AP Government Unit 3 Test Questions chapter 4 and 5

Rather than just "apply" the law, courts are__________ institutions, deciding who gets what in American society

influential

the number of people sitting on a jury is usually__________

12

The laws passed by legislatures are called ________, whereas the accumulation of judicial decisions about legal issues are called__________

statues; common law

A___________ dispute is an issue capable of being settled as a matter of law

justiciable

Lower courts consistently comply with the Supreme Court opinions because if they don't _________________

the lower courts could cause legal confusion, such as reversal on appeal, or would be struck down

Congress has empowered the U.S. ______ to review all final decisions of district courts except in rare instances in which the law provides for direct review by the Supreme Court.

Courts of Appeals

Which of the following most accurately describes the role of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court decisions are final, as the court of last resort for appeals, and it is responsible for interpreting national laws

Federal district courts________________

are not courts of last resort

What is the primary role of the Circuit Courts of Appeals

to review the decisions of trial courts

Appellate courts usually_________

review the legal procedures of a case

The________ approves presidential nominees to the Supreme Court

Senate

In order to become a justice of the Supreme Court, a person has to be ________.

nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate

Partisanship in the Supreme Court is usually based on__________

conservative or liberal ideologies of the judge and former political ties

A formal acceptance by the Supreme Court to review a decision of a lower court is called ________.

writ of certiorari

______________ refers to how similar cases were handled in the past, and it guides judicial reasoning in subsequent cases

Precedent

Brown v. Board of Education is an example of________

the Supreme Court's overturing a precedent

Which view holds that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the original intentions or original meaning of the framers

originalism

The member of the Justice Department who handles all Supreme Court appeals for the U.S. government is the ________.

Solicitor General

Examples of instances when the Supreme Court made a judicial ruling about a political issue that could not be implemented include ________.

school prayer

The final decision of the Supreme Court is reflected in the

majority opinion

_________ refers to the power of the courts to determine whether acts of Congress and, by implication, the executive, are in accord with the US constitution.

Judicial review

The principle of judicial review was first established expressly in writing in the Supreme Court decision of ________

Marbury v. Madison

Which of the following Supreme Court cases legalized abortion

Roe v. Wade

What is the most criticized aspect of judicial activism

judicial activism goes well beyond the "referee" role that is appropriate for courts in a democracy

Proponents of ________ believe judges should make bold policy decisions even if it means charting new constitutional ground.

Judicial activism

The litigant who brings charges against an individual, corporation, or government in a civil or criminal court case is called the__________

plaintiff, or accuser

Participants in a lawsuit are called_________

litigants, defendants, or plaintiffs

The federal court system consists of legislative courts and three levels of constitutional courts, the supreme court, the courts of appeals, and the _____ courts

district

Interest groups often participate in Supreme Court cases through the use of ________

amicus curiae briefs

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit hears cases regarding _________

patents, claims against the US, and international trade

Which of the following is an example of a factor that plays a primary role in the selection of the federal judges

Their adherence to the ideology of the president

The role of the courts in developing Miranda rights and recognizing abortion rights illustrates the ________.

importance of the courts as a pathway of societal change

Which Supreme Court era was the most active in shaping public policy

The Warren Court

Judicial Review is the power of the courts to ________

determine whether acts of Congress and the president are in accord with the US constitution

The judicial interpretation of an act of congress is know as________

statutory constriction

Which of the following is an example of a conservative justice's opinion

One who tends to favor judicial restraint and overrules liberal decisions

The method of decision making in which an impartial judge or jury hears, arguments and reviews evidence presented by the opposing sides is known as a ________

Adversarial system.

An inferior or lower court of general jurisdiction, as referenced in the Constitution is one_________

Established by Congress.

Which of the following is responsible for hearing appeals from the District Court?

Circuit Court.

An unwritten tradition whereby nominations for state level federal judicial posts are usually not confirmed if they are opposed by a senator of the president's party from the state in which the nominee will serve is ___________

Senatorial courtesy.

Which of these is the most political aspect of the functioning of the Judiciary.

The process of selecting judges.

Which of the following describes a common standard for Supreme Court justices?

All have previously worked as lawyers.

What was the importance of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown V Board of Education?

State mandated deregulation of public schools was declared unconstitutional.

The ultimate authority to interpret federal laws lies with___________

The Supreme Court.

The jurisdiction of courts that hear a case first, usually in a trial, is known as ______. These courts determine the facts about a case.

original jurisdiction

Which of the following is an example of a case that cannot be reviewed by the US Supreme Court?

A state court decision based solely on the state law to determine guilt or innocence in criminal proceedings.

The opinions written by members of the Supreme Court who disagree with the result reached by the court in the case are the _____ opinions.

dissenting

How does the Supreme Court force government officials to do what it has mandated in a decision?

The court can only hope that the respect for the law and the court will be enough to create compliance.

Which of the following is the strongest argument in favor of a judiciary that is somewhat removed from the public?

Justices who become too responsive to public opinion may ignore their role as neutral arbiters of the Constitution.

A Supreme Court Justice who agrees with the outcome reached by the majority but not with the legal reasoning behind the decision, is likely to __________

issue a concurring opinion

When it comes to classification for making decisions about policies or programs, which of the following is considered a "suspect category"?

Ethnicity

Which political institution was most responsible for putting civil rights goals on the nation's policy agenda?

The courts

The phrase "all men are created equal" comes from ________.

the Declaration of Independence

What do the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say about equality?

All Americans are entitled to equal protection under the laws

The equal protection clause in the _______ declares that no state can "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

14th Amendment

Which of these is an example of the legal classification most likely to receive the highest level of scrutiny from the Supreme Court

A racial classification in a marriage law

Ensuring equal access to voting and securing prohibitions against categorical discrimination became the central focus of the drive for civil rights in the ________.

20th century

__________ was one of the tactics used during the Civil Rights Movement to end the policies and practices of segregation.

Civil disobedience

Which of the following implemented the separate but equal doctrine

Plessy v. Ferguson

_____________ because the legal social instrument by which Black people in the South were restricted in public accommodations through the use of Jim Crowe laws

Segregation

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1908, partly in response to the continued practice of lynching and a race not in that year. By the 1950s, the NAACP focused on____________

legal action to achieve more equality in relation to the separate but equal doctrine

De facto discrimination, or discrimination "in reality," is________________

unequal treatment by private individuals, groups, and organizations

The use of race in law or government regulations to discriminate is known as ________.

de jure discrimination

What was the immediate response of the South to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education

The South avoided implementing the Court's decision

What is the central function of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission?

To investigate complaints about illegal workplace discrimination

One reason the women's rights movement lost strength between 1920 and 1960, after women won the right to vote, was_________________________

division and competition among women with different priorities

Politically active white women were stung by their exclusion from ________ extension of the right to vote.

15th Amendment

After the Civil War, women's rights activists called for "universal" suffrage. What did the mean by this?

The right of all adult citizens to vote

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which passed in 1996, _____________

released states from the legal obligation to recognize same sex marriages preformed in other states

When the Supreme Court upheld a state law requiring police officers to retire,________________

the Supreme Court placed age in the non-suspect classification category

The Defense of Marriage Act_________________

permits states to refuse to recognize gay marriages performed and recognized in other states

According to Obergefell v. Hodges, _______________

the 14th Amendment requires states to license gay marriage

Policies meant to overcome past discriminations are called ________ policies.

affirmative action

Opponents of policies such as quotas and preferential treatment use what term to describe these remedies to past discrimination?

reverse discrimination

Which of the following questions is most relevant in establishing civil rights laws and policies

How much should government do to make up for the nation's history of discrimination and its continuing effects?

Most civil laws and court decisions that set the framework for the legal status of other groups were originally implemented in the area of relations between ________.

Black and White people

According to the Supreme Court, classification based on gender are to be subject to __________________

intermediate action

In trying a case of gender equality, which standard of review would the Supreme Court use?

Intermediate scrutiny

A discrimination suit using intermediate scrutiny standards would be applied to which of these examples?

A law using a gender-based classification

The 13th Amendment makes it unconstitutional to________________

enslave people anywhere in the United States

The Civil Rights Movement appeared to have peaked in the ____________ with the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act

1960s

Established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the agency responsible for monitoring and enforcing protections against job discrimination is the _________

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In the 1944 case Smith v. Alwright, the Supreme Court finally declared that______ was a suspect classification that demanded strict judicial scrutiny

race

The most lasting result of the enactment of the Voting Rights of 1965 has been ________.

a significant increase in the number of African American candidates elected to public office in the South in the past forty years

The Jim Crowe laws the were used in the South to impose segregation of public accommodations were outlawed by the__________

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The ________ Act prohibits discrimination against disabled people in private employment, government programs, public accommodations, and telecommunications.

Americans with Disabilities

What does the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibit?

It prohibits employers from discriminating against employers over the age of of forty

The Supreme Court has been moving since the 1980s to narrow the scope of affirmative action programs using the concept of suspect classification. This means that the Court has been finding affirmative action laws unconstitutional of they____________

broadly address society's racism

The goal of the Montgomery bus boycott organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was to______________

end segregation on public transportation

The importance of the equal protection clause is demonstrated by its ________.

widespread use by the civil rights movement through the court pathway

School busing is one method used to reduce________

de facto segregation

Concern about civil rights protections for women and racial minorities ________.

was a comparatively late development in the United States, and most major advances were not evident until well into the 20th century

Which of the following is true of the gender wage gap in the United States

Overall, women earn 81 cents for every dollar that men earn

In the 1990s, Supreme Court decisions regarding affirmative action_____________

narrowed its application