Deck 4: Equal Protection Under the Law: Balancing Individual, State, and Federal Rights

Question 1

Which of the following was not one of the pressing issues that led to the Civil War?

A) state banks and money versus national banks and currency
B) freedom versus slavery in the territories
C) federal aid versus state aid for improving roadways and railways
D) racial segregation in the South

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The fundamental provisions of the Bill of Rights have been applied to the states through the process of:

A) stare decisis.
B) judicial activism.
C) summary judgment.
D) selective incorporation.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The Thirteenth Amendment:

A) dealt with the right to due process of law.
B) abolished slavery.
C) established prohibition.
D) guaranteed equal protection.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The Constitution was originally drafted to limit the power of:

A) the federal government.
B) the governments of the 13 independent colonial states.
C) British rule over the colonies.
D) Congress.

Question 5

Which of the following holds that only the provisions of the Bill of Rights that are fundamental to the American legal system are applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

A) the incorporation doctrine
B) the Equal Justice Clause
C) the selective preemption doctrine
D) the civil liberties proclamation

Question 6

The Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Virginia, which held that exclusion of females was unconstitutional, involved denial of admission to a:

A) medical school.
B) golf tournament.
C) NASA astronaut training program.
D) military institute.

Question 7

Women were granted the right to vote:

A) through the Emancipation Proclamation.
B) 50 years before discrimination based on race was prohibited.
C) at the same time discrimination based on race was prohibited.
D) 50 years after discrimination based on race was prohibited.

Question 8

After the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, the concept of "separate but equal" became entrenched in the Southern states through the enactment of:

A) the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
B) school desegregation.
C) Jim Crow laws.
D) the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 9

Prejudice is:

A) an attitude.
B) punishable by law.
C) a behavior.
D) deemed unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 10

The section of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits intentional acts of employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin is:

A) USC Section 1983.
B) Title VII.
C) Section 287(g).
D) Title IX.

Question 11

The case of Dred Scott v. Sandford held that:

A) blacks had equal rights with whites.
B) the concept of "separate but equal" was unconstitutional.
C) freed slaves did not have the right to remain free in territory where slavery was still legal.
D) states could determine whether ex-slaves could be citizens.

Question 12

Which of the following amendments has most recently been held applicable to the states?

A) the Second Amendment right to bear arms
B) the Fifth Amendment guarantee of criminal prosecution only on a grand jury indictment
C) the Seventh Amendment guarantee of a jury trial in a civil case
D) the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures

Question 13

"Due process of law" means:

A) all state citizens have the right to a grand jury indictment.
B) fairness of government actions.
C) states must treat all citizens equally.
D) federal law cannot usurp state rights.

Question 14

Plessy v. Ferguson held that:

A) our constitution must be color blind.
B) discrimination is outside the realm of the Court.
C) eradicating prejudice is up to legislation.
D) the economic cost of segregation would be staggering.

Question 15

Title VII prohibits policies or practices that are intended to discriminate but, in fact, has a disproportionately negative effect on minorities, which is also known as:

A) disparate treatment.
B) disparate impact.
C) reverse discrimination.
D) preemption treatment.

Question 16

In which case did the plaintiffs claim that they were being denied their right to equal protection of the law and that the laws of "separate but equal" were, in fact, not equal?

A) Strauder v. West Virginia
B) Dred Scott v. Sanford
C) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
D) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Question 17

As of 2013, which agencies are responsible for overseeing the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI)?

A) FBI and DEA
B) CIA and INS
C) FBI and Homeland Security
D) Homeland Security and CIA

Question 18

Among other things, the Fourteenth Amendment:

A) permits blacks to be citizens of the United States.
B) permits states to determine the citizenship status of blacks.
C) abolishes slavery in the territories.
D) overturns the Emancipation Proclamation.

Question 19

Delegation of federal immigration enforcement to state and local law enforcement agencies, so they may assist in enforcing federal immigration laws, is allowed by:

A) Section 1983 of the U.S. Code.
B) the First Amendment.
C) Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
D) the Department of Justice.

Question 20

Which of the following has not been enacted to outlaw discrimination?

A) the Civil Rights Act
B) the Equal Rights Amendment
C) the Voting Rights Amendment
D) the Equal Pay Act

Question 21

Inmates can sue for violation of their constitutional rights under:

A) U.S. Code Section 1983.
B) the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
C) the Prisoner's Rights Act of 1992.
D) the Due Process Act of 1978.

Question 22

Critics of affirmative action policies have contended that civil rights laws cannot remedy the effects of past discrimination and that such policies lead to reverse discrimination.

Question 23

A suspicious activity report (SAR) is the official documentation of observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence gathering.

Question 24

In 2015, the Supreme Court, in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, struck down state bans on same-sex marriages.

Question 25

What 1993 bill was named for the press secretary to President Ronald Reagan who, during the assassination attempt on Reagan, was shot and permanently disabled?

A) the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
B) the Federal Lautenberg Act
C) the Lanchester Mental Health and Restoration Act
D) the Americans with Disabilities Act

Question 26

In 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson was brought before the Supreme Court and heightened awareness of racial issues.

Question 27

What was the significance of the ruling in Johnson v. Avery (1969)?

A) The Court ruled it acceptable for inmates to help each other with legal work in case preparation.
B) The Court ruled that all correctional facilities housing medium to maximum security inmates must maintain access to a law library.
C) The Court determined that disciplinary proceedings differed from criminal prosecutions, such that prisoners were not owed the full due process rights to which a defendant on trial is entitled.
D) The Court ruled that inmates could sue the warden for depriving them of their constitutional rights under Section 1983.

Question 28

The Bill of Rights was meant to be a check on the new national government by limiting its control of state laws.

Question 29

The Procedural Due Process Clauses are found in the Fifth and Thirteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

Question 30

While the Nixon administration was the first to actively pursue "affirmative action," it is Franklin Roosevelt who is credited with coining the term in his first inaugural address.

Question 31

The Thirteenth Amendment granted citizenship to the freed slaves.

Question 32

The landmark case in the issue of affirmative action is:

A) United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (1979).
B) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978).
C) United States v. Paradise (1987).
D) Fullilove v. Klutznick (1980).

Question 33

The Third Amendment (prohibiting the quartering of soldiers in private houses) and the Eighth Amendment (prohibiting excessive fines) have yet to be addressed by the Supreme Court.

Question 34

The Court's 1964 ruling in Cooper v. Pate held that:

A) inmates retain all of their civil rights.
B) inmates lose all of their civil rights.
C) inmates can sue the warden for deprivation of basic rights.
D) discarding inmates' petitions to the court is unconstitutional.

Question 35

Procedural due process refers to the way that laws are applied.

Question 36

The Court acknowledged that virtual exclusion of African Americans from juries constituted an equal protection violation in:

A) Adarand v. Pena.
B) Norris v. Alabama.
C) Swain v. Alabama.
D) Batson v. Kentucky.

Question 37

A situation in which racial minorities are treated more harshly at some points and in some places in the criminal justice system, but no differently than whites at other points and in other places, best describes:

A) pure discrimination.
B) systematic discrimination.
C) contextual discrimination.
D) discretionary discrimination.

Question 38

Sentencing guidelines have reduced:

A) racial disparity.
B) ethnic disparity.
C) the number of death sentences.
D) sentence disparity.

Question 39

In 1880, what clause did the Supreme Court cite in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880) when it struck down a statute explicitly prohibiting African Americans from serving on juries?

A) the Equal Protection Clause
B) the Commerce Clause
C) the Due Process Clause
D) the Equal Representation Clause

Question 40

The Supreme Court case of Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia (1976) dealt with the issue of:

A) age discrimination.
B) racial discrimination.
C) gender discrimination.
D) segregation in the public school system.

Question 41

is an attitude; discrimination is a behavior.

Question 42

The incorporation doctrine is also known as the doctrine of______________________________ incorporation.

Question 43

One weakness of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is that it fails to apply to racial profiling.

Question 44

segregated blacks from whites in schools, restaurants, and even cemeteries.

Question 45

Due to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002, states who fail to address overcrowding within the juvenile justice system may be penalized up to 20 percent of the federal grant money aimed at aiding the state.

Question 46

The contention that police single out subjects based solely on the color of their skin frequently leads to allegations of______________________________.

Question 47

After the Civil War, many Southern states continued discrimination by passing______________________________ , which forbade blacks to vote, serve on juries, hold certain jobs, move freely, own firearms, or gather in groups.

Question 48

Though slavery was abolished in all territories in 1862, racial turbulence persisted and, later, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave blacks ________________.

Question 49

Similarly situated people are treated in similar ways in the legal system under______________________________.

Question 50

programs are sometimes referred to as ethnic-preference or gender-preference programs.

Question 51

With the passage of State Bill 1070 in 2009, Florida became the first state to criminalize illegal immigration by defining it as trespassing.

Question 52

Under the Constitution, laws themselves must be fair to be consistent with______________________________  .

Question 53

Decades of research in neurology and social and cognitive psychology support the conclusion that all people, even those who are well-intentioned and unequivocally reject bigotry, possess implicit biases based simply on exposure to or insulation from the social world around them.

Question 54

In Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court ruled that even______________________________could not be citizens and they had "no rights which a white man was bound to respect."

Question 55

The______________________________ is the belief that through hard work, anyone can have success and ample material possessions.

Question 56

In 1863, President Lincoln declared free all the slaves in the rebelling states in the_______________ .

Question 57

In the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal"_______________ were illegal.

Question 58

The Supreme Court has held that provisions and protections provided by the Fourteenth Amendment apply only to citizens of the country and do not extend to those who are illegally present in the United States.

Question 59

The_______________ Amendment guarantees that states shall not deny any person due process or equal protection of the law.

Question 60

The government is prohibited from unfairly or arbitrarily denying a citizen fundamental or constitutionally protected rights under______________________________ of the law.

Question 61

Discuss the racial disparities that allegedly exist within our criminal justice system.

Question 62

Assume that the police suspect Anne Smith of murder and that they got DNA evidence at the crime scene that likely belongs to the killer. Law enforcement does not have adequate probable cause to obtain a search warrant to have Ms. Smith produce a DNA sample, but police know that Ms. Smith's brother does not like his sister and would gladly provide a familial DNA sample if asked. DNA samples of people who are related are likely to contain similarities. If the police obtain a DNA sample from the brother, even though they have insufficient evidence to implicate Ms. Smith, why might this procedure concern civil rights advocates?

Question 63

Since the case of Cooper v. Pate (1964), a lengthy list of _______________ cases have been generated.

Question 64

Do you believe that affirmative action programs lead to reverse discrimination?  Explain.

Question 65

Unconscious or ______________ bias is the unintentional, subconscious, and automatic sorting and processing of information by the brain which, when combined with a person's history and cultural influences, leads to the formation of associations among groups of people and to stereotypes about those groups.

Question 66

Assume a judge, legislator, or police officer is not prejudiced against minority groups, but they disproportionately punish minority groups through their rulings, laws, or enforcement policies. Should this unintended impact allow us to label the behavior discriminatory? Why or why not?

Question 67

Differences leading to disparity can be explained by ________________ related to an individual's actions, including the seriousness of the offence, aggravating or mitigating circumstances, or prior criminal record.

Question 68

Explain the events leading up to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, and how effective this Amendment was.

Question 69

Describe the nature of affirmative action programs and where they are used, and discuss whether you feel they are effective. Are they appropriate? Are they fair?

Question 70

Should a person's race, religion, or ethnicity ever be used as a basis for law enforcement action? Why or why not?

Question 71

Discuss the difference between prejudice and discrimination, and give examples of each.

Question 72

If the death penalty is twice as likely to be imposed on an African American defendant who is convicted of the same crime as a Caucasian American, do you think this is grounds to examine the sentences for discrimination? What, if anything, can be done about such results?

Question 73

The _________________ Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution applies to racial profiling.

Question 74

________________ discrimination describes a situation in which racial minorities are treated more harshly at some points and in some places in the criminal justice system, but no differently than whites at other points and in other places.

Question 75

Explain what the Fourteenth Amendment did and its effect on all U.S. citizens.