Deck 8: Elections, Representation, and Voting Rights

Question 1

Do long-standing statutory restrictions favoring the two party system and discouraging the growth of third parties violate the constitutional rights of voters?

Answer 1

Not answer

Question 2

Is the recently enacted ban on unlimited soft money contributions to political parties constitutional?

Answer 2

Not answer

Question 3

First enacted by Mississippi in 1890 as a means of preventing Blacks from voting, the _________ soon spread throughout Southern and border states.

A) poll tax
B) literacy test
C) grandfather clause
D) white primary

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which is more fundamental in a democracy, the right to vote or freedom of speech?

Question 5

Does the Supreme Court's requirement of uniform state-wide standards for recounting votes in presidential elections follow logically from its reapportionment decisions of the 1960's?

Question 6

Oklahoma's version of the ___________________, adopted as an amendment to the state constitution in 1910, required literacy tests for all voters whose ancestors had not been entitled to vote prior to 1866.

A) poll tax
B) white primary
C) 15th Amendment
D) grandfather clause

Question 7

The voting age in all elections was lowered to eighteen with the ratification of the _____ Amendment to the Constitution in _____.

A) 26th; 1971
B) 23rd; 1965
C) 20th; 1960
D) 19th; 1949

Question 8

Every ten years, after completion of the census, ____ reallocates Congressional seats among the states.

A) Congress
B) the Supreme Court
C) the Senate
D) the House of Representatives

Question 9

In 1941, Congress enacted a law specifying that the method of "_________" would be used to ascertain the number of Congressional seats to which each state would be entitled.

A) equal proportions
B) least squares
C) least resistance
D) minimum deviation

Question 10

Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, ___________.

A) every state is guaranteed at least one Congressional seat
B) Congressional district lines may not cross state borders
C) no Congressional district may include less than 30,000 persons
D) all of the above

Question 11

Chisom v. Roemer involved a challenge to the system for electing judges to the ____________ supreme court.

A) Colorado
B) Alabama
C) Florida
D) Louisiana

Question 12

In the mid?1960s, a widely publicized effort to overrule the reapportionment decisions through constitutional amendment was spearheaded by Senate minority leader _______.

A) Howard Baker
B) Strom Thurmond
C) James Eastland
D) Everett Dirksen

Question 13

Should the Voting Rights Act of 1965 be extended once again in 2031 when the Act is set to expire, or have we reached the point where such federal oversight is no longer necessary?

Question 14

Is it appropriate for federal courts to scrutinize forms of local government, such as at-large elections, in order to insure that minority voting strength is not diluted? Is federal judicial involvement in these matters, which were traditionally left to local governments, necessary and legitimate, or is it excessive judicial activism?

Question 15

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ratified in 1964, abolished _______ as prerequisites for voting in federal elections.

A) literacy tests
B) citizenship requirements
C) residency requirements
D) poll taxes

Question 16

In view of the vast expansion of the right of American citizens to elect their representatives at all levels of government, what justifications, if any, still exist for retaining the electoral college?

Question 17

Could Congress or a state legislature constitutionally require employers to grant employees "time off" to vote without a reduction in pay?

Question 18

Did the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment intend for the Equal Protection Clause to be applied to the problem of malapportionment? If not, how does one justify the Supreme Court's historic reapportionment decisions?

Question 19

Did the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the popular election of United States Senators fundamentally alter the balance of power between the national government and the states?

Question 20

Does Congress have the constitutional authority to prohibit state legislatures from gerrymandering congressional districts?

Question 21

First enacted by ____________in 1890, the grandfather clause soon spread throughout southern and border states and typically required literacy tests for all voters whose ancestors had not been entitled to vote prior to 1866.

A) Georgia
B) Alabama
C) Mississippi
D) Tennessee

Question 22

In Gray v. Sanders (1963), the Supreme Court invalidated Georgia's "______" system of apportioning the state legislature.

A) Jaybird
B) county unit
C) one-person, one-vote
D) none of the above

Question 23

In Gomilion v. Lightfoot (1960) the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an extreme form of the ___________.

A) literacy test
B) white primary
C) grandfather clause
D) racial gerrymander

Question 24

Which of the following procedural devices designed to prevent most African-Americans from voting was the first to be declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court?

A) the white primary
B) the poll tax
C) the grandfather clause
D) the racial gerrymander

Question 25

In _______________, the Supreme Court struck down the Enforcement Act of 1870, by which Congress attempted to protect the right of African-Americans to vote in state elections.

A) Gomilion v. Lightfoot (1960)
B) United States v. Reese (1876)
C) Ex parte Yarbrough (1884)
D) none of the above

Question 26

In Reynolds v. Sims (1964) Chief Justice Warren applied the principle of "one person, one vote" to ___________________.

A) apportionment of both houses of a state legislature
B) only the lower house of a state legislature
C) the United States Senate
D) the U.S. House of Representatives

Question 27

In _________________, the Supreme Court upheld a Texas white primary based on a resolution adopted by the state Democratic Party, which effectively reinforced the legal view that political parties were merely private organizations beyond the purview of the Constitution.

A) Nixon v. Herndon (1927)
B) Grovey v. Townsend (1935)
C) Nixon v. Condon (1932)
D) United States v. Classic (1941)

Question 28

Which of the following was most effective in protecting and implementing the voting rights of African-Americans?

A) invalidation of the white primary
B) invalidation of the grandfather clause
C) passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957
D) passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Question 29

For some jurisprudential thinkers, such as ______________, the primary utility of and justification for judicial review is to maintain the integrity of the democratic process.

A) Robert Bork
B) Michael Perry
C) John Hart Ely
D) Raoul Berger

Question 30

In United States v. Classic (1941), the Supreme Court held that the federal government could regulate party primaries in order to prevent _____.

A) discrimination against women
B) racial discrimination
C) discrimination against the poor
D) election fraud

Question 31

The intentional redrawing of legislative district lines for political purposes is referred to as ___.

A) logrolling
B) ticket-splitting
C) gerrymandering
D) interdiction

Question 32

In judging claims of official discrimination in the area of voting rights, courts usually employ ______________.

A) the rational basis test
B) heightened scrutiny
C) strict scrutiny
D) substantive due process

Question 33

The first of many legal victories won by the NAACP came when the Supreme Court struck down the Oklahoma grandfather clause in __________________.

A) Newberry v. United States (1921)
B) United States v. Reese (1876)
C) Lane v. Wilson (1939)
D) Guinn v. United States (1915)

Question 34

Grovey v. Townsend, the 1935 decision in which the Supreme Court had upheld the so-called _______, was overruled in Smith v. Allwright (1944).

A) grandfather clause
B) racial gerrymander
C) preclearance requirement
D) white primary

Question 35

In 1980, independent presidential candidate __________________ filed suit in federal court to challenge Ohio's March filing deadline for the November general elections.

A) Ross Perot
B) George Wallace
C) Harold Stassen
D) John Anderson

Question 36

Section 2 of the ________________ specifically allows plaintiffs to challenge electoral schemes that impermissibly dilute the voting strength of minority groups.

A) Voting Rights Act
B) Fourteenth Amendment
C) Fifteenth Amendment
D) none of the above

Question 37

In Davis v. Bandemer (1986), the plurality opinion indicated that plaintiffs challenging partisan gerrymandering of state legislatures would have to make a "threshold showing of _____."

A) intentional discrimination
B) discriminatory vote dilution
C) invidious discrimination
D) none of the above

Question 38

Justice _____________ famous footnote in United States v. Carolene Products (1938) recognized potential problems resulting from efforts to limit political participation.

A) Oliver Wendell Holmes'
B) Felix Frankfurter's
C) Charles Evans Hughes'
D) Harlan Fiske Stone's

Question 39

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution __________.

A) sets the minimum voting age at eighteen in federal and state elections
B) abolishes the poll tax in federal elections
C) removes gender as a qualification for voting
D) provides for the popular election of U.S. Senators

Question 40

In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), the Supreme Court invalidated the use of _________ in state elections.

A) literacy tests
B) poll taxes
C) residency requirements
D) none of the above

Question 41

In __________________, the Supreme Court upheld an apportionment scheme for the Wyoming legislature based on county lines, even though the scheme had a population deviation of nearly 90 percent between the largest and the smallest districts.

A) Hadley v. Junior College District (1970)
B) Avery v. Midland County (1968)
C) Karcher v. Daggett (1983)
D) Brown v. Thomson (1983)

Question 42

In ________________, the Supreme Court explicitly upheld the use of literacy tests based on the reasoning that "in our society where newspapers, periodicals, books and other printed matter canvass and debate campaign issues, a State might conclude that only those who are literate should exercise the franchise."

A) Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Education (1959)
B) Terry v. Adams (1953)
C) Breedlove v. Suttles (1937)
D) none of the above

Question 43

In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), the Supreme Court held that poll taxes in state elections violated the __________ Amendment.

A) Fifth
B) Sixth
C) Fourteenth
D) Fifteenth

Question 44

In __________________, the Supreme Court invoked the political questions doctrine to foreclose judicial relief in the area of malapportionment, at least from the federal bench.

A) Gray v. Sanders (1963)
B) Colegrove v. Green (1946)
C) Baker v. Carr (1962)
D) none of the above

Question 45

In _____________, the Supreme Court struck down an at-large election scheme in Burke County, Georgia on the basis that there was discriminatory intent on the part of public officials.

A) Thornburgh v. Gingles (1985)
B) Mobile v. Bolden (1980)
C) Shaw v. Reno (1993)
D) Rogers v. Lodge (1982)

Question 46

In _______________, the Supreme Court struck down the white primary as violative of the Fifteenth Amendment, thus overruling _______________.

A) United States v. Classic (1941); Smith v. Allwright (1944)
B) Grovey v. Townsend (1935); Smith v. Allwright (1944)
C) Smith v. Allwright (1944); Grovey v. Townsend (1935)
D) none of the above

Question 47

In League of United Latin American Voters v. Perry (2006), the Supreme Court ________ a controversial Texas congressional reapportionment plan that strongly advantaged Republican incumbents.

A) upheld
B) invalidated
C) denied certiorari
D) none of the above

Question 48

In _____________, the Supreme Court struck down spending limits set by the Federal Election Campaign Act as applied to the Colorado Republican Party's "independent expenditures."

A) Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
B) Federal Election Commission v. National Conservative Political Action Committee (1985)
C) Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission (1996)
D) Federal Election Commission v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (2001)

Question 49

In Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960), Justice ______________ stated, "that if the plaintiffs' allegations were proven [regarding racial gerrymandering, it would be "difficult to appreciate what stands in the way of adjudging [the redistricting measure] invalid."

A) Felix Frankfurter
B) William O. Douglas
C) Tom Clark
D) John M. Harlan, II

Question 50

In Bush v. Gore (2000), the Court ruled ______ that the selective manual recount was unconstitutional, a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

A) 8 to 1
B) 7 to 2
C) 6 to 3
D) 5 to 4

Question 51

In __________________, the Supreme Court said that "[i]f a State decides to elect its trial judges, ... those elections must be conducted in compliance with the Voting Rights Act."

A) Houston Lawyers' Association v. Attorney General of Texas (1991)
B) Thornburgh v. Gingles (1986)
C) Chisom v. Roemer (1991)
D) none of the above