Deck 24: Us Government

Question 1

The debate at the Constitutional Convention regarding slavery was solved by the:

A)Missouri Compromise
B)Three-Fifths Compromise
C)Bill of Rights
D)Fugitive Slave Law

Answer 1

Three-Fifths Compromise

Question 2

Which Founders collaborated with Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence?

A)Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
B)John Adams and George Washington
C)James Madison and Alexander Hamilton
D)James Madison and Benjamin Franklin

Answer 2

Benjamin Franklin and John Adams

Question 3

Which Founder is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution?"

A)George Washington
B)Alexander Hamilton
C)Thomas Jefferson
D)James Madison

Answer 3

James Madison

Question 4

The possibility of treason is discussed in the U.S. Constitution in the Article pertaining to which government entity?

A)The executive branch
B)The states
C)The judicial branch
D)The legislative branch

Question 5

Which historic event established that no member of government, including the president, is considered above the law?

A)The Great Depression
B)The Vietnam Conflict
C)Iran Contra
D)Watergate

Question 6

As of 2012, which state has the most electoral votes?

A)New York
B)Texas
C)California
D)Florida

Question 7

What is the most significant contribution of The Federalist Papers?

A)It remains the best analysis of how the framers of the Constitution intended the document to be interpreted and applied as law.
B)It is the best historical record of the attitudes and beliefs of the Framers of the Constitution.
C)It offers vital insight into the legal minds of three seminal Founders: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.
D)It was the new nation's first demonstration of how powerful free press and free speech could be.

Question 8

Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the only amendment that repeals another constitutional amendment?

A)15th
B)21st
C)18th
D)24th

Question 9

Which of the following is not protected by the U.S. Bill of Rights?

A)The right of a citizen to refuse to quarter a soldier outside of wartime
B)The right of the states to be immune from lawsuits filed by citizens of other states
C)The right of the government to collect income tax
D)The right to be notified of legal accusations, to confront the accuser, to obtain witnesses and to retain counsel

Question 10

Which of the following issues or organizations is not under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior?

A)The National Park Service
B)Maintenance of environmental quality
C)The U.S. Geological Survey
D)The Bureau of Land Management

Question 11

Which Cabinet department has been most frequently led by military personnel?

A)Department of Defense
B)Department of Homeland Security
C)Department of Veterans' Affairs
D)Department of State

Question 12

What controversial plan was President Franklin Roosevelt attempting to achieve in the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937?

A)Bypassing the requirement that the U.S. Senate confirm the president's appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court
B)Giving the president veto power of U.S. Supreme Court decisions
C)Eliminating seats in the U.S. Supreme Court
D)Adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court

Question 13

Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution recognized that the right to vote could not be denied to a citizen on the basis of gender?

A)20th
B)21st
C)18th
D)19th

Question 14

Which of the following acts is not an act of free speech as protected by the First Amendment?

A)A published parody of a public figure that inflicts emotional distress upon the subject
B)A public speech in which the speaker incites the crowd to kill any member of a certain ethnic group upon encountering them
C)Burning the American flag
D)A single citizen's political campaign contribution that is in excess of $2,500

Question 15

What issue was at the heart of the court case The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes?

A)The teaching of evolution in public schools
B)Transporting obscene material through the postal service
C)Flag-burning
D)Interracial marriage

Question 16

Which public high school played a pivotal role in American judicial history, first by refusing to desegregate in 1957, in violation of Brown v. the Board of Education, then by teaching evolution in a public school science class in an eventual U.S. Supreme Court case in 1968?

A)Beverly Hills High School (California)
B)Little Rock Central High (Arkansas)
C)Columbine High School (Colorado)
D)William McKinley High School (Lima, Ohio)

Question 17

Which of the following rights is not guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution?

A)The right to be detained without cruel and unusual punishment
B)The right to assemble peaceably
C)The right to petition the government
D)The right to publish or express one's view through mass media

Question 18

When people giving testimony in a court of law "plead the fifth," which constitutional right are they invoking?

A)The right to due process under the law
B)The right to withhold testimony to avoid self-incrimination
C)The right not to be tried for a crime twice
D)The right to be indicted by a grand jury

Question 19

The Secret Service is under the jurisdiction of which Cabinet department?

A)Department of Homeland Security
B)Department of Defense
C)Department of State
D)Department of Treasury

Question 20

Which list is the correctly ordered line of succession for the U.S. presidency, as it follows the vice president?

A)Speaker of the House, Senate majority leader, Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
B)Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury
C)Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Senate majority leader
D)President pro tempore of the Senate, Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, Secretary of Defense

Question 21

Which American charter concludes with the following passage? "...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

A)The Articles of Confederation
B)The U.S. Constitution
C)The Declaration of Independence
D)The Bill of Rights

Question 22

Which American presidency was highlighted by an ambitious trip to China that stabilized a 25-year rift between the two superpowers?

A)Richard Nixon
B)Ronald Reagan
C)George H.W. Bush
D)Bill Clinton

Question 23

What direct control does the U.S. Senate have over the president's power to establish treaties with other nations?

A)The Senate must approve the treaty by a two-thirds majority before it can enter into force.
B)The Senate Foreign Relations Committee must approve any negotiation between the president and the negotiating party of another nation.
C)The president pro tempore of the Senate, acting as a representative for the entire U.S. Congress, must sign every treaty after each nation's executive has signed it.
D)The Senate has no direct control over the president's power to establish treaties.

Question 24

Which Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote?

A)17th
B)18th
C)19th
D)20th

Question 25

If a candidate wins an election with an absolute majority, how much of the votes did he or she receive?

A)50% of all votes cast in that race
B)More than 50% of all votes cast in that race
C)The largest share of votes between all the candidates in that race
D)At least 66% of all votes cast in that race

Question 26

When a court case, problem or dispute is formally solved in a fashion that is enforceable by law, the issue has been:

A)Ruled
B)Settled
C)Adjudicated
D)Heard

Question 27

Which article of the U.S. Constitution provides for a presidential cabinet?

A)Article I
B)Article II
C)Article III
D)It is not discussed in the Constitution.

Question 28

In how many states did the Dixiecrats supplant the Democratic Party on ballots for the 1948 federal election?

A)4
B)2
C)0
D)1

Question 29

The U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) led to the termination of what type of law?

A)Commercialized vice laws
B)Indecency laws
C)"Separate but equal"
D)Anti-miscegenation laws

Question 30

Vice President Dan Quayle was heavily criticized in 1992 after he picked a fight with a character from which television sitcom?

A)Murphy Brown
B)Roseanne
C)The Cosby Show
D)Cheers

Question 31

Which federal agency under the judicial branch of the U.S. government is an independent agency that operates without Cabinet subordination?

A)Judicial Conference of the United States
B)Office of Probation and Pretrial Services
C)United States Sentencing Commission
D)Federal Judicial Center

Question 32

The Necessary and Proper Clause is in which part of the U.S. Constitution?

A)Article II, section 3, clause 1
B)Article I, section 4, clause 2
C)Article III, section 2, clause 3
D)Article I, section 8, clause 18

Question 33

The U.S. Constitution establishes that the president has the responsibility of receiving foreign ambassadors to the United States in which part of the document?

A)Article II, section 3, clause 3
B)Article III, section 3
C)Article I, section 4, clause 2
D)Article I, section 6, clause 3

Question 34

The U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ended the practice of racial segregation termed "separate but equal," which had been made law by which previous U.S. Supreme Court case?

A)Strauder v. West Virginia
B)Dred Scott v. Sandford
C)Plessy v. Ferguson
D)Williams v. Mississippi

Question 35

Who was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress?

A)Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
B)Shirley Chisholm
C)Carol Moseley Braun
D)Barbara Jordan

Question 36

Which of the following people would benefit most immediately from a writ of habeas corpus?

A)A judge making a decision in a court case
B)A lawyer arguing a court case
C)A prisoner detained unlawfully
D)Anyone accused of a crime, regardless of guilt

Question 37

The biggest criticism of the No Child Left Behind Act is:

A)The measure of success is based on general improvement rather than end-goal completion.
B)It favors gifted and talented students.
C)It encourages teachers to "teach to the test."
D)It is does not offer incentives to schools, districts and states to invest the extra time and resources into achieving the higher goals (such as increased funding).

Question 38

Many activists believed that terminating grandfather clauses, which exempted voters from literacy tests, would help enfranchise African-American voters, but it had the unintended consequence of doing what?

A)Enfranchising undocumented immigrants because carrying identification (like an I.D. card) was less common during that time and election officials had trouble weeding non-citizens out of the voter pool
B)Enfranchising more women voters who should have been able to vote but couldn't due to their inability to demonstrate patrilineal descent
C)Disenfranchising many African-American voters who were afraid to go to the polls due to the upsurge in violent retaliation white election officials began to employ to continue blocking black voters
D)Disenfranchising many poor, white, predominantly Southern voters who could not pass literacy tests but were previously able to vote due to a grandfather clause

Question 39

As of 2012, in a presidential election year, the President of the United States is elected and inaugurated on which days?

A)The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November; January 20 the following year
B)The second Tuesday in November; January 21 the following year
C)The first Tuesday in November; January 20 the following year
D)The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November; January 21 the following year

Question 40

Before FEMA became an independent federal agency, which Cabinet department was responsible for its oversight?

A)Department of Energy
B)Department of Homeland Security
C)Department of the Interior
D)Department of Housing and Urban Development

Question 41

In which year was the legal age to vote lowered from 21 to 18 years old?

A)1971
B)1968
C)1945
D)1920

Question 42

Which Congressional bill was passed in 2001 as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and became law on the first day of 2003?

A)The McCain-Feingold Bill
B)The Shays-Meehan Bill
C)The Leiberman Bill
D)The Sarbanes-Oxley Bill

Question 43

Which group of voters watching or listening to the 1960 presidential debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon believed Nixon to be the winner of the debate?

A)Urban African-American voters
B)People who listened to the debate on the radio
C)White Southern voters
D)People who watched the debate on television

Question 44

Who was the first African-American elected to the U.S. Congress?

A)Frederick Douglass
B)Booker T. Washington
C)Oscar de Priest
D)Hiram Rhodes Revels

Question 45

What is the term length for a U.S. Supreme Court justice?

A)8 years
B)10 years
C)There is no limit
D)12 years

Question 46

Which presidential candidate was caught by television cameras checking his watch during a debate, which many voters saw as a signal he was out of touch with the issues and that the time was running out on his presidency?

A)George W. Bush (2004)
B)Ronald Reagan (1984)
C)George H. W. Bush (1992)
D)Bill Clinton (1996)

Question 47

Which presidential candidate's cool demeanor when answering the startling first question of a debate, in which the moderator discussed the hypothetical rape and murder of the candidate's wife, contributed to image problems that cost the candidate the campaign?

A)Al Gore (2000)
B)Jimmy Carter (1980)
C)Bob Dole (1996)
D)Michael Dukakis (1988)