Institutions Unit Test

Which of the following may the president do to limit the Supreme Court's power? *

Appoint new justices to the Supreme Court

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government authorized the Justice Assistance Grant in order to provide states and local governments with the funding necessary to support a range of law enforcement and crime prevention programs.Which response illustrates the best rationale for the type of grant fitting this scenario? *

Block grants provide states with a great deal of flexibility in using federal funds to address specific local needs

Which statement accurately summarizes the impact of the United States v. Lopez (1995) decision?

It established limits to federal power under the commerce clause

At his first State of the Union, President Jason Mendoza uses the platform to inform the American public and the other branches of government of his policy goals for the first year of his presidency. His policy goals include supporting the buffalo wing industry and making Blake Bortles the king of Florida. The president's agenda-setting power can have which of the following effects on bureaucratic agencies? *

It pushes bureaucratic agencies to execute and follow through on the president's policy goals.

Which of the following statements best describes judicial restraint?

Judges should limit the exercise of their own power to interpreting the Constitution according to its original intent

In Gonzalez v. Raich (2005), the Supreme Court ruled that the commerce clause gave Congress the authority to ban the use of marijuana, despite conflicting state law. In the Court's majority opinion, Associate Justice John Paul Stevens argued that local use of marijuana affected the supply and demand of the national marijuana market. Which prior Supreme Court case could be cited as a precedent for the majority decision in Gonzalez v. Raich (2005)? *

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Which of the following actions by the federal government would most likely be considered an implied power based on the precedent established by McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)? *

Outlawing the recreational use of marijuana

"Today, liberals and conservatives alike blithely rely on the Court to settle society's toughest issues—at the expense of the two branches of government that are designed to be democratic. . . ."The corrosive result is twofold: an arrogant Court and an enfeebled Congress that rarely is willing to tackle the toughest issues. Each feeds on the other. The justices often step in because they believe the members of Congress—elected by the people though they may be—act like fools or, like cowards, fail to act. Happy to stay off the battlefield, Congress seldom raises a peep, other than to crowd the cameras during occasional Senate confirmation hearings on a new justice. The result is dwindling public faith in both institutions."-Source: David A. Kaplan, The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court in the Age of Trump, 2019 Based on the text, which of the following statements would the author most likely agree with? *

No correct answers

The commerce clause of the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.Which of the following might be an implied power that Congress would have to complete this task?

Setting a federal minimum wage

In 2016, Congress passed a law that intended to improve transportation in rural areas, relying on the Department of Transportation to figure out the mode of transportation was strongest. Senator Tahani Al-Jamil has heard that the Department of Transportation is planning to institute a regulation requiring state governments to give every person living in a rural area a brand-new car, which was not the intent of the law. However, she's not sure if this is gossip or an actual plan. Which of the following is an informal power that Senator Al-Jamil could use to get information about how the Department of Transportation is implementing the law? *

She could reach out to her contacts in the Department of Transportation to find out more about their implementation plans.

Use the excerpt to answer the question below. "Lifetime appointments and the new, highly ideological stakes provided senators ample incentives to use holds and silent filibusters to prevent a majority of their colleagues from acting on judicial nominations, both to block those with different ideologies and to keep slots vacant until the presidency moves into their party's hands. Along the way, judicial confirmations have become increasingly politicized, and delays in confirming appellate judges have led to increased vacancy rates that have produced longer case-processing times and growing caseloads per judge on federal dockets." -Mann, Thomas E. and Norman J. Ornstein, It's Even Worse than it Looks, 2012 Which of the following statements best summarizes the authors' argument?

The Senate is more likely to place holds on life-tenured judicial appointments because of the lasting influence of those appointments

Use the passage below to answer the following question. "The mystique of inside information—"if you only knew what we know"—was a most effective way to defend the national-security monopoly and prevent democratic control of foreign policy . . . The power to leak meant the power to tell the people what it served the government's purpose that they should know . . . The power to withhold and the power to leak led on inexorably to the power to lie. The secrecy system instilled in the executive branch the idea that foreign policy was no one's business save its own, and the uncontrolled secrecy made it easy for lying to become routine." -Arthur Schlesinger, The Imperial Presidency, 1973 Which of the following governmental policies would the author most likely support?

The War Powers Resolution of 1973, which aimed to give Congress more say in whether US troops were deployed abroad

Use the passage below to answer the following question. "The mystique of inside information—"if you only knew what we know"—was a most effective way to defend the national-security monopoly and prevent democratic control of foreign policy . . . "The power to leak meant the power to tell the people what it served the government's purpose that they should know . . . "The power to withhold and the power to leak led on inexorably to the power to lie. The secrecy system instilled in the executive branch the idea that foreign policy was no one's business save its own, and the uncontrolled secrecy made it easy for lying to become routine." -Arthur Schlesinger, The Imperial Presidency, 1973 Based on the text, which of the following statements would the author most likely agree with? *

The executive branch has too much power in implementing foreign policy

In 1993, Congress passed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which required background checks for gun purchases from licensed gun dealers. The bill required local chief law enforcement officers to perform background checks on prospective handgun purchasers until the Attorney General created a federal system to do this task.Two county sheriffs sued the United States, arguing that the law was an unconstitutional use of federal power. The case, Printz v. United States, went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the county sheriffs. The Court ruled that the necessary and proper clause does not give the federal government the power to require local law enforcement to fulfill the federal task of performing background checks.This is an example of which of the following aspects of federalism in the United States? *

The system of checks and balances between the branches of the federal government constrains policymaking

In United States v. Morrison (2000), the Supreme Court struck down the part of the Violence Against Women Act that made gender-motivated violence a federal crime, as it was not related to the commerce clause. Which prior Supreme Court case could be used as a precedent for the majority decision in United States v. Morrison (2000)? *

United States v. Lopez (1995)

In which of the following scenarios is the president most likely to use the veto to limit the power of Congress? *

When the opposing party holds a majority in Congress

Under Chief Justice Warren, the Supreme Court established several precedents which drew criticism for interfering with state powers and the powers of the other branches. Which of the following actions may the president take to change how the Supreme Court rules on similar cases in the future? *

appoint new justices to the Supreme Court

Which of the following constitutional provisions gives Congress the power to change the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction? *

exceptions clause in Article III

An iron triangle is made up of three groups. One of the groups approves higher budget requests for government agencies, supports legislation that benefits particular interest groups, and receives contributions and information in return.Which part of the iron triangle is this? *

congressional subcommittees

What is one check that state governments have on the judicial branch? *

ratifying constitutional amendments

"Even as they welcome the opportunities opened up by having an ally in the White House, some worry that the continued emphasis on executive actions is just another step in the dilution of legislative power." 'We need to go back to being the legislative branch,' said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican opposed to a potential executive order by Mr. Trump that would end a special program allowing younger illegal immigrants to remain in the United States. 'We didn't like this when Obama was doing it, so why should we accept it now?'" -Carl Hulse, "Trump Follows Obama's Lead in Flexing Executive Muscle," The New York Times, January 26, 2017 Based on the text, which of the following statements would Representative Ros-Lehtinen most likely agree with?

Executive orders can create conflict with Congress as they do not require congressional input or approval

"Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy . . ." -Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 70, "The Executive Department Further Considered," 1788" Energy," as used by Hamilton in Federalist No. 70, is best defined as which of the following?

The capacity to act quickly and decisively

Congress is most likely to use a court-curbing measure, like changing the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, when:

the American public does not support the Supreme Court's decision.

The following question(s) refer to this excerpt of proposed House Resolution 184 introduced by Representative Hakeem Jeffries in the House Judiciary Committee on March 9, 2017.RESOLVED: That the President is requested, and the Attorney General of the United States is directed, to transmit, respectively (in a manner appropriate to classified information, if the President or Attorney General determines appropriate), to the House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution, copies of any document, record, memo, correspondence, or other communication in their possession, or any portion of any such communication, that refers or relates to the following:(1) Any meeting or communication that occurred between Senator Jeff Sessions and any representative of the Russian government, including his meetings with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak, on July 18, 2016, and September 8, 2016.(2) Senator Sessions' testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on January 10, 2017, including but not limited to his statement that he "did not have communications with the Russians." What congressional power was used in passing this resolution? *

legislative oversight

According to ABC News, the average chocolate bar contains eight insect parts. Anything less than sixty insect pieces per 100 grams of chocolate (two chocolate bars' worth) is deemed safe for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration. This is an example of bureaucratic: *

regulation