Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest
during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to
and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they
shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
a. Necessary and Proper
b. Speech and Debate
c. Elastic
d. none of the above
__________, a case stemming from a Senate investigation into the Teapot Dome
scandal during the administration of President Warren G. Harding.
a. Watkins v. United States (1957)
b. Barenblatt v. United States (1959)
c. McGrain v. Daugherty (1927)
d. none of the above
in Swift and Company v. United States (1905).
a. Louis Brandeis
b. Oliver Wendell Holmes
c. William Rehnquist
d. Sandra Day O’Connor
regulate interstate commerce has been __________ received by the Supreme
Court .
a. favorably
b. unfavorably
c. neutral
d. Congress doesn’t regulate the environment
compensation features of the Social Security Act of 1935 under the General
Welfare Clause as a source of plenary power.
a. United States v. Butler (1936)
b. Garber v. United States (1976)
c. Steward Machine Company v. David (1937)
d. none of the above
Employment Division v. Smith (1990), was _______ by the Supreme Court in City
of Boerne v. Flores (1997).
a. upheld
b. struck down
c. not grated certiorari
d. none of the above
and assign federal voting registrars and poll watchers to any state or political
subdivision in which fewer than 50 percent of the voting age population was
registered.
a. Civil Rights Act of 1964
b. Civil Rights Act of 1866
c. Voting Rights Act of 1965
d. none of the above
Rights Act of 1965 that provided no person completing the sixth grade in an
accredited non-English-language Puerto Rican school can be denied the right to
vote through inability to read or write English.
a. Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966)
b. South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966)
c. Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections (1959)
d. Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Company (1968)
provision allowing victims of gender-motivated violence to sue their victimizers
in federal court.
a. United States v. Lopez (1995)
b. Gonzales v. Raich (2005)
c. South Dakota v. Dole (1987)
d. United States v. Morrison (2000)
not regulate __________ through its taxing power because this area is properly
within the scope of state authority.
a. agriculture
b. child labor
c. maximum working hours for all employees
d. household income
Defence and general Welfare of the United States” is known as Congress’ ______
power.
a. taxing
b. spending
c. subpoena
d. none of the above
federal courts and to regulate the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
a. I
b. II
c. III
d. IV
granted this independent agency with limited authority to regulate railroads
engaged in commerce among the states.
a. Sherman Antitrust Act
b. National Industrial Recovery Act
c. Wagner Act
d. Interstate Commerce Act
legislation that permits a federal district court to order the continued confinement
of sexually violent offenders who have completed their prison sentences as a valid
exercise of Congress’ _________ powers under the necessary and proper clause.
a. enumerated
b. implied
c. concurrent
d. none of the above
ESSAY QUESTIONS:
1. Explain the origin of, evaluate the justification for, and trace the development of
the doctrine of implied powers. Be sure to cite particular Court decisions in your
essay.
2. Discuss the origin of, constitutional justification for, and limits on Congress’
3. Compare and contrast the Supreme Court’s decisions in Watkins v. United States
and Barenblatt v. United States. Are the facts and issues in these cases sufficiently
4. Discuss the evolution of the Supreme Court’s Commerce Clause jurisprudence
5. Why did Congress find it necessary to rely on the Commerce Clause in enacting
6. Discuss the significance or importance of the Supreme Court’s decision in
7. Discuss the Rehnquist Court’s restriction of congressional powers under the
Commerce Clause. Be sure to cite particular Court decisions in your essay.
8. How have the Taxing and Spending Clauses been used by Congress as a means of
HYPOTHETICAL PROBLEM FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION OR ESSAY EXAMINATION:
Responding to widespread concern about the problem of illiteracy in the United States,
Congress passed and the President signed the Basic Reading Comprehension Act. This law
provided that no person residing in the United States would be issued a license to drive an
automobile unless he or she had passed a standardized reading examination prepared by
reading specialists employed by the U.S. Department of Education. The examinations were
to be administered by the states, and the states were not explicitly required to participate in
INTRODUCTION OF TOPIC IN LECTURE:
Introducing students to the powers of Congress:
The powers of Congress are rooted in the Constitution. However, many students have
probably never seen the Constitution. There will be some students that have seen the
historical document on display in Washington, D.C. However, many students will have
only seen the Constitution reprinted in a textbook, as in this textbook for easy reference.
Therefore, to make a class discussion of congressional powers more interactive, the
instructor could use the following website to display the document to the students in the
classroom:
QUESTIONS FOR WEBSITE:
1. Discuss the various enumerated powers of Congress. Be sure to include the
constitutional provisions for each power in your answer.
2. Briefly discuss Congress’s power to investigate? Are there any limitations to this
power?
3. Discuss the importance of the Tenth Amendment in relation to Congress’s power to
regulate interstate commerce in the modern era. Be sure to cite Supreme Court decisions
to support your answer.
4. Briefly discuss how individual rights contained within the Bill of Rights are limitations
placed on Congress’s spending and taxing powers.
5. Briefly Explain Congress’s power to enforce civil rights at the state level. Be sure to
cite congressional legislation and corresponding cases in this area.
6. Briefly Explain Congress’s power to enforce civil liberties at the state level. Be sure to
cite congressional legislation and corresponding cases in this area.
