Ap government 3.10-3.13 MCQS

The Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause declares that "No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." In which of the following scenarios is this clause most likely to be used by the Supreme Court in its decision?

A local school district mandates racially segregated schools.

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.

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 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.

Writing for the court in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), a case weighing whether race can be considered in college admissions, Justice Lewis Powell wrote: "Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids. . . . The . . . goal asserted by petitioner is the attainment of a diverse student body. This clearly is a constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education. . . . The freedom of a university to make its own judgments as to education includes the selection of its student body."

Colleges can consider race but cannot use strict racial quotas in admission practices.

The issues identified in the passage reflect a failure to uphold which of the following constitutional principles?

Equal protection

Which of the following statements presents the most important limitation of the data in the graph?

There is no information about the total number of state legislators.

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

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)

Which of the following expresses the most significant political concern in the passage?

Increased awareness of citizen inequalities that need to be addressed

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.

Which of the following pieces of legislation was most likely a result of the passage?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

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 Fourteenth Amendment

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 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

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."

The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Which of the following best captures a portion of the author's argument?

The government has made women subservient by denying them the right to vote.