Bell case was
3.) Just how many Japanese-American citizens were put into camps during war
After 9/11, there has obviously been some negative bias against people with the
same ethnic background as the terrorist groups that hijacked the planes. I’ve met
people that have origins in the same place, who have become some of my best
friends, but unfortunately I can see that my other friends do hold a bias against
them.