Quiz 5
What are the two kinds of county courts?
constitutional county courts and county courts at law
The _______ Amendment guarantees citizens in each state due process and equal protection of the law regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender.
Fourteenth
A justice of the peace court is a/an:
Magistrate court
Judges appointed by governors are typically:
More competent and less responsive
According to a 2006 Texans for Public Justice study, the Texas Supreme Court
is more that 7 times as likely to hear cases filed by large contributors
The strict procedural rules that govern courts:
might disallow evidence gathered in an illegal manner.
All Texas judges are selected by partisan elections EXCEPT:
municipal judges
What is the primary attribute voters use to select judges?
name familiarity
How are supreme court judges selected in Texas?
partisan election
How are trial court judges selected in Texas?
partisan election
Which method for removing judges for misconduct is used by the fewest states?
removal by the governor after a hearing
If a court makes a ruling based on a previous ruling from another court, this is an example of the principle of:
stare decisis
What is the highest court for criminal cases in Texas?
the Court of Criminal Appeals
All of the following are concerns about Texas judicial selections EXCEPT:
vacancies from death or resignation require expensive special elections
Courts differ from legislatures in that:
Courts cannot initiate policy changes
In Texas, appellate courts:
Decide whether procedure was followed
The highest number of states courts use this method for selecting judges:
a merit plan
In most states, which courts hear major criminal and civil cases?
all of the above
The highest percentage of Texas inmates are
black
Texas uses ________ to review the facts and decide whether enough evidence exists to try cases.
both grand juries and administrative hearings
Most voters go to the election booth with scant knowledge about the qualifications of judicial candidates, and they often end up voting
by name familiarity
Most court cases in Texas deal with
controversies between individuals
Across all fifty states, the most common method for selecting trial court judges is:
partisan elections
What is the most important difference between trial and appellate courts?
deciding points of fact versus points of law
A murder case would most likely first be tried in a/an:
district court
Which method of judicial selection is a system left over from colonial America?
election by the legislature
Why does the U.S. have a dual court system?
federal system of government
Cases heard in trial de novo courts can be appealed
for any reason
Justices of the peace in Texas can do all of the following except:
hear traffic ticket appeals
In 1984, many incumbent Democratic judges lost their seats in large urban counties to unknown Republican challengers because of
straight ticket voting