Deck 3: Federalism

Question 1

Which powers, derived from the Tenth Amendment, are neither delegated to the national government nor denied to the states?

A) concurrent
B) expressed
C) police
D) reserved

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In a federal system, governmental responsibilities are

A) under the complete authority of the federal government.
B) under the complete authority of state governments.
C) under the complete authority of local governments.
D) shared by both state and federal governments.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The United States, Canada, and Switzerland are all ________ systems of government while France is a ________ system of government.

A) unitary; federal
B) federal; unitary
C) totalitarian; federal
D) oligarchic; federal

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which clause in the U.S. Constitution affirms that national laws and treaties are the supreme law of the land?

A) the full faith and credit clause
B) the necessary and proper clause
C) the supremacy clause
D) the establishment clause

Question 5

The specific powers granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution are called the ________ powers.

A) implied
B) expressed
C) sovereign
D) executive

Question 6

Nations that adopt a federal arrangement are most likely to have

A) diverse ethnic or language groups.
B) multiparty systems.
C) strong executives.
D) no history of feudalism.

Question 7

________ powers exist when both the state and national governments share authority in certain domains.

A) Implied
B) Reserved
C) Expressed
D) Concurrent

Question 8

Which amendment preserves a strong role for the states in the American federal republic?

A) First
B) Fifth
C) Ninth
D) Tenth

Question 9

Federalism is best defined as a system of government

A) where member nations meet in a multinational conference.
B) in which power is divided between a national government and lower level governments.
C) in which the national government is funded through direct taxation of local governments.
D) in which authority is divided into separate branches and each individual branch is given some power over the other branches.

Question 10

Why did local governments become administratively important in the early years of the Republic?

A) The Constitution instructed them to implement all federal laws.
B) The Constitution instructed them to implement all state laws.
C) States lacked the power to implement and enforce laws and relied, therefore, on local governments.
D) The Supreme Court ruled that only local governments had the authority to implement laws under the Constitution.

Question 11

The full faith and credit clause of the Constitution requires

A) the federal government to accept a state's outstanding debt at the time of ratification.
B) states to honor each other's public acts and legal decisions.
C) states, but not the federal government, to run a balanced budget.
D) the federal government, but not states, to run a balanced budget.

Question 12

What is the purpose of the Tenth Amendment?

A) to ensure that each state constitution offers the same number of individual rights provided by the federal Constitution
B) to limit the powers of the federal government by reserving certain powers to the states and to the people
C) to grant citizens of each state access to the federal court system
D) to protect freedom of speech

Question 13

Which constitutional provision was most important in determining the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)?

A) the First Amendment
B) the Fourteenth Amendment
C) the full faith and credit clause
D) the supremacy clause

Question 14

A state government's authority to regulate the safety, health, and morals of its citizens is called the ________ power.

A) police
B) reserved
C) concurrent
D) implied

Question 15

Prior to the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, ________ states recognized same-sex marriage.

A) 0
B) 5
C) 17
D) 37

Question 16

Which Supreme Court decision partially struck down the Defense of Marriage Act?

A) McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission
B) National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
C) Windsor v. United States
D) Bush v. Gore

Question 17

The Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) was significant because it

A) allowed state governments to limit marriage to one man and one woman.
B) struck down state laws that made sodomy a crime.
C) required that all states offer marriage licenses to two people of the same sex.
D) declared the full faith and credit clause unconstitutional.

Question 18

What is it called when a state grants a city the ability to govern its own local affairs?

A) home rule
B) dual federalism
C) separation of powers
D) city governance

Question 19

The ability to charter banks is an example of a ________ power.

A) reserved
B) concurrent
C) state
D) police

Question 20

The privileges and immunities clause of Article IV is also referred to as the ________ clause.

A) federalism
B) vesting
C) comity
D) dual sovereignty

Question 21

Which of the following statements best describes state-level same-sex marriage laws prior to 2015?

A) No state government had ever allowed same-sex couples to be legally married.
B) No state government had ever passed a law prohibiting same-sex couples from being legally married.
C) Thirteen states had passed laws prohibiting same-sex couples from being legally married.
D) Every state but one-Texas-allowed same-sex couples to be legally married.

Question 22

Advocates of limiting the powers of the national government justify their position by pointing to the ________ of the U.S. Constitution.

A) commerce clause
B) necessary and proper clause
C) Tenth Amendment
D) due process clause

Question 23

Which clauses of the U.S. Constitution involve the relationships between and among the various states?

A) the full faith and credit clause and the privileges and immunities clause
B) the full faith and credit clause and the federalism clause
C) the privileges and immunities clause and the federalism clause
D) the establishment clause and the privileges and immunities clause

Question 24

Which of the following is the best example of a concurrent power under the U.S. Constitution?

A) the power to declare war
B) the power to coin money
C) the power to regulate commercial activity
D) the power to tax imports and exports

Question 25

What is the main function of the privileges and immunities clause of Article IV?

A) It prevents states from discriminating against nonresidents.
B) It compels each state to recognize the laws of other states.
C) It requires all states to provide a uniform standard of benefits and entitlement.
D) It prevents states from coining their own money.

Question 26

Which of the following statements is true about the Defense of Marriage Act?

A) The act stipulates that the federal government will not recognize same-sex marriage.
B) The members of Congress who voted for it wanted to express their support for same-sex marriage.
C) The act stipulates that the federal government will recognize same-sex marriage.
D) The act stipulates that states have to recognize same-sex marriage from other states.

Question 27

During most of the nineteenth century, Congress primarily used its powers to ________ interstate commerce.

A) regulate and reduce
B) facilitate and enhance
C) hamper
D) prohibit

Question 28

The fact that state governments are required to enforce restraining orders placed on stalkers and batterers in other states is a result of the

A) Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
B) full faith and credit clause of the Constitution.
C) supremacy clause of the Constitution.
D) Supreme Court's decision in Loving v. Virginia.

Question 29

Which level of government writes the majority of criminal laws?

A) the national government
B) the state governments
C) the local governments
D) the special judicial districts

Question 30

When Alaska passed a law in the 1970s that gave state residents preference over nonresidents in obtaining work on oil pipelines, this law violated the ________ clause.

A) interstate commerce
B) full faith and credit
C) privileges and immunities
D) necessary and proper

Question 31

The power of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with Native American tribes is found in ________ of the U.S. Constitution.

A) Article I
B) the Preamble
C) the First Amendment
D) the Tenth Amendment

Question 32

When was the era of dual federalism?

A) from the Founding until the end of the Civil War
B) from the Founding until the New Deal
C) from the Civil War until World War II
D) from the New Deal until the 1960s

Question 33

Who wrote the Supreme Court opinions in both McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)?

A) Alexander Hamilton
B) James Madison
C) John Marshall
D) Roger Taney

Question 34

The constitutional idea of states' rights was strongest during which historical period?

A) the years immediately preceding the Civil War
B) Reconstruction
C) the Great Depression
D) the 1960s

Question 35

Which of the following is the best example of a unitary system of government?

A) The federal government sets detailed educational guidelines that all local governments must implement.
B) The federal government establishes general guidelines for schools but leaves most specific policy decisions up to local school boards.
C) The federal government provides parents with vouchers for private schools, and local governments have no role to play in education policy.
D) The federal government provides no funding for schools and leaves education policy entirely up to state legislatures and local school boards.

Question 36

Which of the following statements best describes the history of American federalism?

A) There has always been a clear allocation of responsibilities between the states and the federal government.
B) Since the Founding, there has been considerable debate about the allocation of responsibilities between the states and the federal government.
C) Debates over the responsibilities allocated to the states and to the federal government ended with the Civil War.
D) Debates over the responsibilities allocated to the states and to the federal government ended immediately after the Great Depression.

Question 37

What was one effect of dual federalism during the early Republic?

A) The national government was spared the task of making difficult policy decisions, such as the regulation of slavery, because the states did it themselves for the most part.
B) The national government was unable to raise sufficient amounts of money through taxes and tariffs.
C) The number of federal criminal laws expanded rapidly, while state criminal laws decreased.
D) The strength and size of the military grew dramatically.

Question 38

During the era of dual federalism, what was the primary goal of the federal government's domestic policies?

A) to promote competition between the states
B) to promote the development of commercial activity between and among the states
C) to protect citizens from the abuses of state governments
D) to keep the states from going to war with each other

Question 39

Which clause is the source of implied powers under the U.S. Constitution?

A) full faith and credit
B) comity
C) necessary and proper
D) commerce

Question 40

"Commerce among the several states" was first defined in

A) Printz v. United States.
B) Marbury v. Madison.
C) McCulloch v. Maryland.
D) Gibbons v. Ogden.

Question 41

Which statement best describes American federalism since the 1930s?

A) Although the federal government has grown significantly more powerful since the 1930s, the basic framework of American federalism has not been altered, and state governments remain important.
B) Although the state governments have grown significantly more powerful since the 1930s, the basic framework of American federalism has not been altered, and the federal government remains important.
C) The growing power of the federal government since the 1930s has fundamentally altered American federalism by rendering state governments obsolete.
D) The growing power of state governments since the 1930s has fundamentally altered American federalism by rendering the federal government obsolete.

Question 42

Which of the following is true about the Southern Manifesto?

A) It was written before the Civil War.
B) It was written by southern officials who declared that their states were not bound by Supreme Court decisions outlawing racial segregation.
C) It argued in favor of national government power.
D) It invalidated the Tenth Amendment.

Question 43

Which event was most influential in the rise of a more active national government?

A) the War of 1812
B) the Civil War
C) the Great Depression
D) the Cold War

Question 44

Why was United States v. Lopez (1995) important?

A) It was the first time since the New Deal that the Supreme Court limited the power of Congress as outlined under the commerce clause.
B) It was the first time that the Court had used the Tenth Amendment to limit the power of Congress.
C) The Court found the line-item veto unconstitutional.
D) The Court gave a broad interpretation of the commerce clause that expanded the power of the federal government over the states.

Question 45

Which of the following statements about the structure of American federalism is true?

A) It has contributed to the longevity of the U.S. government by allowing many divisive policy decisions throughout American history to be made by states.
B) It has contributed to the longevity of the U.S. government by forcing every state to develop in exactly the same way.
C) It caused the Civil War to be fought decades before it would have been under a unitary system.
D) It has had almost no effect on the stability and functioning of the U.S. government.

Question 46

What was a major reason that the slogan "states' rights" became tarnished in the 1950s and 1960s?

A) It had been used by southern opponents of the civil rights movement to support Jim Crow laws.
B) It had been used by religious organizations to increase federal spending on faith-based initiatives.
C) It had been used by antiwar activists to protest the war in Vietnam.
D) It had been used by supporters of the civil rights movement to oppose racial segregation.

Question 47

Which president introduced and presided over the New Deal?

A) Herbert Hoover
B) Franklin Roosevelt
C) Dwight Eisenhower
D) Lyndon Johnson

Question 48

Which of the following economic policies did the national government implement during the nineteenth century?

A) chartering a national bank
B) regulating the health and safety of the workplace
C) limiting business's use of child labor
D) preventing the production of impure goods

Question 49

Under the traditional system of American federalism, most of the fundamental governing in the United States was done by

A) state governments.
B) the federal government.
C) local governments.
D) the courts.

Question 50

Which of the following Supreme Court cases limited federal power?

A) United States v. Lopez and Printz v. United States
B) Gibbons v. Ogden and McCulloch v. Maryland
C) Gibbons v. Ogden and Brown v. Board of Education
D) McCulloch v. Maryland and Brown v. Board of Education

Question 51

Why were attempts by Congress to regulate child labor and factory conditions in local workplaces struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in the late nineteenth century?

A) Regulating local workplaces was perceived to violate the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution.
B) Regulating local workplaces was perceived to violate the comity clause of the Constitution.
C) Regulating local workplaces was beyond the scope of interstate commerce at the time and was, therefore, perceived to be an unconstitutional exercise of power by the federal government.
D) Regulating local workplaces was perceived to violate the strongly held value of regulated federalism.

Question 52

Which statement best describes the Supreme Court's decisions about federalism during the 1990s?

A) The Court granted the national government more power over the states.
B) The Court limited the power of the national government over the state governments.
C) The Court declined to hear federalism cases, arguing that they are political questions.
D) The Court dramatically limited the ability of states to sue the national government in federal courts.

Question 53

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) was important because it

A) developed the concept of judicial review.
B) developed the concept of dual citizenship.
C) established the supremacy of the national government in all matters affecting interstate commerce.
D) determined that the forced relocation of the Five Civilized Tribes to Oklahoma was unconstitutional.

Question 54

Which of the following statements best summarizes President Herbert Hoover's views on federal action during the Great Depression?

A) It was the federal government's responsibility to alleviate the misery caused by the depression and Congress should finance public works projects to put people back to work.
B) The federal government was directly responsible for causing the Great Depression and should, therefore, pay reparations to state governments.
C) State governments were directly responsible for causing the Great Depression and should, therefore, pay reparations to the federal government.
D) The federal government could do little to alleviate the misery caused by the depression and state and local governments should be responsible for responding to the crisis.

Question 55

What was the overall importance of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)?

A) The Court interpreted the delegated powers of Congress broadly, creating the potential for increased national powers.
B) The Court gave a very restricted definition of Congress's delegated powers, in keeping with the era of dual federalism.
C) The Court announced that dual federalism did not conform to the framers' design.
D) The Court declared that the National Bank was unconstitutional.

Question 56

By 1932, ____ percent of the labor force in the United States was unemployed.

A) 5
B) 10
C) 15
D) 25

Question 57

How did dual federalism help to establish a "commercial republic"?

A) The federal government passed laws forbidding any regulation of capitalism.
B) The function of the federal government was to promote and assist commerce.
C) The federal government was originally designed to regulate and control the marketplace.
D) The federal government sold many natural resources from publicly owned lands.

Question 58

In ________, the Supreme Court reinterpreted the commerce clause, changing it from a check on national power to a source of national power.

A) 1865
B) 1915
C) 1937
D) 1973

Question 59

Which clause of the U.S. Constitution has been important in allowing the growth of national power?

A) the commerce clause
B) the full faith and credit clause
C) the comity clause
D) the Tenth Amendment

Question 60

Congressional grants paid for ________ percent of the development of an interstate highway system after World War II.

A) 25
B) 50
C) 90
D) 100

Question 61

The Supreme Court justices determined that the individual mandate found in the Affordable Care Act was

A) unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
B) constitutional under the commerce clause of Article I.
C) constitutional under Congress's power to tax.
D) constitutional under the Third Amendment.

Question 62

Who was the first president to promote New Federalism?

A) Abraham Lincoln
B) Franklin Roosevelt
C) Lyndon Johnson
D) Richard Nixon

Question 63

A federal grant to states to assist in the building of new public schools is an example of a ________ grant.

A) categorical
B) formula
C) block
D) general revenue

Question 64

In a decision on the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court ruled that

A) state governments could decline to expand Medicaid coverage without losing their existing Medicaid funds from the federal government.
B) the federal government could take away a state's Medicaid funds if it refused to expand Medicaid coverage.
C) the federal government had no constitutional authority to spend its tax revenue on health care programs like Medicaid.
D) state governments could not refuse to expand Medicaid coverage because of the supremacy clause of the Constitution.

Question 65

________ is evidenced when national officials fund a project that is actually implemented by state governments.

A) Dual federalism
B) National supremacy
C) Cooperative federalism
D) Home rule

Question 66

The number of categorical grants in the United States increased dramatically during the

A) Progressive era.
B) 1950s.
C) 1960s.
D) 1980s.

Question 67

________ compels state governments to obey costly federal regulations but does not reimburse those costs.

A) A grant-in-aid
B) An unfunded mandate
C) A block grant
D) General revenue sharing

Question 68

"Marble cake federalism" is associated with the

A) increasing political power of local governments over the last two decades.
B) pattern of intergovernmental cooperation that has blurred the lines between the states and the national governments.
C) practice of federal officials bribing their state counterparts with various gifts in order to convince them to follow national standards.
D) confusion that emerged during the 1960s about which layer of government is actually responsible for regulating the national economy.

Question 69

The form of federal assistance called ________ provides money to state governments with no strings attached.

A) New Federalism
B) general revenue sharing
C) block grants
D) categorical grants

Question 70

Block grants are designed to

A) fund urban improvements on a specific city block.
B) give the states considerable discretion in how money from the federal government should be spent.
C) fund capital improvements in schools.
D) impose strict limits on how state governments can spend money from the federal government.

Question 71

An example of ________ is when federal officials force state officials to implement more stringent water pollution regulations.

A) home rule
B) preemption
C) police power
D) the doctrine of states' rights

Question 72

The Secure Communities program

A) required state and local authorities to check the fingerprints of people being booked into jail against a Homeland Security database.
B) prevented state and local authorities from asking suspected criminals to show proof of citizenship upon arrest.
C) offered state and local authorities federal reimbursement for money spent processing undocumented immigrants.
D) forbade federal immigration officials from deporting undocumented immigrants who had not been convicted of felonies.

Question 73

Using block grants to return power to the states was part of ________ during the Nixon (1969-1974) and Reagan (1981-1989) administrations.

A) the New Deal
B) the Great Society
C) New Federalism
D) the New Frontier

Question 74

The process by which one unit of government yields a portion of its tax income to another unit of government according to an established formula is called

A) general revenue sharing.
B) preemption.
C) means testing.
D) indexing.

Question 75

________ is the strategy of delegating authority to a lower level of government.

A) Home rule
B) Redistribution
C) Devolution
D) Incorporation

Question 76

Unfunded mandates are unpopular among those who want to

A) reduce the power of the federal government.
B) increase the scope of federal regulations.
C) exercise a strong principle of preemption.
D) eliminate the principle of home rule.

Question 77

The principle of ________ gives the federal government the power to override any state or local law in one particular area of policy.

A) cooperative federalism
B) grant-in-aid
C) preemption
D) home rule

Question 78

An example of ________ federalism is when federal officials establish environmental standards that every state must follow.

A) cooperative
B) dual
C) regulated
D) "marble cake"

Question 79

The goal of the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act was to

A) encourage private sector employers to obey unfunded mandates by offering a series of lucrative tax incentives for timely compliance.
B) give state legislatures veto power over any unfunded mandate passed by the federal government.
C) prevent Congress from ever imposing another unfunded mandate on private sector employers.
D) limit the costs associated with unfunded mandates by ensuring that Congress knows how much it is expecting of state and local governments and the private sector.

Question 80

Federal officials seeking to give states more authority are most likely to support

A) unfunded mandates.
B) block grants.
C) categorical grants.
D) project grants.