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Chapter 6: Exam
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. The _________________ protects the individual from unwarranted government interference in intimate
personal relationships or activities.
a. Fourth Amendment
b. constitutional right of privacy
c. Fourteenth Amendment Privileges and Immunities Clause
d. Tenth Amendment
2. 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)
3. 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
4. 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)
5. In Doe v. Commonwealth’s Attorney (1976), the Supreme Court ________ a federal district court
decision keeping Virginia’s law proscribing _________.
a. upheld; sodomy
b. struck down; euthanasia
c. refused to review; abortion
d. struck down; contraception
6. 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.
7. 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
8. ______ 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
9. 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
10. 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. Fifth
b. Eighth
c. Ninth
d. Tenth
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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 (1927)
b. Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
c. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
d. None of the above is true.
14. 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
15. 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 are true.
16. 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).
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. Which of the following Justices has urged that Roe v. Wade be overturned?
a. Kennedy
b. Ginsburg
c. Scalia
d. Stevens
25. 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
26. Among Supreme Court nominees in the last three decades, only ___________ has rejected the
interpretive foundation of the right of privacy.
a. Elena Kagan
b. John Paul Stevens
c. John Roberts
d. Robert Bork
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
28. The _______ explicitly protects the privacy of the home in peacetime from soldiers seeking quarters.
a. First Amendment
b. Second Amendment
c. Third Amendment
d. Fourth Amendment
29. 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
30. Proponents of a constitutional right of privacy often cite the ______, which guarantees rights “retained
by the people” even though they are not enumerated in the Constitution.
a. Fourth Amendment
b. Sixth Amendment
c. Seventh Amendment
d. Ninth Amendment
31. 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 is true.
32. 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
33. 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)
34. 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
35. 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 is true.
36. 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
37. 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
38. 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 is true.
39. 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 is true.
40. 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)
41. Which justice authored a sharp dissent in Poe v. Ullman that anticipated the Court’s decision in
Griswold four years later?
a. Douglas
b. Frankfurter
c. Black
d. None of the above is true.
42. Which justice authored the majority opinion in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)?
a. Douglas
b. Frankfurter
c. Black
d. None of the above is true.
42. Roe v. Wade (1973) came to the Supreme Court on review from which state?
a. Alabama
b. California
c. Texas
d. Tennessee
43. In________, the Supreme Court upheld a provision of federal law, commonly known as the Hyde
amendment, forbidding the use of federal funds to support nontherapeutic abortions.
a. Roe v. Wade (1973)
b. Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976)
c. Maher v. Roe (1977)
d. Harris v. McRae (1980)
44. In_____________, the Court struck down an ordinance that limited the occupancy of residences to
members of single families.
a. Belle Terre v. Boraas (1974)
b. Doe v. Commonwealth’s Attorney (1976)
c. Moore v. City of East Cleveland (1977)
d. None of the above is true.
45. In______________, the Court struck down a state constitutional amendment that barred state and
local government from providing various legal protections for gays and lesbians.
a. Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
b. Romer v. Evans (1996)
c. Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
d. None of the above is true.
46. The well-known case involving the doctrine of substituted judgment in relation to the so-called right
to die, In re Quinlan, took place in the courts of which state?
a. California
b. Alaska
c. New York
d. New Jersey
47. Which justice, writing for the Court in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), opined that the Texas statute
“furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private
life of the individual?”
a. Rehnquist
b. Stevens
c. Kennedy
d. Breyer
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. What are the arguments—pro and con—on the issue of whether there is an independent right of
privacy under the U.S. Constitution?
2. Describe and explain the changing position of the Supreme Court on the abortion question, beginning
with Roe v. Wade (1973) and concluding with Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).
136 Chapter 6: Personal Autonomy and the Constitutional Right of Privacy
3. Systematically compare the Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v.
Casey (1973 and 1992 respectively). Does the Casey decision basically reaffirm or fundamentally
reject the original holding in Roe v. Wade? Support your conclusions.
4. Recount and critique the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas. To what extent, if
any, does the decision bolster arguments for the legal recognition of same-sex marriage?
5. Given the Supreme Court’s 1997 decision in Washington v. Glucksberg, what are the roles of the state
legislatures and state courts in addressing the controversial question of doctor-assisted suicide? On
what basis might a state court invalidate a state statute criminalizing this activity?
6. Recall the major themes presented by John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859). What are the major
arguments Mill makes related to individual freedom and the government’s right to enforce morality?
Are there any Supreme Court rulings that you believe were influenced by Mill’s teachings?
7. Carefully explain the difference between economic due process and substantive due process as
defined by the United States Supreme Court. Be sure to discuss landmark rulings to highlight your
discussion. Between the two, which is Court more interested in protecting today in your opinion?
8. Recount and critique the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart. How did the Court
differentiate this decision from the one made only seven years earlier in Stenberg v. Carhart (2000)?
