Quiz #11 Federal Courts

There are ________ circuits in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

12

The president appoints judges of courts created under Congress's Article I power for

15 years

Marbury v. Madison was decided in

1803

About ________ percent of all lower court cases are reviewed by federal appeals courts.

20

Each Supreme Court justice is assigned ________ law clerks.

4

How many justices currently serve on the Supreme Court?

9

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

9,000; 80

There are ________ U.S. district courts.

94

More than ________ percent of all cases in the United States are heard in state courts.

97

________ occurs when a criminal case is resolved through a negotiated agreement before a full trial is completed.

A plea bargain

The Supreme Court struck down parts of the Military Commissions Act and declared habeas corpus to be a fundamental right in the case of

Boumediene v. Bush.

The size of the U.S. Supreme Court is set by

Congress

________ and ________ are the two MOST common types of civil law cases.

Contracts; torts

What was the basis of Justice John Marshall's assertion that the federal courts have the power of judicial review?

It is the duty of the federal judges to say what the law is; therefore, it is necessary for them to interpret and expound the law.

In Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (2014), the justices ruled on a(n) ________ ballot initiative establishing that ________ constitutional.

Michigan; a ban on racial preferences in college admissions was

"Borking" occurs when

Senators draw extensively on excerpts from a judicial nominee's speeches and writings in order to paint the nominee as an extremist who is unqualified to serve in the federal judiciary.

Which of the following statements about Congress's delegation of power to the executive is MOST accurate?

Since the New Deal, the courts have not struck down any congressional delegation of power to the executive branch as impermissibly broad.

Which of the following statements best characterizes the structure of the federal judiciary?

The entire federal judiciary is composed of 94 district courts, 12 circuit courts, one Supreme Court, and numerous specialized courts that have nationwide original jurisdiction in certain types of cases

Which of the following statements best describes the formal requirements of serving as a federal court judge?

There are no formal requirements to serve as a federal court judge.

Which kind of case would NOT be granted certiorari under Rule 10 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States?

a case about the governor of California's authority to use the line-item veto when the state trial court and the state supreme court have reached different conclusions regarding the governor's actions

Which of the following would the Supreme Court likely refuse to hear because of "mootness"?

a case involving a student who was first rejected but then, later, admitted to a state-run university suing that university for discrimination in the admissions process

Which of the following cases would always be heard in federal court?

a case involving the state of New York suing the state of New Hampshire over state highway maintenance

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

always heard in a federal court.

A person, agency, or interest group not directly a party to a case but with an interest in its outcome may file a(n) ________ brief.

amicus curiae

When interest groups use a "pattern-of-cases" strategy, they

authorized the Supreme Court to exercise judicial review over laws passed by Congress

Marbury v. Madison (1803) is an important case because the justices

authorized the Supreme Court to exercise judicial review over laws passed by Congress.

The written document in which attorneys explain why the court should rule in favor of their clients is called a(n)

brief

Since 2017, the Senate filibuster

cannot be used against any presidential appointments.

When a U.S. court of appeals asks the Supreme Court for instructions on a point of law that has never been decided it is called a writ of

certification

Most cases reach the Supreme Court through a writ of

certiorari

When a private individual brings a suit against a company for breaking a contract, this is an example of ________ law.

civil

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

civil law

The government is always the plaintiff in ________ law.

criminal

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims was created by Congress to rule on

damage suits brought against the U.S. government.

The Supreme Court struck down state laws in the cases Brown v. Board of Education and Pavan v. Smith because the statutes in question

denied citizens equal protection of the law

Trial courts in the federal judicial system are called

district courts.

Appeals courts

do not hear witnesses or examine additional evidence before reaching their decisions

During the Constitutional Convention, a "departmentalist" was someone who believed that

each branch of the new government would interpret the Constitution as it applied to its own actions rather than having the Supreme Court be the sole interpreter of the Constitution.

Section 1983 of the U.S. Code is significant because it

encourages individuals and groups to bring their problems to the courts rather than to Congress or the executive branch.

The number of cases filed in the Supreme Court

has increased dramatically since 1940.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the president

has the unilateral power to declare someone an "enemy combatant."

The requirement of standing means that parties in a case must

have a concrete injury or interest at stake.

A class-action suit is a legal action

in which a group of individuals with common interests can file a suit on behalf of everyone who shares that interest.

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.

Through the exercise of ________, the Supreme Court has held actions or laws of the executive and legislative branches unconstitutional.

judicial review

The solicitor general is the

lawyer who represents the United States before the Supreme Court in cases where the federal government is a party

Civil cases involving the citizens of more than one state and in which more than $75,000 is at stake

may be heard in either the federal or the state courts, usually depending on thepreference of the plaintiff.

In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court was required to rule on the issue of ________, due to the fact that the pregnancy had already come to term.

mootness

The U.S. Supreme Court has been composed of

nine justices since 1869.

In a typical tort case

one individual charges that he or she has been injured by another's negligence or malfeasance.

The federal courts have ruled that the "case or controversy" clause of the Constitution means that they do NOT have the

power to render advisory opinions to legislatures or agencies about the constitutionality of proposed laws or regulations.

A certiorari pool describes the

practice by which Supreme Court law clerks work together to evaluate each petition.

Prior cases whose principles are used by judges to decide current cases are called

precedents

The chief justice of the Supreme Court

presides over the Court's public sessions and private conferences

The fact that the Supreme Court has been more willing to rule on affirmative action in recent years illustrates that the

question of which cases to accept is often simply a matter of the preferences and priorities of the Supreme Court's justices.

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

Aside from the justices themselves, who or what has the greatest power in shaping the flow of cases to the Supreme Court?

solicitor general

When a justice agrees with the majority decision but disagrees with the rationale presented in the majority opinion, he or she may write a

special concurrence.

In the 2014 case of Riley v. California, the Supreme Court held that

state courts must provide legal counsel to defendants who could not afford their own attorneys

Cases ________ are LEAST likely to be accepted by the Supreme Court.

that address state laws but do not raise constitutional issues

If a man is arrested because his home was searched by police without a legal warrant, he could argue in court that he had been denied

the due process of law.

The solicitor general is the ________-ranking official in the ________.

third; Department of Justice

Normally, ________ hear(s) a specific case on a federal circuit court of appeals.

three judges

Medical malpractice suits are good examples of ________ cases.

tort

When O. J. Simpson faced a criminal trial in Los Angeles for two counts of murder, the plaintiff(s)

was the state of California.