Federal Gov POS

There were fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Approximately how many (not percentage) of them were farmers?

14

What year did voting related protests outnumber protests about public accommodations?

1965

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a policy that

instructs immigration officials to take no action to deport law-abiding individuals who entered the United States illegally as children.

Just as the federal government can preempt certain state laws, state governments may preempt local laws.

True

Miranda rules not only provide protections against coerced confessions and self-incrimination but also confirm the right to counsel.

True

One thing that lessened support of the Articles of Confederation was the power that states retained, which began to alarm well-to-do Americans who saw it as a threat to their interests.

True

The Latino political strategy followed three tracks: voter registration, legal strategy, and mass mobilization.

True

Under the Articles of Confederation, there was no national army, only state militias.

True

Which of the following statements is true regarding trust in government?

Trust in government has moved up but generally drops over time.

Which of these Supreme Court cases limited federal power?

United States v. Lopez

Procedures for amending the Constitution are found in Article

V.

Which of the following is an example of the process of direct democracy?

citizens in a state approving the use of medical marijuana through referendum

Which of the following parts of the U.S. Constitution has been most important in allowing the growth of national power?

commerce clause

The electoral college is

designed to select the president of the United States.

The size of the Supreme Court is

determined by Congress.

Which term refers to the right to participate in politics equally, based on the principle of "one person, one vote"?

political equality

Government is best defined as the

institutions and procedures by which a territory and its people are ruled.

Colonial protesters of the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act rallied around which slogan?

"No taxation without representation."

Suppose the 20 percent of Americans in 1790 who were not free White people, but were either enslaved or other free people, had a fair share of delegates to the Constitutional Convention. If they had, how many (not a percentage) of the 55 delegates would have been either enslaved or other free people?

11

In 1992, trust in government was at about _________ percent.

25

According to polling data around 1964, roughly __________ percent of American adults said they trusted the government to "do the right thing" always or most of the time.

75

In 1962, there were about __________ total civil rights demonstrations in the United States.

75

At the time of the founding of the Republic, approximately ________ of non-Native American inhabitants of the 13 states were of European ancestry.

80 percent

Which of the following statements about Americans' political efficacy is true?

Americans' political efficacy has declined significantly over time.

Which statement about demonstrations is accurate?

At their highest points, there were about as many demonstrations for public accommodations as there were for voting.

In recent years, the Supreme Court has significantly strengthened the application of the exclusionary rule, providing additional protections for the accused.

False

The Boston Tea Party was largely a response to the

British government's decision to grant the East India Company a monopoly on the export of tea from Britain.

Which of the following states requires unlicensed gun sellers to perform the most background checks?

Colorado

How do constitutional governments differ from totalitarian governments?

Constitutional governments possess effective, formal limitations on their powers, while totalitarian governments recognize no formal limits and eliminate institutions that challenge them.

At the time of the Founding of the United States, federal and state governments equally influenced the lives of ordinary Americans.

False

Dual federalism happens when a higher-level government overrides a lower-level government's ability to act in certain policy areas.

False

In the first several decades after the Founding of the United States, the Supreme Court substantially reduced the power of the national government through the commerce clause.

False

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was passed by Congress, and, due to its strong support from both parties, it remains in place today.

False

Under dual federalism, contracts for public works projects were required to be cleared with the federal government.

False

Unlike the ideals of liberty and equality, justice has been exclusively determined by the judicial system.

False

The Black Lives Matter protests started in

Ferguson, Missouri.

The agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that gave each state an equal number of senators regardless of its population but linked representation in the House of Representatives to population is known as the

Great Compromise.

Which of the following statements regarding Jim Crow laws is true?

Jim Crow laws were approved by the Supreme Court.

Which of the following statements regarding liberty is true?

Liberty means both personal freedom and economic freedom.

What impact did the creation of the federal Medicaid program have on federal grants-in-aid?

Medicaid has a significant effect; federal grants-in-aid more than doubled in the decade following its enactment and were five times higher by 2005.

Suppose you inherited a handgun from a relative. You don't want to keep it and you decide to sell it. In which state could you do so without having to perform a background check on the person who wants to buy it?

Minnesota

How much larger are federal grants-in-aid in 2019 than they were in 1960?

More than ten times larger

Which of the following statements about LGBTQ rights is true?

No Supreme Court ruling or national legislation explicitly protected gay and lesbian people from discrimination until 1996.

Overall, which statement summarizes the trend in civil rights demonstrations from 1954 to 1968?

Overall, there were more demonstrations for public accommodations than there were for voting.

The 1787 convention to draft a new constitution was held in

Philadelphia.

The framers designed the Senate to be a check against excessive democracy by doing which of the following?

Senators were originally appointed by state legislatures.

Which statement is best supported by the information in the graphic?

Since 2010, federal grants-in-aid have grown at a higher rate than in any other era.

Which of the following statements regarding the role of slavery during the Constitutional Convention is true?

Slavery divided many of the delegates, especially southerners, who benefitted considerably from the institution of slavery, and northerners, who were uneasy with it yet in many cases also benefitted from slavery.

What was the effect of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on public accommodations?

Some of the most blatant forms of discrimination in public accommodations, such as "White" and "Colored" signs on restrooms, were removed, and the federal government filed over 400 racial discrimination lawsuits against hotels, restaurants, and gas stations.

Which statement best describes how welfare and aid to the poor were handled by government prior to the Great Depression?

State and local governments took responsibility for assisting the poor, usually by channeling aid through private charities.

Which of the following explains why the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores?

The Affordable Care Act's requirement that employers provide female employees with free contraceptive coverage violated employers' religious beliefs.

What did the Alien and Sedition Acts do?

The Alien and Sedition Acts made it a crime to say or publish anything that would defame the government of the United States.

Which of the following statements regarding amending the Articles of Confederation is true?

The Articles of Confederation could be amended only with a unanimous vote of the Congress.

Which of the following statements best describes British rule of the American colonies during the first half of the eighteenth century?

The British ruled with a light hand and exerted a strong influence only in the largest colonial cities.

Which of the following statement about wealth in the United States is true?

The middle class has seen its wealth drop and the people below the poverty line increase; the wealthiest 1 percent now holds more wealth than the middle class.

Which of the following statements about national defense under the Articles of Confederation is most accurate?

There was no national army, and the armed forces were composed entirely of state militias.

In Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court ruled that enslaved Black people were not citizens of the United States and Scott was his owner's permanent property regardless whether he was taken to a free state or territory.

True

In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court established the "separate but equal" rule.

True

As of 2022, how has the Supreme Court ruled on cases involving affirmative action in college admissions?

While the Supreme Court has struck down admissions policies using explicit quotas, it has stopped short of completely declaring affirmative action unconstitutional and believes there is a compelling interest in a diverse student population.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Roe v. Wade (1973) have been extremely important in the development of

a constitutional right to privacy.

What are government policies or programs that seek to redress past injustices against specified groups by making special efforts to provide members of those groups with access to educational and employment opportunities?

affirmative action

Although the internet has increased Americans' access to information about government, which of the following presents the most significant existing challenge to increasing their political knowledge?

disinformation

Congressional law and Supreme Court decisions have ruled that undocumented immigrants are

entitled to both education and emergency health care in the United States.

The ________ rule forbids the introduction in trial of any piece of evidence that has been obtained illegally.

exclusionary

The three branches of government created by the Constitution are

executive, legislative, and judicial.

Suppose that an inmate who is a practicing Muslim and has facial hair due to his religion is told that he must shave his beard to comply with the prison policies. Which part of the Constitution would this most likely violate?

free exercise clause

Which of the following is an example of a civil liberty stated in the U.S. Constitution?

freedom of speech

For which category was there the greatest difference between the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and the American population of 1790?

gender

Immigrants from Asian countries were

largely prohibited from entering the United States prior to the 1940s.

In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court ruled that

laws criminalizing sexual behavior are a violation of the right to privacy.

Conflicts over whether public schools should be allowed to assign readings from the Bible and lead nondenominational prayers are examples of disagreements over the

meaning of the establishment clause.

According to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the president has the power to

officially recognize other nations.

During the ratification debates, the Antifederalists were those who

opposed the Constitution because they wanted a weaker central government.

The belief that citizens can affect what government does is best referred to as

political efficacy.

Which of the following is the best definition of an expressed power?

powers given to Congress as spelled out in Article I of the Constitution

Federal judges are appointed by the ________ and must be approved by the ________.

president; Senate

Which of the following describes a system of government in which the populace selects representatives who play a significant role in governmental decision making?

representative democracy

In 2011, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights issued a "Dear Colleague" letter to the more than 7,000 colleges and universities receiving federal funding that told colleges to

shift the burden of proof away from the accuser and toward the accused in cases of sexual assault and harassment on campus.

On which measure were delegates to the Constitutional Convention most like the American population of 1790?

slaveowners

Under the traditional system of American federalism, most of the fundamental governing in the United States was done by

state governments.

The full faith and credit clause of the Constitution requires the

states to honor each other's public acts and legal decisions.

In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court

struck down the 1965 Voting Rights Act's formula for determining whether a jurisdiction needed federal preclearance before making any changes to its voting laws or practices.

The Stamp Act was a

tax on many printed items in the colonies, such as newspapers.

The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution are also called

the Bill of Rights.

Which government agency is placed in charge of prohibiting false and misleading advertising?

the Federal Trade Commission

Which region of the country most consistently requires background checks be performed by unlicensed gun sellers?

the West Coast

Judicial review is the power of

the courts to decide on the constitutionality of actions taken by the other branches of government.

The separation of powers best describes

the division of governmental power among several institutions that must cooperate in decision making.

Which of these is the most important check on majority rule in the United States?

the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights

The power of the federal government began to expand after 1933 in response to

the stock market crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and the run on banks of 1933.

If a government that previously had no limits on what it could do to its citizens was overthrown and replaced with a government that had strict substantive and procedural limits on what it could do, this change would best be characterized as a shift from a(n)

totalitarian government to a constitutional government.

In Maryland v. King (2012), the Supreme Court

upheld a policy of DNA testing of arrestees without providing evidence of individualized suspicion.

Before 1924, Native Americans

were considered to be foreigners because their tribes were regarded as separate nations.