In which of the following situations have the courts found a use of unreasonable force?
a. Police dog grabbed and held a defendant’s arm until the police arrived.
b. Use of pepper spray on an armed suspect.
c. Binding a suspect’s ankles to his wrists behind his back (hogtying).
d. Using a single application of the taser gun.
According to the Fundamental Fairness Doctrine, due process is a general command,
requiring states to provide the rudiments of a fair trial.
a. True
b. False
The Fourth Amendment:
a. applies only to criminal cases.
b. protects just those in criminal cases.
c. limits the right to search to the gathering and use of evidence in criminal cases.
d. includes searches which go beyond the needs of criminal law enforcement.
Special-needs searches can never result in prosecution and conviction.
a. True
b. False
The party who is being appealed against is known as the:
a. appellant.
b. petitioner.
c. plaintiff.
d. appellee.
The “presumption of regularity” posits that:
a. most people who claim a violation of the equal protection clause have been
discriminated against.
b. most people who allege due process violations have been harmed.
c. there is a set of due process requirements that apply in regular criminal cases.
d. government actions are presumed lawful unless there is clear evidence to the
contrary.
Which of the following is considered a type of hearsay information?
a. Statements by fellow officers
b. Resisting an officer
c. Contradictory answers
d. Hiding
Under the accusatorial system rationale, forced confessions violate due process, even if
the confession is true, because:
a. forced confessions should be conclusively assumed to be unreliable.
b. the confession violates the Eight Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual
punishment.
c. under our system the state has the burden of proving guilt.
d. a forced confession may be unreliable.
Which types of crimes are the main targets of mandatory minimum sentencing?
a. Sex offenses.
b. Theft offenses.
c. Regulatory crimes.
d. Drug offenses and crimes committed with a weapon.
According to the Supreme Court opinion in Herring v. U.S. (2009), involving a search
pursuant to an active arrest warrant that was later discovered to have been recalled
several months earlier:
a. evidence obtained by officers who honestly believe they are acting lawfully is
admissible.
b. the good faith of officers is irrelevant to the determination whether or not to exclude
evidence.
c. all evidence seized pursuant to a search not based on probable cause must be
excluded.
d. the evidence seized pursuant to the search is admissible if the police acted
objectively, in reasonably good faith and the error in record keeping was negligent but
not reckless
According to the qualified immunity defense, law enforcement officers cannot be held
personally liable in a civil lawsuit if:
a. the officer honestly believed they had not violated the law.
b. the officer can show that under the circumstances their actions were warranted.
c. the officer can show their action was objectively reasonable as measured by legal
rules “clearly established” at the time they acted.
d. criminal charges are also not filed against them.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the exclusionary rule does not apply:
a. when there is overwhelming evidence of a defendant’s guilt
b. in murder and aggravated sexual assault cases
c. if the defendant waives his or her Fourth Amendment rights
d. to collateral proceedings
The Sixth Amendment guarantees jury trial:
a. in all offenses.
b. only in felonies.
c. only in felonies against the person.
d. in all criminal prosecutions excepting petty offenses.
Which of the following are legitimate purposes for frisks?
a. To protect officers
b. To preserve evidence
c. To find illegal drugs
d. To convince suspects they should respond to an officer’s questions
Mandatory minimum sentences shift discretion from judges to prosecutors.
a. True
b. False
The test for determining whether someone is in custody for purposes of Miranda is
whether there was an arrest or restraint on freedom of movement to the degree
associated with a formal arrest.
a. True
b. False
The Military Order of November 13, 2001:
a. allows the secretary of defense to detain noncitizens who there is reason to believe
was a member of al Qaida.
b. allows the secretary of defense to detain American citizens who are suspected of
being members of al Qaida.
c. authorizes the use of military force against individuals suspected of being involved in
the 9/11 attack on the U.S.
d. allows federal law enforcement agencies to arrest suspected terrorists.
Some state constitutions provide rights not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution
a. True
b. False
The right to counsel approach to confessions has never been accepted by a majority of
the U.S. Supreme Court.
a. True
b. False
The most common mechanism for holding police accountable for their misconduct is:
a. a tort lawsuit.
b. a section 1983 lawsuit.
c. a letter of complaint.
d. administrative review and discipline.
In Boumediene v. Bush(2008), the Supreme Court:
a. declared unconstitutional the provision of the Military Commission Act of 2006 that
stripped federal courts of power to hear habeas corpus petitions from detainees
challenging their designation as enemy combatants.
b. declared constitutional the provision of the Military Commission Act of 2006 that
stripped federal courts of power to hear habeas corpus petitions from detainees
challenging their designation as enemy combatants.
c. determined the Constitution does not protect enemy combatants.
d. determined enemy combatants must be tried in court martial proceedings.
In order to conduct a consent search of a person, an officer must have:
a. probable cause to believe the suspect has seizable items on his/her person.
b. a valid warrant.
c. reasonable suspicion to make a stop.
d. voluntary consent to search.
Which of the following conditions would NOT constitute a coercive state action but
would be strongly presumptive of forcing an involuntary confession?
a. Denying food and drink for 24 hours.
b. Conducting an interrogation in a secluded warehouse.
c. Questioning a suspect for 48 hours with no interruption.
d. Using profanity in an interrogation protocol.
An appellate court _______a trial court’s judgment when it sets it aside.
a. reverses
b. affirms
c. remands
d. questions
According to the Supreme Court in Draper v. U.S., involving a narcotics arrest based on
an informant’s description of a suspect:
a. hearsay cannot be used to determine probable cause.
b. magistrates must determine probable cause before officers make arrests.
c. police officers must have warrants in order to make arrests.
d. hearsay can be used to determine probable cause.
Which of the following is not a stage of internal review?
a. Investigation
b. Arbitration
c. Deliberation
d. Disposition
Deadly force can never be used to make an arrest.
a. True
b. False
Miranda’s application to terrorism suspects:
a. is an unsettled legal matter and still controversial.
b. is a matter that has been resolved and there is agreement that terrorism suspects must
always be Mirandized before they are subject to custodial interrogation.
c. is a matter that the U.S. Attorney General has publicly refused to take a position.
d. according to the U.S. Attorney General, is a decision that rests with teh discretion of
the law enforcement agent.
Which of the following is NOT one of the four main elements in the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)?
a. Subjective basis
b. Ex parte order
c. Minimization guidelines
d. Application
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, there is an exception to the
no-duty-to-protect-rule, called the special-relationship exception. That special
relationship is:
a. dependent on the crime committed.
b. custody.
c. when a suspect is being interrogated.
d. when a warrant is being served.
A suspect’s race alone cannot constitute reasonable suspicion for police action.
a. True
b. False
The U.S. Supreme Court has put which of the following limitations on 1983 actions?
a. They can only be brought for negligent acts.
b. They can only be brought against government bodies.
c. They can only be brought against senior government administrators.
d. They can only be brought for deliberate acts.
According to the Supreme Court opinion in Terry v. Ohioinvolving the stop and frisk of
a citizen on the street to investigate a robbery:
a. a stop is conduct outside the purview of the Fourth Amendment because the action
does not rise to the level of a seizure.
b. whenever a police officer accosts an individual and restrains his freedom to walk
away, he has ‘seized” that person.
c. a stop is not a serious intrusion upon the sanctity of the person and may be taken
lightly.
d. the personal security and privacy of the individual always outweighs the
government’s interests in detecting crime.