1. Which of the following pairs of terms are considered interchangeable?
A. interstate compacts and extraditions
B. enumerated powers and implied powers
C. civil rights and civil liberties
D. liberties and freedoms
E. horizontal federalism and conflicted federalism
2. The first ______amendments to the Constitution explicitly limited the power of legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the national government.
3. Which of the following forms of opinion-based communication is/are protected by the Constitution?
A. political participation
B. blogs and email
C. rallies and speeches
D. letters and pamphlets
E. blogs and email, letters and pamphlets, and rallies and speeches
4. A legal safeguard that prevents the government from arbitrarily depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property is a
5. Which constitutional amendment specifically places limits on Congress?
6. Which of the following constitutional amendments focuses on the rights reserved to the people?
7. The freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights are
A. incontrovertible.
B. broad principles.
C. easily interpreted.
D. specific rules.
E. All these answers are correct.
8. Which level (or levels) of government did the framers of the Constitution seek to restrict in power with the Bill of Rights?
9. The Supreme Court has selectively incorporated some of the Bill of Rights and applied them to state action through the
10. In what year did the Supreme Court actually begin the process of incorporation?
11. Which of the following Bill of Rights protections has/have NOT been extended to the state level?
A. prohibition of quartering of soldiers in citizens' homes
B. a provision for a grand jury indictment in criminal cases
C. provision of a jury in a civil trial
D. freedom of worship
E. prohibition of quartering of soldiers in citizens' homes, right to a grand jury indictment in criminal cases, and right to a jury in a civil trial
12. Which city's gun control laws were overturned in a 2008 Supreme Court decision that hinged on an interpretation of the Second Amendment?
13. In its 2010 McDonald v. Chicago decision about the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled that
A. states must enact "duty to retreat" laws.
B. the Second Amendment does not entitle law-abiding citizens to own a firearm.
C. the Second Amendment is incorporated under the Fourteenth Amendment.
D. only the national government can pass laws regulating firearms.
E. state and local governments cannot pass laws regulating firearms.
14. Stand Your Ground laws are MOST prevalent in what section of the country?
15. Which type of law gives a gun owner the MOST freedom to legally shoot another person?
A. Stand Your Ground
B. Duty to Retreat
C. Castle Doctrine
D. Stand Your Ground and Duty to Retreat both confer the same amount of freedom.
E. Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine both confer the same amount of freedom.
16. Which means of political expression is guaranteed under the Constitution?
17. Which concept argues that true and free political discourse requires a forum for free and unrestrained political discussion?
18. The conflict between the Constitution's competing goals of protecting freedom and ensuring order is MOST evident in which of the following?
A. Alien and Sedition Acts
B. habeas corpus
C. Griswold v. Connecticut
D. double jeopardy
E. total incorporation
19. Which of the following protects an individual from being held in custody without the right to be heard in a court of law?
20. During the Civil War, which legal right did President Abraham Lincoln suspend as a means of silencing political dissidents?
21. Which legal case established the clear and present danger test in relation to free speech?
22. ______established the bad tendency test, which made it easier to punish citizens for speech content.
23. Which piece of legislation barred individuals from advocating or teaching the overthrow of the United States?
24. Which of the following was MOST important in the Supreme Court's shift from the clear and probable danger test to the imminent lawless action test?
A. the declining fear of a communist overthrow of the United States
B. the fact that the United States was not engaged in a major war in Europe
C. a large increase in public support for unlimited freedom of expression
D. direct pressure from the president of the United States
E. a more nuanced examination of what the Founding Fathers thought about freedom of speech
25. Which 1969 legal case marked a reversal of the Supreme Court's traditional position and also saw the establishment of the imminent lawless action test?
A. Dennis v. United States
B. Gitlow v. New York
C. Schenck v. United States
D. United States v. Lopez
E. Brandenburg v. Ohio
26. Picketing, flag burning, or wearing an
armband are all examples of
27. Which legal case concerned the burning of the American flag and led to a series of legal challenges?
28. False written statements that harm the reputation of another person are known as
29. Spoken words that are known to be false and harmful to a person's reputation are an example of
30. Which case saw the Supreme Court develop a three-part test to legally define obscenity, or indecent or offensive speech?
31. In 1973 the Supreme Court developed a test by which a book, film, or other form of expression would be considered legally obscene. Which of the following was among the measures of that test?
A. The work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, a form of sexual conduct specifically prohibited by an antiobscenity law.
B. The average person, applying historical standards, finds specific aspects of the work appeal to the prurient interest.
C. The work has a verifiable history of having inspired additional works of an obscene nature or demands, in some manner, that obscenities be created.
D. The work's literary, artistic, political, or scientific value can be shown to be against the common good.
E. All these answers are correct.
32. A city ordinance that prohibits the use of
bullhorns after midnight in residential neighborhoods would be
A. an unconstitutional prohibition of the freedom of assembly.
B. constitutional as long as it did not apply to protest speech.
C. unconstitutional, unless it dealt specifically with fighting words.
D. constitutional as long as it was content neutral.
E. a matter of state and local law, not subject to the federal Constitution.
33. The principle of prior restraint, established in the case of Near v. Minnesota, relates to
A. freedom of speech.
B. libel.
C. slander.
D. freedom of assembly.
E. censorship.
34. What do the religion clauses of the First Amendment achieve?
A. bar the government from establishing a national religion
B. bar the government from favoring one religious group over another
C. ensure that individuals are not hindered in exercising their religion
D. bar the practicing of religion on public property
E. bar the government from establishing a national religion, from favoring one group over another, and from interfering with individual religious practices
35. Most Americans believe in ______between religious organizations and the government.
A. complete separation
B. some degree of separation
C. minor connections
D. major connections
E. a permanent supportive relationship
36. Which case saw the Supreme Court rule
against the subsidization of parochial schools through cigarette taxes?
37. According to the Lemon test, for a state law to not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, it must
A. give equal time to the value of all major world religions.
B. not entangle the government excessively in religion.
C. have the enhancement of religion as its major goal.
D. not have any substantial secular purpose.
E. All these answers are correct.
38. Which case saw the Supreme Court rule against formalized prayer in schools?
39. Which of the following is permissible in public schools?
A. banning the teaching of evolution
B. requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments
C. requiring all students to say the Pledge of Allegiance
D. official graduation ceremony prayers
E. None of these answers is correct.
40. All of these groups tend to be involved in cases that involve the free exercise clause EXCEPT
A. Mormons.
B. Jehovah's Witnesses.
C. the Roman Catholic Church.
D. the Amish.
E. Christian Scientists.
41. Which of the following religious affiliations has the greatest number of adherents in the United States?
42. After the ruling on Employment Division, Department of Human Resources v. Smith, members of which church were excluded from several states' controlled-substance laws?
43. Which case, decided in 1965, first firmly established the right to privacy?
44. The right to privacy
A. is explicitly mentioned in Article IV of the Constitution.
B. is explicitly mentioned in the Bill of Rights.
C. was first affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1925.
D. is inherent in many of the other constitutional guarantees.
E. has been, overall, quite easy for the Supreme Court to interpret.
45. What year saw the passage of Roe v. Wade, which first established abortion rights in the United States?
46. The Supreme Court has ruled that the right to refuse further medical treatment that could prolong a life is
A. not one found in the Constitution.
B. is available to an individual competent to make such a decision.
C. up to each individual state to determine.
D. a right that can be exercised by any doctor, relative, or friend of a sick person.
E. only permissible with a court order from a state or federal judge.
47. The recent development of online networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube has civil libertarians worried about the easy accessibility of people's ______history.
A. financial
B. personal
C. employment
D. legal
E. financial, personal, employment, and legal
48. Which four amendments are known together as criminal due process rights?
49. Which 1961 decision extended exclusionary rules of search and seizure to state court proceedings?
50. Since the ______, the U.S. Supreme Court has expanded the situations in which there is no reasonable expectation of privacy and thus no need for a search warrant.
A. 1950s
B. 1960s
C. 1970s
D. 1980s
E. 1990s
51. In which of the following places has the Court ruled that there is no expectation of privacy?
A. private homes
B. cars and one's trash
C. hotels
D. parks and stores
E. cars and one's trash, and parks and stores
52. What did the Supreme Court rule in United States v. Jones in regards to the warrantless placement of a GPS tracing device in a suspect's car?
A. It is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
B. It is permissible under the Fourth Amendment.
C. It is a violation of the Fifth Amendment.
D. It is permissible under the Fifth Amendment.
E. It is not a violation of the Fourth or Fifth Amendments because the suspect has no reasonable expectation of privacy.
53. The Fifth Amendment establishes
A. freedom of speech.
B. freedom of assembly.
C. protection against search and seizure.
D. protection against compelled self-incrimination.
E. the right to counsel.
54. Miranda v. Arizona legally established which of the following personal liberties?
A. protection against cruel and unusual punishment
B. protection against harassment and persecution
C. the right to counsel and information on charges against oneself
D. protection against unlawful detention or imprisonment without charge
E. protection against unlawful search and seizure
55. Which 1972 legal case saw the Supreme Court suspend the use of the death penalty?
56. In 1878 the Supreme Court upheld what type of capital punishment method in Utah?
57. Following September 11, 2001, the ______has/have been accused by the media and civil liberties groups of spying on Americans without their knowledge or judicial authorization?
A. National Security Administration
B. Federal Bureau of Investigation
C. Central Intelligence Agency
D. Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
E. National Security Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
58. Which organization showed its criticism of the government's recent domestic surveillance program by filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2008 FISA Amendment Act, which increased the federal government's warrantless surveillance abilities?
A. Anti-Defamation League
B. American Civil Liberties Union
C. Amnesty International
D. Human Rights Watch
E. Citizens Against Warrantless Surveillance
59. Since September 11, 2001, the federal government's powers of surveillance and observance have
A. grown significantly.
B. grown marginally.
C. stayed the same.
D. declined marginally.
E. declined significantly.
60. Which piece of legislation passed in 2007 legally empowers the NSA to wiretap any communications that begin or end in a foreign country?
61. The practice of transferring custody of suspected terrorists to other nations for imprisonment and interrogation is known as
62. The Obama administration used drones abroad primarily to
A. gather data for GPS analysis.
B. drop propaganda leaflets in war areas.
C. deliver diplomatic packages to remote areas.
D. try to kill suspected terrorists.
E. look for people trying to cross the U.S. border illegally.