American Government 100 - Fullerton College



American Government 100 Part II

Patterson, pgs. 428-445, A:AG7-17

Personal Backgrounds of Judicial Appointees

True or False Questions

1. White males are overrepresented on the federal bench, just as they dominate in Congress and at the top levels of the executive branch. True or False

2. A number of persons of Asian descent have been appointed to the Supreme Court. True or False

3. Federal judges make their decisions within the context of a legal system rooted in law; as a result, their decisions are independent of any political repercussions. True or False

4. There are instances where federal judges can rule against the Constitution when conditions require it; that is, to assure that justice is achieved. True or False

5. The large majority of cases that arise in courts involve issues of constitutional law rather than statutory and administrative law. True or False

6. All federal courts are bound by federal statutory and administrative laws, as well as by treaties, and judges must work within the confines of these laws. True or False

7. Government has no responsibility to make clear what its laws are and how they are being applied. That role is limited only to the judiciary. True or False

8. Although judges are required to follow the Constitution, statutes, and precedent, the law is not always a precise guide, with the result that judges often have leeway in their rulings. True or False

9. According to Patterson, it is true that Supreme Court justices have less leeway in making their decisions than elected officials have in making their choices. True or False

10. Ronald Reagan directed the Justice Department to push lawsuits that strengthened affirmative action. True or False

11. In recent decades, the judiciary has at times acted almost legislatively by addressing broad social issues, such as abortion, busing, affirmative action, church-state relations, campaign finance, and prison reform. True or False

12. In disagreeing with the Court majority in the case of Citizens United (2010), the minority 4 justices argued that corporations and unions are not what the framers had in mind in when referring to “the people” in the First Amendment. True or False

13. Judicial review, the most substantial form of judicial power, is explicitly granted by the Constitution. True or False

14. During the period between the Civil War and the Great Depression, the Supreme Court functioned as a deferential body, respecting the rights of most state and congressional legislation aimed at economic regulation. True or False

15. The liberal-dominated Court in the period after World War II was an activist judiciary, striking down state legislative acts by the dozen in expanding fair-trial rights and civil rights. True or False

16. In the past two decades, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has been activist for the right, having struck down more acts of Congress than were invalidated during the previous half-century. True or False

17. Lower courts have limited discretion, and the great majority of their decisions are inconsequential since the U.S. has a federal system whereby the critical decisions are made at the top. True or False

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In recent years, most recent appointees to the Supreme Court held a position: a) in the Senate, b) as solicitor general, c) on the appellate court, d) as a lobbyist.

2. The relevant circumstances of a legal dispute or offense: a) tangible acrimony, b) facts of a case, c) legal entanglements, d) hearsay indictments.

3. The following consists of the rules, regulations, and judgments that agencies make in the process of implementing and enforcing statutory law: a) agency mandate, b) bureaucratic procedure, c) organizational restraint, d) administrative law.

4. To respect what previous decisions of earlier courts have stipulated: a) legal acquiescence, b) precedent, c) per curiam decision, d) judicial accountability.

5. When hearing a case, judges will often try to determine whether the meaning of the statute or regulation can be determined by common sense: a) plain meaning rule, b) common sense application, c) logical conclusion principle, d) reasonable legal interpretation.

6. Why was the decision in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (1998) defined as the Court making law? a) because the legislation was unconstitutional in the first place, b) the issue before the Court was not considered in the original legislation, c) murder is considered a capital offense requiring legal counsel, d) Florida had not passed any legislation protecting wildlife in the Everglades.

7. Samuel Alito’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 2006 had a direct impact on the issue of late-term abortions in 2007. Why? a) Alito affirmed an earlier decision allowing for the procedure when the life of the mother is threatened, b) Alito’s legal philosophy embraced the principle of separation of Church and state, c) Alito, being a conscientious Catholic, was the swing vote to allow states to ban the procedure no matter if it threatened the pregnant mother’s survival, d) Alito is able to support the Constitution and set aside his own religious beliefs when there is a conflict.

8. Based on the studies conducted by Segal and Spaeth, how were Republican appointees Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas not voting on non-unanimous decisions? They were more likely to side with a) employers rather than with employees, b) law enforcement officials rather than with the criminally accused, c) corporations rather than with unions, d) those claiming discrimination and not the government.

9. Who are the four of the most conservative justices of the past seventy-five years that are currently on the Supreme Court? a) Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy, b) Breyer, Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy, c) Thomas, Kagan, Alito, and Sotomayor, d) Thomas, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Kennedy.

10. In the Brown decision dealing with segregation of public schools, how did the Supreme Court direct school districts to comply? a) they had to immediately desegregate, b) they left it ambiguous intentionally, c) they sent the case back to a lower federal court to rule, d) they established a fixed timetable for desegregating.

11. What is meant by amicus curiae? a) parties not directly involved in a case are allowed to submit briefs to the Court, b) constraints on the courts initiated by public opinion, c) interest group pressure on Congress to limit court decisions, d) efforts to more accurately define and interpret a Supreme Court decision.

12. In what case did the Supreme Court assign itself the power of judicial review for the first time? a) Williams, v. Garner, b) Cardozo v. Brandeis, c) Marbury v. Madison, d) Williams, v. Bradley.

13. To amend the Constitution requires: a) a majority vote in the Congress to introduce and a two-thirds vote of the state legislatures to incorporate, b) a two-thirds vote in the Congress to introduce and a three-quarter vote of the state legislatures to incorporate, c) a three-quarter vote of the Congress to introduce and a three-fourths vote of state legislatures to incorporate, d) a three-fifths vote to introduce in Congress and a three-quarter vote of the state legislatures to incorporate.

14. The following is one of the few times that a Supreme Court decision has been reversed through constitutional amendment: a) Fifteenth Amendment, b) Sixteenth Amendment, c) Seventeenth Amendment, d) Eighteenth Amendment.

15. Similar to Congress and the president, why has the judiciary become more extensively involved in policymaking? a) social and economic changes have required government to play a larger role in society, b) the Constitution was poorly written and has been unable to flexibly adapt to today’s complex world, c) religious zealots and ideologues have run roughshod and taken over both political parties, d) the U.S. is now reoccupied with war and conquest and less concerned with domestic affairs, generating greater resentments and hostility internally.

16. Why is the U.S. Supreme Court more powerful than the highest court in most democracies? a) the U.S. system of divided and limited power creates greater opportunities for legal disputes, b) the Constitutions lays out quite clearly the power the federal courts would have, c) other democracies fear their own judicial authorities, d) the culture of the United States requires a more powerful judiciary.

17. Advocates of judicial restraint say that when judges substitute their views for those of elected officials, they: a) protect the Constitution against the abuses by an emotionally charged majority, b) undermine the right of the majority, through its elected representatives, to determine how they will be governed c) come to the defense of a persecuted or unpopular minority, sustaining the Bill of Rights, d) assure that the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be respected.

18. In Citizens United (2010), the majority members of the Supreme Court argued that: a) an unlawful assembly must not be allowed to occur because it threatens the public safety, b) burning the American flag is protected by the First Amendment, c) the First Amendment allowed for unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions, d) pornographic materials can be banned by establishing community standards

19. An avowed activist who used the Court to enlarge the judiciary’s power and to promote the national government, considered the greatest chief justice, deciding a series of rulings that established a powerful institution that helped lay the foundation for a strong Union: a) John Jay, b) Earl Warren, c) John Marshall, d) Louis Brandeis.

20. Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., one of the nation’s most influential jurists, argued that the judiciary should: a) defer to the elected branches unless they blatantly over-stepped their authority, b) promote justice where the rights of unpopular minorities are being violated, c) invoke the principle implied powers to assure that the federal government functioned more efficiently, d) decried the era of Jim Crow, emphatically stating that the Constitution is color-blind.

21. According to Patterson, why is the debate between advocates of judicial restraint and activism is a normative one? a) because the Constitution, though laying out the method for arriving at decisions, it does not specify what is just, b) because the framers believed that the judiciary was most democratic of the three branches, c) because the Constitution does not specify the method by which judges should arrive at their decisions, d) because the lesson of history show that it is the tyranny of the judiciary that must be constrained.

22. Federal judges at all levels are nominated by the president, and if confirmed by the: a) the House of representative, b) the Senate, c) the judiciary, d) a special executive commission.

Fill-in Questions

1. What are the 3 major constraints on federal courts?

a) The ___________ bars a federal court from issuing a decision except in response to a _____ presented to it.

b) The ______ of a particular case also limit judicial action.

c) The judiciary must work within the limits of the ____.

2. The judiciary works within the context of three main sources of law:

a) the _____________,

b) legislative _________, and

c) legal ___________.

3. What are the ways that elected officials, can influence the courts?

a) Congress can ________ legislation that it feels the judiciary has _______________.

b) Meanwhile, the president is responsible for __________ court decisions and has some influence over the cases that come before the _______.

4. The doctrine of judicial restraint holds that:

a) judges should generally defer to __________ and to the decisions made by _____________.

b) In nearly every instance policy issues should be decided by ________ __________ and not by appointed judges.

c) The role of the judge is to ______ the law rather than __________ it.

5. The doctrine of judicial activism holds that:

a) judges should actively interpret the Constitution, statutes, and precedents in light of ___________ principles and

b) should intervene when _______ representatives fail to act in accord with these principles.

c) Although advocates of judicial activism acknowledge the importance of deference to majority rule, they claim that the courts should not blindly uphold the decisions of elected officials when core principles— such as ________, __________, and self- government—are at issue.

d) Precedent should be respected only if it is based on legal reasoning that is as sound _______ as it was when the precedent was _____________.

Answers

True/False Questions

1. True

3. False

5. False

7. False

9. True

11. True

13. False

15. True

17. False

Multiple Choice Questions

1. c

3. d

5. a

7. c

9. a

11. a

13. b

15. a

17. b

19. c

21. c

Fill-in Questions

1. a) Constitution, case b) facts, c) law

3. a) rewrite, misinterpreted, b) enforcing, courts

5. a) fundamental, b) elected, c) liberty, equality, d) today, established

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