POLS 2311 Chapters 1-3

UTA 2022 Fall Semester

When inaugurated into office, a president takes an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend” the _____?

Constitution

The writings of who provided the basic ideas for the writers of the Declaration of Independence?

John Locke

What did the three-fifths Compromise allow slaveholding states to do?

Count each slave as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of congressional representation

What are three constitutional functions?

Granting power, outlining the organization of government, and providing a mainstay of rights.

Where was the Constitutional Convention of 1787 held?

Philadelphia

What document provided the first government of the United States?

The Articles of Confederation

Marbury v. Madison was a landmark case because ___?

it was the first time the Supreme Court declared an act of Congress to be in violation of the Constitution

How many states had to approve an amendment in order to amend the Articles of Confederation?

All

Which document includes the phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”?

The Declaration of Independence

What was one of the major deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation?

The absence of sufficient power in the central government

T or F: The Great Compromise (or Connecticut Compromise) essentially established the Congress we have today—a proportional representation in the lower house and equal representation for each state in the upper house.

True

William Paterson, a Supreme Court justice, defined a constitution as which of the following?

The form of government delineated by the mighty hand of the people

T or F: The idea that ALL people are created by God with equal rights can be found in the American Declaration of Independence.

True

T or F: The electoral college was created to avoid electing the president by direct public election, by Congress, or by state legislatures.

True

The belief in limiting governmental power by a written charter is ___?

Constitutionalism

What is a confederation?

A loose collection of states in which the principal power lies at the individual state level.

___ powers are powers of Congress that come from the necessary and proper clause?

Implied

What amendment guaranteed the right to reserved powers?

Tenth Amendment

What is dual federalism?

The model of federalism that suggests the national and state governments are separate and independent from each other.

T or F: The number of electoral votes is the same for each state.

False

Which plays a major role in answering questions about legal conflicts between national and state governments?

The Supreme Court

What is another name for cooperative federalism?

Marble-cake federalism

What was one effect of the Great Depression?

States became more insistent on help from the national government, especially in times of crisis.

How is the number of electoral votes determined for each state?

By its members in the House of Representatives and Senate combined

The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 allowed states to regulate what?

Alcohol

What is the best description of unfunded mandates?

Regulations the national government applied to state governments without providing money to pay for those regulations

The Supreme Court generally sides with who when interpreting the Constitution?

The national government

What system is a system of government in which ultimate political authority lies in the central government?

Unitary

What is a system of government in which a national government and state governments share power?

A federal system

T or F: “Elastic” or “necessary and proper” powers are also known as implied powers.

True

The Supreme Court ruling that college professors cannot cut off the fingers of students that score poorly on their American Government quizzes is an example of a court protecting citizens from ______________, as stated in the ___________?

Cruel and unusual punishment; Eighth Amendment

T or F: The Supreme Court ruled that a student-led prayer at a sporting event is a violation of the establishment clause.

True

Although Dora is arrested for abusing her pet monkey Boots and she has no resources to hire an attorney, there is a provision in the Constitution assuring her of a right to counsel. Where is this provision found?

In the Sixth Amendment

What year was the Bill of Rights added to the Constitution?

1791

What case decided by the Supreme Court in 1966, produced requirements to protect a suspect during a police interrogation?

Miranda v. Arizona

What did Roe v. Wade accomplish?

It prohibited virtually all restrictions on abortions during the first trimester.

Which of the following is a concept in criminal procedure that places the burden of proof on the government in establishing guilt?

A presumption of innocence

Many people believe that positive steps called Affirmative Action are needed to overcome what?

The residual effects of generations of racial bias

What is the Lemon test used to determine?

If state aid to sectarian schools is constitutional

Which of the following best describes the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

It is the most important voting legislation ever enacted.

What establishes a preservation of a sphere of religious practice free of interference by government?

The free exercise clause

What decision was first significantly enforced by the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Brown

Capital punishment has changed over the history of the United States. Between 1976 and 2018 no state executed more persons (482) than ___?

Texas

Americans are protected from what by the Fourth Amendment?

Unreasonable searches and seizures

Which of the following cases struck down the separate-but-equal doctrine?

Brown v. Board of Education

The right to _______ is provided by the Ninth Amendment? It is NOT specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

Privacy

What was NOT used by southern legislatures to get around the Fifteenth Amendment?

Minimum age requirements

What was established by the Plessy v. Ferguson case?

The separate-but-equal doctrine

The NAACP stands for which of the following?

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

If the Tampa Bay Times was ordered to halt a story in the process of being published because it contains potentially harmful content, it would be an example of what?

Prior restraint

What best describes the Sedition Act of 1798?

It was the first major challenge to First Amendment freedoms.

What clause of the First Amendment was violated when the Ten Commandments was displayed in a Kentucky courthouse, according to the Supreme Court?

The establishment clause

What issue has been most affected by the Fourteenth Amendment?

States' rights

What describes a public policy that works to remove past barriers of discrimination?

Equality of opportunity

What is one example of symbolic speech?

The burning an American flag, according to the Supreme Court.

What is TRUE about the Fourteenth Amendment?

It is directed to state governments

What is a bill of attainder?

A legislative punishment that bypasses the procedural safeguards of the legal process

What did the Thirteenth Amendment do?

It banished slavery

T or F: The Supreme Court focused its desegregation efforts on school systems in the North until the 1970s because de facto segregation was more prevalent there than in the South

False

If the NFL decided to equalize the thirty-two team rosters with a balance of women and previously underrepresented ethnicities, this would be an example of what?

Affirmative action

T or F: One of the functions of a constitution is to outline the organization of government

True

T or F: A constitution is generally considered one of the most important symbols of a nation.

True

T or F: That governments are NOT bound by their own laws is an important theme of the Declaration of Independence.

False

T or F: One of the basic principles of the American Declaration of Independence is that ALL people are created by God with equal rights.

True

T or F: Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was successful in paying the debt of the United States because of its robust taxing power.

False

T or F: The central government had vast powers under the Articles of Confederation.

False

T or F: Before the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation served as the first national constitution.

True

T or F: Shays’ Rebellion demonstrated that the central government under the Articles of Confederation was powerless to protect the nation from domestic violence.

True

T or F: To resolve the issue of representation of women in Congress, the Constitutional Convention developed the three-fifths compromise.

False

T or F: The idea of proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate emerged from the Great Compromise.

True

T or F: There were essentially no differences between the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan.

False

T or F: Of the men who wrote the Constitution, few had a college education.

False

T or F: The Constitution created a single-chambered national legislature.

False

T or F: Although Federalists did NOT think it necessary, they agreed to add a bill of rights to the Constitution to assure ratification.

True

T or F: The Founding Fathers who argued in favor of the ratification of the proposed Constitution were called Anti-Federalists.

False

T or F: Leaders in the states did NOT like the fact that their police powers were limited by the new Constitution.

False

T or F: The fear of pure majority rule, or absolute democracy, convinced the framers to create a republican, or representative, form of government.

True

T or F: The system of checks and balances has been a failure because the legislative, executive, and judicial branches refuse to share powers.

False

T or F: One of the justifications for creating the electoral college was to avoid electing the president by direct public election, by Congress, or by state legislatures.

True

T or F: The Constitution is adaptable because of the way the document has been regarded by successive generations.

True

T or F: The Constitution’s brevity was wise in the face of the ratification debate.

True

T or F: If requested by two-thirds of the states, Congress can call a national convention to begin the process of amending the Constitution.

True

T or F: The Supreme Court has never used appellate jurisdiction to decide a case.

False

T or F: The Supreme Court has the final say on the meaning of the Constitution.

True

T or F: The Constitution specifically provides for the power of judicial review for the Supreme Court.

False

T or F: One of the major faults of the Articles of Confederation was the lack of a central foreign and military policy.

True

T or F: France has a confederation form of government.

False

T or F: Allowing different states to conduct different foreign policies would make union among the states impossible.

True

T or F: States have the power to set their own legal drinking age.

True

T or F: The Obama administration largely avoided enforcing federal marijuana laws in the states.

True

T or F: Only the United States uses a federalist system.

False

T or F: The Electoral College chooses the person who has the most popular votes for president.

False

T or F: The candidate with a majority of votes in the Electoral College wins the election for president.

True

T or F: ALL states, regardless of population, have the same number of electoral votes.

False

T or F: There is no longer a significant role for the states to play in the federal system, according to the text.

False

T or F: The Supreme Court ruled in McCulloch v. Maryland that states had the right to determine what is necessary and proper to carry out public policies.

False

T or F: According to John Marshall, Supreme Court Chief Justice who delivered the McCulloch v. Maryland decision, power granted to the federal government was denied unless the Constitution specifically granted it.

False

T or F: The state of Maryland won the McCulloch v. Maryland case because the Constitution expressly grants Congress the power to charter a national bank.

False

T or F: There is a list of concurrent powers enumerated in the Ninth Amendment that can only be exercised by the people.

False

T or F: Other names for implied powers are “elastic” or “necessary and proper” powers.

True