question

The great majority of America?s judicial business is transacted in

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state courts of original jurisdiction.

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Which of the following statements about the courts is FALSE?

answer

Most of American judicial policy is made in the Supreme Court.

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One of the differences between criminal law and civil law is that in civil law

answer

there is no charge that a law has been violated.

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Litigants are

answer

the plaintiff and the defendant.

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Not everyone can challenge a law. Litigants must have what is called ________, meaning that they must have a serious personal stake in the case, typically determined by whether or not they have sustained or are in danger of an injury.

answer

standing to sue

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Class action suits

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permit a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated.

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Courts may only decide ________ disputes.

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justiciable

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Standing to sue is determined by

answer

whether or not the litigants have a serious interest in a case.

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Merely being a taxpayer and being opposed to a law does not provide the standing necessary to challenge that law in court except in cases pertaining to

answer

governmental support for religion.

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Class action suits

answer

permit a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated

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One constraint on federal courts is that they may decide only

answer

justiciable disputes.

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All of the following are examples of standing to sue EXCEPT

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raising a political question.

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The Constitution specifically provided that there would be a Supreme Court,

answer

but left it to the discretion of Congress to establish lower federal courts of general jurisdiction.

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Lower federal courts of general jurisdiction were established by

answer

the Judiciary Act of 1789.

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Courts with ________ hear cases brought to them on appeal from a lower court.

answer

appellate jurisdiction

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A legislative court is

answer

staffed by judges who lack the protections against removal or salary reductions while in office.

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The entry point for most litigation in the federal courts is in one of the ________ courts.

answer

district

question

There are ________ federal district courts.

answer

91

question

Courts of original jurisdiction are

answer

trial courts.

question

Courts with appellate jurisdiction

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review the legal issues involved in a case

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The Court of Claims is a

answer

legislative court.

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Which one of the following is NOT true about the federal district courts?

answer

They hear appeals from municipal, county, and state courts

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Which of the following is NOT under the jurisdiction of the district courts?

answer

the majority of all criminal cases in the United States

question

The only federal courts in which trials are held, and in which juries may be impaneled, are the

answer

district courts.

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About 98 percent of all criminal cases in the United States are heard in

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state and local court systems.

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An important player at the district court level in each district is the ________, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. He or she serves at the discretion of the president.

answer

United States attorney

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Most criminal and civil cases

answer

never reach trial, but are settled out of court.

question

The vast majority of all civil and criminal cases

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begin and end in state courts.

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Federal magistrates perform each of the following functions EXCEPT

answer

prosecute violations of federal law.

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The United States government is represented in civil cases in district courts by a

answer

United States attorney.

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About 75 percent of the more than 63,000 cases heard in the United States courts of appeal come from

answer

the district courts.

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The jurisdiction of the district courts extends to each of the following EXCEPT

answer

appeals from state courts.

question

Which of the following is NOT true about the United States courts of appeal

answer

Their decisions are final and cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court.

question

For handling cases at the courts of appeal level, the United States is divided into ________ judicial circuits, including one for the District of Columbia

answer

12

question

Each court of appeals normally hears cases in panels consisting of ________ judges.

answer

3

question

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

answer

consists of judges who hear appeals in specialized cases such as those regarding patents, copyrights, etc.

question

Appeals regarding patents would be heard by

answer

the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

question

The Supreme Court consists of the chief justice and ________ associate justices.

answer

eight

question

The functions of the Supreme Court include each of the following EXCEPT

answer

reviewing the evidence in cases involving crimes committed by public officials.

question

The size of the Supreme Court has remained the same since

answer

President Ulysses S. Grant took office in 1869.

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The United States Supreme Court?s jurisdiction includes

answer

appellate jurisdiction from both state and federal courts.

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Most decisions handed down by the Supreme Court are cases involving

answer

appeals from lower federal courts.

question

Most cases heard by the Supreme Court come from

answer

civil actions from lower federal courts.

question

Which of the following statements about federal judges is FALSE?

answer

Only seven Supreme Court justices have ever been removed from office.

question

The customary manner in which the Senate disposes of federal judicial nominations in one state is through

answer

senatorial courtesy.

question

Senators have dominated the selection of judges for the federal district courts through

answer

the custom of senatorial courtesy.

question

Which of the following statements about senatorial courtesy is FALSE?

answer

To invoke senatorial courtesy, the relevant senator must provide documented evidence why the nominee is not fit for office.

question

Which of the following statements about judicial selection in the lower courts is FALSE?

answer

Candidates for judicial nomination rarely campaign for the positions themselves.

question

Which of the following statements about the selection of Supreme Court justices is FALSE?

answer

Senators play a greater role in the recruitment of Supreme Court justices than in the selection of lower court judges.

question

About ________ of nominees to the Supreme Court fail to be confirmed.

answer

20 percent

question

In its investigation of Supreme Court nominees, the Senate Judiciary Committee

answer

may probe a nominee?s judicial philosophy in great detail.

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In order to convince moderate senators to join them, opponents of a nomination for the Supreme Court try to focus on a nominee?s

answer

competence or ethics.

question

In order to defeat a judicial nomination, opponents in the Senate usually must

answer

be able to question a nominee?s competence or ethics.

question

President Reagan?s nomination of Robert Bork as an associate justice on the Supreme Court

answer

was rejected by the Senate.

question

Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas

answer

is ideologically conservative.

question

President ________ appointed more women, African Americans, and Hispanics to the federal district and circuit courts than all previous presidents combined.

answer

Jimmy Carter

question

The first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court was

answer

Sandra Day O?Connor.

question

Who currently serves on the Supreme Court as the chief justice?

answer

John Roberts

question

Usually more than 90 percent of presidents? judicial nominations are members of

answer

their own party.

question

What percentage of presidents? judicial nominations are members of their own parties?

answer

usually more than 90 percent

question

The most important factors influencing the president?s selection of judges and justices appears to be

answer

ideology and partisanship.

question

Under Ronald Reagan?s administration, there was a strong tendency to appoint federal judges on the basis of

answer

ideology.

question

Supreme Court justices often try to time their retirement

answer

so that a president with compatible views will choose their successor.

question

President Eisenhower?s selection of Earl Warren and William Brennan to the Supreme Court is an example of

answer

how presidents can become disappointed with their selections.

question

Presidents are disappointed with their judicial nominations to the Court about ________ percent of the time.

answer

25

question

President Franklin Roosevelt?s appointees to the Supreme Court

answer

liberalized the Court.

question

One of the most important factors that brings potential federal judges to the attention of senators and the Department of Justice is their

answer

involvement in partisan politics.

question

If ________ Supreme Court justices agree to grant review of a case, it can be scheduled for oral argument or decided on the basis of the written record already on file with the Court.

answer

four

question

The most common way for the Supreme Court to put a case on its docket is by issuing a(n) ________, a formal document that calls up a case which deals with a Constitutional question or in which state laws are claimed to violate federal law.

answer

writ of certiorari

question

In order for the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments or decide a case on the written record,

answer

four justices must agree to take the case.

question

A writ of certiorari

answer

is used by the Supreme Court to call up a case

question

The ________ is a presidential appointee who is in charge of the appellate court litigation of the federal government, works out of the Department of Justice, and can have an important influence on the Supreme Court.

answer

Solicitor General

question

Which of the following is NOT a function of the United States Solicitor General?s office?

answer

require the Supreme Court to review a government case on appeal

question

In a typical year, the Supreme Court issues ________ formal written opinions that could serve as precedent, and thus as the basis of guidance for lower courts.

answer

fewer than 100

question

A ________ is a Supreme Court ruling without explanation which resolves an immediate case but has no value as precedent because the Court does not offer reasoning that would guide lower courts in future decisions.

answer

per curiam decision

question

Those who are interested in the outcome of a case, but are not formal litigants, sometimes submit ________ briefs, raising points of view and presenting information that they hope will influence the Supreme Court?s decision.

answer

amicus curiae

question

Principal reasons for the Court?s choosing to hear a case would include each of the following EXCEPT

answer

politically hot and divisive cases.

question

The decision to appeal cases the federal government has lost in the lower courts is made by the

answer

Solicitor General.

question

A per curiam decision is a

answer

decision without explanation.

question

An amicus curiae brief may be submitted by

answer

groups that are interested in the outcome of a case, but are not formal litigants.

question

________ opinions are those offered by one or more Supreme Court justices not only to support a majority decision, but also to stress a different Constitutional or legal basis for the judgment.

answer

Concurring

question

A written opinion in a Supreme Court case is a

answer

statement of the legal reasoning behind a decision

question

An opinion written to stress a different Constitutional or legal basis for the judgment is called a(n)

answer

concurring opinion.

question

The vast majority of cases reaching the federal courts are settled on the principle of ________, meaning that an earlier ruling should hold for the case being considered.

answer

stare decisis

question

All courts rely heavily upon ________the way similar cases were handled in the pastas a guide to current decisions.

answer

precedent

question

Stare decisis means that cases are

answer

decided on the basis of precedent.

question

The Supreme Court ________ overrule is own precedents.

answer

can

question

Judicial ________ refers to how and whether court decisions are translated into real policy, affecting the behavior of others.

answer

implementation

question

The case of a black man named Virgil Hawkins who tried to get admitted to the University of Florida Law School illustrates

answer

how other courts and other institutions of government can be roadblocks in the way of judicial implementation.

question

Which of the following is NOT one of the elements involved in the implementation of judicial decisions according to the categories noted by Charles Johnson and Bradley Canon?

answer

institutionalized population

question

The concept of original intent holds that

answer

judges and justices should determine the intent of the framers of the Constitution regarding a particular matter and decide cases in line with that intent.

question

In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court?s famous Brown v. Board of Education decision, the president and Congress

answer

refused to enforce speedy compliance with the ruling, thus severely weakening implementation over the next decade.

question

Until the Civil War, the dominant questions before the Supreme Court regarded

answer

the powers and legitimacy of the federal government.

question

Marbury v. Madison established the principle of

answer

judicial review.

question

) Which of the following statements about the Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison is FALSE?

answer

The Court ruled that Madison was in the right to withhold Marbury?s commission.

question

Judicial review means

answer

the right of the courts to determine whether executive or legislative acts are or are not Constitutional.

question

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

answer

Marbury v. Madison.

question

During the early New Deal era, the Supreme Court was dominated by conservatives who

answer

viewed federal intervention in the economy as unconstitutional, and declared several laws invalid.

question

The proposal to add justices to the Supreme Court, known as the ?court packing plan? to critics, was made by President ________ who wanted to be able to appoint justices more sympathetic to his philosophy than the ?nine old men.?

answer

Franklin Roosevelt

question

The president who tried to pack the Supreme Court by increasing its size in order to effect a sympathetic majority was

answer

Franklin Roosevelt.

question

The most liberal court of the modern era has been the

answer

Warren Court.

question

One of the most active Supreme Courts in shaping public policy in areas of desegregation and the rights of the accused was the

answer

Warren Court.

question

Richard Nixon chose ________ as the new chief justice in 1969, hoping with this appointment to move the Supreme Court toward a more ?strict construction? interpretation of the Constitution in its subsequent decisions.

answer

Warren Burger

question

In the case of United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that

answer

President Nixon had to hand over White House tape recordings to the courts.

question

The Rehnquist Court

answer

has slowly chipped away at liberal decisions.

question

Democratic theorists criticize the courts on the grounds that they are

answer

not representative of the people or majority public opinion

question

Studies of Supreme Court decisions found that

answer

the Court is normally in line with popular majorities.

question

Which of the following statements about the courts and pluralism is FALSE?

answer

Interest groups find it difficult to find judges who will rule in their favor.

question

The view that judges should play a minimal role in policymaking is called judicial

answer

restraint.

question

Advocates of ________ emphasize that the courts may alleviate pressing needs, especially of those who are weak politically or economically, left unmet by the majoritarian political process.

answer

judicial activism

question

The justification used by federal courts primarily to avoid deciding cases regarding conflicts between the president and Congress is known as the doctrine of

answer

political questions.

question

As a means to avoid deciding some cases, the federal courts have developed a doctrine of

answer

political questions

question

When given a choice, the courts are least likely to decide a case on the basis of

answer

the Constitution.

question

How many times has the Supreme Court ruled a federal law unconstitutional?

answer

fewer than 200

question

Cases that involve statutory construction

answer

can be overturned by Congress by clarifying an existing law.

Chapter 16 The Federal Courts – Flashcards

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