Chapter Quizzes GOVT 2305 – Flashcards

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A U.S. Senator has a _____-year term.
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6
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Which of the following does NOT typically affect an individual's decision to run for elected office?
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The individual's ability to meet the extensive list of educational requirements defined by local, state, and federal laws
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Which of the following is the best definition of a constituent?
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It is a person who lives in the district represented by a member of the legislature
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Congress is a _____ legislature with ____ members
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bicameral; 535
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A bicameral legislature is one that has ______.
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Two chambers or houses
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According to _______ representation, a legislator should be viewed as a person who is hired to represent the interests of his or her constituents.
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Agency
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A senator or representative running for re-election is called the ______.
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Incumbent
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The process of allocating congressional seats among the fifty states is called _____.
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Apportionment
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The larger, more heterogeneous constituencies and longer terms of senators means that they are more
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likely to consider new ideas and are better able to act as the agents for groups and interests organized on a statewide or national basis
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Which of the following statements concerning the representation of women and minorities in the U.S. Congress is true?
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Representation of women and minorities has increased over the past two decades, but is not comparable to their proportions in the general population
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Which of the following statements is most accurate?
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On many issues, constituents do not have very strong views and representatives are free to act as they think best without fear of electoral reprisals
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Who is the Speaker of the House?
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The elected leader of the majority party in the House is the Speaker
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Who has the most real power in the Senate?
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The majority and minority leaders
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Who decides which committee assignments members of the House of Representatives receive?
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Each party's own steering and policy committee
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The jurisdiction of standing committees
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is defined by the subject matter of legislation, which often parallels the major cabinet departments or agencies
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The House Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction over ________.
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taxes, trade, and entitlement programs
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Congressional leaders form ____ committees when they want to take up an issue that falls between the jurisdiction of existing committees, to highlight an issue, or to investigate a particular problem.
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Select
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Which of the following is the best definition of a congressional caucus?
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Unofficial groups of representatives or senators sharing similar interests or opinions
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A proposed piece of legislation is called a _____.
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bill
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______ percent of all proposed bills die in the committee phase.
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Ninety-five
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A closed or an open rule refers to congressional provisions regarding
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floor debate on a bill
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Cloture is
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the process by which three-fifths of the Senate can end a filibuster
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A filibuster allows members of the Senate to
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prevent a vote on a bill by speaking continuously on the floor
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Conference committees are
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temporary, involve members from both houses of Congress, and are charged with reaching a compromise on legislation once it has been passed by both the House and the Senate
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A _____ veto occurs when Congress adjourns during a ten-day period after presenting the president with a bill and he or she takes no action.
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pocket
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A bill's supporters in the House of Representatives generally prefer _____ while opponents generally prefer _____.
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a closed rule, and open rule
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Why does the House have greater party unity than the Senate?
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House leaders have more organizational control over the actions of representatives than Senate leaders.
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Which of the following attributes did the framers intend for the office of the president to possess?
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energy
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_______ powers are specifically established by the language of the Constitution.
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expressed
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The president's delegated powers come from ______.
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congress
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The president's expressed powers include all of the following categories EXCEPT ______.
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partisan
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In order to get around the need for Senate approval of treaties, many contemporary presidents have made use of _____ in foreign affairs.
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executive agreements
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Richard Nixon claimed ______ when he refused to turn over secret White House tapes to congressional investigators.
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executive privilege
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The State of the Union address is
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mandated by the Constitution
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An executive order is
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a rule or regulation issued unilaterally by the president that has the status of a law
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Which of the following statements about Congress and the executive branch is most accurate?
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Starting around the time of the New Deal, Congress has tended to give executive agencies broad mandates and to draft legislation that offers few clear guidelines from implementation by the executive
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The ______ asserted that the president could send american troops into action abroad only in the event of a declaration of war or other statutory authorization by Congress, or if American troops were attacked or directly endangered.
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War Powers Resolution of 1973
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Which of the following statements is most accurate?
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Recent presidents have refrained from asking Congress to declare war and have instead frequently deployed the military without congressional authorization.
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An informal group of advisors to the president is often called the _____.
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kitchen cabinet
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The _____ is the informal designation for the heads of the major federal government departments.
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cabinet
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The president has the power to appoint which of the following positions?
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cabinet secretaries
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After the president and vice president, which office is next in line of succession?
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Speaker of the House
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Presidential spouses are an important resource for the president in order to carry out the duty of ____.
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head of state
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Which of the following presidents is considered "weak" by presidential historians?
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James Buchanan
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As a means of managing the gigantic executive branch, presidents have increasingly come to rely upon the ______.
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White House staff
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The technique of popular mobilization dates back to the ______ presidency.
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Theodore Roosevelt's
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A signing statement is a(n)
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announcement the president makes about his or her interpretation of a congressional enactment he or she is signing into law
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President ___ began the era of greater presidential control over the budgetary process.
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Franklin Roosevelt
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According to political scientist Terry Moe, why does Congress suffer from a collective action problem in the face of presidential power?
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Individual members of Congress are more concerned with the substantive impact of presidential action on their constituents rather than the general implications of presidential powers.
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Prior cases whose principles are used by judges to decide current cases are called ______.
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precedents
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In what type of law is the government always the plaintiff?
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criminal law
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The phrase stare decisis means
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"let the decision stand"
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In most circumstances, a supreme court is best described as a(n) _____ court.
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appellate
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The jurisdictions of each federal court is derived from ______.
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The Constitution and federal law
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______ is designed to protect federal judges from political pressure by granting them life tenure.
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Article III of the U.S. Constitution
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A writ of habeas corpus declares that
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the government must show a legal cause for holding someone in detention
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The right of due process is best described as the right of
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every person not to be treated arbitrarily by a government official or agency
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All of the following are part of the official jurisdiction of the federal courts EXCEPT
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cases involving citizens of more than one state where less than $75,000 is at stake
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About _____ percent of all cases in the United States are heard in federal courts.
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1
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Each year, the Supreme Court receives about ______ appeals and hears about _____ of them in full court.
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8,500;80
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Which of the following statements about federal courts is most accurate?
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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.
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How many justices currently serve on the Supreme Court?
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9
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Senatorial courtesy describes the practice of
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senators from a president's party approving of a judicial nominee from their home state
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In recent years, federal court appointments have
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been characterized by intense partisan and ideological efforts to support or defeat the candidate
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About _____ percent of all lower court case are reviewed by federal appeals courts.
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20
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Which of the following statements about the U.S. Court of Appeals is INCORRECT?
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The appeals courts are able to hear all cases involving federal law, but not constitutional law.
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Which of the following is part of the Miranda rule?
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Arrested people have the right to remain silent.
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The requirement of standing means that parties in a case must
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have a concret injury or interest at stake
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A certiorari pool describes the
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practice by which Supreme Court law clerks work together to evaluate each petition
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A person, agency, or interest group not directly a party to a case but with an interest in its outcome may file a(n) _____ brief.
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amicus curiae
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The Supreme Court's power to review acts of Congress has not been seriously questioned because
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the Court has been reluctant to strike down congressional laws and has overturned only a small number over the last 200 years
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The assignment of the opinion in a Supreme Court case is
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important because differences in wording and emphasis can have important implications for how the decision is interpreted in future litigation
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If someone is an advocate of the philosophy of judicial restraint, he or she believes
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in looking only at the words of the Constitution in order to understand its meaning
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Activist judges believe that federal judges should
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go beyond the words of a constitution or statute to consider the broader societal implications of their decisions
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Each Supreme Court justice is assigned _____ law clerks.
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4
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A single lawsuit involving thousands of smokers suing a tobacco company would be a good example of ______.
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a class-action suit
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The fifteenth amendment to the constitution guarantees
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african american men the right to vote
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During the late nineteenth century, the equal protection clause was
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severely limited in scope by the Supreme Court
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Legally enforced segregation in public schools is a form of ____ discrimination
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de jure
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____ began the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-1956
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Rosa Parks
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In ______, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech
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1963
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In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress vastly expanded the role of the executive branch and the credibility of court orders by
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requiring that federal grants-in-aid to state and local governments for education be withheld from any school system practicing racial segregation
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_____ was the setting for a major racial confrontation concerning school busing in the 1970s
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Boston
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____ occurs when electoral districts are drawn so that one group or party is unfairly advantaged
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Gerrymandering
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Redlining refers to
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the practice of bank officials refusing to make loans to people living in certain neighborhoods
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In Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), the justices determined that
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Both b & c (slaves were not citizens of the US, African Americans had no due process rights under the U.S. Constitution)
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Which of the following best summarizes the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. board of education (1954)?
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racially segregated schools can never be equal
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Which of the following is true of Brown v. Board of Education (1954)?
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The justices outlawed de jure segregation
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Which of the following statements best describes the number of peaceful civil rights demonstrations during the 1950s and 1960s?
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The number of demonstrations grew in the early 1960s and peaked in 1965
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Which of the following best describes the federal courts' trend toward school desegregation in the 1990s?
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The courts decreased the federal supervision of local school desegregation
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Which of the following statements best describes the impact of the Voting Rights Act os 1965 on voter registration in southern states?
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The gap between the percentage of whites registering to vote and the percentage of African American registering to vote declined since the passage of the Voting Rights Act
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Which of the following was NOT used as a way to limit the electoral influence of African Americans?
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restrictive covenants
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Strict scrutiny is the level of judicial review that federal judges give to all cases that involve ____ classifications.
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racial
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Which of the following is FALSE about the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
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It was a fairly weak law compared to earlier legislation on civil rights
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At what level of scrutiny do federal judges review cases involving gender discrimination?
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intermediate scrutiny
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Which group was excluded form immigrating to the United States from the late nineteenth century until the 1940s?
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Chinese
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Which of the following statements about gender equality is FALSE?
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The percentage of female representatives in state legislatures has declined over the last 20 years
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Which of the following is true about the Bill of Rights?
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it includes the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution
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_____ are area of personal freedom with which governments are constrained from interfering
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civil liberties
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____ is a court order demanding that an individual in custody be brought into court and shown the cause of detention
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Habeas Corpus
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____ was largely responsible for getting a series of constitutional amendment proposals passed in the U.S. House of Representatives that would ultimately become known as the Bill of Rights
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James Madison
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During the Founding era, ____ were the strongest supporters of adding a bill of rights to the Constitution
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Antifederalists
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_____ is a law that declares a person guilty of a crime without a trial
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A bill of attainder
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Which of the following is NOT a liberty protected by the Bill of Rights?
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Equal protection of the laws
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Which of the following rights is NOT found in the original, unamended Constitution?
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prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment
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In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Supreme Court justices ruled that government action toward religion is
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permissible only if it is secular in purpose, neither promotes nor inhibits religion, and does not lead to excessive entanglement with religion
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The _____ of the First Amendment protect(s) an individual's right to believe and practice whatever he or she chooses
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free exercise clause
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In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court justices announced that
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children cannot be required to salute the flag if it violates their religious faith
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Conflicts over whether public schools should be allowed to assign reading from the Bible and lead nondenominational prayers are examples of disagreements about the
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meaning of the establishment clause
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Justice Potter Stewart was talking about _____ when he declared "I know it when I see it"
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pornography
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In Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the Supreme Court justices articulated the principle that
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spending by or on behalf of a candidate for office is protected speech
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Which of the following types of speech receives the greatest level of First Amendment protection?
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political speech that stops short of inciting violence
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Which of the following statements about freedom of speech is true?
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Free speech can be regulated by government officials
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____ occurs when government officials block the publication of material they do not want released
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prior restraint
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Which of the following would not be an example of speech plus?
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assassinating a political leader
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_____ prevents people from being tried twice for the same crime
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double jeopardy
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The ____ rule forbid the introduction in trial of any piece of evidence obtained illegally
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exclusionary
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Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) established the right
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to counsel in felony cases
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"Due process of law" in the US is generally defined by the ____ amendments
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fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth
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A women's constitutional right to an abortion was established in _____.
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Roe v. Wade (1973)
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