Q&A Hero

Q: In Gomilion v. Lightfoot (1960) the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an extreme form of a. the literacy test. b. the white primary. c. the grandfather clause. d. the racial gerrymander.

Q: Which of the following was most effective in protecting and implementing the voting rights of African Americans? a. Invalidation of the white primary b. Invalidation of the grandfather clause c. Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 d. Passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Q: Which of the following procedural devices designed to prevent most African Americans from voting was the first to be declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court? a. White primary b. Poll tax c. Grandfather clause d. Racial gerrymander

Q: In judging claims of official discrimination in the area of voting rights, courts usually employ a. the rational basis test. b. heightened scrutiny. c. strict scrutiny. d. substantive due process.

Q: In Davis v. Bandemer (1986), the plurality opinion indicated that plaintiffs challenging partisan gerrymandering of state legislatures would have to make a "threshold showing of _____." a. intentional discrimination b. discriminatory vote dilution c. invidious discrimination d. None of the above is true.

Q: Grovey v. Townsend, the 1935 decision in which the Supreme Court had upheld the so-called _______, was overruled in Smith v. Allwright (1944). a. grandfather clause b. racial gerrymander c. preclearance requirement d. white primary

Q: Section 2 of the ________________ specifically allows plaintiffs to challenge electoral schemes that impermissibly dilute the voting strength of minority groups. a. Voting Rights Act b. Fourteenth Amendment c. Fifteenth Amendment d. None of the above is true.

Q: InHarper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), the Supreme Court invalidated the use of _________ in state elections. a. literacy tests b. poll taxes c. residency requirements d. None of the above is true.

Q: InUnited States v. Classic (1941), the Supreme Court held that the federal government could regulate party primaries in order to prevent a. discrimination against women. b. racial discrimination. c. discrimination against the poor. d. election fraud.

Q: Justice _____________ famous footnote inUnited States v. Carolene Products (1938) recognized potential problems resulting from efforts to limit political participation. a. Oliver Wendell Holmes' b. Felix Frankfurter's c. Charles Evans Hughes' d. Harlan Fiske Stone's

Q: In Gray v. Sanders (1963), the Supreme Court invalidated Georgia's "______" system of apportioning the state legislature. a. Jaybird b. county unit c. one-person, one-vote d. None of the above is true.

Q: The intentional redrawing of legislative district lines for political purposes is referred to as ____________. a. logrolling b. ticket-splitting c. gerrymandering d. interdiction

Q: In 1980, independent presidential candidate __________________ filed suit in federal court to challenge Ohio's March filing deadline for the November general elections. a. Ross Perot b. George Wallace c. Harold Stassen d. John Anderson

Q: For some jurisprudential thinkers, such as ______________, the primary utility of and justification for judicial review is to maintain the integrity of the democratic process. a. Robert Bork b. Michael Perry c. John Hart Ely d. Raoul Berger

Q: In the mid"‘1960s, a widely publicized effort to overrule the reapportionment decisions through constitutional amendment was spearheaded by Senate minority leader _______. a. Howard Baker b. Strom Thurmond c. James Eastland d. Everett Dirksen

Q: In 1941, Congress enacted a law specifying that the method of "_________" would be used to ascertain the number of congressional seats to which each state would be entitled. a. equal proportions b. least squares c. least resistance d. minimum deviation

Q: Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, a. every state is guaranteed at least one congressional seat. b. congressional district lines may not cross state borders. c. no congressional district may include less than 30,000 persons. d. All of the above are true.

Q: Every ten years, after completion of the census, ____ reallocates congressional seats among the states. a. Congress b. the Supreme Court c. the Senate d. the House of Representatives

Q: Chisom v. Roemer (1991) involved a challenge to the system for electing judges to the ____________ supreme court. a. Colorado b. Alabama c. Florida d. Louisiana

Q: Oklahoma's version of the ___________________, adopted as an amendment to the state constitution in 1910, required literacy tests for all voters whose ancestors had not been entitled to vote prior to 1866. a. poll tax b. white primary c. Fifteenth Amendment d. grandfather clause

Q: First enacted by Mississippi in 1890 as a means of preventing Blacks from voting, the _________ soon spread throughout Southern and border states. a. poll tax b. literacy test c. grandfather clause d. white primary

Q: The voting age in all elections was lowered to eighteen with the ratification of the _____ to the Constitution in _____. a. Twenty-Sixth Amendment; 1971 b. Twenty-Third Amendment; 1965 c. Twentieth Amendment; 1960 d. Nineteenth Amendment; 1949

Q: The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ratified in 1964, abolished _______ as prerequisites for voting in federal elections. a. literacy tests b. citizenship requirements c. residency requirements d. poll taxes

Q: In which year did the United States military policy of "don"t ask don"t tell" officially came to an end? a. 1999 b. 2007 c. 2009 d. 2011

Q: Which justice wrote the opinion for the Court in Kahn v. Shevin (1974)? a. Brenna b. Douglas c. Stewart d. White

Q: In Frontiero v. Richardson (1973), the Supreme Court ruled that the Air Force violated the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment in requiring women, but not men, to demonstrate that their spouses were in fact dependents for the purpose of receiving medical and dental benefits. a.Frontiero v. Richardson (1973) b. Reed v. Reed (1971) c. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) d. None of the above is true.

Q: In_____________, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars sexual harassmenton the job. a.Frontiero v. Richardson (1973) b. Reed v. Reed (1971) c. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) d. None of the above is true.

Q: In_________, the Supreme Court held that women had no constitutional right to vote. a.Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) b. Minor v. Happersett (1875) c. Goesaert v. Cleary (1948) d. None of the above is true.

Q: In________, the Supreme Court upheld an state law that prohibited women from practicing law. a.Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) b. Minor v. Happersett (1875) c. Goesaert v. Cleary (1948) d. None of the above is true.

Q: The 2003 affirmative action cases of Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger came to the Supreme Court from which state? a. Maine b. Michigan c. Minnesota d. Missouri

Q: In 1981 Justice________ was replaced on the Court by Justice Sandra Day O"Connor. a. Stewart b. Burger c. Powell d. None of the above is true.

Q: In 1988 Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the Court after the retirement of Justice _____. a. Stewart b. Burger c. Powell d. None of the above is true.

Q: In ___________, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Idaho Probate Code that required probate judges to prefer males to females in appointing administrators of estates. a. Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975) b. Frontiero v. Richardson (1973) c. Reed v. Reed (1971) d. Califano v. Goldfarb (1977)

Q: In _________________, the Supreme Court struck down the plans of public school districts in Seattle, Washington and Louisville, Kentucky to create a degree of racial balance between whites and nonwhites in their public high schools by basing student admissions in part on racial criteria. a. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007) b. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) c. DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974) d. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Q: In _______________, the Supreme Court amplified its decision in Board of Education v. Dowell (1991) by permitting a federal district court that for many years had supervised desegregation of the DeKalb County, Georgia, schools to relinquish supervision over certain aspects of school administration. a. Milliken v. Bradley (1974) b. Keyes v. Denver School District (1973) c. Missouri v. Jenkins (1995) d. Freeman v. Pitts (1992)

Q: In ________________, the Supreme Court unanimously approved the use of court-ordered busing to achieve the goal of desegregation. a. Cooper v. Aaron (1958) b. Alexander v. Holmes County (1969) c. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971) d. Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

Q: In _____________, the Supreme Court found that a newly created law school at the Texas College for Negroes under the separate but equal doctrine was substantially inferior to the whites-only law school at the University of Texas. a. Sipuel v. Oklahoma Board of Regents (1948) b. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) c. McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950) d. Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)

Q: The _____________ adopted in the aftermath of The Civil Rights Cases required segregation in virtually every area of public life requiring blacks and whites to attend separate schools, use separate parks, ride in separate railroad cars, and to be buried in separate cemeteries. a. Jim Crow laws b. black codes c. separation laws d. None of the above is true.

Q: The _______________ provided that citizens of all races have the same rights to make and enforce contracts, to sue and give evidence in the courts, and to own, purchase, sell, rent, and inherit real and personal property. a. Civil Rights Act of 1871 b. Civil Rights Act of 1870 c. Civil Rights Act of 1875 d. Civil Rights Act of 1866

Q: In The Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court ______________ the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment limited congressional action to the prohibition of official state-sponsored discrimination as distinct from discrimination practiced by privately owned places of public accommodation. a. upheld b. invalidated c. denied certiorari d. None of the above is true.

Q: In the wake of the Civil War, many of the southern states had adopted the Black Codes,which denied basic economic rights to former slaves including the right to a. inherit property. b. own property. c. convey property. d. All the above are true.

Q: Under ______________, a policy that is racially neutral on its face, is rationally related to a legitimate governmental objective, but has a disparate impact on people of different races will be upheld unless plaintiffs can show that it was adopted to serve a racially discriminatory purpose. a. Buchanan v. Warley (1917) b. The Civil Rights Cases (1883) c. Washington v. Davis (1976) d. None of the above is true.

Q: The ___________ doctrine applies only to policies that overtly discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity. a. suspect classification b. vagueness c. equal protection d. None of the above is true.

Q: Under the _______________, the government must show that a challenged policy bears a "substantial" relationship to an "important" government interest. a. rational basis test b. heightened scrutiny test c. strict scrutiny test d. None of the above is true.

Q: Under strict judicial scrutiny, the ordinary presumption of constitutionality is reversed whereby the ___________ carries the burden of proof that the challenged policy is constitutional. a. party challenging the policy b. government c. individual that disfavors the policy d. None of the above is true.

Q: In a famous footnote to his opinion in ________________, Justice Harlan Fiske Stone stated that "prejudice against discrete and insular minorities may be a special condition, which tends seriously to curtail the operation of those political processes ordinarily to be relied upon to protect minorities and "¦ may call for a more searching judicial scrutiny." a. Korematsu v. United States (1944) b. United States v. Carolene Products Company (1938) c. Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center (1985) d. Romer v. Evans (1996)

Q: In Plyler v. Doe (1982), the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that denied access to public education to the children of illegal aliens by applying the ________________ test. a. rational basis b. intermediate scrutiny c. strict scrutiny. d. None of the above is true.

Q: In City of Richmond v. Croson Company (1989) the Supreme Court a. broadened the scope of federal affirmative action programs in the awarding of construction contracts. b. declared state affirmative action programs in the area of professional school admissions unconstitutional. c. held that the issue of affirmative action in the field of private employment presents a political question beyond the scope of judicial review. d. placed significant limitations on nonfederal affirmative action programs in the awarding of government contracts.

Q: Primary responsibility for implementing the requirements of Brown v. Board of Education was assigned to a. state governors. b. state appellate courts. c. federal district judges. d. federal court of appeals judges.

Q: The Supreme Court is most likely to apply a standard of _____________ in ruling on the constitutionality of a law that classifies persons on the basis of gender. a. strict scrutiny b. formal rationality c. heightened scrutiny d. substantive justice

Q: In reviewing a properly challenged attempt by government to classify persons on the basis of race, the Supreme Court applies a standard of a. strict scrutiny. b. heightened scrutiny. c. lowered scrutiny. d. subtle scrutiny.

Q: In a famous dissenting opinion in 1896, Justice _________ asserted that "our Constitution is color blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." a. John Marshall b. John M. Harlan (the elder) c. Thurgood Marshall d. John M. Harlan (the younger).

Q: The failure of the Equal Rights Amendment to win ratification left the adjudication of sex discrimination claims largely in the domain of the a. Thirteenth Amendment. b. Fourteenth Amendment. c. Nineteenth Amendment. d. Twentieth Amendment.

Q: Boling v. Sharpe (1954) involved a constitutional challenge to segregated public schools in ________________. a. Washington, D.C. b. Virginia c. Mississippi d. Tennessee

Q: In Brown v. Board of Education (1955), the Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the Nation's public schools a. "at once." b. "with all deliberate speed." c. "as soon as possible." d. "with due dispatch."

Q: In Shapiro v. Thompson (1969), the Supreme Court struck down state laws that imposed one"‘year waiting periods on new residents seeking a. divorces. b. driver's licenses. c. welfare benefits. d. to run for public office.

Q: In Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), the Supreme Court struck down a zoning law which had been applied to prohibit a home for ________ from operating in a residential neighborhood. a. unwed mothers b. mentally retarded persons c. physically disabled persons d. illegal aliens

Q: In a dramatic effort to resist the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions, Arkansas governor ___________ called out the National Guard in 1957 to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rock Central High School. a. Lester Maddox b. Charles Nelson Reilly c. Orval Faubus d. Ross Barnett

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 McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950), the Supreme Court disallowed an attempt by the University of Oklahoma a. to segregate a black graduate student from his white colleagues. b. to create a separate law school for blacks. c. to require blacks to attend law schools in other states. d. to close down a law school reserved to blacks only.

Q: When Congress passed the public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it had to rely primarily on its broad powers under a. Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment. b. the Supremacy Clause. c. the Necessary and Proper Clause. d. the Commerce Clause.

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: Also known as the _______________________, the Civil Rights Act of 1870 made it a federal crime to conspire to "injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States." a. Jim Crow Law b. Black Code c. Ku Klux Klan Act d. Reconstruction Act

Q: In adopting the Civil Rights Act of _____, Congress attempted to eradicate racial discrimination in "places of public accommodation," including hotels, taverns, restaurants, theaters, and "public conveyances." a. 1866 b. 1870 c. 1871 d. 1875

Q: In the wake of the Civil War, many of the Southern states had adopted the so-called __________, which denied basic economic rights to former slaves. a. Jim Crow Laws b. Grandfather Clauses c. Black Codes d. None of the above is true.

Q: Shortly before the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which, among other things, protected the right of African Americans to a. inherit, own, and convey property. b. utilize privately owned places of public accommodation. c. vote in state elections. d. All of the above are true.

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: If challenged in a court of law, a state law that requires a person to possess a license to practice psychological counseling would be subject to a. the rational basis test. b. strict judicial scrutiny. c. the compelling interest test. d. the suspect classification doctrine.

Q: Under the "New Equal Protection," the courts have used the Equal Protection Clause to scrutinize closely any law or practice that discriminates among groups in their enjoyment of a. fundamental rights. b. private clubs. c. government benefits. d. tax exemptions.

Q: In the modern era the Equal Protection Clause has been invoked successfully to challenge discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities, as well as discrimination against a. mentally retarded persons. b. illegitimate children. c. illegal aliens. d. All of the above are true.

Q: Which of the following cases is an example of the Equal Protection Clause being employed as a basis for invalidating discriminatory business regulation? a. Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886) b.Strauder v. West Virginia (1879) c. Pollock v. Farmer's Loan and Trust Co. (1895) d. U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co. (1890)

Q: InSanta Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. (1886), the Supreme Court held that the word "person" in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment included _______________. a. blacks b. women c. corporations d. the unborn

Q: Which justice, writing for the Court in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), opined that the Texas statute "furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual?" a. Rehnquist b. Stevens c. Kennedy d. Breyer

Q: The well-known case involving the doctrine of substituted judgment in relation to the so-called right to die, In re Quinlan, took place in the courts of which state? a. California b. Alaska c. New York d. New Jersey

Q: In______________, the Court struck down a state constitutional amendment that barred state and local government from providing various legal protections for gays and lesbians. a. Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) b. Romer v. Evans (1996) c. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) d. None of the above is true.

Q: In_____________, the Court struck down an ordinance that limited the occupancy of residences to members of single families. a. Belle Terre v. Boraas (1974) b. Doe v. Commonwealth's Attorney (1976) c. Moore v. City of East Cleveland (1977) d. None of the above is true.

Q: In________, the Supreme Court upheld a provision of federal law, commonly known as the Hyde amendment, forbidding the use of federal funds to support nontherapeutic abortions. a. Roe v. Wade (1973) b. Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976) c.Maher v. Roe (1977) d.Harris v. McRae (1980)

Q: Roe v. Wade (1973) came to the Supreme Court on review from which state? a. Alabama b. California c. Texas d. Tennessee

Q: Which justice authored the majority opinion in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)? a. Douglas b. Frankfurter c. Black d. None of the above is true.

Q: Which justice authored a sharp dissent in Poe v. Ullman that anticipated the Court's decision in Griswold four years later? a. Douglas b. Frankfurter c. Black d. None of the above is true.