CONSTITUTIONAL QUIZ

1. You can be charged as a terrorist for political protest.
True: Eight protesters and journalists were charged as terrorists at the Republican National Convention. They could face seven and a half years in prison under the Minnesota Patriot Act for the mere act of planning to exercise their right to dissent.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: You have the right to free speech.

2. The government has been copying all of your emails since 2005.
True: The NSA has over 20 copying stations inside of major Internet hubs run by Verizon, ATT and Comcast. The government has been copying all of your emails without a warrant.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: They need a warrant to search your stuff.

3. The President has the power to arrest you as an enemy combatant.
True: On his say so alone the President can arrest any American by calling you an enemy combatant. Under the Military Commissions Act you can be held for up to three years without trial.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: You have a right to a speedy trial.

4. Torture is permitted by the Geneva Conventions.
False: “Under no circumstances whatsoever” is torture permitted under the Geneva Conventions, the international treaties governing the rules of war.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: You have the right to a fair trial before a jury of your peers. In 2008, the Supreme Court recognized Habeas Corpus for Guantanamo detainees.

5. Reporters have the right to protect the confidentiality of their sources.
False: Josh Wolf went to Federal prison in 2006 for ten months for not turning over to the FBI videotape he had shot. He received the longest sentence in history of any American journalist imprisoned in the line of duty.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: No law can restrict the rights of a free press.

6. A librarian can land in hot water for not telling the government what books you read.
True: A librarian from Connecticut is fighting the FBI, which is trying to use the Patriot Act to force him — without a warrant — to tell them what books people have checked out of the library.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: The government needs a warrant to search your library records.

7. You can be detained on U.S. soil without access to a lawyer.
True: When you come back to the U.S. on an international flight, before you clear customs, you may be apprehended and held without access to a lawyer and treated as if you are not on U.S. soil.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: You have a right to a lawyer.

8. The President may not send the Army into your house to take away your guns.
True: After Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard went into people's homes and took away homeowners own weapons illegally.
BILL OF RIGHTS CHECK: You have the right to bear arms.

My America Project is a grassroots campaign that engages citizens in direct democracy with the documentary film, “The End of America.”