Deck 6: Personal Autonomy and the Constitutional Right of Privacy

Question 1

In April 2010, Nebraska Governor Dave Heinman signed a statute into law banning "abortions beyond 20 weeks of gestation based on disputed claims that a fetus begins to feel pain at that stage." The statute provides for an exception for medical emergencies. According to Denise M. Burke, vice president of legal affairs for Americans United for Life, a nonprofit policy organization that is anti-abortion, the Nebraskan statute "is the first to ban abortion based on that premise." Furthermore, Burke claims "the legislation was bolstered by the 2007 Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart that upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003." Considering Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) and Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), would such legislation survive a constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court?
Information from HYPERLINK "http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/05/10/gvl20510.htm" http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/05/10/gvl20510.htm, Amednews.com published by the American Medical Association Accessed July 20, 2010.

Answer 1

Not answer

Question 2

Could the Supreme Court have avoided the abortion controversy altogether? Should it have done so?

Answer 2

Not answer

Question 3

Could sterilization be constitutionally imposed as punishment for a person convicted of rape?

Answer 3

Not answer

Question 4

Is the constitutional right of privacy only a "negative right" placing limits on government, or does it include a "positive" aspect requiring government to shield individuals from invasions of their privacy?

Question 5

In Doe v. Commonwealth's Attorney (1976), the Supreme Court ________ a federal district court decision upholding Virginia's law proscribing _________.

A) upheld; sodomy
B) struck down; euthanasia
C) refused to review; abortion
D) struck down; contraception

Question 6

If the right of privacy is the right of the individual to make decisions regarding matters of sex and reproduction, as the Supreme Court suggested in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), how can laws proscribing acts of sodomy between consenting adults be valid?

Question 7

In __________________ the Supreme Court struck down a state law providing for the compulsory sterilization of criminals.

A) Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942)
B) Buck v. Bell (1927)
C) Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905)
D) Poe v. Ullman (1961)

Question 8

The _________________ protects the individual from unwarranted government interference in intimate personal relationships or activities.

A) Fourth Amendment
B) constitutional right of privacy
C) the 14th Amendment Privileges and Immunities Clause
D) Tenth Amendment

Question 9

Is there a sound constitutional basis for the right of privacy recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and subsequent cases?

Question 10

Should the Supreme Court accord greater importance to the Ninth Amendment as a constitutional source of the right of privacy?

Question 11

The English philosopher _______ wrote that "there is a sphere of action in which society, as distinguished from the individual, has, if any, only an indirect interest; comprehending all that portion of a person's life and conduct which affects only himself, or if it also affects others, only with their free, voluntary and undeceived consent and participation."

A) Thomas Hobbes
B) John Locke
C) Jeremy Bentham
D) John Stuart Mill

Question 12

Justice ______________ has written that "Our society prohibits, and all human societies have prohibited, certain activities not because they harm others but because they are considered ... immoral.... While there might be a great diversity of views on whether various of these prohibitions should exist, ... there is no doubt that absent specific constitutional protection for the conduct involved, the Constitution does not prohibit them simply because they regulate 'morality'."

A) Harry Blackmun
B) John P. Stevens
C) Antonin Scalia
D) Sandra Day O'Connor

Question 13

______ often object to laws regulating sexual conduct, living arrangements, the private use of drugs--even to laws mandating that motorcycle riders wear helmets.

A) conservatives
B) liberals
C) populists
D) libertarians

Question 14

Would the right of privacy bar Congress from attempting to limit the number of children per married couple?

Question 15

Would the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment be a sounder or a weaker constitutional basis for the Supreme Court's abortion decisions than the "right to privacy" implicit in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Question 16

If you were nominated to serve on the Supreme Court, would you answer questions from the Senate judiciary committee pertaining to your predisposition to follow Roe v. Wade?

Question 17

The political philosophy of _____________ holds that individual freedom is the highest good, and that law should be interpreted to maximize the scope of individual freedom.

A) populism
B) conservatism
C) liberalism
D) libertarianism

Question 18

In __________ the Supreme Court specifically held that the right of privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

A) Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
B) Whalen v. Roe (1977)
C) Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)
D) Roe v. Wade (1973)

Question 19

In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court struck down a state requirement that a married woman seeking an abortion must ________.

A) wait 24-hours before undergoing the procedure
B) notify her husband of her intentions
C) undergo a psychiatric evaluation
D) obtain permission from her husband

Question 20

Is the so-called "right to die" a slippery slope leading inevitably to the legalization of mercy killing and assisted suicide?

Question 21

In Buck v. Bell (1927), Justice __________________ wrote that "three generations of imbeciles are enough."

A) George Sutherland
B) William Howard Taft
C) Charles Evans Hughes
D) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Question 22

A number of scholars have argued that the ____ Amendment's recognition of rights "retained by the people" adds support to the constitutional right of privacy.

A) 5th
B) 8th
C) 9th
D) 10th

Question 23

Among recent Supreme Court nominees, only ___________ has rejected the interpretive foundation of the right of privacy.

A) Elena Kagan
B) John Paul Stevens
C) John Roberts
D) Robert Bork

Question 24

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) involved a challenge to a state law that criminalized the use of __________.

A) marijuana
B) hand guns
C) family counseling
D) birth control devices

Question 25

According to Stephens and Scheb, the most significant abortion case of the 1980s was ______.

A) Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)
B) Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983)
C) Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
D) In re Guardianship of Barry (1983)

Question 26

In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) the Supreme Court ____________________.

A) struck down a state law making it a crime to engage in homosexual sodomy
B) upheld a state law restricting heterosexual sodomy
C) upheld a state law as applied to consensual homosexual sodomy
D) struck down a state law prohibiting single-sex marriages

Question 27

Classical _____________ hold that individuals must often be protected against their own vices, and defends the embodiment of traditional morality in the law.

A) conservatism
B) liberalism
C) libertarianism
D) none of the above

Question 28

The case of ____________________ involved a challenge to a state law that made it a crime to use, sell or possess birth control devices.

A) Buck v. Bell
B) Bowers v. Hardwick
C) Griswold v. Connecticut
D) none of the above

Question 29

In Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983), the Supreme Court struck down a city ordinance that required that _______________.

A) all abortions be performed in hospitals
B) a woman wait 24 hours before having an abortion
C) fetal remains be disposed of in a humane and sanitary manner
D) all of the above

Question 30

Prior to 1937 the Supreme Court's application of "substantive due process" was most often confined to _________________________.

A) the protection of free enterprise from governmental regulation
B) protection of the rights of women and children
C) preservation of the states against expanding federal power
D) safeguarding the rights of African Americans

Question 31

Which of the following Justices has urged that Roe v. Wade be overturned?

A) Kennedy
B) Ginsburg
C) Scalia
D) Stevens

Question 32

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) holding that the right of privacy is "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy" is grounded explicitly in the ____________________.

A) First Amendment freedom of conscience
B) Ninth Amendment
C) guarantee of liberty in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
D) Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Question 33

The _______ Amendment explicitly protects the privacy of the home in peacetime from soldiers seeking quarters.

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

Question 34

Which of the following members of the Supreme Court has supported the central holding in Roe v. Wade?

A) Chief Justice Rehnquist
B) Justice Souter
C) Justice White
D) Justice Thomas

Question 35

In Roe v. Wade Justice Blackmun stated that the word "person" in the Constitution applied ______________.

A) to the fetus at the point of viability
B) after the first trimester of pregnancy
C) after the second trimester of pregnancy
D) postnatally

Question 36

In the Griswold decision, Justice ____________ wrote: "The Constitution makers knew the need for change and provided for it. Amendments ... can be submitted to the people ... for ratification. That method of change was good enough for our Fathers, and being somewhat old?fashioned I must add that it is good enough for me."

A) William O. Douglas
B) Earl Warren
C) Felix Frankfurter
D) Hugo Black

Question 37

In the first two decades of the Twentieth Century, the Supreme Court's use of "substantive due process" was by and large confined to the protection of _______.

A) free enterprise from government regulation
B) the rights of women and children
C) the states from the federal government
D) the civil rights of black Americans

Question 38

In ruling on the constitutionality of state regulations of abortion, the Supreme Court today is most likely to apply the __________________.

A) "trimester" framework
B) "undue burden" test
C) "compelling state interest"
D) "bad tendency" test

Question 39

In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) the Supreme Court struck down a state requirement that a married woman seeking an abortion must _______________.

A) wait 24 hours after giving written consent before undergoing the procedure
B) notify her spouse of her intentions
C) undergo counseling
D) obtain her spouse's permission

Question 40

The ______ Amendment prohibits compulsory self-incrimination, thus protecting the privacy of an accused individual's thoughts, whereas the ______ Amendment ensures freedom of conscience in both political and religious matters.

A) First; Fourth
B) Fourth; First
C) First; Fifth
D) Fifth; First

Question 41

In ______________, the Supreme Court upheld a village ordinance that limited residential land use to one-family dwellings.

A) Moore v. City of East Cleveland (1977)
B) Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)
C) Belle Terre v. Boraas (1974)
D) none of the above

Question 42

In Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), Justice ___________ majority opinion did recognize that "[t]here is, of course, a sphere within which the individual may assert the supremacy of his own will and rightfully dispute the authority of any human government, especially of any free government existing under a written constitution, to interfere with the exercise of that will."

A) John M. Harlan's
B) Henry Billings Brown's
C) Edward D. White's
D) none of the above

Question 43

To prevent assisted suicide in the state of _____________, the legislature enacted a law providing that "[a] person is guilty of promoting a suicide attempt when he knowingly causes or aids another person to attempt suicide," which was held unconstitutional in 1994.

A) Tennessee
B) New York
C) California
D) Washington

Question 44

In ______________, the Supreme Court struck down an ordinance that limited the occupancy of residences to members of single families. However, the ordinance defined "family" in such a way as to prohibit a grandmother from cohabiting with her two grandsons.

A) In re Quinlan (1976)
B) Doe v. Commonwealth's Attorney (1976)
C) Moore v. City of East Cleveland (1977)
D) none of the above

Question 45

While the Schiavo case did not develop any new legal principles or procedures, it did reaffirm the __________ in a highly public and highly politicized context.

A) right to die
B) right to birth control
C) right to same sex marriage
D) none of the above

Question 46

In ____________, the Supreme Court voted to uphold a Connecticut welfare regulation that denied Medicaid benefits to indigent women seeking to have abortions, unless their attending physicians certified their abortions as "medically necessary."

A) Harris v. McRae (1980)
B) Missouri v. Danforth (1976)
C) Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983)
D) Maher v. Roe (1977)

Question 47

In ____________, the Supreme Court upheld a federal regulation that barred birth control clinics that received federal funds from providing information about abortion services to their clients.

A) Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)
B) Rust v. Sullivan (1991)
C) Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
D) Gonzales v. Carhart (2007)

Question 48

Proponents of a constitutional right of privacy often cite the ______ Amendment, which guarantees rights "retained by the people" even though they are not enumerated in the Constitution.

A) Fourth
B) Sixth
C) Seventh
D) Ninth

Question 49

In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Justice __________ asserted that "specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance, " and reasoned that the explicit language of the Bill of Rights, specifically the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments, when considered along with their "emanations" and "penumbras" as defined by previous decisions of the Court, add up to a general, independent right of privacy.

A) Douglas
B) Harlan
C) Brennan
D) Black

Question 50

In ______________, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court permitted the guardian of an elderly, retarded man to assert his ward's right of privacy and refuse chemotherapy treatment for the elderly man's leukemia.

A) Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz (1977)
B) Guardianship of Andrew Barry (1984)
C) Rust v. Sullivan (1991)
D) none of the above

Question 51

The best-known case involving the doctrine of ____________in relation to the so-called right to die is In re Quinlan (N.J. 1976).

A) transferred judgment
B) substituted judgment
C) transferred intent
D) substituted intent