Deck 3: Civil Liberties: Democracy and the Expansion of Libertys Realm

Question 1

The modern prohibition on prior restraint was established by ___ .

A) Congressional Act
B) Atkins v. Virginia
C) Executive Order
D) Near v. Minnesota

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of a civil right?

A) The right to vote
B) The right to free speech
C) The right to a free press
D) The right to religious practice

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the right to counsel and where did it originate?

A) The right to an attorney, originating in the Sixth Amendment
B) The right to an attorney, originating in the Fourth Amendment
C) The right to offer religious instruction and spiritual guidance, originating in the First Amendment
D) The right to offer religious instruction and spiritual guidance, originating from the Fourth Amendment

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In addition to improving information sharing and enhancing surveillance authority, what other provisions were in the Patriot Act?

A) Strengthening anti-terrorism laws
B) Provisions for "Following the money"
C) Breaking down walls between foreign and domestic intelligence gathering
D) Strengthening the president's role in war-making

Question 5

Which court decision declared executions of mentally challenged persons to be "cruel and unusual" and, thus, in violation of the Eighth Amendment?

A) Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
B) Atkins v. Virginia (2002)
C) Furman v. Georgia (1972)
D) Gregg v. Georgia (1978)

Question 6

In McDonald v. Chicago (2010) the Supreme Court extended the Heller finding to a general limit on __________intrusion on the individual right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

A) local
B) state
C) federal
D) All of the above

Question 7

In contemporary Supreme Court decisions dealing with civil liberties, we see that our sense of what these liberties entail is __________it was formerly.

A) much broader and more comprehensive than
B) less applicable and more restrictive than
C) nearly identical in meaning application as
D) More limited than in the nineteenth century

Question 8

With regard to issues of federalism, in contemporary court decisions, the Supreme Court __________much of civil liberties law.

A) decentralized
B) rededicated
C) nationalized
D) stigmatized

Question 9

The Anti-Federalists seized upon the absence of ____ as the key reason for their opposition to ratification of the Constitution.

A) a necessary and proper clause
B) a federal framework
C) a set of powers denied to the states
D) a bill of rights

Question 10

By 1788, once the bill of rights had been drafted, how many proposed amendments were submitted to the states for ratification?

A) 10
B) 12
C) 15
D) 17

Question 11

Delegates to the Virginia ratifying convention narrowly voted to ratify the proposed constitution but only after the Federalists' promised to __________in the first Congress.

A) negotiate a new trade agreement with Great Britain
B) support amendments to create a bill of rights
C) nominate George Washington as the first president
D) expand the armed forces to defend against French attacks in the west

Question 12

The Supreme Court did not move to enforce the individual liberties of the Bill of Rights against state and local governments until well into the __________century

A) eighteenth
B) nineteenth
C) twentieth
D) twenty-first

Question 13

The incorporation of the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution was due to the ___ .

A) Anti-Federalists
B) Federalists
C) Congress
D) Supreme Court

Question 14

As a result of "selective incorporation," today __________provisions of the Bill of Rights constrain both federal and state governments.

A) few
B) most
C) all
D) None of the provisions because the Bill of Rights was originally meant to apply only against the federal government

Question 15

Most of the protections of the Bill of Rights now apply against the states because they were "incorporated" via the __________of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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

Question 16

Which of one of the following interpretive tests was not declared by the Supreme Court?

A) probable tendency test
B) bad tendency test
C) clear and present danger test
D) clear, present, and imminent danger test

Question 17

Symbolic speech acts approved by the Supreme Court include ___ .

A) demonstrations
B) picketing
C) protests
D) All of the above

Question 18

Which one of the following speech acts is not speech protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments?

A) cross burnings
B) demonstrations
C) picketing
D) protests

Question 19

In Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK, and others __________to protest a plan to take down a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

A) were unauthorized by the courts
B) had a parade permit from the city
C) were invited by the university
D) had failed to post an insurance bond

Question 20

The Supreme Court already declared in __________that free and robust political speech criticizing politicians is worth the pain the politicians endure.

A) Miller v. California
B) New York Times Co. v. United States
C) Gitlow v. New York
D) New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

Question 21

Which one of the following statements is not currently a common view about how the separation of church and state should be conceived?

A) A strict separation in which government takes no notice of religion.
B) Government may not favor one religion over another, but it may provide general support.
C) Government accommodation of religion is not required in the Constitution.
D) Government should actively promote religion as beneficial to the nation's moral strength.

Question 22

The establishment clause of the First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of ___ ."

A) religion
B) church
C) belief
D) ritual

Question 23

In a federal district court in Pennsylvania, the judge declared that Intelligent Design was a ___ .

A) science
B) philosophical
C) religious
D) military

Question 24

President Bush included provisions in the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 requiring the Department of Education to ensure that schools were open to voluntary __________activity.

A) club
B) music
C) sports
D) religious

Question 25

Strengthened antiterrorism laws include expanding ___ .

A) the definition of domestic terrorism to include life-threatening activities designed to intimidate the public
B) the definition of what constitutes material support of terrorists and penalties attached
C) the right of a federal judge to issue eavesdropping orders that can be executed anywhere in the country
D) All of the above

Question 26

To what does the "public safety exemption" refer when used by federal authorities?

A) terrorists and the reading of Miranda rights
B) sobriety checkpoints and the presumption of innocence
C) financial confidentiality and the laundering of drug money
D) lawyer-client privilege and electronic surveillance

Question 27

In Baze v. Rees (2008) the Supreme Court declared that __________was constitutionally permissible.

A) the moratorium on the electric chair could be lifted as that method of execution
B) executing young people at 16 or 17
C) the moratorium on the use of cyanide gas could be lifted as that method of execution
D) lethal injection using the three-drug cocktail

Question 28

The Supreme Court moved to regulate police, prosecutorial, and judicial conduct in the states by incorporating protections in the __________into the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A) Commerce Clause
B) Bill of Rights
C) Clear and Present Danger Doctrine
D) Bad Tendency Test

Question 29

In 2009, in Herring v. U.S., the Supreme Court ___ .

A) expanded the exclusionary rule
B) declared the exclusionary rule to be unconstitutional
C) struck another blow to the exclusionary rule
D) None of the above

Question 30

The __________produced restrictions on civil liberties that were later regretted and dismantled.

A) Civil War
B) World War I
C) World War II
D) All of the above

Question 31

Today the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, holds __________of the world's prisoners, the most of any nation in the world.

A) one-thirty-second
B) one-sixteenth
C) one-eighth
D) one-quarter

Question 32

Which one of the following statements is not true regarding incarceration rates?

A) The U.S. is number one in the world in incarceration rates.
B) Russia is number two in the world in incarceration rates.
C) The average for the world is about one-sixth the U.S. rate.
D) The U.S. incarceration rate has rapidly been increasing in recent decades.

Question 33

In 2015, it cost the states __________to control 6.7 million people in prisons and jails and on probation and parole.

A) $50 billion
B) $60 billion
C) $70 billion
D) $80 billion

Question 34

The decision in the Pentagon Papers Case attempted to balance __________and __________with regard to endangering national security.

A) racial intimidation
B) prior restraint
C) bad tendency
D) imminent danger

Question 35

In 2012, the Catholic Church and others complained that the new health care law required that they violate their religious principles by including __________and __________services in the health care plans they provided to employees.

A) drug rehabilitation
B) birth control
C) suicide counseling
D) abortion

Question 36

In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court found that the Second Amendment right to bear arms was an individual right rather than a collective right

Question 37

Several of the state constitutions during the Founding era of the American republic had a straightforward right to bear arms.

Question 38

S. holds more people in jails and prisons that any other country in the world.

Question 39

The wish of some delegates at the Constitutional Convention to add a bill of rights was rejected by a unanimous vote of the states.

Question 40

President Trump announced a desire to reform libel laws to make it easier for those criticized to seek redress.

Question 41

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes argued that the right to free speech is always absolute.

Question 42

In 2007, the Supreme Court found the Protect Act of 2003, which outlawed trafficking in real or purported child pornography, to be unconstitutional because it infringed on First Amendment rights.

Question 43

Barack Obama continued the domestic surveillance policies of George W. Bush.

Question 44

Recent Supreme Court rulings have increased public aid to parochial schools by allowing federal funds to be used for transportation, lunch programs, textbooks, computers, and other instructional equipment in religious schools.

Question 45

The Supreme Court has long held that the free exercise clause protects Americans in believing, asserting, and acting on any religious principles they please.

Question 46

Fundamentally, we defend what we call "due process of law" even for the most heinous criminals because the treatment that we sanction for them might become the norm for the rest of us.

Question 47

In 2012 the Supreme Court declared that police must secure a warrant because intensive tracking by GPS is a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

Question 48

If the Miranda warning is not given, statements made by the accused may still be used at trial.

Question 49

In 2010, the Supreme Court limited Miranda rights a bit more by holding that suspects must explicitly invoke their right to remain silent and then follow through by remaining silent.

Question 50

In 2012, the Supreme Court declared that sentences of life without the possibility of parole are constitutional for those under 18.

Question 51

Today, the United States holds 25% of the world's prisoners, the most of any nation.

Question 52

The United States is one of the few advanced industrial countries to employ the death penalty.

Question 53

Under what circumstances is prayer allowed in public school environments?

Question 54

Describe the circumstances under which the exclusionary rule may be limited.

Question 55

Which one of the rights of a criminal defendant do you believe is most important, and why?

Question 56

Explain why cross-burning is not protected speech. Think of an example of another symbolic speech that would also not be protected for similar reasons.

Question 57

How far should we allow our First Amendment freedoms to be exercised? Be sure to use the text for supporting evidence for your case.

Question 58

Discuss the intent of the Bill of Rights.

Question 59

Discuss the origins of the "Lemon Test" and its intent.

Question 60

What is the most recent interpretation by the Supreme Court of the Second Amendment? Do you agree with the court? Why or why not?

Question 61

Discuss the conceptual challenge to dual federalism of the Supreme Court's decision in McDonald v. Chicago (2010).

Question 62

Discuss how it is possible that civil liberties and civil rights can reinforce and strengthen each other at one level, but yet at another they can clash directly.

Question 63

Discuss the reasoning behind the declaration that high school students have limited speech rights.

Question 64

Discuss the difference in reasoning between the decisions in two Supreme Court cases in 2005 that permitted the posting of the Ten Commandments in one situation but not in the other.

Question 65

Discuss how the Supreme Court's finding that police misconduct must be both "deliberate" and "culpable" (meaning ill-intended) seems to envision a cost/benefit balancing test rather than an automatic exclusion of tainted evidence.

Question 66

Discuss how the Patriot Act's powers of investigation, surveillance, and arrest press hard on the traditional rights and liberties that Americans have enjoyed.

Question 67

Use the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 to discuss the "ticking time bomb" scenario in terms of Miranda rights and torture.

Question 68

Discuss the paradox between valuing civil liberties so highly, while at the same time keeping so many people in prison.