Deck 4: Civil Rights

Question 1

For a law to violate people's civil rights, it must

A) treat different groups of citizens differently.
B) make an unreasonable classification or burden.
C) restrict the free exercise of behavior for racial reasons.
D) harm more blacks than whites.
E) allow different groups greater recognition.

Answer 1

make an unreasonable classification or burden.

Question 2

The court will uphold a classification if it "reasonably" relates to a "legitimate" government interest. A good example of this is

A) gender.
B) race.
C) income.
D) ethnicity.
E) color.

Answer 2

income.

Question 3

Race has become a suspect classification. This means that

A) all forms of racial discrimination are unconstitutional.
B) discrimination is sometimes permissible against whites but never against blacks.
C) discriminatory actions must be reasonable.
D) racial discrimination is permissible for people with criminal records.
E) any law making a racial distinction is subject to strict scrutiny.

Answer 3

any law making a racial distinction is subject to strict scrutiny.

Question 4

The landmark case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg (1971) held that

A) blacks and whites must attend the same schools.
B) racially separate schools are inherently unequal.
C) students may be bused to achieve racial balance in schools.
D) separate but equal facilities for whites and blacks on railroad cars are permissible.
E) quota systems for admitting blacks are acceptable.

Question 5

In general, the Supreme Court has allowed race to be taken into account in the area of jobs if

A) there has been a past practice of discrimination.
B) the discrimination still exists today.
C) only the actual victims of discrimination are given preference.
D) the discrimination occurred before the 1954 Brown decision.
E) there is a desire to achieve diversity in the workplace.

Question 6

In a 2003 case, the Supreme Court allowed the University of Michigan Law School to use race as a(an) __________ in undergraduate admissions.

A) overriding concern
B) sole consideration
C) major factor
D) primary characteristic
E) plus factor

Question 7

If there has been a history of discrimination, the Court has allowed requirements that contractors set aside _____ percent of their contract funds to purchase services from minority-owned businesses.

A) 90
B) 75
C) 50
D) 25
E) 10

Question 8

The Supreme Court's strongest statement regarding affirmative action came in a case involving

A) law school admissions.
B) college admissions.
C) the hiring of police.
D) highway construction.
E) business clubs.

Question 9

Racial classification must be subject to strict scrutiny

A) only when its purpose hurts a racial minority.
B) even if its purpose is to help a racial minority.
C) only in rare cases.
D) in the same way as gender classification.
E) only in matters of numerical quotas.

Question 10

The 1964 Civil Rights Act did all the following except

A) outlaw discrimination in hiring.
B) prohibit sex discrimination in education programs.
C) bar racial discrimination in restaurants, hotels, and lunch counters.
D) bar racial discrimination in any activity receiving federal assistance.
E) authorize the attorney general to bring desegregation suits on behalf of citizens.

Question 11

The attorney general was directed to bring suit challenging the constitutionality of the poll tax in

A) 1965.
B) 1968.
C) 1972.
D) 1988.
E)1960.

Question 12

Early laws that limited opportunities for women sought to

A) segregate them from men.
B) protect them.
C) limit their earning potential.
D) keep them out of the workplace.
E) keep them uneducated.

Question 13

The Court's current test for gender discrimination emphasizes all the following except

A) compelling justifications.
B) fair and substantial relationships to the goals of legislation.
C) grounds of difference between males and females.
D) reasonableness.
E) similar persons being treated similarly.

Question 14

The test the Supreme Court has applied to laws making distinctions between the sexes is called

A) suspect classification.
B) preponderance of evidence.
C) reasonableness standard.
D) strict scrutiny.
E) actual malice.

Question 15

The Court's landmark decision in Rostker v. Goldberg focused on gender discrimination and

A) the draft.
B) college sports.
C) private clubs.
D) inheritance laws.
E) estate taxes.

Question 16

The Supreme Court has struck down all the following except

A) different legal ages for males and females.
B) the barring of girls from Little League baseball teams.
C) different pay for male and female high school coaches.
D) the exclusion of women from the Rotary Club.
E) all-boy and all-girl schools.

Question 17

The Virginia Military Institute case was notable, in part, because it

A) came close to making sex a suspect classification.
B) upheld the institution's gender discriminatory policy.
C) was the first case the Supreme Court considered that involved a school.
D) was a rare case involving gender discrimination.
E) reversed several previous decisions of the Court.

Question 18

In the Virginia Military Institute case, the Court concluded that gender discriminations must be supported by

A) a reasonable justification.
B) a compelling interest.
C) an exceedingly persuasive justification.
D) a rational basis.
E) proof of past discrimination.

Question 19

The Court's rulings regarding sexual harassment draw largely from

A) international law.
B) the rulings of state high courts.
C) its own, well-established precedent.
D) decisions by state officials.
E) rulings by the EEOC.

Question 20

The quid pro quo rule for sexual harassment holds an employer strictly liable if

A) an employee experiences a hostile work environment.
B) no one actually files a complaint.
C) an offender is not fired within sixty days.
D) the victim is higher on the seniority scale than the victim.
E) someone requests sexual favors as a condition for employment.

Question 21

One of the major issues in the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment concerned the treatment of men and women in

A) government.
B) the military.
C) the field of law.
D) prisons.
E) the construction industry.

Question 22

In the 1992 Casey decision the Court discarded the first-, second-, and third-trimester framework of Roe v. Wade because

A) the point of viability can change with advances in medical science.
B) Roe was never again supported by five or more justices.
C) Roe placed a twenty-year limit on the framework.
D) most states refused to recognize Roe as binding precedent.
E) members of the medical profession engaged in numerous public protests.

Question 23

Some argue that "zones of privacy" can be inferred from "penumbras" in the

A) Declaration of Independence.
B) Fourteenth Amendment.
C) Bill of Rights.
D) Civil War Amendments.
E) Preamble of the Constitution.

Question 24

In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court

A) applied the right of privacy to women's access to abortion.
B) applied the doctrine of incorporation to the Eighth Amendment.
C) concluded that the right to privacy should not be applied to sexual conduct.
D) applied the reasonableness standard to the abortion issue.
E) applied the rational basis test to late-term abortions.

Question 25

The Hyde Amendment prohibits

A) abortions in the second trimester.
B) abortions in the second and third trimesters.
C) partial-birth abortions.
D) the use of federal funds for abortions in all but a few special circumstances.
E) abortions for minors without parental consent.

Question 26

Under the influence of justices appointed by President __________, the Court began to uphold some state restrictions on abortion.

A) Carter
B) Reagan
C) Nixon
D) Bush
E) Kennedy

Question 27

The Court has allowed all the following restrictions related to abortion except

A) mandatory twenty-four-hour waiting periods.
B) parental consent for teenagers.
C) consent of a judge for teenagers.
D) provision of pamphlets and other information.
E) consent of a husband.

Question 28

The right to privacy suffered a setback in 1986 when the Court ruled that the right of privacy did not include

A) broad immunity from prosecution for crimes of moral turpitude.
B) procreation outside of marriage.
C) the right to marry.
D) the ability to have an abortion in Texas.
E) protection from prosecution for violation of sodomy laws.

Question 29

Laws that treat different groups of people differently are unconstitutional.

Question 30

The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment probably had not intended the equal protection clause to bar segregated schools.

Question 31

Race is a suspect classification.

Question 32

The equal protection clause is not a limit on purely private behavior.

Question 33

Government cannot treat the races differently.

Question 34

The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution must be color-blind.

Question 35

Schools can be required to admit black students even after they have repealed laws and rules that once kept blacks out.

Question 36

If there is no past history of discrimination, mandatory hiring or promotional plans favoring blacks is not permissible.

Question 37

Black teachers can be given preferential promotions over whites even if it has not been proven that a school system has discriminated in the past.

Question 38

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect groups, not individual persons.

Question 39

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it more difficult to use literacy tests to bar blacks from voting.

Question 40

Sex is now a suspect category for the federal courts.

Question 41

In recent years the number of blacks holding elective offices has increased steadily.

Question 42

The suspect classification standard is a lower standard of review than the reasonableness standard.

Question 43

Some justices of the Supreme Court have favored making gender discriminations "inherently suspect."

Question 44

States can set different ages at which men and women become legal adults.

Question 45

Women cannot be barred from jobs by arbitrary height and weight requirements.

Question 46

Girls can be banned from Little League baseball teams.

Question 47

Laws can define rape in such a way that only men can be punished for that offense.

Question 48

The Virginia Military Institute case ensured that gender discrimination cases will employ the reasonableness standard for years to come.

Question 49

A school system is not liable for the conduct of a teacher who seduces a student if the student never reports the actions.

Question 50

There is very little congressional law governing sexual harassment.

Question 51

The Supreme Court struck down the decision of Congress to bar women from combat roles.

Question 52

If the Equal Rights Amendment had passed, women would register for the selective service.

Question 53

In the 1992 Casey decision the court held that states may prohibit a woman from terminating a
pregnancy before the fetus is viable.

Question 54

The justices who dissented from the Casey decision felt that Roe should be overturned.

Question 55

In regulating sexual practices, states are exercising their police powers.

Question 56

Privacy is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.

Question 57

In the Casey decision, the Supreme Court explicitly refused to overturn Roe.

Question 58

The Supreme Court has upheld mandatory twenty-four-hour waiting periods for those seeking an abortion.

Question 59

The Supreme Court struck down a state requirement that women contemplating abortion be given pamphlets about alternatives.

Question 60

In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled that the "right to privacy" did not protect gay men from being prosecuted for violating state sodomy laws.

Question 61

In 2003 the Court overruled its decision in the Bowers case of 1986.

Question 62

The Court's current thinking regarding homosexuality and law is supported, in part, by the laws of other nations.

Question 63

Explain the circumstances of the Adarand case and the Court's ruling.

Question 64

Identify the considerations in the 1971 test that the Court uses for gender discrimination cases.

Question 65

Explain the context of the Virginia Military Institute case and the Court's ruling.

Question 66

Explain the constitutional origins of the Roe decision with reference to specific rulings of the Court.