GOV Midterm Quiz Review

In the Declaration of Independence, which rights were declared inalienable?

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

In all of American history, the Supreme Court has concluded that fewer than ________ acts of Congress have directly violated the Constitution.

160

The Bill of Rights was ratified by the states in

1791

In ________, the ________ secured the right to vote for African Americans.

1965; Voting Rights Act

The Affordable Care Act required businesses with more than ________ employees to provide health coverage to their employees.

50

Although ________ delegates attended the Philadelphia convention in 1787, only ________ delegates ended up signing the newly drafted Constitution.

55; 39

Each year, the Supreme Court receives about ________ appeals and hears about ________ of them in full court.

9,000; 80

In order for the Constitution to be formally adopted, ________ of the ________ states in the Union had to agree to its terms.

9; 13

The Bill of Rights was adopted because the

Antifederalists demanded it as the price of ratification of the Constitution.

The American experience with civil rights suggests which of the following things about political change in the United States?

Congress needs constitutional authority to act from the courts, and the courts need legislative assistance to implement court orders and focus political support.

How was political power in the Continental Congress divided under the Articles of Confederation?

Each state had an equal vote.

In which 1939 case did the Supreme Court declare that the government may not prohibit speech-related activities such as demonstrations or leafleting in public areas traditionally used for that purpose?

Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization

According to the Supreme Court, which of the following is true about high school students in public schools?

High school students have conditionally protected speech.

The 1787 convention to draft a new constitution was held in

Philadelphia.

In E.E.O.C. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (2015), the Supreme Court ruled that

Title VII of the U.S. Code prevents retail stores from refusing to hire Muslim women who wear head scarves in violation of company dress policies

President ________ appointed the first President's Commission on Civil Rights in ________.

Truman; 1946

Procedures for amending the Constitution are found in Article

V

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) was significant because the justices ruled that

a newspaper had to print false and malicious material deliberately in order to be guilty of libel.

Based on the history of Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action, which of the following university admissions policies would be MOST likely to survive a constitutional challenge?

a policy that considers race as one factor among many in a highly individualized, holistic review of each applicant's file

The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has interpreted Title IX of the Higher Education Act to mean that

all colleges and universities must vigorously prosecute charges involving racial or sexual harassment.

Cases in which the U.S. government is a party are

always heard in a federal court.

During the Founding era, ________ were the strongest supporters of adding a bill of rights to the Constitution.

antifederalist

McDonald v. Chicago (2010) was significant because it

applied the Second Amendment to state governments

In recent years, federal court appointments have

been characterized by intense partisan and ideological efforts to support or defeat the candidate.

Attempts by Congress to regulate child labor and factory conditions in local workplaces were struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in the late nineteenth century because regulating local workplaces was

beyond the scope of interstate commerce at the time and was therefore perceived to be an unconstitutional exercise of power by the federal government.

Since 2017, the Senate filibuster

cannot be used against any presidential appointments

In ________ cases, the losers cannot be fined or incarcerated by the state.

civil law

Politics can be defined as

conflicts over the character, membership, and policies of government.

Scholars disagree on the motives of the Founders in writing the U.S. Constitution as they did, but a prominent argument about their primary goal is that they wanted to devise a system

consistent with the dominant philosophical and moral principles of the day, while also promoting commerce and protecting private property from radical state legislatures.

The Supreme Court justices determined that the individual mandate found in the Affordable Care Act was

constitutional under Congress's power to tax.

Legally enforced segregation in public schools is a form of ________ discrimination.

de jure

Americans' sense of political efficacy

decreased dramatically between 1960 and 2015.

Edward Snowden was a(n)

employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) who fled the country to escape arrest after revealing the details of NSA domestic spying operations.

The Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell (2015) was significant because it

ensured that federal subsidies to help pay for health insurance would be available to residents in all states.

The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act

expanded the federal government's authority over public education.

Prior to the eighteenth century

governments rarely sought the support of their people.

Compared with the Articles of Confederation, federalism under the Constitution has led to

greater centralization of power.

The MOST important political value for the framers of the Constitution was

individual liberty.

Government is best defined as the

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

Alexander Hamilton opposed a bill of rights mainly because he believed that

it was unnecessary given that the federal government was given only a small set of explicitly delegated powers.

Roe v. Wade is a good example of

judicial activism because it was based on a constitutional right to privacy that is not found in the actual words of the Constitution.

The United States has a

larger gap in income between its poorest and richest citizens than any other developed nation.

Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (2007) was significant because it

led Congress to pass a new law giving workers expanded rights to sue in cases where they learn of discriminatory treatment well after it has started.

During the Philadelphia convention, the New Jersey Plan was supported by ________ states.

less-populous

The Bill of Rights was designed to protect

liberty.

The Affordable Care Act was controversial partly because it

limited economic freedom by requiring businesses to provide health coverage for their employees and establishing standards about which health services should be covered by the insurance.

Once the president has formally nominated an individual for a federal judgeship, the nominee

must be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee and be confirmed by a majority vote in the full Senate.

James Madison believed that the greatest conflict of interest in the Philadelphia convention was between ________ and ________.

northern states; southern states

If a defendant is charged with burglary but admits to a lesser charge of trespassing in exchange for the prosecution dismissing the burglary charge and forgoing the criminal trial, it is an example of a(n)

plea bargain

The Federalists believed that the MOST apparent source of tyranny was the

popular majority.

An example of ________ is when federal officials force state officials to implement more stringent national water pollution regulations.

preemption

Shays's Rebellion was an attempt to

prevent the state of Massachusetts from foreclosing on the lands of debt-ridden farmers.

Government guidelines regarding Federal Housing Administration mortgage lending had the effect of

preventing blacks from joining the exodus from the cities to the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s

The DREAM Act would

provide a route to permanent residency via military service or college attendance for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as young children.

In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court ruled that

quotas and separate admissions standards for minorities were unconstitutional, but affirmative action could be used.

The Constitution expressly grants Congress the power to

regulate interstate commerce

An example of ________ federalism is when federal officials establish environmental standards that every state must follow.

regulated

Between 1971 and 1974, the Supreme Court

restricted its school desegregation and busing rulings to apply only to cities found guilty of deliberate and de jure racial segregation.

In Riley v. California (2014), the Supreme Court

ruled that police are constitutionally prohibited from seizing and searching the digital contents of a cell phone during an arrest.

Strict scrutiny places the burden of proof on the government to show that a law's classification scheme

serves a "compelling interest," is "narrowly tailored to achieve that goal," and that the government has used the "least restrictive means" for achieving its compelling interest.

In a federal system, governmental responsibilities are

shared by both state and federal governments.

Generally speaking, state defendants seeking a federal writ of habeas corpus must

show that they have exhausted all available state remedies and must raise issues not previously raised in their state appeals.

The Supreme Court's decision in Printz v. United States was important because it declared that

state and local officials could not be required to administer a federal regulatory program.

In Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court

struck down state laws banning interracial marriage.

During the ratification debates, the Federalists were those who

supported the Constitution because it contained a strong national government.

In Snyder v. Phelps (2011), the Supreme Court ruled that

the First Amendment protects free speech in a public place against emotional distress lawsuits.

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act was MOST closely related to which of the following constitutional clauses?

the full faith and credit clause

The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was controversial because it called for

the right to vote for women.

If the federal government passed a law that did not provide money to state and local governments but required them to construct wheelchair lifts at all train stations, it would be an example of a(n)

unfunded mandate.

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

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