Deck 7: Equal Protection and the Antidiscrimination Principle

Question 1

In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. (1886), the Supreme Court held that the word "person" in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment included _______________.

A) blacks
B) women
C) corporations
D) the unborn

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Can separate athletic programs for men and women in state colleges and universities be justified under the Equal Protection Clause?

Answer 2

Not answer

Question 3

If challenged in a court of law, a state law that requires a person to possess a license to practice psychological counseling would be subject to ________.

A) the rational basis test
B) strict judicial scrutiny
C) the compelling interest test
D) the suspect classification doctrine

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Under the "New Equal Protection," the courts have used the Equal Protection Clause to scrutinize closely any law or practice that discriminates among groups in their enjoyment of ________________.

A) fundamental rights
B) private clubs
C) government benefits
D) tax exemptions

Question 5

As a result of the increasingly pervasive role of government in American society, some observers have advocated that the Supreme Court abandon its long-standing distinction between "state" and "private" action. Do you agree with this proposal?

Question 6

Can the Supreme Court's holding in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007) be reconciled with Grutter v. Bolinger (2003)? Are the cases distinguishable?

Question 7

In most situations equal protection classifications based on wealth are subject to analysis under a "rational basis" standard of review. Under what circumstances would a classification based on wealth be subject to review under a higher standard?

Question 8

How can one justify progressive, or regressive, taxation in light of the Equal Protection Clause?

Question 9

What factors have contributed most significantly to the gradual disengagement of federal courts from the nation-wide effort to desegregate the public schools?

Question 10

Since the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause applies only to the states, how does the Supreme Court justify its invalidation of equal protection violations by the federal government?

Question 11

In adopting the Civil Rights Act of _____, Congress made attempted to eradicate racial discrimination in "places of public accommodation," including hotels, taverns, restaurants, theaters and "public conveyances."

A) 1866
B) 1870
C) 1871
D) 1875

Question 12

Summarize the justifications for and against race-based differentiation of admission standards for (a) undergraduate students; (b) law students.

Question 13

In the modern era the Equal Protection Clause has been invoked successfully to challenge discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities, as well as discrimination against ________.

A) mentally retarded persons
B) illegitimate children
C) the children of illegal aliens
D) all of the above

Question 14

In the wake of the Civil War, many of the Southern states had adopted the so-called __________, which denied basic economic rights to former slaves.

A) Jim Crow Laws
B) Grandfather Clauses
C) Black Codes
D) none of the above

Question 15

Which of the following cases is an example of the Equal Protection Clause being employed as a basis for invalidating discriminatory business regulation?

A) Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)
B) Strauder v. West Virginia (1879)
C) Pollock v. Farmer's Loan and Trust Co. (1895)
D) U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co. (1890)

Question 16

The suspect classification doctrine originated in ____________.

A) English common law
B) Korematsu v. United States (1944)
C) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
D) The Civil Rights Cases (1883)

Question 17

Can the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education be squared with an interpretivist approach to constitutional interpretation?

Question 18

Can the U.S. Supreme Court justify a more demanding standard for adjudging racial discrimination than the standard it applies to gender discrimination? What about age discrimination? Discrimination based on disability?

Question 19

Are state laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples consistent with the 14th Amendment's requirement that states provide "equal protection of the laws" to persons within their jurisdiction?

Question 20

Shortly before the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which, among other things, protected the right of African-Americans to _______.

A) inherit, own and convey property
B) utilize privately owned places of public accommodation
C) vote in state elections
D) all of the above

Question 21

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court upheld a Louisiana law requiring racial segregation _________________.

A) in public schools
B) on railroad cars
C) in courtrooms
D) in the state legislature

Question 22

In Brown v. Board of Education (1955), the Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the Nation's public schools "___________________."

A) at once
B) with all deliberate speed
C) as soon as possible
D) with due dispatch

Question 23

In reviewing a properly challenged attempt by government to classify persons on the basis of race, the Supreme Court applies a standard of ______________.

A) strict scrutiny
B) heightened scrutiny
C) lowered scrutiny
D) subtle scrutiny

Question 24

The failure of the Equal Rights Amendment to win ratification left the adjudication of sex discrimination claims largely in the domain of the ____ Amendment.

A) 13th
B) 14th
C) 19th
D) 20th

Question 25

In a famous footnote to his opinion in ________________, Justice Harlan Fiske Stone stated that "prejudice against discrete and insular minorities may be a special condition, which tends seriously to curtail the operation of those political processes ordinarily to be relied upon to protect minorities and … may call for a more searching judicial scrutiny."

A) Korematsu v. United States (1944)
B) United States v. Carolene Products Company (1938)
C) Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center (1985)
D) Romer v. Evans (1996)

Question 26

Under the _______________, the government must show that a challenged policy bears a "substantial" relationship to an "important" government interest.

A) rational basis test
B) heightened scrutiny test
C) strict scrutiny test
D) none of the above

Question 27

Bolling v. Sharpe (1954) involved a constitutional challenge to segregated public schools in ________________.

A) Washington, D.C.
B) Virginia
C) Mississippi
D) Tennessee

Question 28

Under strict judicial scrutiny, the ordinary presumption of constitutionality is reversed whereby the ___________ carries the burden of proof that the challenged policy is constitutional.

A) party challenging the policy
B) government
C) individual that disfavors the policy
D) none of the above

Question 29

In Plyler v. Doe (1982), the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that denied access to public education to the children of illegal aliens by applying the ________________ test.

A) rational basis
B) intermediate scrutiny
C) strict scrutiny.
D) none of the above

Question 30

In City of Richmond v. Croson Company (1989) the Supreme Court ______.

A) broadened the scope of federal affirmative action programs in the awarding of construction contracts
B) declared state affirmative action programs in the area of professional school admissions unconstitutional
C) held that the issue of affirmative action in the field of private employment presents a political question beyond the scope of judicial review
D) placed significant limitations on non-federal affirmative action programs in the awarding of government contracts

Question 31

In McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950), the Supreme Court disallowed an attempt by the University of Oklahoma _____________.

A) to segregate a black graduate student from his white colleagues
B) to create a separate law school for blacks
C) to require blacks to attend law schools in other states
D) to close down a law school reserved to blacks only

Question 32

Before Brown v. Board of Education was reargued in 1953, Chief Justice __________ died and was replaced by Earl Warren.

A) William Howard Taft
B) Charles Evans Hughes
C) Harlan F. Stone
D) Fred M. Vinson

Question 33

In a dramatic effort to resist the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions, Arkansas governor ___________ called out the National Guard in 1957 to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rock Central High School.

A) Lester Maddox
B) Charles Nelson Reilly
C) Orval Faubus
D) Ross Barnett

Question 34

The Supreme Court is most likely to apply a standard of _____________ in ruling on the constitutionality of a law that classifies persons on the basis of gender.

A) strict scrutiny
B) formal rationality
C) heightened scrutiny
D) substantive justice

Question 35

In Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), the Supreme Court struck down a zoning law which had been applied to prohibit a home for ________ from operating in a residential neighborhood.

A) unwed mothers
B) mentally retarded persons
C) physically disabled persons
D) illegal aliens

Question 36

Primary responsibility for implementing the requirements of Brown v. Board of Education was assigned to _____________.

A) state governors
B) state appellate courts
C) federal district judges
D) federal court of appeals judges

Question 37

In a famous dissenting opinion in 1896, Justice _________ asserted that "our Constitution is color blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."

A) John Marshall
B) John M. Harlan (the elder)
C) Thurgood Marshall
D) John M. Harlan (the younger).

Question 38

In Shapiro v. Thompson (1969), the Supreme Court struck down state laws that imposed one?year waiting periods on new residents seeking ______.

A) divorces
B) driver's licenses
C) welfare benefits
D) to run for public office

Question 39

When Congress passed the public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it had to rely primarily on its broad powers under ______.

A) Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment
B) the Supremacy Clause
C) the Necessary and Proper Clause
D) the Commerce Clause

Question 40

Also known as the _______________________, the Civil Rights Act of 1870 made it a federal crime to conspire to "injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States."

A) Jim Crow Law
B) Black Code
C) Ku Klux Klan Act
D) Reconstruction Act

Question 41

The ___________ doctrine applies only to policies that overtly discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity.

A) suspect classification
B) vagueness
C) equal protection
D) none of the above

Question 42

In The Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court ______________ the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment limited congressional action to the prohibition of official state-sponsored discrimination as distinct from discrimination practiced by privately owned places of public accommodation.

A) upheld
B) invalidated
C) denied certiorari
D) none of the above

Question 43

The _____________ adopted in the aftermath of The Civil Rights Cases required segregation in virtually every area of public life requiring blacks and whites to attend separate schools, use separate parks, ride in separate railroad cars, and to be buried in separate cemeteries.

A) Jim Crow laws
B) black codes
C) separation laws
D) none of the above

Question 44

In ___________, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Idaho Probate Code that required probate judges to prefer males to females in appointing administrators of estates.

A) Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975)
B) Frontiero v. Richardson (1973)
C) Reed v. Reed (1971)
D) Califano v. Goldfarb (1977)

Question 45

The _______________provided that citizens of all races have the same rights to make and enforce contracts, to sue and give evidence in the courts, and to own, purchase, sell, rent, and inherit real and personal property.

A) Civil Rights Act of 1871
B) Civil Rights Act of 1870
C) Civil Rights Act of 1875
D) Civil Rights Act of 1866

Question 46

Under ______________, a policy that is racially neutral on its face, is rationally related to a legitimate governmental objective, but has a disparate impact on people of different races will be upheld unless plaintiffs can show that it was adopted to serve a racially discriminatory purpose.

A) Buchanan v. Warley (1917)
B) The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
C) Washington v. Davis (1976)
D) none of the above

Question 47

In _____________, the Supreme Court found that a newly created law school at the Texas College for Negroes under the separate but equal doctrine was substantially inferior to the whites-only law school at the University of Texas.

A) Sipuel v. Oklahoma Board of Regents (1948)
B) Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
C) McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
D) Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)

Question 48

In _________________, the Supreme Court struck down the plans of public school districts in Seattle, Washington and Louisville, Kentucky to create a degree of racial balance between whites and nonwhites in their public high schools by basing student admissions in part on racial criteria.

A) Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)
B) Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
C) DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974)
D) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Question 49

In the wake of the Civil War, many of the southern states had adopted the Black Codes, which denied basic economic rights to former slaves including the right to ___________.

A) inherit property
B) own property
C) convey property
D) all the above

Question 50

In ________________, the Supreme Court unanimously approved the use of court-ordered busing to achieve the goal of desegregation.

A) Cooper v. Aaron (1958)
B) Alexander v. Holmes County (1969)
C) Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)
D) Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

Question 51

In _______________, the Supreme Court amplified its decision in Board of Education v. Dowell (1991) by permitting a federal district court that for many years had supervised desegregation of the DeKalb County, Georgia, schools to relinquish supervision over certain aspects of school administration.

A) Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
B) Keyes v. Denver School District (1973)
C) Missouri v. Jenkins (1995)
D) Freeman v. Pitts (1992)