Unit 3 Multiple Choice Question (Hopefully) Full Set
Which of the following applications of affirmative action would the United States Supreme Court likely consider unconstitutional?
A state university refuses acceptance of any new applicants from a specific race.
What is symbolic speech?
An action or statement that is used to express a deeper meaning
Which of the following illustrates a situation that would not be protected by the First Amendment due to time, place, and manner restrictions?
Anti business protesters are arrested and prosecuted for shutting down major intersections in New York City's Times Square during rush hour
Which of the following is a similarity between the views expressed in the excerpt above and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail"?
Both César Chávez and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. argued for the continued use of nonviolence to further their causes.
A school district in Seattle used the race of students as a tie-breaking factor to determine which students would be admitted to the more popular schools in an attempt to maintain racial diversity. In the case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), the Supreme Court ruled this plan unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. Which of the following statements offers the most accurate comparison between this case and the decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) ?
Both cases ruled against the school district based on the equal protection clause.
In the case Boynton v. Virginia (1960), the Supreme Court ruled that segregation at a bus stop restaurant was illegal based on the Interstate Commerce Act. Which of the following explains how this case is similar to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) ?
Both cases struck down local ordinances that prescribed segregation.
In the case Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson (1971), the parents of Chinese American students who attended a primarily Asian American school challenged San Francisco's effort to desegregate the public schools, arguing that their culture and language would be diluted if their children were dispersed from their local school. The Supreme Court denied the challenge from the parents basing their decision on the Fourteenth Amendment. Which of the following cases was most likely used in the decision as a precedent?
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
In which case did the Supreme Court rule that "the doctrine of separate but equal has no place" in the Constitution?
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
Which of the following scenarios best explains how the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has influenced political behavior?
Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., cited constitutional arguments as a basis for opposing segregation and inequality.
Which of the following principles protects a citizen from imprisonment without trial?
Due process
Which of the following constitutional clauses was most relevant in the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade (1973) ?
Due process clause
Which of the following is an accurate comparison of the establishment clause and the free exercise clause?
Establishment Clause: Prohibits the federal government from prompting religion or creating a national religion. Free Exercise Clause: Protects an individuals religious beliefs and reasonable religious practices
During an investigation, police officers find illegal drugs while searching a home for which they did not acquire a warrant. Which of the following would prevent the drugs from being used as evidence at trial?
Exclusionary rule
To which level of government did the Bill of Rights originally apply?
Federal government only
Interest groups are protected under the Constitution by the
First Amendment
In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the Supreme Court ruling limited state action in segregating public school students based on their race, stating "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The Court pointed to which of the following amendments to the United States Constitution to achieve this ruling?
Fourteenth Amendment
Most of the individual protections of the Bill of Rights now apply to the states because of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution's
Fourteenth Amendment
The president privately discusses with his staff a decision to increase economic sanctions on Iran. Before a final decision is made, a draft of the proposal is leaked to a reporter. The president orders the reporter and her newspaper to suspend publication of the plan, citing issues of national and economic security. Which of the following best indicates how a court would rule in this case if the Supreme Court's ruling in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) was used as a precedent?
Freedom of the press includes a heavy presumption against government censorship, and the documents can be published by the press
Which of the following Supreme Court cases established that those accused of felonies who cannot afford legal counsel are entitled to legal counsel provided by the state?
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Which two principles are addressed in the excerpt above? I. The incorporation doctrine II. The concept of eminent domain III. The exclusionary rule IV. The "wall of separation" doctrine
I and III
Which of the following best describes a purpose of the Establishment Clause?
It prohibits Congress from establishing a state religion.
Which of the following is true about the right of free speech, as currently interpreted by the Supreme Court?
It protects the right to express opinions even without the actual use of words.
Which of the following reflects the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) ?
It ruled that a woman's right to an abortion was a privacy right incorporated to all of the states.
In Engel v. Vitale (1962), which of the following provides the legal reasoning behind the Supreme Court's ruling?
It ruled that the state had no justifiable interest to compel students to listen to a nondenominational prayer led by public school teachers, finding a clear establishment clause violation.
In May of 2015, a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' phone records was in violation of the USA PATRIOT Act. Which of the following core values are involved in the national debate regarding the surveillance program referred to in this scenario?
Liberty versus stability and order
In the majority opinion of a United States Supreme Court case, Justice Alito wrote, "we now turn directly to the question whether the...right to keep and bear arms is incorporated in the concept of due process. In answering that question, . . . we must decide whether the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty." Which Supreme Court case is most aligned with Justice Alito's reasoning to treat gun ownership for self-defense as a fundamental liberty?
McDonald v. Chicago (2010)
Which of the following Supreme Court cases is most relevant to the topic of the article?
McDonald v. Chicago (2010)
Which of the following scenarios best explains the inclusion of Title IX as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 ?
Members of Congress added the amendment to the bill in response to social movements seeking to address inequality in education for women.
The landmark case on involuntary confession was that of
Miranda v. Arizona
Which of the following headlines is most relevant to the political cartoon?
Nixon Administration Goes to Court to Stop Pentagon Papers Release
Slander differs from libel in that it refers to
Oral statements
The establishment clause in the First Amendment does which of the following?
Prohibits the setting up of a state church.
Which of the following is an accurate comparison of rights protected and not protected by the First Amendment?
Protected by the First Amendment: The right to burn a flag Not Protected by the First Amendment: Obscenity
Which of the following Supreme Court cases establishes that a woman has a due process right to make a decision whether or not to have an abortion?
Roe v. Wade (1973)
A group unhappy with local law enforcement distributes a memo to members encouraging physical confrontations with police officers. The leaders of the group are promptly arrested. Which of the following Supreme Court cases best justifies the actions taken by law enforcement in this scenario?
Schenck v. United States (1919)
The Supreme Court ruled in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) that a citizen's right to keep and bear arms at home for self-defense is protected from state and federal infringement. Which of the following is most relevant to that decision?
Selective incorporation
In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court established which of the following principles?
Separation of students by race, even in equally good schools, is unconstitutional.
In Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the
Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel provision applies to those accused of major crimes under state laws
Which of the following is a principle underlying the Bill of Rights?
Some rights are fundamental and should not be subject to majoritarian control
After hours of interrogation by police a suspect confesses to multiple felony offenses. His attorney objected to the admission of the confession because he was not advised of his right to have an attorney present nor his protection from self-incrimination. Which amendments are most relevant to this scenario?
The Fifth and Sixth Amendments
The United States Supreme Court has used which of the following to incorporate the Bill of Rights into state law?
The Fourteenth Amendment
Which of the following amendments to the Constitution most likely provides the basis for a driver to challenge the constitutionality of police use of sobriety checkpoints in enforcing drunk driving laws?
The Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure
Which of the following is most likely responsible for the increase in the number of southern African American state legislators between 1960 and 1992 as shown in the graph?
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Supreme Court has ruled which of the following concerning the death penalty?
The death penalty is not necessarily cruel and unusual punishment.
In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the Supreme Court stated that the plaintiffs "seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a non-segregated basis. In each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race." The Supreme Court ruled "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Which of the following provisions of the United States Constitution did the Supreme Court use to strike down racial segregation in state public schools?
The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
The Washington Post receives a top secret report that details how the executive branch mishandled a deal made with a foreign nation regarding nuclear weapons. The executive branch attempts to stop the publishing of the report, but the publishers cite the precedent in New York Times Company v. United States (1971) establishing which of the following legal rules?
The heavy presumption against prior restraint
Which of the following is one of the central concerns of the First Amendment?
The right of citizens to petition the government for redress of grievances
In which of the following situations would the Supreme Court be most likely to utilize the doctrine of selective incorporation?
When an individual claims that a right protected by the Bill of Rights is infringed upon by a state
Which of the following cases decided whether a state could compel children to attend school beyond eighth grade even if it violated the students' sincerely held religious beliefs?
Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
A writ of habeas corpus refers to
a person's right to know the reasons for his or her imprisonment
The process of extending the protections of the Bill of Rights by means of the Fourteenth Amendment to apply to the actions of state governments is known as
incorporation
The federal Constitution guarantees all of the following rights to a person arrested and charged with a serious crime EXCEPT the right to
negotiate a plea bargain
The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that upheld a woman's right to secure an abortion was based on the right to
privacy implied in the Bill of Rights
With respect to prayer in public schools, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that
state-sponsored prayer violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment
If a college's admission policy to reserve twenty seats in its incoming class for applicants belonging to racial minority groups is challenged in the courts, a judge is likely to
strike down the policy because reserving seats amounts to a quota system
Which of the following scenarios, related to the First Amendment, best illustrates the "right . . . to petition the Government . . ." ?
A citizen calls a member of Congress to persuade her to vote yes on a bill.
Which of the following scenarios, related to the First Amendment, best illustrates the "right...to petition the government..."?
A citizen calls a member of congress to persuade her to vote yes on a bill
Which of the following would be considered an instance in which time, place, and manner restrictions would be applied to the First Amendment?
A city enforces its laws restricting noise to limit the scale of an outdoor concert event intended to raise public awareness of climate change
Which of the following scenarios illustrates an action that would be protected by the free exercise clause in the First Amendment?
A person wears a necklace bearing a Christian cross to work
Which of the following provisions of the Bill of Rights could support the actions that César Chávez is encouraging the farmworkers to take?
The right to assemble
Which of the following statements best describes how United States citizens regard the rights of free speech and assembly?
A majority agrees in principle with these rights, but in practice many people are often intolerant of views they do not support.
Which of these is protected under symbolic speech?
A man marks up a flag in order to show the injustices occurring at the border
Which of the following rulings is most likely to cite the Supreme Court's decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) as a legal precedent in support of the decision?
A ruling in favor of students to print their opinions in a school newspaper
Which of the following would most likely be protected by the First Amendment?
A student wears a black armband at school to protest government involvement in a war.
In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the United States Supreme Court stated, "that the [Constitution] protects the right to possess a handgun in the home for the purpose of self-defense" and that the Second Amendment applied to the states through which of the following constitutional clauses?
The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
The clause of the United States Constitution that was used in the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) was
The equal protection clause
A public school district implemented a policy that allowed students to vote on whether they wanted a student-led prayer to be read at football games. This policy was later found to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. Which of the following clauses did the policy most likely violate?
The establishment clause
A woman is arrested for possessing illegal substances that were obtained after a warrantless search of her home by local police. Which of the following best explains whether the evidence could be used in a criminal trial?
The exclusionary rule, derived from the Fourth Amendment, prevents the evidence from being used against the suspect.
Which of the following attributes of the political cartoon would best represent the government's use of prior restraint?
The fallen pillars
At a public high school, several students raised a banner and wore clothing in support of a candidate running in the upcoming presidential election during lunch period. The principal asked the students to put away the banner, citing safety concerns. Which of the following Supreme Court cases is most relevant to this scenario?
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
Which of the following Supreme Court decisions allows public school students to wear T-shirts protesting a school board decision that eliminates funding for high school arts programs?
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
Which of the following cases examined a state law that required all children to attend school through the twelfth grade in order to promote the general welfare of its citizens?
Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
The Supreme Court addressed the admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court, "in the context of its individualized inquiry into the possible diversity contributions of all applicants, the Law School's race-conscious admissions program does not unduly harm nonminority applicants." The primary issue of controversy in the Grutter v. Bollinger decision involves
affirmative action
The "wall of separation" doctrine refers to the
division of church and state
The clear-and-present danger test devised by the Supreme Court was designed to define the conditions under which public authorities could
limit free speech
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to
make most rights contained in the Bill of Rights applicable to the states
In Miranda v. Arizona, the United States Supreme Court declared that
police must inform criminal suspects of their constitutional rights before questioning suspects after arrest
A person treating the U.S. flag contemptuously is
protected by the right to exercise free speech
Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade are similar Supreme Court cases in that both cases are based on the
right of privacy
The Constitution and its amendments expressly prohibit all of the following EXCEPT
sex discrimination in employment
In Roe v. Wade, the majority of Supreme Court justices determined that
the United States Constitution implies a right to privacy and thus made abortions legal
The Supreme Court's decision about abortion in Roe v. Wade was based on
the right to privacy implied in the Bill of Rights
The "Miranda warning" represents an attempt to protect criminal suspects against
unfair police interrogation
The free-exercise clause protects
voluntary prayer by student groups before school
In the majority opinion of a United States Supreme Court case, Justice Alito wrote, "we now turn directly to the question whether the...right to keep and bear arms is incorporated in the concept of due process. In answering that question, . . . we must decide whether the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty." Which Supreme Court case is most aligned with Justice Alito's reasoning to treat gun ownership for self-defense as a fundamental liberty?
McDonald v. Chicago (2010)
The facts of which of the following cases are most related to the political cartoon?
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
Which of the following best defines civil liberties?
Provisions in the Bill of Rights that provide guarantees against arbitrary interference by government
In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the United States Supreme Court stated that, "[s]elf-defense is a basic right, recognized by many legal systems from ancient times to the present day" and that an individual's right to bear arms was "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition." The quote points to which of the following amendments to the United States Constitution as a basis to limit state action?
The Second Amendment
According to the clear and present danger test, speech may be restricted
when it incites violent action
