Chapter 15 Bell Ringer

Judicial review is the authority of a court to create new laws and actions over other branches and levels of government so as to become the highest law in the land.

False

Since World War II, all presidential nominees to the Supreme Court have received at least a confirmation vote in the Senate, unless those nominees rescinded their nominations.

False

State courts are structured much differently than the federal courts.

False

The Supreme Court must hear all cases brought before it.

False

The federal district courts are at the top of the nation's federal court pyramid.

False

When a case is granted "cert," the next step is to schedule it for oral arguments.

False

With the Judiciary Act of 1801, the Federalists increased the size of the Supreme Court from six to nine justices and reorganized the federal courts so as to create more vacancies.

False

the process of ordering the records of a case from the lower court is nicknamed ______.

"granting cert"

According to the text, the two questions about the federal judiciary that arise at a deeper level are ______.

(1) how political is it? and (2) how powerful is it?

The modern Supreme Court receives, on average, between ______ and ______ petitions from lower courts per year.

8,000; 9,000

Legislative courts are created under Congress's authority in ______ of the Constitution.

Article I

Constitutional courts refer to courts Congress was authorized to create under ______ of the Constitution.

Article III

Who represents the government or the president before the Supreme Court?

Solicitor General

Which of the following best describes the federal judicial selection process?

The president selects a nominee and the Senate votes to confirm the nomination.

Which of the following is a Constitutional requirement for becoming a Supreme Court justice?

There are no requirements for a Supreme Court justice.

Anti-Federalists argued that by granting the power to overturn legislation in the Supreme Court, the nation would run the risk of unconstrained justices imposing their own views of what is constitutional and what is not.

True

Any interested party (such as an interest group) may submit its opinions to the Court through a document called an amicus curiae brief.

True

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were in general agreement that the judicial branch would be the weakest of the three branches of government.

True

In order to establish "inferior courts" in the federal judiciary, the first Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789.

True

The "countermajoritarian difficulty" occurs when the Court exercises control NOT on behalf of the prevailing majority but against it.

True

The American legal system is based on dual systems of federal and state courts that share the tradition of the adversarial system of justice.

True

The Supreme Court can exercise both original and appellate jurisdiction.

True

The Supreme Court decision that established judicial review over federal laws was Marbury v. Madison (1803).

True

The Supreme Court has the power to set a precedent that acts as a basis for deciding cases in the future.

True

The legal process in which the plaintiff and defendant agree to an outcome prior to the handing out of a verdict is known as plea bargaining.

True

The order issued from the Supreme Court after four justices concur that the body should hear the case is known as a writ of certiorari.

True

When it first met, the Supreme Court had a total of six justices, per the Judiciary Act of 1789.

True

While the majority of cases are handled in the state courts, many of the cases that have the greatest impact on large numbers of Americans happen in the federal court system.

True

At the top of the federal judicial system is/are the ______.

U.S. Supreme Court

Which of the following is the only part of the federal judiciary actually mentioned in the Constitution?

U.S. Supreme Court

As of 2018, in several states, an adult may lawfully use marijuana recreationally according to state law. In the federal courts, this would be considered ______.

a criminal offense

The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over which of the following cases?

all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers, and consuls or when a state is a party

Which of the following cases may begin in the federal judiciary?

all of these

When the Supreme Court issues a ruling, ______.

all states and courts in the United States must follow it

An interested party (such as an interest group) may submit its opinions to the Court in the form of a(n) ______.

amicus curiae brief

The dual systems of federal and state court share in common which of the following traditions?

an adversarial system of justice

After trial, a defendant is NOT satisfied with the outcome of his/her case and hires an attorney to request a review of the case, its verdict, and its sentence. A higher court agrees to review the case. This court most likely has ______.

appellate jurisdiction

The question of ______ for members of the judiciary remained unresolved until late in the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

appointment

The first and potentially biggest worry in considering the power and use of judicial review derives from the fact that Supreme Court justices ______.

are not elected

The process through which the political and policy preferences of individual justices shape their votes on cases rather than a neutral weighing of the facts and the law is described as the ______.

attitudinal model

Legal documents presented by plaintiffs, defendants, and, at times, other interested parties outlining their arguments in writing are best described as ______.

briefs

The category of law that covers cases involving private rights and relationships between individuals and groups is ______.

civil law

After hearing a case, an appeals court may ______.

confirm the original court's ruling, reverse the decision, or remand the case to a lower court

The most important factor in the decision to grant or deny a writ of certiorari in a case is whether the case presents a ______.

confusion about or alternate presentation of the law

When a court examines a law and applies the Constitution to determine whether the law or any part of it is in conflict with the Constitution, the process is best described as ______.

constitutional interpretation

According to public law scholar Alexander Bickel, judicial review acts as a ______ force in our system.

countermajoritarian

Which of the following are more apt to witness direct presidential involvement in the nomination process?

courts of appeal including the Supreme Court

Actions determined to harm the community itself, such as committing an act of violence against another person, are considered the jurisdiction of ______.

criminal law

Amendment VIII to the Constitution protects against ______.

cruel and unusual punishment

In an adversarial system of justice, the person or group against whom a case is brought in court is known as the ______.

defendant

Almost all petitions from the lower courts to have their cases heard by the Supreme Court are ______.

denied

Your attorney in your civil rights case has just heard back from the Second Circuit Court of Appeal, who have decided against you in your appeal. Your attorney is ______.

despondent but slightly hopeful, as there's a small chance the Supreme Court will hear your case

Those justices that voted with the minority and who disagree with the majority opinion may wish to issue a(n) ______.

dissenting opinion

The middle level of the constitutional courts is occupied by the ______.

federal courts of appeal

At the bottom level of the constitutional court system are the ______.

federal district courts

Which court(s) deliver a verdict through a jury trial?

federal district courts

The federal district courts are responsible for ______.

finding facts and delivering opinions on a case

The legal model focuses on ______.

focusing on applying law to the facts of a case, including past decisions

By upholding the constitutionality of laws and adding legitimacy in the minds of the American public to those laws passed by Congress, the Court risks ______.

giving a stamp of approval to the tyranny of the majority

All of the following were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 EXCEPT ______.

granting the Supreme Court power to propose amendments to the Constitution

An appellate court focuses on ______.

how the decision of the court was rendered within the context of the law

Sonya Sotomayor was considered by many to be the "riskiest choice" for Supreme Court nominee in 2009 because of her public remarks on the ______.

importance of identity and personal history in judicial decision making

The role of the federal judiciary is to ______.

interpret and apply the laws of the nation

In comparison to the president's power of the sword and Congresses' power of the purse, Hamilton saw the judiciary as exercising the power of ______.

judgment

Which arm of the government interprets the Constitution and applies the laws of the nation?

judicial branch

Following oral arguments, cases in the Supreme Court proceed to ______.

judicial conference

The authority of the highest court in a political system to determine if a law is or is NOT in conflict with that government's highest law (the Constitution) is defined as ______.

judicial review

Marbury v. Madison (1803) was the Supreme Court decision that established ______.

judicial review over federal laws

About what percentage of all petitions does the Supreme Court hear per year?

less than 1%

Federal judges serve for ______, assuming good behavior.

life

Many argue that by acting as a safety valve against poor, factious, or tyrannical legislation, the Supreme Court might actual make unwanted legislative outcomes more likely. This is described as the problem of ______.

moral hazard

Which of the following was NOT a decisive factor for President Obama in nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court?

not wanting to shift the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court

When the plaintiffs and defendants in a case appear before the Supreme Court, they must present ______.

oral arguments.

A court's authority to hear a case for the first time and find the facts of the case is called ______.

original jurisdiction

The ability to hear a case from its origin and to establish the facts pertaining to it, including conducting a trial and rendering a verdict, is known as ______.

original jurisdiction

In an adversarial system of justice, the person who brings the case is known as the ______.

plaintiff

Most criminal cases are resolved through ______.

plea bargaining

A judicial decision that guides future courts in handling similar cases is known as ______.

precedent

An especially important filer of amici curiae is the United States' ______.

solicitor general

In addition to certain technical requirements, a petitioner to the Supreme Court must demonstrate that he/she has ______, which involves demonstrating an actual imminent harm from a law or action in question.

standing

The legal doctrine that requires justices to follow precedents set before them is called ______.

stare decisis

The model that focuses on the political actions of individual justices as they try to make the best use of personal and official resources in order to obtain a specific set of policy objectives is called the ______.

strategic model

In order to flesh out the "nature and the organization" of the nation's system of courts, Congress passed ______.

the Judiciary Act of 1789

The problem of countermajoritarianism occurs when ______.

the Supreme Court exercises judicial control against the prevailing majority

Cases that make their way from the state courts to the federal courts generally involve questions arising under ______.

the U.S. Constitution

The highest level of the federal judiciary, which also acts as the highest court in the land, is ______.

the U.S. Supreme Court

The side that loses in a federal appellate court has the right to petition ______ for a possible appeal.

the U.S. Supreme Court

Which of the following decisions is considered binding?

the majority opinion

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the Constitution?

the power of judicial review

While the Constitution offers little guidance on which cases the Supreme Court does or does not take, justices have adopted the custom of ______.

the rule of four

In a criminal case, the plaintiff is always ______.

the state or federal government

Many anti-federalists feared ______.

the subjugation of individual and states' rights by an increasingly powerful judiciary

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed that the judicial branch would be the ______ of the three branches of government.

weakest

In Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton sought to reassure skeptical anti-federalists by arguing that the judiciary ______.

would be impartial and, compared to the other two branches, its power would be weak

If the Supreme Court decides to hear a case, it issues a(n) ______.

writ of certiorari