POLI 1090 - Ch 9: The Federal Judiciary quiz

**President Andrew Jackson chose Roger Taney to be the successor to Chief Justice John Marshall for which of the following reasons?**

Because like Jackson, Taney was an advocate of states' rights.

In its decision in Stuart v. Laird, what grounds did the Supreme Court use to determine whether the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801 was constitutional?

Congress possessed the power to reorganize the judicial branch.

When the Supreme Court issues rulings on whether an agency has conformed substantively and procedurally to the law's guidelines, it is an example of what kind of authority?

Engaging in statutory interpretation

T/F Article III of the Constitution established the entire federal judiciary and provided each level with the same power of judicial review.

False

T/F Due to overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress, President Roosevelt was able to expand the Supreme Court and protect his New Deal programs.

False

T/F Judicial activism is a term often associated with conservative decisions by the courts restricting the conventional view of criminal or civil rights.

False

Regulating railroads and monopolies along with providing services to citizens are examples of what kinds of cases that the Supreme Court faced during its second era of judicial review?

Government regulation of the economy

Why was the election of 1800 a pivotal event for constitutional developments in the United States?

Had power not been transferred peacefully, it would have put the integrity of the Constitution in doubt and future politicians would have a prisoner's dilemma of abiding by the rules or reneging.

How did Marshall's reasoning in Marbury v. Madison affect the balance of power between the Court and Congress?

He argued that the Constitution was superior to ordinary laws, and therefore, any legislative acts contrary to the Constitution is not law.

What is one of the advantages of stare decisis for judicial decision making?

It enables the Court to ensure that the lower courts are closely following the decisions of the Court in order to reduce the independence of judges.

What was the effect of the Supreme Court's decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act?

It made neither side completely happy, but enhanced the credibility of the Court over the long term.

The Federalists passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which accomplished which of the following?

It sharply raised the number of district and appellate courts and thereby created new judgeships for the outgoing Federalists to fill as well as decreasing the size of the Supreme Court.

The unprecedented vigor with which the Supreme Court struck down laws regulating business during the 1920s did which of the following?

It won the Court the enmity of many elected officials, who found that the justices obstructed their efforts to respond to the demands and needs of their constituents

Justice _____ began to favor federal economic assistance and allowed the Court to bend to the emerging national consensus that recovery required the government's active management of the economy.

Owen Roberts

______ is the most important procedural doctrine because it directs the lower courts, as well as the Supreme Court itself, to follow established precedent in deciding current cases.

Stare decisis

What are the limits faced by the Supreme Court in exercising internal control?

Subordinates do not defer to their principals and seek guidance because the life tenure of judges insulates the judges from one another.

**Which of the following statements about Supreme Court decisions concerning state regulations of business is accurate?**

The Court struggled to develop a consistent doctrine for defining the public interest so the courts were inundated with these cases.

What was one of the consequences for the Supreme Court that resulted from the defeat of the Confederacy during the Civil War?

The Court was obliged to devote more attention than ever before to policies emanating from the lower levels of government

Which of the following is true about Franklin Roosevelt's appointment of seven new members of the Supreme Court between 1937 and 1941?

The Court, then more in tune with the elected branches' thinking about the government's role in the economy, began to pay attention to civil rights and liberties

What does the nomination of federal judges illustrate?

The President nominates and the Senate either accepts or rejects, and this shared responsibility provides politicians in these institutions with their best chance to influence judicial policies.

What does the Supreme Court ruling in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha illustrate about Supreme Court rulings?

The absence of enforcement authority has allowed Congress and the President at times to ignore Supreme Court rulings

Evidence of the Supreme Court's historical sympathy for protecting property rights can be seen in its interpretation of the language of the Fourteenth Amendment, which defined corporations as persons to invoke which of the following?

The due process clause

Following the civil rights era, the Court began to start rolling back what constitutional interpretation?

The expansive view of the commerce clause

The dramatic conversion of the Supreme Court agenda and its view of federal power came about through which of the following?

The replacement of retirees with a generation of jurists in closer agreement with the President and Congress

In 1905, in Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law restricting which of the following?

The work hours of bakers to ten hours a day or sixty hours a week

**When choosing Supreme Court nominees, presidents have done which of the following?**

They have chosen members of their own parties over 90 percent of the time.

T/F The Department of Justice is by far the most frequent and most important litigant in the federal court system, where it is the primary representative of the federal government.

True

T/F The Supreme Court typically decides fewer than 100 cases annually.

True

T/F The overwhelming public outcry against Taney's reasoning in Dred Scott case left the Supreme Court seriously discredited.

True

In ______ for the first time in almost sixty years, the Court struck down legislation as exceeding Congress's powers under the commerce clause.

United States v. Lopez

Marshall's explanation of the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution can be summed up as allowing congressional action

as long as the means are plainly adapted to achieve an enumerated power and not specifically prohibited

Writs of certiorari

force the justices to take a hard, strategic look at petitions before promoting them, so political strategy is an important consideration.

For the 8,000 or so certiorari requests it receives each year, the Supreme Court's rule to determine whether any given case is heard is

four of the nine justices must favor hearing the case

Federal district court judges

manage to favor the ideological preferences of the President who appointed them.

To invoke the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to justify protecting railroads and other businesses from regulation, the Supreme Court had to define corporations as ______.

persons

Only litigants who are directly or adversely affected by a disputed action have the right, otherwise known as ______, to bring the case to court.

standing

When local law enforcement jurisdictions follow Miranda guidelines as standard operating procedure when making arrests, it is an example of the Supreme Court using

substantive doctrine.

Jefferson's response to the appointment of members of the defeated Federalist Party by Adams to the federal judiciary was a complaint that

the Federalists had "retired into the judiciary as a strong hold."

William Marbury and other Federalists who had been denied their justice of the peace commissions asked the Supreme Court to issue a ______ that would order a government officer to perform his duties.

writ of mandamus