Chapter 15

The ________ is established by the Constitution and cannot be abolished by a congressional law.

Supreme Court

Trial courts in the federal judicial system are called

district courts.

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

precedents

A legislative "hold" is a

stalling tactic used in the U.S. Senate to delay debate on a bill.

Medical malpractice suits are good examples of ________ cases.

tort

The number of cases filed in the Supreme Court

. has increased dramatically since 1940

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

13

In all of American history, the Supreme Court has concluded that fewer than ________ acts of Congress have directly violated the Constitution.

160

Under normal rules of oral argument, each lawyer has ________ to present his or her case before the Supreme Court.

30 minutes

Each supreme court justice is assigned _____ law clerks

4

Congress has authorized the appointment of _____ federal district court judges in the United States

678

There are approximately ________ federal district court judges in the United States.

678

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

Which of the following statements about federal courts is MOST accurate?

Although the federal courts hear only a small fraction of all of the civil and criminal cases decided each year in the United States, their decisions are extremely important because they interpret the Constitution and the federal laws that govern all Americans.

A person agency, or interest froup not directly a party to a case but with an interest in its outcome may file a _____ brief

Amicus curiae

_____ protects federal judges from political pressure by granting them life tenure

Article III of the Constitution

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

Which Supreme Court nominee was accused of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing?

Clarence Thomas

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

In what type of law is the government always the plaintiff?

Criminal

Which of the following statements about state and federal court procedures is MOST accurate?

Federal courts are required to provide a grand jury, a 12-member trial jury, and a unanimous jury verdict while state courts are not.

What did the Supreme Court rule in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)?

Hamdi was entitled to a lawyer and an opportunity to rebut the government's charges against him

Why does the House typically have greater party unity than the Senate?

House leaders have more organizational control over the actions of representatives than Senate leaders

Which of the following statements about the Supreme Court is true?

In 2017, five of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents.

Why is Marbury v. Madison (1803) an important case?

In this case, the justices authorized the Supreme Court to exercise judicial review over laws passed by Congress.

Name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

John Roberts

In a typical tort case,

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

"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

When President Andrew Jackson reputedly said, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it," what did he mean?

The Supreme Court is unable to enforce its decisions without the aid of the executive branch

What is the main function of the chief justice of the Supreme Court?

The chief justice presides over the Court's public sessions and private conferences.

Why has partisan conflict surrounded federal judicial appointments in recent years?

The federal courts play an important role in shaping American law and politics.

Which of the following best describes the role of the solicitor general?

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

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 the case lacked "ripeness"?

a case involoving a citizen suing the Social Security Administration for failure to deliver Socail Security benefits prior to the time the citizen was scheduled to receive the benefits

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

A single lawsuit involving thousands of smokers suing a tobacco company would be an exapmle of

a class-action suit

Unlike judges of Article III courts, the judges of courts created under Congress's Article I power

are not protected by the Constitution from salary reduction

In recent years, federal court appointments have

been characterized by intense partisan and ideological efforts to support ordefeat the candidate.

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

bring the same type of suit in more than one circuit in the hopes that inconsistent treatment by two different courts will improve the chance of a Supreme Court review.

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 written opinions of appellate courts have been described as halfway between ______ law and ______ law

common; statutory

The government is always the plaintiff in ______ law

criminal

The U.S. court federal claims was created by congress to rule on

damage suits brought against the U.S. government

The increase of administrative agencies since the New Deal has resulted in a(n)

delegation of power by Congress to administrative agencies

The supreme court struck down state laws in the cases Brown v. Board of education and Pavan v. Smith becayse the statutes in question

denied the citizens equal protection of the law

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

Oversight can best be described as the

efforts of congress to supervise the manner in which its laws are implemented by the executive branch

The essence of the rule of law

ensuring that "the state" and its officials are judged by the same laws as the citizenry

The jurisdiction of the federal courts is determined

for the most part by geograhy?

The Administrative Procedure Act is important in civil law because it

govens agency rule making

The assignment of the opinion in a Supreme Court case is

important because differences in wording and emphasis can have important implications for how the decision is interpreted in future litigation.

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

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

What is common law?

law made by judges through their decisions, not through specific statutes

The solicitor general is the

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

The Senate's constitutional power of advice and consent extends to the president's power to

make treaties with foreign nations

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 the preference of the plaintiff

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

mootness

Compared to the rest of American history, recent congresses have been _____ polarized and _____ productive in terms of passing laws

more; less

The U.S. Supreme Court has been composed of

nine justices sine 1869

Leadership PACs are

organizations that members of Congress use to raise funds that they then distribute to other members of their party running for election

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

principle of stare decisis requires the Court to constantly update its rulings on decades-old issues?

Many interest groups produce "scorecards" that

rate how members of Congress vote on issues of importance to that group

When a justice agrees with both the decision and the rational of the majority but wishes to emphasize or highlight a particular point, he or she may write a

regular concurrence

What is the most frequent and best-known action of Supreme Court justices in their role as circuit justices?

reviewing requests for stays of execution

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 a majority opinion, he or she may write a

special concurrence

The doctrine of ________ requires courts to follow authoritative prior decisions when ruling on a case.

stare decisis

The "switch in time that saved nine" referred to a(n)

supreme court justice who had been voting to strike down New Deal policies changing his vote to support the policies in response to a plan by president Roosevelt to increase the size of the Supreme Court

What did the framers call the "least dangerous branch" of American government?

the Supreme Court/judicial

The framers gave the power to introduce "money bills" to the House of Representatives but not the Senate because they believed that

the chamber closest to the people should exercise greater authority over taxing and spending

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 jurisdiction in certain types of cases

A writ of habeas corpus declares that

the government must show a legal cause for holding someone in detention.

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

the police cannot undertake a warrantless search of the digital contents of a cell phone

The Supreme Court has ruled that the president

the power to remove executive appointees?

The solicitor general is the ______ ranking official in the ______

third; Department of Justice

The first court to hear a criminal case involving a violation of state law is called a(n) ________ court.

trial

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

was the state of California.