POLS Test 3

There are ________ federal courts of appeal.

13

The movement for women's rights was initially aligned with

the abolition movement.

Bureaucrats tend to follow

their own agency's point of view.

Less than ________ of the cases heard by federal appeals courts are later reviewed by the Supreme Court.

1%

The Supreme Court grants certiorari to fewer than ________ cases each year.

100

Today, women currently hold about ________ of the seats in the House of Representatives.

19%

Women in America obtained the right to vote in ________.

1920

Native Americans were denied citizenship in the United States until ________.

1924

The modern civil rights movement had a peak moment with the March on Washington in ________.

1963

The Senior Executive Service was established in ________ and consists of about ________ career civil servants.

1978; 7,000

The number of employees in the federal bureaucracy is about ________.

2.5 million

The president can hire about ________ full-time partisan employees to help him or her implement the presidential agenda.

2000

Asian Americans account for about ________ of professionals and technicians in the United States.

5%

The average hourly pay for full-time female employees is about ________ percent of that for full-time male employees.

82

There are ________ federal district courts.

94

More than ________ of the nation's legal cases are decided in state or local court systems.

95%

Regarding Supreme Court procedures, which one of the following statements is NOT accurate?

A concurring opinion is a view written by a justice who votes with the majority and agrees with its reasoning.

In which of the following situations is the Supreme Court most likely to grant certiorari?

A lower court ruling conflicts with a previous Supreme Court ruling. Correct

The Supreme Court halted the general use of reserved funding in the granting of federal contracts to minority businesses in the 1995 case of

Adarand v. Peña.

Which of the following groups is most likely to identify with the Democratic Party?

African Americans

The Department of ________ was founded in 1889.

Agriculture

Which of the following is true?

All of these answers are correct

In the Constitution, procedural due process is protected in various ways by the

All of these answers are correct.

The Supreme Court's ruling in the Swann case on busing differed from the Brown decision in that Swann

All of these answers are correct.

The federal district courts

All of these answers are correct.

All of the following statements about Asian American rights are true EXCEPT that

Asian Americans have the second highest median family income of any group.

Which of the following is true of discrimination against the disabled in the United States?

Before 1975, four million children with disabilities were getting either no education or an inappropriate one.

The fight to give Hispanic farm laborers better working conditions and wages in the late 1960s was conducted primarily in

California

________ is/are most likely to understand trade issues in the United States.

Career bureaucrats in the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission

What was the main conclusion of the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller and 2010 decision in McDonald v. Chicago?

Citizens are allowed to own guns for legitimate purposes, such as for protecting the home.

Of the following Supreme Court justices, which has been or was the most conservative?

Clarence Thomas

Which of the following steps in the federal budgetary process occurs latest?

Congress completes work on the appropriations bills.

What is the congressional equivalent of the Office of Management and Budget?

Congressional Budget Office

Politically, the fight to pass major civil rights legislation in Congress in the 1960s was led primarily by

Democrats

When asked if he had made any mistakes as president, ________ replied, "Yes, two, and they are both sitting on the Supreme Court."

Dwight Eisenhower

Which of the following Supreme Court justices was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower?

Earl Warren

School prayer in the public schools was ruled unconstitutional in

Engel v. Vitale (1962).

In 1960, the greatest percentage of immigrants to America came from

Europe

In which of the following ways is the Supreme Court less diverse than in the past?

Far more appointees come from the appellate courts.

Which of the following is true of federal employees and labor unions?

Federal employees can form labor unions, but their unions by law have limited authority.

Which constitutional amendment protects the individual against self-incrimination?

Fifth

Which of the following amendments contains a due process clause?

Fourteenth

Gideon v. Wainwright is to the Sixth Amendment as Mapp v. Ohio is to the

Fourth Amendment

The Department of ________ was created in 2002.

Homeland Security

Which of the following is true of the federal government's demographic representativeness?

If all employees are taken into account, the federal bureaucracy comes reasonably close to being representative of the nation's population.

How did the Supreme Court justify its pro-affirmative action ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas (2016)?

It argued the University of Texas had very narrowly tailored its use of ethnicity and race as admission factors for a compelling interest in diversity.

Upon reaching Congress, what first happens to the president's budget proposal?

It goes to the House and Senate budget committees.

How has the Government Accountability Office's role changed?

It has moved from a limited role of keeping track of agency spending to also monitoring whether the agency is implementing policies in the way Congress intended.

What happens to the president's budget if it is approved by a vote of the House and Senate?

It is sent to the president to sign or veto.

The long-serving chief justice that established the principle of judicial review was

John Marshall

Which of the following is true of the history of judicial activism and restraint in the U.S.?

Judicial activism is sometimes unfairly associated with liberal justices.

In 2010, the greatest percentage of immigrants to America came from

Latin America

Which state has the highest incarceration rate?

Louisiana

During the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the important speech about the dream of an America where people are judged by character and not skin color was delivered by

MLK

Which of the following statements is true of age discrimination in the United States?

Mandatory retirement ages for most jobs have been eliminated by law.

in 2004, by order of the state's Supreme Court, ________ instituted same-sex marriage.

Massachusetts

Which federal agency was lax in requiring the proper safety procedures that could have prevented the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

Minerals Management Service

"You have the right to remain silent....Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law....You have the right to an attorney." This is called the

Miranda warning

The Miranda warning was strengthened by the Supreme Court in 2004 in

Missouri v. Siebert.

Of the following states, which tends to have larger numbers of Caribbean Hispanics?

NY

Since the 1980s, the Supreme Court has addressed the exclusionary rule by

None of these answers is correct

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment in which case?

Obergefell v. Hodges

The federal government's fiscal year starts on

October 1.

According to the Supreme Court, which is true regarding freedom of assembly?

Public officials can regulate the time, place, and conditions of public assembly, provided the regulations are reasonable.

The right to privacy was instrumental in which decision?

Roe v. Wade

Which of the following countries comes closest to the United States in terms of the percentage of its citizens who are behind bars?

Russia

Which of the following Supreme Court justices was appointed during the Clinton administration?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Correct

The appointment of which Supreme Court justice in 2006 swung the Supreme Court to the right?

Samuel Alito

The first large and well-organized attempt to promote women's rights came in 1848 in

Seneca Falls, NY

What was politically significant about Geraldine Ferraro in 1984?

She became the first woman to run on the national ticket of a major political party.

The right to an attorney is guaranteed by the ________ Amendment.

Sixth

According to the Supreme Court, what is the status of prayer in the public schools?

State-supported prayers are not allowed in public schools.

Which of the following is true about the Sedition Act of 1798?

The Act prohibited malicious newspaper stories about the president.

Which of the following is true of the appeal process?

The Constitution does not guarantee an appeal after conviction, but the federal government and all states permit at least one appeal.

How did the Supreme Court's position on the rights of the criminally accused in state courts change in the 1960s?

The Supreme Court began to protect the rights of the accused from action by the states.

Why was the Supreme Court ruling in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, which relied on the context of the antidiscrimination provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, demonstrative of the ambiguities of the law?

The case dealt with sexual harassment in the workplace, which is not mentioned in the Civil Rights Act.

Which of the following statements about how the courts hold the federal administrative agencies accountable is accurate?

The courts will typically support administrators if administrators have consistently administered the law.

Which of the following steps in the federal budgetary process occurs earliest?

The president consults with the OMB on agency instructions.

Which of the following statements does NOT correctly describe independent agencies?

Their heads are appointed by an independent commission.

What are the constitutional requirements for being a federal judge?

There are no constitutional requirements for being a federal judge.

Of the following Supreme Court justices, which has been or was the most liberal?

Thurgood Marshall

________ was the first black justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thurgood Marshall

According to Freedom House, which of the following countries has the highest degree of freedom?

United States

Which of the following groups is LEAST likely to identify with the Democratic Party?

White southerners

Which statement about women's rights is correct?

Women have made clear gains in the areas of appointive and elective offices.

What is the greatest restriction on appeals in the United States?

a federal law that bars in most instances a second federal appeal by a prisoner

The federal bureaucracy today is

a mix of the patronage and merit systems, with the vast majority of positions being filled by merit.

A writ of certiorari is

a request to a lower court to submit to the Supreme Court a record of the case it has been requested to hear.

The individual freedoms in the Bill of Rights were extended by the Fourteenth Amendment to include protection from deprivation of due process rights by

actions of state and local governments

Over the last two decades, the Supreme Court can best be said to be practicing judicial

activism

Legally, the bureaucracy derives general authority for its programs from

acts of congress

The term stare decisis refers to

adherence to precedent.

Regulatory agencies have

administrative, legislative, and judicial functions.

The facts of a case

affect which law or laws will apply to the case

The central issue in the Bakke case was

affirmative action

When can police legally begin their interrogation of a suspect?

after the suspect has been warned that his or her words can be used as evidence

In selecting judges, the states rely on what method?

all are correct

The USA Patriot Act

all of these answers are correct

Native Americans

all of these are correct

The National Performance Review addressed which of the following issues about the bureaucracy?

all of these are correct

Federal judges are

all of these: nominated by the president, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and appointed for an indefinite period providing they maintain "good behavior."

Congress oversees the bureaucracy by using

all of these: sunset provisions, the Government Accounting Office, and oversight hearings.

In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the justices

allowed a restriction on abortion services as long as it did not cause an "undue burden" on the woman.

What Illinois policy did the Supreme Court invalidate with its decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968)?

allowing the prosecution an unlimited number of challenges in capital cases

The inevitable discovery exception

allows the use of normally inadmissible evidence that would have been discovered by other means or through other forms of evidence.

When an individual believes that he or she was improperly disadvantaged by a bureaucrat's decision and contests the decision, the dispute is usually handled by

an administrative law judge.

An amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief provides a court with the view held by

an interest that is not a direct party to the case.

The Supreme Court is likely to grant a hearing when a case involves

an issue that is being decided inconsistently by the lower federal courts.

The courts have tended to support administrators as long as their agencies

apply a reasonable interpretation of a statute.

The term civil liberties refers to specific individual rights that

are constitutionally protected from infringement by government.

Studies by political scientists show that Supreme Court justices

are strongly influenced by their political beliefs.

The 2013 Supreme Court decision Shelby County v. Holder interpreting the Voting Rights Act

argued that Congress had set standards for federal oversight that were no longer relevant. Correct

With regard to public opinion, the Supreme Court

attempts to stay close enough to public opinion so as to avoid outright defiance of its decisions

The administrative concept of neutral competence holds that the bureaucracy should

be staffed by people chosen on the basis of ability and do its work fairly on behalf of all citizens.

In most instances,

both criminal cases and civil cases are tried in state courts.

The Edward Snowden leaks about the NSA surveillance program

brought changes in how Americans' phone data was stored for NSA retrieval.

One example of a policy that aimed chiefly to overcome de facto discrimination is

busing to achieve racial integration in the schools.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was aimed at eliminating discrimination

by private individuals in their employment practices and in their operation of public accommodations (e.g., hotels, restaurants).

An administrative law judge

can gather evidence and take testimony.

In the Johnson flag-burning case, the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning

cannot be prohibited even though it may be offensive.

Policy implementation refers to the bureaucratic function of

carrying out decisions made by Congress, the president, and the courts.

If a person yells "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire, and people are hurt in the ensuing panic, that individual has abused his or her freedom of speech, according to the doctrine of

clear and present danger

The special interests that benefit directly from a bureaucratic agency's programs are called

clientele groups.

In the 2014 case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the Supreme Court ruled that

companies with only a few owners can refuse, on religious grounds, to include contraceptives in employees' health coverage.

Studies have found that the U.S. federal bureaucracy

compares favorably in performance to government bureaucracies elsewhere.

The laws applicable to a case

constrain the judiciary, because court decisions must be based on applicable laws.

Housing in America

continues to evidence a high degree of racial segregation

In the late 1800s, rapid economic growth placed new demands on the federal government and led it to

create new federal departments built around economic interests.

In Mapp v. Ohio, the selective incorporation process was extended to include

criminal proceedings in the states.

Equality of result policies are primarily directed at ________ discriminatory effects.

de facto

The power of the Supreme Court is most apparent in its ability to

declare another institution's action to be unconstitutional.

The cabinet department with the largest number of full-time civilian employees is the Department of

defense

According to the doctrine of judicial restraint, the judiciary should

defer to decisions made by the legislature

In 2007 the Supreme Court ruled that the pursuit of racial integration in public schools through busing

deprived students of their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection.

A written Supreme Court opinion that disagrees with what the majority of the justices decided is a(n)

dissenting opinion.

The lowest level of the federal court system is the

district court

In a 2004 case involving the issue of whether a U.S. citizen accused of terrorist acts is entitled to constitutional protections, the Supreme Court held that such citizens

do have the right to challenge their own detentions in court.

Federal regulatory agencies have responsibility primarily in the area of

economic policy

What is the most common method in the states for the selection of judges?

election to office

Of the 13 courts of appeals in the United States

eleven have jurisdiction over a "circuit" comprised of the district courts in anywhere from three to five states.

The importance of clientele groups was especially clear in 2018 when President Trump proposed the

elimination of grants for new mass transit projects.

The Lemon test is designed to

ensure the secular nature of a government action or policy.

The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruling (1954) held that racial segregation in schools violated the

equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

With regard to the lower courts, the Supreme Court's primary responsibility is

establishing legal precedents that will guide their decisions.

The exclusionary rule states that

evidence obtained illegally is inadmissible in court.

The establishment clause prohibits government from

favoring one religion over another or supporting religion over no religion.

The freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and religion are found in

first amendment

In the 1967 decision of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court

first explicitly applied the strict-scrutiny test.

The Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison is significant

for the establishment of judicial review.

The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in legal disputes involving

foreign diplomats.

Amtrak is an example of a(n)

government corporation

Which of the following is NOT protected by the First Amendment?

freedom of bearing arms

The individual right that is the most basic of democratic rights is

freedom of expression.

Gideon v. Wainwright required the states to

furnish attorneys for poor defendants in felony cases.

Federal civil service employees cannot legally

go on strike

The Fourteenth Amendment applies to discriminatory action by

government only

In the case of McNabb v. United States, Justice Felix Frankfurter defined the "history of liberty" primarily in terms of whether

governments had observed procedural guarantees.

Compared to the president and Congress, the bureaucracy

has a more direct impact on the daily lives of Americans.

The Supreme Court

has generally protected symbolic speech almost as substantially as it has protected verbal speech.

Bureaucracy is based on which of the following principles?

hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules

Modern bureaucracy in America is best characterized in terms of

hierarchy, specialization, and rules.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 addressed

housing

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court

illustrated that it is a political body.

In its 1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio ruling, the Supreme Court established the ________ test.

imminent lawless action

According to the Constitution, the federal courts can issue a decision only

in response to a case presented to it.

Public support for same-sex marriage has

increased significantly since the 1990s.

Compared with the decision in a Supreme Court case, the opinion is more significant because it

informs others of the Court's interpretation of the laws and thereby guides their decisions.

A law that placed restrictions on courses girls could take in high school would be evaluated by the courts using the

intermediate-scrutiny test.

Any law that includes a gender classification is subject to the

intermediate-scrutiny test.

The principal of judicial review grants the judiciary the authority to

invalidate the actions of other institutions when judges believe they have acted unconstitutionally.

In 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that creationism

is a religious doctrine, not a scientific theory.

A concurring opinion

is a separate view written by a justice who votes with the majority but disagrees with its reasoning.

The Senior Executive Service (SES)

is composed of civil employees that can be assigned by the president to any position within the bureaucracy.

The policy of affirmative action arose when

it became apparent that disadvantaged Americans would not attain equal employment opportunities through lawsuits that benefited single individuals only.

One reason that affirmative action is so controversial is that

it is viewed as giving preferential treatment, which is unpopular, instead of simply ensuring equal treatment.

What is the equal protection clause? What three tests are associated with discrimination in law?

its in the 14th amendment that allows equal protection for all within the laws. The three tests include the reasonable-basis test, strict-scrutiny test, and suspect classifications.

Which legal doctrine holds that in nearly every instance, policy issues should be decided by elected lawmakers and not by appointed judges?

judicial restraint

Regarding the educational background of bureaucrats, high-ranking civil servants in continental Europe tend to have a college major specializing in

law or the humanities.

The Supreme Court concept of suspect classifications suggests that

laws that classify people differently on the basis of their race or ethnicity are presumed to have discrimination as their purpose.

Culminating in a historic victory in 1954, advancement of civil rights for African Americans in the early 20th century came mostly through

legal action

In its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court

lifted restrictions in corporate and union spending in federal election campaigns

Precedent, while not an absolute constraint on the courts, is needed to

maintain legal consistency over time, so confusion and uncertainty about the law can be avoided.

A Supreme Court opinion written when the majority of the justices agree on the legal reasoning for the decision is a(n)

majority opinion.

In the case of United States v. Virginia (1996), the Supreme Court ruled that

male-only admissions policy at a state-supported military academy was unconstitutional.

The constitutional provision that federal judges and justices hold office "during good behavior" has

meant, in effect, that they will serve until they die or choose to retire.

Most federal civil servants are hired on the basis of

merit criteria

The "federal court myth" overlooks the fact that

most cases arise under state law, not federal law; nearly all cases that originate in state courts are never reviewed by federal courts; and federal courts must normally accept the facts of a case as determined by a state court when reviewing its decision

With regard to affirmative action, the Supreme Court in recent years has

moved to narrow its application

How many states ratified the Equal Rights Amendment?

nearly 3/4

Federal judges are

nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.

When the United States first came into being, married women were permitted to

none

Compared to Supreme Court nominations, those for the lower federal courts

none are correct

The United States has two court systems, state and federal. The federal system

none of these are correct

Like all other rights, the right of free expression is

not absolute

Although federal district courts are theoretically bound by Supreme Court precedents, they sometimes deviate because

of all these factors: The facts of a case are seldom precisely the same as those of similar cases decided by the Supreme Court; federal judges may a different legal reasoning is justified; and ambiguities or unaddressed issues in the Court's rulings give lower courts some flexibility in deciding cases.

The conviction of members of the U.S. Communist Party in the early 1950s was initially upheld as a lawful restriction of the right

of free speech

The appointment of federal judges is influenced most substantially by

partisanship

The ________ established a merit system for certain federal positions.

pendleton act

A written Supreme Court opinion that, in the absence of a majority opinion, represents the reasoning of most of the justices who side with the winning party is a

plurality opinion

In which of the following measures are Asian Americans underrepresented compared to whites and even other minorities like Hispanics and African Americans?

political representaion

A judicial decision that establishes a rule for settling subsequent cases of a similar nature is a

precedent

The first woman ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court was appointed by

president Raegan

The Supreme Court's position on prior restraint of the press is that

prior restraint should occur only under very compelling circumstances, and it is better to hold the press responsible for what it has printed than to restrict what it may print.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

prohibits discrimination in voting and voter registration.

As distinct from the patronage system, the merit system for managing the bureaucracy

provides for a neutral administration in the sense that civil servants are not partisan appointees, thus ensuring neutral work.

Whenever Congress has a perceived need for ongoing control of an economic activity, it has tended to create a

regulatory agency

In applying the reasonable-basis test, courts tend to

require government only to show that a particular law is reasonable.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are

respectively, an agency within a cabinet department, an independent agency, and a regulatory agency.

Opposition to the judiciary's creative policy-making role is a consistent tenet of judicial

restraint

Justice Holmes's clear-and-present-danger test holds that government can

restrict speech that threatens national security. Correct

The U.S. courts of appeals

review district court decisions.

What is the chief way administrative agencies exercise control over policy?

rule-making for legislation

The merit plan applies to

selection of judges in some states' systems.

The inclusion of certain provisions of the Bill of Rights through the Fourteenth Amendment, so that these rights are protected from infringements by the state governments, is called

selective incorporation

Spoken words that are known to be false and harmful to a person's reputation are an example of

slander

Bureaucrats are ________ and elected officials are ________.

specialists; generalists

In Schenck v. United States (1919), the Supreme Court ruled that

speech could be restricted when the nation's security is at stake.

Any law that attempts a racial or ethnic classification is subject to the

strict-scrutiny test.

Which country has the highest proportion of women serving in its national legislatures?

sweden

What were the "reinventing teams"?

teams that were formed under the National Performance Review to analyze and make recommendations about bureaucratic effectiveness

De jure discrimination and de facto discrimination are two ways in which some Americans are treated as less equal than others. Examples of governmental actions or public policies designed to address each of these forms of discrimination are

the Brown decision (de jure), and affirmative action (de facto).

Which of the following agencies or departments is likely to have strong allies from a group of particular states in Congress?

the Department of Agriculture

Which of the following was the most recent broad initiative aimed at making the bureaucracy more responsive?

the National Performance Review

Which of the following had the greatest impact on increasing voting rates by African Americans?

the Voting Rights Act of 1965

In deciding two 2014 cases involving the legality of searching a suspect's cell phone, the Supreme Court ruled that

the cell phone cannot be searched in most circumstances without a warrant.

According to the Supreme Court, prayer in public schools violates

the establishment clause

According to the Supreme Court, prior restraint on the press is only acceptable if

the government can clearly justify the restriction.

The Supreme Court has reasoned that a right of privacy is provided by

the implication of the right to privacy by the freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

Which of the following, relative to the others, is typically more protective of individual rights?

the judiciary

At the start of the annual budget cycle, the OMB assigns each agency a budget limit based on

the presidents directives

In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the Supreme Court justices determined that

the right to privacy does not include homosexual acts.

The focus of civil liberties is ________, and the focus of civil rights is ________.

the rights of individuals protected from infringement by the government; equal rights in the treatment of members of differing groups

All of the following statements about Hispanic Americans are true EXCEPT that

their average annual income is relatively close to the national average.

Disadvantaged Americans have generally gained their rights

through a continual struggle for greater equality.

When it was developed during the Jackson administration, the patronage system was designed to

tie the administration more closely to the people it served.

Since the latter part of the busing era, the trend in public schools has been

toward greater segregation.

The typical presidential appointee spends about ________ on the job before leaving for other employment.

two years

Which type of household has the LOWEST percentage of families living in poverty?

two-parent family

The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from

unreasonable searches

How long do federal judges serve?

until they retire, die, or are removed through the impeachment and conviction process

The Supreme Court's decision in the University of California Regents v. Bakke case

upheld the principle of affirmative action while invalidating a particular means of achieving it.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

was conducted by African Americans seeking equality of rights.

Of the following states, which one has the LOWEST percentage of Hispanics in its population?

washington

In its 2011 Snyder v. Phelps ruling, the Supreme Court held that Westboro Baptist Church protests at military funerals

were a constitutionally protected form of free speech.

The first Asian immigrants to come to America in large numbers

were brought in as laborers in mines and railroad construction.

Native Americans

were not given citizenship status en masse until the 20th century.

Government can lawfully prevent a political rally from taking place

when it can demonstrate that harmful acts will necessarily result from the rally.

About three in every five Senior Executive Service positions in the federal bureaucracy are held by

white males

Which group saw the largest percentage increase of SES positions between 1982 and 2011?

women

Libel applies to defamation of an individual's reputation through the

written word

Regarding same-sex marriage, it is true that

younger people are more likely to approve of it than older people are