Deck 11: Civil Liberties

Question 1

Which one of the following is true with respect to prior restraint?

A)The Supreme Court has generally upheld prior restraint.
B)The Supreme Court's rulings in this area have been inconsistent.
C)The Supreme Court has prohibited all forms of prior restraint.
D)The government's attempts to impose prior restraint have been successful.
E)The government has imposed prior restraint under the Fifth Amendment.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Regarding capital punishment, the Supreme Court has ruled in recent years that

A)the death penalty can be imposed automatically if the defendant is convicted.
B)judges, not juries, decide the factual issues in a death penalty case.
C)the death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment.
D)the sentencing court must be able to consider both mitigating and aggravating factors.
E)individuals under the age of 18 or who are mentally handicapped can legally be executed.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The controversial free-speech issue of whether the First Amendment protects the right to burn or deface an American flag is concerned with

A)obscenity.
B)symbolic speech.
C)commercial speech.
D)libel and slander.
E)fair trial.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which amendment to the U.S.Constitution contains freedom of the press?

A)First
B)Third
C)Fifth
D)Sixth
E)Ninth

Question 5

Speech or writing that advocates or incites discontent or rebellion against the government defines

A)sedition.
B)libel.
C)slander.
D)obscenity.
E)profanity.

Question 6

What was the first major test of the Smith Act?

A)Engel v.Vitale
B)Miller v.California
C)Brandenburg v.Ohio
D)Dennis v.United States
E)Mapp v.Ohio

Question 7

Slander refers to

A)the First Amendment.
B)government officials.
C)spoken words.
D)sedition statutes.
E)evidence seized illegally.

Question 8

The U.S.Supreme Court case Reynolds v.United States (1878) was concerned with:

A)freedom of speech.
B)freedom of the press.
C)freedom of religious exercise.
D)freedom to keep and bear arms.
E)establishment of a state religion

Question 9

The Supreme Court formally recognized the right of association for the first time in the case of

A)Branzburg v.Hayes.
B)Miller v.California.
C)NAACP v.Alabama.
D)The New York Times Co.v.Sullivan.
E) Mapp v.Ohio

Question 10

The landmark 1966 case of Sheppard v.Maxwell dealt with the problem of

A)obscenity and instances of "fighting words" under the First Amendment.
B)prior restraint and the government's attempts to censor publications.
C)the right to counsel for indigent defendants accused of serious crimes.
D)the clash between freedom of the press and a fair trial.
E)conflicts between the free exercise and establishment clauses.

Question 11

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of individuals to join together in a nonviolent economic boycott of businesses that practice racial discrimination.This illustrates

A)no prior restraint.
B)symbolic speech.
C)commercial speech.
D)the right of association.
E)free exercise clause.

Question 12

Articulated in the 1971 decision of the U.S.Supreme Court in the Lemon v.Kurtzman case, the Lemon test determines whether a law violates the

A)due process clause.
B)establishment clause.
C)equal protection clause.
D)free exercise clause.
E)interstate commerce clause.

Question 13

The Supreme Court ruled some limitations on campaign spending, imposed in a 1974 campaign spending law, unconstitutional in the case of

A)Ashcroft v.Free Speech Coalition.
B)Buckley v.Valeo.
C)Sheppard v.Maxwell.
D)Powell v.Alabama.
E)United States v.Nixon

Question 14

Which one of the following is true with respect to the Fourteenth Amendment and the application of the Bill of Rights upon the states?

A)Selective incorporation has taken place through the equality clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
B)Selective incorporation has expanded the power of the states to infringe upon civil liberties.
C)Selective incorporation began with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1791.
D)Selective incorporation has applied only the First Amendment to the states.
E)Selective incorporation has guaranteed many of the provisions of the Bill of Rights against infringement by state and local governments.

Question 15

The Engel v.Vitale (1962) case dealt with the constitutionality of

A)school prayer.
B)aid to parochial schools.
C)religious displays on public property.
D)illegal drugs used as part of a religious ceremony.
E)vouchers to attend private religious schools.

Question 16

In the famous case of The New York Times Co.v.Sullivan (1964), the Supreme Court ruled that for a statement about a public official to be considered libelous, the plaintiff must prove that the

A)statement was false.
B)newspaper did not know the statement was false.
C)statement was made with actual malice.
D)newspaper refused to publish a correction.
E)statement was made only once.

Question 17

Which of the following protections is NOT afforded by the First Amendment?

A)freedom of speech and press
B)freedom from an establishment of religion
C)freedom of assembly
D)the right to petition the government for a redress of grievance
E)the right to counsel

Question 18

The main reason the Supreme Court gave for their 2005 decision to uphold the Ten Commandments display in a Texas courthouse while striking down the display in Kentucky was that the Kentucky display

A)was more overly religious than the Texas display.
B)caused more disruption in the community than the Texas display.
C)was defacing property while the Texas display was not.
D)was less historical that the Texas display.
E)was unpopular with the public.

Question 19

The term used to refer to defamation by written work is

A)libel.
B)defamation.
C)slander.
D)opinion.
E)satire

Question 20

During the Nixon administration, when two newspapers began to publish a classified governmental document about the Vietnam War,

A)there was no legal opposition from the Nixon administration.
B)the Supreme Court upheld the right of the newspapers to print the document.
C)the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
D)the Supreme Court refused to apply to the case the no-prior-restraint doctrine.
E)the Supreme Court overturned the separate-but-equal doctrine.

Question 21

Under the Supreme Court's decision in Brandenburg v.Ohio,

A)any speech making direct or abstract advocacy of forcible action is not protected under the First Amendment.
B)the Court interpreted sedition statutes as prohibiting only advocacy, not discussion under the First Amendment.
C)advocating overthrow of the government was defined as a crime under the Fourth Amendment.
D)the Alien and Sedition Acts were upheld as constitutional under the First Amendment.
E)speech showing imminent danger and the likelihood that the danger will actually occur is not protected under the First Amendment.

Question 22

A jury that decides whether there is enough evidence to indict and bring to trial a person accused of a criminal act is a

A)trial jury.
B)grand jury.
C)review board.
D)board of appeal.
E)sequestered jury.

Question 23

The right to counsel is provided for in the

A)Fourth Amendment.
B)Fifth Amendment.
C)Sixth Amendment.
D)Eighth Amendment.
E)Ninth Amendment.

Question 24

The Supreme Court extended the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement to situations in which "a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy" in

A)United States v.Leon.
B)Mapp v.Ohio.
C)Gideon v.Wainwright.
D)United States v.Eichmann.
E)Katz v.United States.

Question 25

The U.S.Supreme Court case Mapp v.Ohio (1961):

A)prohibited prior restraint by the government.
B)requires states to provide attorneys to indigent defendants.
C)applied the protection against self-incrimination to the states.
D)extended the requirement for a search warrant to electronic communications.
E)applied the exclusionary rule to the states.

Question 26

In Nix v.Williams, the Supreme Court ruled that illegally obtained evidence could be used in a criminal trial if the government could demonstrate that

A)the government did not act out of malice.
B)the defendant was aware that the government was investigating him or her.
C)the evidence would have inevitably been found by the police in the normal course of their investigation.
D)the search is conducted by state rather than federal officials.
E)the evidence was verified by an independent testing laboratory.

Question 27

Which amendment prohibits the use of cruel and unusual punishment?

A)the Fifth Amendment
B)the Fourth Amendment
C)the Eighth Amendment
D)the Sixth Amendment
E)the First Amendment

Question 28

The Bill of Rights limits the actions of private individuals, those of government, and its agents.

Question 29

The First Amendment has been interpreted in part as the right to express religious ideas and to bar the government from restricting these ideas.

Question 30

The intent of the exclusionary rule of evidence is to

A)allow criminals to go free.
B)deter illegal searches and seizures by the police.
C)punish police officers.
D)make sure confessions are freely given.
E)give criminal an advantage at trial.

Question 31

The Supreme Court has used the Bill of Rights as a standard in defining the "liberty" that the Fourteenth Amendment protects against infringement by state governments.

Question 32

Today, the federal government and _____ states have laws providing for capital punishment for cases involving intentional killing.

A)9
B)14
C)25
D)37
E)50

Question 33

What would be an attorney's motivation for using a "peremptory challenge" during the voir dire?

A)The juror will decide unfavorably for her client.
B)The judge has a bias against her client.
C)The juror is a race other than that of her client.
D)The judge has decided that the attorney should be taken off of the case.
E)the defendant is not represented by an attorney.

Question 34

When a defendant in a murder trial chooses not to take the stand in his own defense, the jury must be warned by the judge not to interpret his silence as evidence of guilt.This protection against self-incrimination is found in the

A)First Amendment.
B)Fourth Amendment.
C)Fifth Amendment.
D)Eighth Amendment.
E)Tenth Amendment.

Question 35

Which one of the following is NOT true with respect to the right to counsel?

A)The right appears in the Sixth Amendment.
B)It was applied to the states in 1963 in Gideon v.Wainwright.
C)The right to counsel includes misdemeanor cases in which a person could go to jail.
D)It has been an issue in cases where defendants cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
E)It applies to the states only in instances where the defendant can be sentenced to death.

Question 36

The warnings a police officer reads an arrested person to inform the person of his or her right to an attorney were mandated by the Supreme Court in its decision in

A)Miranda v.Arizona.
B)New York v.Quarles.
C)Marbury v.Madison.
D)Gitlow v.New York.
E)The Slaughterhouse Cases.

Question 37

Under a U.S.Supreme Court decision in June 2008, terror detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

A)cannot appeal their convictions to military courts.
B)do not have a right to the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus.
C)cannot appeal their cases to the federal courts.
D)must be appointed legal counsel under the Sixth Amendment.
E)possess the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus.

Question 38

The constitutional provision that provides protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is in the

A)Fourth Amendment.
B)Seventh Amendment.
C)Ninth Amendment.
D)Constitution of 1789.
E)Second Amendment.

Question 39

What is double jeopardy?

A)Once a person has been tried for a particular crime and the trial has ended in a verdict of not guilty, that person cannot be tried again for the same crime.
B)Once a person has been tried for a particular crime and the jury cannot arrive at a verdict, that person cannot be tried again for the same crime.
C)Once a person has been tried for a particular crime and there is a mistrial, that person cannot be tried again for the same crime.
D)Once a person has been tried for a crime and convicted, they can be tried for that crime again in another state where they have broken the same law.
E)Two people who commit the same crime cannot be charged at the same time without having a lawyer present.

Question 40

In 1833, the Supreme Court first held that the limitation on government set forth in the Bill of Rights applied to the national government and to the states.

Question 41

Sedition may be defined as speech or writing that advocates or incites discontent or rebellion against the government.

Question 42

Under defamation, an expression of opinion can be the basis for a lawsuit.

Question 43

Prior restraint is the preventing or censuring of material before it is spoken or published.

Question 44

Although the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment generally protects the freedom of speech, it has ruled that this liberty does not apply to commercial speech.

Question 45

A police officer may conduct a stop without a search warrant and frisk a person who is acting suspiciously.

Question 46

Defamation includes both slander and libel.

Question 47

If a grand jury believes that the government has evidence to warrant a criminal trial on the charges made against the accused person, it returns an indictment.

Question 48

The Supreme Court has interpreted the freedom of speech under the First Amendment as absolute.

Question 49

The Supreme Court has accepted evidence that the death penalty is administered disproportionately against black people, and as such, has cautioned lower courts to use this information when handling capital punishment cases.

Question 50

The right to counsel applies in misdemeanor cases in which a person might be imprisoned.

Question 51

The First Amendment gives television stations the right to have cameras in courtrooms.

Question 52

A grand jury may render a verdict of guilty or not guilty.

Question 53

The Miranda rules require that a person be informed of his or her protection against self-incrimination and right to an attorney.

Question 54

The examination of prospective jurors is the principal means by which the goal of impartiality is sought.

Question 55

Grand juries return indictments in only 10 percent of the cases that they hear.

Question 56

Citing the need for a "wall of separation," the Supreme Court has banned all public displays of religious messages in government buildings.

Question 57

The Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment prohibits many forms of association between church and state.

Question 58

In recent decades the Court has extended the free exercise clause to most forms of religious conduct that conflict with government policy.

Question 59

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government can engage in prior restraint if national security is threatened.

Question 60

If a federal jury cannot arrive at a verdict and there is a mistrial, the accused can be tried for that same offense again without violating the Constitution.

Question 61

What is incorporation and how has incorporation affected the application of the guarantees provided in the Bill of Rights over time?

Question 62

Should the United States government have the ability to impose prior restraint in cases where national security is at stake? Argue both pro and con.Make sure your answer relies on relevant parts of the Constitution and Supreme Court cases.

Question 63

Enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba possess the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus.

Question 64

Explain the debate over the rights of habeas corpus with respect to detainees in the war on terrorism.How do the rights of terror suspects differ from the rights of criminal defendants in the United States?

Question 65

In 2002, the Supreme Court determined that judges, not juries, must decide factual issues about whether to impose the death penalty.

Question 66

Differentiate between the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.Which clause affords citizens a greater degree of religious freedom? Explain and support your views.

Question 67

Describe some of the Supreme Court's major decisions with respect to the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.What competing interests may be at stake when the Court hears a Fourth Amendment case?