Chapter 15 Bell Ringer
Judicial review is the authority of a court to create new laws and actions over other branches and levels of government so as to become the highest law in the land.
False
Since World War II, all presidential nominees to the Supreme Court have received at least a confirmation vote in the Senate, unless those nominees rescinded their nominations.
False
State courts are structured much differently than the federal courts.
False
The Supreme Court must hear all cases brought before it.
False
The federal district courts are at the top of the nation's federal court pyramid.
False
When a case is granted "cert," the next step is to schedule it for oral arguments.
False
With the Judiciary Act of 1801, the Federalists increased the size of the Supreme Court from six to nine justices and reorganized the federal courts so as to create more vacancies.
False
the process of ordering the records of a case from the lower court is nicknamed ______.
"granting cert"
According to the text, the two questions about the federal judiciary that arise at a deeper level are ______.
(1) how political is it? and (2) how powerful is it?
The modern Supreme Court receives, on average, between ______ and ______ petitions from lower courts per year.
8,000; 9,000
Legislative courts are created under Congress's authority in ______ of the Constitution.
Article I
Constitutional courts refer to courts Congress was authorized to create under ______ of the Constitution.
Article III
Who represents the government or the president before the Supreme Court?
Solicitor General
Which of the following best describes the federal judicial selection process?
The president selects a nominee and the Senate votes to confirm the nomination.
Which of the following is a Constitutional requirement for becoming a Supreme Court justice?
There are no requirements for a Supreme Court justice.
Anti-Federalists argued that by granting the power to overturn legislation in the Supreme Court, the nation would run the risk of unconstrained justices imposing their own views of what is constitutional and what is not.
True
Any interested party (such as an interest group) may submit its opinions to the Court through a document called an amicus curiae brief.
True
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were in general agreement that the judicial branch would be the weakest of the three branches of government.
True
In order to establish "inferior courts" in the federal judiciary, the first Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789.
True
The "countermajoritarian difficulty" occurs when the Court exercises control NOT on behalf of the prevailing majority but against it.
True
The American legal system is based on dual systems of federal and state courts that share the tradition of the adversarial system of justice.
True
The Supreme Court can exercise both original and appellate jurisdiction.
True
The Supreme Court decision that established judicial review over federal laws was Marbury v. Madison (1803).
True
The Supreme Court has the power to set a precedent that acts as a basis for deciding cases in the future.
True
The legal process in which the plaintiff and defendant agree to an outcome prior to the handing out of a verdict is known as plea bargaining.
True
The order issued from the Supreme Court after four justices concur that the body should hear the case is known as a writ of certiorari.
True
When it first met, the Supreme Court had a total of six justices, per the Judiciary Act of 1789.
True
While the majority of cases are handled in the state courts, many of the cases that have the greatest impact on large numbers of Americans happen in the federal court system.
True
At the top of the federal judicial system is/are the ______.
U.S. Supreme Court
Which of the following is the only part of the federal judiciary actually mentioned in the Constitution?
U.S. Supreme Court
As of 2018, in several states, an adult may lawfully use marijuana recreationally according to state law. In the federal courts, this would be considered ______.
a criminal offense
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over which of the following cases?
all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers, and consuls or when a state is a party
Which of the following cases may begin in the federal judiciary?
all of these
When the Supreme Court issues a ruling, ______.
all states and courts in the United States must follow it
An interested party (such as an interest group) may submit its opinions to the Court in the form of a(n) ______.
amicus curiae brief
The dual systems of federal and state court share in common which of the following traditions?
an adversarial system of justice
After trial, a defendant is NOT satisfied with the outcome of his/her case and hires an attorney to request a review of the case, its verdict, and its sentence. A higher court agrees to review the case. This court most likely has ______.
appellate jurisdiction
The question of ______ for members of the judiciary remained unresolved until late in the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
appointment
The first and potentially biggest worry in considering the power and use of judicial review derives from the fact that Supreme Court justices ______.
are not elected
The process through which the political and policy preferences of individual justices shape their votes on cases rather than a neutral weighing of the facts and the law is described as the ______.
attitudinal model
Legal documents presented by plaintiffs, defendants, and, at times, other interested parties outlining their arguments in writing are best described as ______.
briefs
The category of law that covers cases involving private rights and relationships between individuals and groups is ______.
civil law
After hearing a case, an appeals court may ______.
confirm the original court's ruling, reverse the decision, or remand the case to a lower court
The most important factor in the decision to grant or deny a writ of certiorari in a case is whether the case presents a ______.
confusion about or alternate presentation of the law
When a court examines a law and applies the Constitution to determine whether the law or any part of it is in conflict with the Constitution, the process is best described as ______.
constitutional interpretation
According to public law scholar Alexander Bickel, judicial review acts as a ______ force in our system.
countermajoritarian
Which of the following are more apt to witness direct presidential involvement in the nomination process?
courts of appeal including the Supreme Court
Actions determined to harm the community itself, such as committing an act of violence against another person, are considered the jurisdiction of ______.
criminal law
Amendment VIII to the Constitution protects against ______.
cruel and unusual punishment
In an adversarial system of justice, the person or group against whom a case is brought in court is known as the ______.
defendant
Almost all petitions from the lower courts to have their cases heard by the Supreme Court are ______.
denied
Your attorney in your civil rights case has just heard back from the Second Circuit Court of Appeal, who have decided against you in your appeal. Your attorney is ______.
despondent but slightly hopeful, as there's a small chance the Supreme Court will hear your case
Those justices that voted with the minority and who disagree with the majority opinion may wish to issue a(n) ______.
dissenting opinion
The middle level of the constitutional courts is occupied by the ______.
federal courts of appeal
At the bottom level of the constitutional court system are the ______.
federal district courts
Which court(s) deliver a verdict through a jury trial?
federal district courts
The federal district courts are responsible for ______.
finding facts and delivering opinions on a case
The legal model focuses on ______.
focusing on applying law to the facts of a case, including past decisions
By upholding the constitutionality of laws and adding legitimacy in the minds of the American public to those laws passed by Congress, the Court risks ______.
giving a stamp of approval to the tyranny of the majority
All of the following were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 EXCEPT ______.
granting the Supreme Court power to propose amendments to the Constitution
An appellate court focuses on ______.
how the decision of the court was rendered within the context of the law
Sonya Sotomayor was considered by many to be the "riskiest choice" for Supreme Court nominee in 2009 because of her public remarks on the ______.
importance of identity and personal history in judicial decision making
The role of the federal judiciary is to ______.
interpret and apply the laws of the nation
In comparison to the president's power of the sword and Congresses' power of the purse, Hamilton saw the judiciary as exercising the power of ______.
judgment
Which arm of the government interprets the Constitution and applies the laws of the nation?
judicial branch
Following oral arguments, cases in the Supreme Court proceed to ______.
judicial conference
The authority of the highest court in a political system to determine if a law is or is NOT in conflict with that government's highest law (the Constitution) is defined as ______.
judicial review
Marbury v. Madison (1803) was the Supreme Court decision that established ______.
judicial review over federal laws
About what percentage of all petitions does the Supreme Court hear per year?
less than 1%
Federal judges serve for ______, assuming good behavior.
life
Many argue that by acting as a safety valve against poor, factious, or tyrannical legislation, the Supreme Court might actual make unwanted legislative outcomes more likely. This is described as the problem of ______.
moral hazard
Which of the following was NOT a decisive factor for President Obama in nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court?
not wanting to shift the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court
When the plaintiffs and defendants in a case appear before the Supreme Court, they must present ______.
oral arguments.
A court's authority to hear a case for the first time and find the facts of the case is called ______.
original jurisdiction
The ability to hear a case from its origin and to establish the facts pertaining to it, including conducting a trial and rendering a verdict, is known as ______.
original jurisdiction
In an adversarial system of justice, the person who brings the case is known as the ______.
plaintiff
Most criminal cases are resolved through ______.
plea bargaining
A judicial decision that guides future courts in handling similar cases is known as ______.
precedent
An especially important filer of amici curiae is the United States' ______.
solicitor general
In addition to certain technical requirements, a petitioner to the Supreme Court must demonstrate that he/she has ______, which involves demonstrating an actual imminent harm from a law or action in question.
standing
The legal doctrine that requires justices to follow precedents set before them is called ______.
stare decisis
The model that focuses on the political actions of individual justices as they try to make the best use of personal and official resources in order to obtain a specific set of policy objectives is called the ______.
strategic model
In order to flesh out the "nature and the organization" of the nation's system of courts, Congress passed ______.
the Judiciary Act of 1789
The problem of countermajoritarianism occurs when ______.
the Supreme Court exercises judicial control against the prevailing majority
Cases that make their way from the state courts to the federal courts generally involve questions arising under ______.
the U.S. Constitution
The highest level of the federal judiciary, which also acts as the highest court in the land, is ______.
the U.S. Supreme Court
The side that loses in a federal appellate court has the right to petition ______ for a possible appeal.
the U.S. Supreme Court
Which of the following decisions is considered binding?
the majority opinion
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the Constitution?
the power of judicial review
While the Constitution offers little guidance on which cases the Supreme Court does or does not take, justices have adopted the custom of ______.
the rule of four
In a criminal case, the plaintiff is always ______.
the state or federal government
Many anti-federalists feared ______.
the subjugation of individual and states' rights by an increasingly powerful judiciary
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed that the judicial branch would be the ______ of the three branches of government.
weakest
In Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton sought to reassure skeptical anti-federalists by arguing that the judiciary ______.
would be impartial and, compared to the other two branches, its power would be weak
If the Supreme Court decides to hear a case, it issues a(n) ______.
writ of certiorari
