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Constitutional Law
Q:
The branch of government is authorized to declare war is the:a. executive branch b. legislative branchc. judicial branch d. military branch
Q:
What serious omission occurred in the Bill of Rights?
a. it failed to provide recourse for violations by the federal government.
b. it failed to ensure state sovereignty.
c. it failed to abolish slavery.
d. it failed to provide the right to privacy.
Q:
The Constitution and Bill of Rights are housed at:a. the Smithsonian museum. b. the National Archives.c. the White House. d. the Supreme Court Building.
Q:
Balancing the rights of the states and individual citizens against the power of the central government was the purpose of the:a. Bill of Rights b. Articles of Confederationc. first three Articles of the Constitution d. Great Charter
Q:
American law is:
a. entirely original, having no roots in any previous legal system.
b. designed to resist changes.
c. influenced by the laws of the societies that helped found America.
d. based solely on the Napoleonic Code.
Q:
The first written agreement among the colonies to stand together in resistance to Great Britain was:
a. a result of the First Continental Congress.
b. a result of the Second Continental Congress.
c. known as The Federalist Papers.
d. the Mayflower Compact.
Q:
The Magna Carta was an important prelude to the U.S. Constitution because it. :
a. guaranteed due process and limited government power.
b. provided the inspiration for the Great Compromise.
c. was based upon the separation of powers between branches of government.
d. ensured that there would be no monarchy in the United States.
Q:
The Second Continental Congress resulted in all of the following, except:
a. the naming of George Washington as Commander of the Continental Army.
b. the battles at Lexington and Concord.
c. instructing each colony to assume the powers of independent states.
d. the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Q:
The primary reason some states were reluctant to accept the Constitution was:
a. It failed to establish a balance of power.
b. It failed to abolish slavery.
c. It did not contain a bill of rights.
d. It did not allow smaller states adequate representation in the national government.
Q:
The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence stated that a government's right to rule is based upon:
a. the obligation of the wealthy to provide for those less fortunate.
b. permission from the people who are governed.
c. the need for a strong centralized government on American soil.
d. the Magna Carta's guarantee that rulers shall not place themselves above the law.
Q:
The Magna Carta was created:
a. to ensure that states maintained power apart from the national government.
b. to outline colonists' complaints against the British crown.
c. in England to guarantee that the king could not put himself above the law.
d. by British Parliament in protest of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Q:
Formal ties between Great Britain and the United States were severed:
a. when the American Declaration of Independence was signed.
b. when the colonists boarded British ships and threw tea overboard.
c. through the drafting of the Magna Carta.
d. at the meeting of the First Continental Congress.
Q:
Vieth v. Jubelirer concerned _____.a. districting in New Jerseyb. gerrymanderingc. racial discriminationd. policies that favored Pennsylvania Democrats
Q:
_________ was a case arising from World War II that was the focus of both the majority and dissenting opinions in Boumediene v. Bush.
a. Ex parte Quirin
b. Ex parte Milligan
c. Johnson v. Eisentrager
d. None of the above
Q:
Sneak-and-peak search warrants are authorized by _____.
a. the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
b. the Crime Control Act
c. the Patriot Act
d. the Authorization for Use of Military Force
Q:
Boumediene v. Bush involved a challenge to _____.
a. the Patriot Act
b. the Crime Control Act of 1968
c. the Geneva Convention
d. the Military Commission Act
Q:
In Korematsu v. United States, Justice Murphy declared _____.
a. that the government's policy was lawful
b. that the government's policy was unfortunate but necessary
c. that the government's policy was racist
d. that the Court should never have agreed to hear the case
Q:
In Korematsu v. United States, Justice Jackson argues in his opinion that _____.
a. the government's policy is unconstitutional
b. the government's policy is constitutional
c. the Court should never have agreed to hear the case
d. war is a series of hardships
Q:
Korematsu v. United States is often cited as the initial articulation by the Court of _____.
a. fundamental fairness
b. strict scrutiny
c. due process of law
d. None of the above
Q:
The opinion of the Court in Ex parte Milligan was written by _____.
a. Chief Justice Chase
b. Chief Justice Waite
c. Justice Grier
d. Justice Davis
Q:
Ex parte Milligan arose as a result of _____.
a. World War II
b. the Vietnam War
c. the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States
d. the Civil War
Q:
"Inter arma silent leges" means _____.
a. "in time of war the laws must be observed"
b. "during wartime, victory must be secured at all costs"
c. "in time of war the laws are silent"
d. "in time of war the laws are rarely silent"
Q:
Justice _______ wrote the opinion of the Court in United States v. United States District Court.
a. Rehnquist
b. Blackmun
c. Douglas
d. Powell
Q:
In United States v. United States District Court, the Supreme Court ruled _____.
a. 9"0
b. 8"1
c. 6"3
d. 5"4
Q:
United States v. United States District Court involved _____.
a. electronic surveillance
b. presidential power
c. Title III of the Crime Control Act of 1968
d. All of the above
Q:
In Plessy v. Ferguson, Justice Harlan insisted that the Constitution _____.
a. tolerated racial distinctions in the law
b. required racial segregation
c. barred discrimination against women
d. was color blind
Q:
In _____, the Supreme Court declared gender discrimination to be a _____ category for applying the equal protection clause.
a. Reed v. Reed (1971); suspect
b. Frontiero v. Richardson (1973); quasi-suspect
c. Craig v. Boren (1976); quasi-suspect
d. Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan (1982); suspect
Q:
In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court held that _____.
a. racial quotas were impermissible, but race could be a factor in admissions policies
b. affirmative action programs discriminated against undeserving individuals
c. racial quotas were an acceptable method of overcoming past discrimination
d. for more than a century and a half, the Constitution had not been color blind
Q:
The difference between de facto segregation and de jure segregation is that _____.
a. de facto segregation is instituted by law, while de jure segregation occurs in practice
b. de jure segregation is instituted by law, while de facto segregation occurs in practice
c. the Constitution specifically protects de facto segregation but not de jure segregation
d. the Constitution specifically protects de jure segregation but not de facto segregation
Q:
In _____, the Supreme Court struck down segregated schools in the District of Columbia, noting that the Fifth Amendment's due process clause incorporated the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection guarantee and was thus applicable to the federal government.
a. Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
b. Alexander v. Holmes County (1969)
c. Bolling v. Sharpe (1954)
d. Cooper v. Aaron (1957)
Q:
Before Brown v. Board of Education was reargued in 1953, Chief Justice _____ died and was replaced by Earl Warren.
a. William Howard Taft
b. Charles Evans Hughes
c. Harlan F. Stone
d. Fred M. Vinson
Q:
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court upheld a Louisiana law requiring racial segregation _____.
a. in public schools
b. on railroad cars
c. in courtrooms
d. in the state legislature
Q:
In the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court reasoned that _____.
a. the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited state discrimination only
b. the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited state and private discrimination
c. the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was a legitimate exercise of congressional authority
d. section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment authorized Congress to eradicate all forms of racism
Q:
The "suspect classification" doctrine originated in _____.
a. English common law
b. Korematsu v. United States (1944)
c. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
d. the Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Q:
Justice William O. Douglas was the first to make the case for heightened judicial scrutiny of legislation affecting fundamental rights in _____, where the Supreme Court struck down a state law providing for the compulsory sterilization of criminals.
a. Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942)
b. Buck v. Bell (1927)
c. Jacobsen v. Massachusetts (1905)
d. Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)
Q:
What term from astronomy did Justice Douglas place at the center of his opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut?
a. Eclipse
b. Planetary
c. Penumbra
d. Orbit
Q:
Gonzales v. Carhart involved a statute similar to one the Court had struck down in 2000 in _____.
a. Roe v. Wade
b. Washington v. Glucksberg
c. Stenberg v. Carhart
d. Lawrence v. Texas
Q:
Chief Justice/Justice______ wrote the Court's opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart.
a. Roberts
b. Alito
c. Rehnquist
d. Kennedy
Q:
Gonzales v. Carhart involved _____.
a. flag protection
b. assisted suicide
c. late-term abortions
d. None of the above
Q:
Washington v. Glucksberg involved _____.
a. consensual sodomy
b. assisted suicide
c. an abortion law
d. symbolic speech
Q:
Lawrence v. Texas involved _____.
a. a woman who wanted an abortion
b. a woman arrested for consensual sex with another woman
c. a man and a woman arrested for indecent exposure
d. a man arrested for having consensual sex with another man.
Q:
In Cruzan v. Missouri Health Department (1989), the Supreme Court held that a state must demand the clear and convincing evidence standard as a means of guarding against potential abuses of the "substituted judgment" doctrine.
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
Q:
In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the Supreme Court _____.
a. struck down a state law that making it a crime to engage in homosexual sodomy
b. upheld a state law as applied to homosexual sodomy
c. upheld a state law as applied to heterosexual sodomy
d. struck down a state law prohibiting single-sex marriages
Q:
In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court struck down a state requirement that a married woman seeking an abortion must _____.
a. wait 24 hours before undergoing the procedure
b. notify her husband of her intentions
c. undergo a psychiatric evaluation
d. give her "informed consent"
Q:
Chief Justice/Justice _____ articulated the "trimester approach" for legal abortions.
a. Warren Burger
b. Earl Warren
c. Harry Blackmun
d. William Brennan
Q:
In _____, the Supreme Court specifically held that the right of privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether . . . to terminate her pregnancy."
a. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
b. Maher v. Roe (1977)
c. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
d. Roe v. Wade (1973)
Q:
In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Chief Justice/Justice _____ wrote, "The Constitution makers knew the need for change and provided for it. Amendments . . . can be submitted to the people . . . for ratification. That method of change was good enough for our Fathers, and being somewhat old-fashioned I must add that it is good enough for me."
a. William O. Douglas
b. Earl Warren
c. Felix Frankfurter
d. Hugo Black
Q:
Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment grants Congress the authority to legislate in the field of _____.
a. eminent domain
b. presidential power
c. civil rights
d. international relations
Q:
McCreary County v. ACLU involved _____.
a. prayer in public schools
b. a Christmas tree in a county courthouse
c. a display containing the Ten Commandments
d. None of the above
Q:
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris concerned _____.
a. school vouchers
b. Bible reading in public schools
c. prayer at high school football games
d. a nativity scene on public property
Q:
The holding in Santa Fe v. Doe is consistent with the holding in Abington v. Schempp.
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
Q:
The test from Lemon v. Kurtzman was strengthened in Agostini v. Felton.
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
Q:
In Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the Supreme Court _____ a claim by _____ that their ritualistic use of _____ constituted free exercise of religion.
a. accepted; Satanists; animal sacrifice
b. rejected; Native Americans; peyote
c. accepted; Native Americans; peyote
d. rejected; Satanists; animal sacrifice
Q:
In Wallace v. Jaffree (1985), the Supreme Court _____ an Alabama law that required students in public schools to _____.
a. reviewed; recite an official prayer composed by the state board of education
b. upheld; study "creation science" as well as the theory of evolution
c. struck down; observe a moment of silence at the start of each school day
d. struck down; remain silent during graduation prayers
Q:
Which of the following is not a prong of the Lemon test?
a. The challenged law or practice must have a secular purpose.
b. The challenged law or practice may not have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion.
c. The challenged law or practice must guarantee the absolute separation of government from religion.
d. The challenged law or practice may not lead to an excessive entanglement between church and state.
Q:
The Supreme Court struck down public school"sponsored Bible readings and prayers in _____.
a. Abington v. Schempp (1963)
b. Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
c. Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
d. Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
Q:
Which justice is most clearly identified with the view that government may accommodate religious practices?
a. Hugo Black
b. Robert Jackson
c. William Brennan
d. Willam Rehnquist
Q:
_____ was the first case in which the Supreme Court applied the establishment clause to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment.
a. Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940)
b. Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
c. Abington v. Schempp (1963)
d. Sherbert v. Verner (1963)
Q:
In West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court _____.
a. struck down a state law that compelled public school students to salute the American flag
b. struck down a state law that compelled public school students to recite the Lord's Prayer
c. exempted children of Amish families from compulsory school attendance regulations
d. upheld a state law that compelled public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because it "imbued citizenship"
Q:
In New York Times v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court _____ a lower-court injunction prohibiting newspapers from publishing _____.
a. affirmed; the Pentagon Papers
b. struck down; the Pentagon Papers
c. struck down; excerpts from the Watergate recordings
d. affirmed; excerpts from the Watergate recordings
Q:
The defendants in Dennis v. United States had been convicted of violating the _____.
a. Solomon Amendment
b. Enforcement Act of 1870
c. Smith Act of 1940
d. None of the above
Q:
The author of the plurality opinion in Dennis v. United States was _____.
a. Chief Justice Warren
b. Chief Justice Hughes
c. Chief Justice Stone
d. Chief Justice Vinson
Q:
Benjamin Gitlow was a member of _____.
a. the Communist Party
b. the Democratic Party
c. the Republican Party
d. the Socialist Party
Q:
In Whitney v. California, Ms. Whitney was convicted of violating California's law against _____.
a. harboring a fugitive
b. criminal syndicalism
c. voter fraud
d. distributing obscene materials
Q:
In Texas v. Johnson (1989), many Supreme Court observers were surprised that (Chief) Justice _____ joined the dissenters.
a. Rehnquist
b. Stevens
c. O"Connor
d. White
Q:
In Texas v. Johnson (1989), many Supreme Court observers were surprised that justices _____ and _____ joined the majority.
a. Scalia; Kennedy
b. O"Connor; Kennedy
c. Souter; Scalia
d. O"Connor; Scalia
Q:
Which of the following is the best example of symbolic speech?
a. The expletive "f--- the draft" prominently displayed on the jacket of a man as he walks down a courthouse corridor
b. A black armband worn by a school student during school hours as a visible expression of protest against the Vietnam War
c. Peaceful picketing, boycotts, and sit-ins
d. The bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln
Q:
In New York Times v. U.S. (1971), the Supreme Court rebuffed the Nixon administration's attempt to block publication of ____.
a. an editorial critical of the Vietnam War
b. an advertisement taken out by critics of the Nixon administration
c. a document containing instructions on the creation of an atomic bomb
d. the Pentagon Papers
Q:
Under New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), a public official is barred from recovering damages for the publication of libelous statements unless he or she can show that the defendant's statements were made with _____.
a. criminal negligence
b. actual malice
c. reckless abandon
d. latent hostility
Q:
In RAV v. St. Paul (1992), the Supreme Court concluded that St. Paul's ban on cross burning _____.
a. violated the free speech clause of the First Amendment
b. did not violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment
c. was aimed at action rather than speech and thus did not present a First Amendment problem
d. was prohibited by the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Q:
Personally abusive epithets or insults that are intended to and inherently likely to provoke violence are known as _____.
a. obscenities
b. fighting words
c. hate speech
d. solicitations
Q:
In Miller v. California (1973), the Supreme Court held that to be obscene, a particular work had to be totally without redeeming social value.
a. TRUE
b. FALSE
Q:
In _____, the Supreme Court reversed an obscenity conviction where a man had been prosecuted after police found obscene films in his home.
a. Roth v. U.S. (1957)
b. Alberts v. California (1957)
c. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure v. Massachusetts (1966)
d. Stanley v. Georgia (1969)
Q:
In determining the degree of protection to be accorded seditious speech under the First Amendment, the modern Supreme Court is most likely to invoke the _____.
a. clear-and-present-danger test
b. bad-tendency test
c. ad-hoc-balancing test
d. imminent-lawless-action test
Q:
Justice _____ wrote in Schenck v. U.S. (1919) that "[t]he most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater, and causing a panic."
a. Edward T. Sandford
b. Louis D. Brandeis
c. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
d. Stephen J. Field
Q:
In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the Supreme Court overturned a sentence of death _____.
a. because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct
b. because of racially discriminatory jury selection
c. because the defendant was younger than 21
d. because the defendant was older than 15 but younger than 18
Q:
Under the revised death penalty statute upheld by the Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the jury must find _____ to be present in a capital offense before it can impose a death sentence.
a. at least one mitigating factor
b. at least one aggravating factor
c. premeditation
d. criminal intent
Q:
In Furman v. Georgia (1972), justices _____ and _____ stated their view that the death penalty is inherently "cruel and unusual punishment."
a. White; Rehnquist
b. Warren; Stewart
c. Blackmun; Burger
d. Marshall; Brennan
Q:
In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the Court held that the death penalty was unconstitutional because _____.
a. it violated "evolving standards of decency"
b. it was applied selectively
c. it served no penal, deterrence, or retribution purposes more effectively than a less severe punishment would
d. a sentencing mistake was without corrective devices
Q:
The _____ Amendment provides that that accused "shall enjoy the right" to a jury trial in criminal cases. The _____ Amendment guarantees a jury trial in civil cases "where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars."
a. Fifth; Fifth
b. Sixth; Sixth
c. Fifth, Sixth
d. Sixth; Seventh