Deck 15: Civil Liberties: the Struggle for Freedom

Question 1

Article I of the Constitution prohibits which of the following, which make an act punishable as a crime even if the act was legal when it was committed?

A) writs of habeas corpus
B) bills of attainder
C) ex post facto laws
D) procedural guarantees
E) prior restraints

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which amendment protects the right to bear arms?

A) First
B) Second
C) Third
D) Fourth
E) Fifth

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which clause prevents the national government from sanctioning an official religion?

A) establishment
B) free exercise
C) full faith and credit
D) equal protection
E) due process

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following generally is unconstitutional in school?

A) fighting
B) a weapon
C) free speech
D) prayer
E) punishment

Question 5

The Constitution protects against search of an individual's person, home, or vehicle without __________.

A) due process
B) permission
C) a warrant
D) compensation
E) a good reason

Question 6

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan held that there must be proof of which of the following in order to find libel against a public figure?

A) property loss
B) purposeful reporting of an untruth
C) an audience
D) a written record
E) actual harm

Question 7

What did Lochner v. New York find to be unconstitutional?

A) state regulation of hours of labor
B) forced sterilization
C) segregated education
D) discrimination against homosexuals
E) imprisonment without a trial

Question 8

What is the name for a government decree that a person is guilty of a crime that carries the death penalty, rendered without benefit of a trial?

A) ex post facto
B) habeas corpus
C) due process
D) bill of attainder
E) double jeopardy

Question 9

Selective incorporation makes the protections from the Bill of Rights applicable to the states through which of the following amendments?

A) Fourth
B) Fifth
C) Sixth
D) Tenth
E) Fourteenth

Question 10

In Barron v. Baltimore, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the __________ clause directly applied against unwarranted state action with respect to property rights.

A) necessary and proper
B) contract
C) private property
D) full faith and credit
E) supremacy

Question 11

Which U.S. Supreme Court case found that a woman's right to have an abortion is protected by the implied constitutional right to privacy?

A) Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey
B) Lawrence v. Texas
C) Miranda v. Arizona
D) New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
E) Roe v. Wade

Question 12

Civil liberties are __________ that the government cannot take away.

A) property rights
B) personal freedoms
C) business rights
D) recognitions of equality
E) religious freedoms

Question 13

Today, the United States is the only developed democracy to use which of the following to punish crime?

A) a prison system
B) a juvenile justice system
C) the Eighth Amendment
D) capital punishment
E) corporal punishment

Question 14

The Supreme Court applied the Bill of Rights to the states through selective __________.

A) application
B) interpretation
C) incorporation
D) nationalization
E) enumeration

Question 15

According to Justice Blackmun, a woman had which type of right to an abortion in her first trimester?

A) an absolute right
B) no right
C) a qualified right
D) a partial right
E) an arguable right

Question 16

What does the Sixth Amendment guarantee to those accused of a crime?

A) assistance of counsel
B) access to law books
C) a jury trial
D) assistance by the press
E) a written indictment

Question 17

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court declare that, under the law, slaves were not people but private property belonging to their owners?

A) Fletcher v. Peck
B) Plessy v. Ferguson
C) Abrams v. United States
D) Dred Scott v. Sandford
E) Gitlow v. New York

Question 18

Which rule bars the use of illegally seized evidence at trial?

A) double jeopardy
B) right to pay
C) prior restraint
D) exclusionary
E) hate speech

Question 19

The free exercise clause guarantees that the national government will not interfere with which of the following?

A) education
B) finance
C) business
D) speech
E) religion

Question 20

Profanity, obscenity, and threats are examples of which of the following?

A) hate speech
B) prior restraints
C) fighting words
D) free speech
E) free exercise

Question 21

The doctrine of prior restraint prevents the government from prohibiting speech or publication __________.

A) that is obscene
B) after the fact
C) that is illegal
D) that is critical of the government
E) before the fact

Question 22

According to Table 15.1, Civil Liberties in the U.S. Constitution, the double jeopardy clause protects an individual who is acquitted of a crime from which of the following?

A) media coverage
B) being tried again
C) going free
D) asserting innocence
E) seeking the assistance of an attorney

Question 23

In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that those who are detained as "enemy combatants" have the right to which of the following in order to contest the basis of their detention?

A) a written brief
B) the assistance of counsel
C) an appeal
D) a hearing
E) a jury trial

Question 24

In matters of religion, the free exercise clause protects individuals from which of the following?

A) discrimination
B) persecution
C) governmental intrusion
D) segregation
E) dissenting opinions

Question 25

Miranda rights include the right to which of the following?

A) a phone call
B) due process
C) a jury trial
D) be free from search and seizure
E) counsel

Question 26

What kind of speech is by its very utterance intended to inflict injury or incite an immediate breach of peace?

A) hate speech
B) symbolic speech
C) political speech
D) fighting words
E) obscenity

Question 27

How many of the amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights protect the rights of those accused of crime?

A) six
B) eight
C) three
D) five
E) one

Question 28

The "right to remain silent" is a citizen's protection against which of the following?

A) governmental intrusion
B) search and seizure
C) religious establishment
D) a biased jury
E) self-incrimination

Question 29

In Gitlow v. New York, the Supreme Court identified which of the following as a freedom protected from state interference by the Fourteenth Amendment?

A) freedom of speech
B) freedom of assembly
C) freedom of the press
D) freedom of religion
E) freedom to petition the government

Question 30

What was the purpose of the 2006 amendments to the USA Patriot Act?

A) greater legislative oversight
B) diminished government access to e-mail
C) greater judicial oversight
D) greater government access to bank and financial records
E) diminished judicial oversight

Question 31

Which Supreme Court case declared that gun ownership was a fundamental constitutional right?

A) District of Columbia v. Heller
B) Gideon v. Wainwright
C) Miranda v. Arizona
D) Mapp v. Ohio
E) Griswold v. Connecticut

Question 32

In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court essentially invalidated which of the following?

A) Ohio Compromise
B) Missouri Compromise
C) Illinois Compromise
D) Louisiana Compromise
E) Montana Compromise

Question 33

The Supreme Court briefly outlawed which of the following in the 1970s by asserting that it was being imposed in an arbitrary manner?

A) capital punishment
B) school prayer
C) access to court-appointed counsel
D) symbolic speech protection
E) the exclusionary rule

Question 34

Which of the following considerably narrowed the exclusionary rule?

A) harmless error rule
B) closed container rule
C) inevitable discovery rule
D) confidential informant rule
E) illegal substance rule

Question 35

Which Supreme Court case developed the exclusionary rule?

A) Parker v. Gideon
B) New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
C) Mapp v. Ohio
D) Wolf v. Colorado
E) Gideon v. Wainwright

Question 36

The Supreme Court has used selective incorporation to __________ the rights of states.

A) protect
B) limit
C) expand
D) define
E) enforce

Question 37

Which test examines the constitutionality of religious establishments?

A) Orange
B) Lemon
C) Free Exercise
D) Prior Restraint
E) Due Process

Question 38

The USA Patriot Act enhances the government's ability to do which of the following?

A) examine private records
B) take personal property
C) imprison citizens without trial
D) indict foreign enemies
E) control public schooling

Question 39

The Supreme Court has ruled that states can limit abortions if the regulations do not pose which of the following?

A) a bar to equal protection
B) a due process violation
C) a prior restraint
D) an undue burden
E) a substantial inconvenience

Question 40

What level of scrutiny is applied to official actions that are presumed to be constitutional?

A) procedural
B) intermediate
C) ordinary
D) strict
E) prospective

Question 41

Which of the following was mentioned in the original Constitution?

A) the right to bear arms
B) the right to a speedy trial
C) the right to execute a private contract
D) the right to practice religion
E) the right to vote

Question 42

In what context did the Supreme Court first apply the Fourteenth Amendment?

A) to abolish slavery
B) to eliminate racial discrimination
C) to eliminate sex discrimination
D) to strike down labor regulations
E) to protect voting rights

Question 43

Which of the following could pass muster and not be considered obscenity under the Roth test?

A) child pornography
B) nude images
C) film
D) hardcore pornography
E) profane language

Question 44

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows the government to jail detainees without an opportunity to file which of the following?

A) an appeal
B) a writ of habeas corpus
C) a bill of attainder
D) a motion for summary judgment
E) a jury demand

Question 45

Shouting profanities in public is an example of __________, which is not protected speech.

A) hate speech
B) fighting words
C) obscenity
D) libel
E) slander

Question 46

In 1969, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a Ku Klux Klan member by ruling that the government could only restrict speech that __________.

A) might lead to violence
B) is a prior restraint
C) advocates imminent lawless action
D) qualifies as hate speech
E) is obscene

Question 47

Which of the following is responsible for determining whether enough evidence exists to support a conviction against a criminal defendant?

A) trial court
B) defense attorney
C) prosecutor
D) legislature
E) jury

Question 48

Which of the following may the government ban without violating the Constitution?

A) hate speech
B) offensive art
C) virtual child pornography
D) obscene pornographic films
E) ritual animal sacrifice

Question 49

During the nineteenth century, the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states.

Question 50

What do proponents of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility call its prisoners?

A) war criminals
B) enemy combatants
C) prisoners of war
D) foreign aggressors
E) enemy troops

Question 51

Which of the following amendments was most recently incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore applies to the states?

A) Sixth
B) Ninth
C) Third
D) Second
E) Fourth

Question 52

In recent years, the Supreme Court has struggled to address __________ on the Internet in a First Amendment context.

A) slander
B) libel
C) hate speech
D) obscenity
E) fighting words

Question 53

According to the Supreme Court, citizens do not have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" that would protect against an unwarranted police search of their __________.

A) hotel room
B) personal residence
C) garbage can on the edge of private property
D) car parked in their driveway
E) laptop computer

Question 54

A law prohibiting a newspaper from publishing a story exposing military secrets is an example of what kind of law?

A) violation of free speech
B) prior restraint
C) content-based
D) civil
E) criminal

Question 55

Which of the following rights has the Supreme Court found to be one of the unstated liberties that arises from other explicitly stated rights?

A) right to marry
B) right to travel
C) right to vote
D) right to privacy
E) right to have a family

Question 56

Convicted criminals whose sentences increase during their prison term due to a change in the law have been illegally subjected to what kind of law?

A) cruel and unusual
B) habeas corpus
C) ex post facto
D) bill of attainder
E) writ of certiorari

Question 57

In Barron v. Baltimore, the Supreme Court held that the Bill of Rights limits __________, not __________, action.

A) federal, state
B) state, federal
C) state, local
D) local, state
E) federal, local

Question 58

Although the speech in question was suppressed, the Court in Gitlow v. New York held that not all forms of __________ can be limited.

A) hate speech
B) symbolic speech
C) political speech
D) fighting words
E) obscenity

Question 59

Which clause ensures that a citizen who resides in California will be protected by the laws of Idaho while he or she is in Idaho?

A) privileges and immunities
B) free exercise
C) equal protection
D) supremacy
E) due process

Question 60

Which of the following created the right to privacy?

A) the Bill of Rights
B) the Constitution
C) the executive branch
D) the legislature
E) the judiciary

Question 61

Government regulation of political speech is subject to ordinary scrutiny.

Question 62

Writs of habeas corpus are laws declaring an act illegal without a judicial trial.

Question 63

Under the Lemon test, the government must not foster _____________ between the state and religion.

Question 64

Most developed countries use some form of the death penalty.

Question 65

One prong of the Lemon test is that the law has a __________ secular purpose.

Question 66

The Fourteenth Amendment suggests that the protections in the Bill of Rights could be interpreted as applying to the states.

Question 67

Freedom of the press protects reporters from revealing their sources when they have been issued a subpoena by a court.

Question 68

In Abington School District v. Schempp, the Court ruled that state-mandated Bible readings were constitutional under the free exercise clause.

Question 69

Planned Parenthood v. Casey held that a state court could limit abortions as long as the regulation did not pose an undue burden on pregnant women.

Question 70

Burning the American flag is not constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

Question 71

The __________ Court, named after the Chief Justice presiding over the U.S. Supreme Court at the time, supported laws that deterred police misconduct.

Question 72

__________ include profanity, obscenity, and threats.

Question 73

In recent years, the Supreme Court has __________ constraints on aid to parochial schools and voucher programs.

Question 74

The contract clause prohibits the executive branch from entering into contracts without the consent of the legislative branch.

Question 75

The Burger Court vehemently enforced the rights identified in Miranda v. Arizona.

Question 76

The constitutional convention was convened, in part, because citizens were concerned about threats to their property rights.

Question 77

The free exercise clause guarantees that the government will not interfere with the practice of religion.

Question 78

In the 1970s, the Supreme Court ended __________ because it was being imposed arbitrarily, but it was later reinstated.

Question 79

An early effort to define __________ focused on whether the material had any serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Question 80

After Gideon v. Wainwright, the Sixth Amendment has been interpreted to guarantee a right to counsel to all criminal defendants, regardless of indigence.