1. The America history has always been one where white people always had the power and benefitted off the black race. The belief that the white people are superior to other races, especially the black race and therefore should dominate or rule the society is the foundation of the United States. The white had the money/means of production, so they were in control. They had the means to buy people who would work for them, and in return bring them more money; that is capitalism today. White supremacy has always maintained the sanctity of Whiteness and that White people should possess greater access to resources and power than members of other groups Racism is the manifestation of white supremacy in America.

2.  According to Gilmore, the category of the criminal person can be perpetuated by creating laws that target a specific group of people, new categories of behaviors that qualify for incarceration are created apart from those behaviors that are considered qualify for incarceration, and individuals going back to same environment after they’ve completed their sentence.

I do agree with her view because new laws or rules are being created or labelled criminal, and this increases the number of people incarcerated and considered criminal. For example, in the case of cannabis, several laws or more laws have been passed that creates new categories of behavior that qualify for incarceration ( the passage of 1970 Controlled Substance Act, which made any use of marijuana even for medical reasons illegal).

3. Liberation struggle is specific to the needs and struggles of people in a particular region. These people all share the same struggle and he affects all of them. Then people then come together and struggle together in order to liberate themselves from these negative situations that are facing their community.

In the Walmart v. Duke case, a female employee of Walmart Betty Dukes( lead plaintiff), along with a group of about 1.5 million women filed a class action lawsuit for sex discrimination in pay and promotion policies in Walmart stores. The Supreme court agreed to hear their argument and although these women had proof of this discrimination, the supreme court still ruled against them on first, the matter of classification. Dukes and women were asking for monetary relief for the damages, but they filed their class action lawsuit under Rule 23 of Civil Procedure b(2) which in general is for classes seeking declaratory or injunctive relief. So, the court unanimously ruled against the women stating that since they were asking for money as payback, they should have filed the class action lawsuit as a b(3) class.  The issue of commonality is another way the supreme court justified its decision for ruling against Dukes and the women. In a split 5-4 decision, the supreme court argued that because all the women involved in the suit were not all denied the same pay raise, promotion, obstructed by the same manager in the stay store, etc., they could not all be a part of the same lawsuit. And because the commonality requirement in the class action was not met, the women could not be compensated equally.

1. The court system is better suited to protect the individual, than the elected branches of government. First, the court justices are not elected by the people, and the supreme court justices serve for life, as a result, they are not swayed by public opinion and are more willing than elected officials to take on controversial and contentious cases. Other branches of government are more likely if not always, gets influenced by the people’s opinion even if those opinions are not morally right. This is because they are elected by the people, and if the people are not pleased or support the elected officials, they overturn the elected official and bring in another one who support their ideas. Therefore, the court system is better suited to protect an individual because the court would analyze the situation and then give their verdict in the interest of the individual, even if it the individual against the state. An example of how the court system is better suited to protect the individual is the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1951. In this case Oliver Brown filled a lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka, after his daughter was denied entry into all white school. In the decision, the court protected the rights of the individuals by arguing that they were deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14^th Amendment, and that they had every right to enter the school.

2. I agree that the  supreme court is anti-democratic part of the government because the justices are not elected by the people but rather by the president. The constitution gave the president the power to choose supreme court justices, and the senate the power to confirm or reject the president’s nomination to the supreme court. This constitution was written by the upper class in the society, who were afraid of democracy and wanted to concentrate and maintain power in the upper class. This is one way of making sure that power remains in the upper class. The justices of the supreme court are the highest government position in the society, and they decide the constitutionality of the law. They are elected by the president of the country with the approval of the senate. Although this was done, to avoid being swayed by the people, the justices can be swayed by the people who put them like the president for example, and sometimes the influence of the president can still be seen even after they are no longer in power. I believe this is why sometimes, the senate might not approve the nominee of the president if they belong in different party. Giving the upper class (President, and Senate) instead of the power, the power to elect those who interpret and uphold the constitution (written by the upper class) for life shows that the supreme court is an anti-democratic part of our government.

1.The Establishment clause prohibits the government from establishing a religion. What constitutes the establishment of religion is governed by a three-part test that was established by the supreme Court in the Lemon v. Kurtzman case in 1971, this is the Lemon Test.  The Establishment clause was established to make sure that the government cannot impose, force, or promote a certain religion, and if a governmental law or action is allowed to promote a particular religious practice, it must pass the Lemon Test which are, (1) there is no excessive entanglement between the government and the religion, (2) the assistance must neither promote nor inhibit religion, and (3) the primary purpose of the assistance is secular.

2. Burning of the US flag is protected by the First Amendment under the freedom of Expression. In 1960, during the Brandenburg v. Ohio case, the supreme court ruled that Symbolic speech  was subject to the same the protection as written and spoken communication. So, in 1989, during the Texas v. Johnson when Johnson charged with desecration of a venerated object after Burning the US flag during a protest in 1984, the Supreme court found the law as unconstitutional stating that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment.

3. When someone says, “I’m taking the Fifth, ” they are exercising their fifth amendment right to not self-incriminate by remaining silent. The person’s silence cannot also be seen as an admission of guilt or used against them in their trial.

1.  According to P. Williams, the war on terror is not wars against military organizations with other countries which is considered the traditional wars, but rather this new war against terror is a “war against the civilian mind”, it is a battle of the mind. The civilian can be anybody who belong to an organization that uses violence to achieve its means. And because this civilian enemy can be anyone, this makes people afraid and become vigilant of people around them. Unlike traditional wars, one can tell if you’re losing or winning the battle, but with this new type of war against terror, one can’t keep score of who is winning or losing, and this can keep the war going for a very long time if not forever.

2.  The Roving Wiretaps allows one wiretap court order to cover multiple devices, eliminating the need for different court orders for all devices that a person own. This violates the 4^th amendment which protects the citizens right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. It also violates the rights to privacy because Roving Wiretaps allows the government to eavesdrop on people conservations without their consents.

3. The “ Sneak and Peek” warrants allow authorities to search the properties of individuals without notifying the person, or anyone present at the time of the search. This violates the 4^th amendment which says that the government is not allowed to search an individual home or property without providing notice and making sure that someone is present during the search.

1.In federalism, authority is divided between two levels of government, the national, and state government, but their power is derived from the people. So, in this system of government, the people choose their representatives in governmental positions on both levels of the government to act on their behalf and protect their ideas and interest, and the citizens do so by voting. In the unitary system, the citizens have no role since the power in all centralized in the national government. The citizens have no representation as every decision is made by the national government, so they have little to no say in law making, or the running of the country. In the confederation system, citizens also have power and have more role because power is centralized in the states. The states have more power in confederate system of government, so when the citizens elect its officials, their interest are well protected because the national government cannot interfere.

2.  Division of power is how authority are divided among the different levels of government, and its purpose is to make sure that one part of government does not become too powerful, and that they can each check and balance each other. The constitution created this division by giving each level of government their different duties, the federal government has its powers, and duties like declaring war, and the state government has its own powers, and duties like regulating intrastate commence.

3. During Covid-19, the federal government directed the states on what to do from time to time, like reopening parts of the economy, the states had to abide by it, but this was an issue for the then NY state Governor Cuomo,  because the federal government was asking the states to do things but provided no support. The Governor reiterated his call for the federal government to provide unrestricted funding to the states to help stabilize the economy and allow the states to perform reopening functions. The federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis, including the federal CARES Act, all of which contained zero funding to offset drastic state revenue shortfalls, but still the federal government put the responsibility of reopening the economy on the states.

1. I would say the concept of Ideology remind me of a faction. People with the same ideologies shares the beliefs, and interest and so does people in the same faction. They share and want the same thing. For example, the Democratic party are considered a faction because the people share the same interest and idea. They have the same ideology.  

2. According to Federalist #10, the source is wealth is by owning private properties. The factor that explains why some people get to possess wealth , and others don’t is one’s faculty, meaning the intellectual capacity of the person is why some are rich, and some are poor. To be wealthy, you must be smart and intelligent enough to figure out the ways to own private property and make money, and if you are not smart enough then you can’t possess wealth, because you can’t figure out ways to make money even if you have private property, thus remaining poor. It all depends on the faculty.

3. I do agree with this explanation of wealth and poverty, because I’ve seen a lot of people who grow up poor but end up rich because they came up with ways to bring them money, and then maintain that wealth. I’ve also seen a lot of who grow up with money but end up poor because they couldn’t figure out a way to maintain that wealth. There are people who had good inheritances, but in a few years, they lose it all because they were not able to maintain that wealth. So, to be wealthy, and stay wealthy, I believe you do have to smart.

4. The first object of the US government is to protect the division of the very intelligent class who can acquire wealth, and the less intelligent class, who can’t( protection of the faculties). I’m not surprised by this because they wanted the private properties of wealthy Americans to be protected but it does sound different from what our society today seems to suggest the core mission of the government is, which according to the constitution is to promote general welfare, provide for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity.

5. I am not surprised that Federalist #10, is not a favor of democracy and supports a republican form of government because James Madison was afraid of democracy. He wanted a society where the people would elect a small number of people to represent them instead of a society where every individual votes directly for laws. He wanted the centralization of power within a select group of people, and that’s also why he disliked pure democratic form of government. He also thought pure democracy could lead to more violence of the factions.

1. The social class that wrote the constitution were the upper class. These were landowners, people without any debts, merchants, manufacturers, slaveholders etc. The working/lower class were excluded and not allowed to participate in the writing of the constitution. These were the poor farmers, artisans, indentured servants, and slaves. These people were poor, and needed to work to survive, they could not afford to go to Philadelphia and a write the constitution, unlike the wealthy and property owners. The upper class believed that only the people with wealth or born in wealth should control the affairs of the nation, so they didn’t think that the lower class should be involved.

2. I would say that the social structure of the early United States society is the same as ours today. It’s still the same two social classes today, those who own wealth, and those who don’t. Those who own wealth in early United States society, like the slaveholders, who concerned only about themselves, ways to make more money, and protect their properties. In our society today, the capitalist is only concerned about their interest, ways to make more money, and protect their properties. And the working class have always been exploited by the upper class for their own gain only.

3. The people who wrote the constitution were so afraid of democracy because it would give power to the working class. They wanted the upper class to have the power to make laws, but in democracy, everyone must be included in law making decisions. This poses a danger to the upper class because the working class would have a say in how things work. They wanted power to remain in the hands of the rich. They didn’t want a system that would favor the working class. They believed that democracy would led to more uprising like the shays’ rebellion.

The formula that capitalists use to maintain, and increase their wealth is M-C-M’.

The capitalist uses their capital M to invest or buy a commodity that will bring them more money, the commodity can be hotels, land, or even labor. Then after buying the commodity, the capitalist resells the commodity, C, which brings in more money, M’, more money than the capital invested in the commodity in the beginning.

The capitalist maintains and increases their wealth by transforming their extra money, M, into commodities, C, and then changing that commodity into more money, M’. The capitalist sells his money to get more money; at the end of the day, they have more money than they had before.