Deck 1: Introduction: A Political Supreme Court

Question 1

What Supreme Court justice served longer than any other member of the Court? ____

A) John Marshall
B) Stephen J. Field
C) John Paul Stephens
D) William O. Douglas

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What Supreme Court justice in 1969 became the only member of the Court ever to resign under fire? _____

A) William O. Douglas
B) Abe Fortas
C) Hugo Black
D) Gerald Ford

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following was not a Supreme Court nominee of Richard Nixon? _____

A) Earl Warren
B) Harry Blackmun
C) Harrold Carswell
D) Clement Haynsworth

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What justice retired at about the same time as John Marshall Harlan? _____

A) Warren Burger
B) William O. Douglas
C) Hugo Black
D) Sandra Day O'Connor

Question 5

Whose retirement created the vacancy eventually filled by Sandra Day O'Connor? ___

A) Ronald Reagan
B) Potter Stewart
C) William O. Douglas
D) Harold Burton

Question 6

_____ became chief justice soon after Earl Warren.

A) Warren Burger
B) John Roberts
C) Hugo Black
D) John Stevens

Question 7

Whom did President Reagan first nominate to replace Justice Lewis Powell? ____

A) Harry Blackmun
B) Robert Bork
C) John Paul Stevens
D) Stephen Breyer

Question 8

Douglas Ginsburg was nominated to fill whose seat on the Supreme Court? ____

A) Warren Burger
B) Gerald Ford
C) Lewis Powell
D) Sandra Day O'Connor

Question 9

Who was the first Supreme Court nominee of President George H. W. Bush? ____

A) Clarence Thomas
B) William J. Brennan
C) David J. Souter
D) Sandra Day O'Connor

Question 10

Who was the last Supreme Court nominee of President George H. W. Bush? ____

A) Clarence Thomas
B) William J. Brennan
C) David J. Souter
D) Thurgood Marshall

Question 11

Through 2016, how many African Americans have sat on the Supreme Court? ____

A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four

Question 12

Who nominated Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court? ____

A) Ronald Reagan
B) Bill Clinton
C) George W. Bush
D) Richard Nixon

Question 13

Who was not a nominee of Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court? ____

A) Ruth Ginsburg
B) Robert Bork
C) Douglas Ginsburg
D) William Rehnquist

Question 14

Who was a nominee of President Obama to the Supreme Court? ____

A) Samuel Alito
B) Antonin Scalia
C) Elena Kagan
D) John Roberts

Question 15

Who was the first Italian American named to the Supreme Court? ____

A) Sonia Sotomayor
B) Samuel Alito
C) Benjamin Cardozo
D) Antonin Scalia

Question 16

Through 2021, who is the most recent nominee to the Supreme Court not to be confirmed? ____

A) Merrick Garland
B) Robert Bork
C) Abe Fortas
D) Harriet Miers

Question 17

Who was President Trump's first appointment to the Supreme Court?

A) Elena Kagan
B) Neil Gorsuch
C) John Roberts
D) Amy Coney Barrett

Question 18

What factors in recent decades have presidents seemed most often to take into account when making nominations for the Supreme Court?

Question 19

In recent decades, why have some nominees met with widespread approval while others have stirred up much opposition?

Question 20

What is the "nuclear option" in connection with the treatment of judicial nominees in the United States Senate?

Question 21

How did diversity jurisdiction affect the work of the Supreme Court especially in the nineteenth century?

Question 22

What accounts for the failure of Harriet Miers to secure a seat on the Supreme Court?

Question 23

Why did Samuel Alito encounter greater opposition than John Roberts in the Senate when nominated for the Supreme Court?

Question 24

What changes have occurred over the past 200 years in the types of cases the Supreme Court decides?

Question 25

What difference does it make that the Court's jurisdiction today is almost entirely discretionary?

Question 26

On the day that President Clinton nominated Judge Ruth Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, one legal scholar (who had been dean of a prominent law school and a university president) stated on the PBS NewsHour that Ronald Reagan was the first president to have "politicized" Supreme Court appointments. Is this an accurate statement? Why?

Question 27

Aside from serving on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, what other professional experience did Ruth Bader Ginsburg have before her appointment to the Supreme Court?