Like the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Fifteenth Amendment was an
outgrowth of
a. the Civil War.
b. the Industrial Revolution.
c. Shays’ Rebellion.
d. the Spanish-American War.
In Olmstead v. United States (1928), the Supreme court took a __________ view of the
scope of the Fourth Amendment.
a. liberal
b. strict
c. noninterpretivist
d. libertarian
In__________, the Supreme Court divided 5-4 in striking down a provision of the
McCain-Feingold Act that prohibited corporations and unions from engaging in
“electioneering communications” thirty days before a presidential primary and sixty
days before the general election.
a. Randall v. Sorrell (2006)
b. Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007)
c. Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008)
d. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
In Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940), the Supreme Court struck down a state law that
prohibited _____________ for any religious or charitable cause without prior approval
of a state agency.
a. public meetings
b. door-to-door solicitation
c. tax exemptions
d. None of the above is true.
In McKeiver v. Pennsylvania (1971), the Supreme Court refused to extend the right to
_____________ to juvenile proceedings.
a. counsel
b. trial by jury
c. appeal
d. a speedy and public trial
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
Under New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), a public official cannot prevail in a libel suit
unless he or she can show that the defendant’s statements were made with
a. criminal negligence.
b. actual malice.
c. reckless abandon.
d. defamatory intent.
In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court struck down a state law specifying a
maximum sixty-hour work week for
a. bakery employees.
b. coal miners.
c. seamstresses.
d. factory workers.
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.
In _________, the Court under Chief Justice Rehnquist ruled that strangely shaped
legislative districts designed to produce African-American electoral majorities are
subject to challenge under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
a.Mobile v. Bolden (1980)
b. Thornburgh v. Gingles (1985)
c. Shaw v. Reno (1993)
d. Voinovich v. Quitter (1993)
In_______________, the Court struck down an amendment to a state constitution
aimed at prohibiting parents from sending their children to private schools.
a. Prudential Insurance Company v. Cheek (1922)
b. Meyer v. Nebraska (1923)
c. Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)
d. Fiske v. Kansas (1927).
In Carroll v. United States (1925), the Supreme Court upheld the warrantless search of
an automobile believed to be carrying
a. a bomb.
b. counterfeit currency.
c. firearms.
d. bootleg liquor.
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
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.
In__________, the Court ruled unanimously that states may not create a blanket “drug
exception” to the requirement that police officers knock and announce prior to
executing a search warrant.
a. Alabama v. White (1990)
b.Wilson v. Arkansas (1995)
c. Richards v. Wisconsin (1997)
d. Hudson v. Michigan (2006)
______ often object to laws regulating sexual conduct, living arrangements, the private
use of drugseven to laws mandating that motorcycle riders wear helmets.
a. Conservatives
b. Liberals
c. Populists
d. Libertarians
Justice _________________ was the lone dissenter in Engel v. Vitale, the famous
school prayer decision of 1962.
a. Felix Frankfurter
b. Potter Stewart
c. Thurgood Marshall
d. Earl Warren
In Illinois v. Gates (1983), the Supreme Court abandoned the rigorous Aguilar-Spinelli
test in favor of a _______________ test that made it easier for police officers to get
search warrants.
a. reasonable person
b. reasonable suspicion
c. good-faith
d. totality of circumstances
In Lorillard Tobacco Company v. Reilly (2001), writing for the majority,
_____________observed that “so long as the sale and use of tobacco is lawful for
adults, the tobacco industry has a protected interest in communicating information
about its products and adult customers have an interest in receiving that information.”
a. Chief Justice William Rehnquist
b. Justice Anthony Kennedy
c. Justice John Paul Stevens
d. Justice Sandra Day O”Connor
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
In_________, the Supreme Court chipped away at the McCain-Feingold Act by
invalidating a section of the act known as the “millionaire’s amendment.”
a. Randall v. Sorrell (2006)
b. Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007)
c. Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008)
d. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
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)
In Tennessee v. Garner (1985), the Supreme Court held that a police officer may use
____________ only when necessary to apprehend a fleeing felon and only when “the
officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death
or physical injury to the officer or others.”
a. a choke hold
b. a stun gun
c. deadly force
d. None of the above is true.
The Supreme Court has adopted the doctrine of _____________ as a method of
deciding whether certain provisions of the Bill of Rights are applicable to the States.
a. total incorporation
b. selective incorporation
c. incorporation plus
d. None of the above is true.
In ___________, the Court held unconstitutional the practice of inviting a member of
the clergy to deliver a nonsectarian prayer at a public school graduation ceremony.
a. Stone v. Graham (1980)
b. Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)
c. Lee v. Weisman (1992)
d. Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)
The fundamental requirement imposed by the ______ Amendment is that searches and
seizures must be “reasonable.”
a. Third
b. Fourth
c. Fifth
d. Sixth
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.
In Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976), the Supreme Court invalidated a
___________ imposed by a trial judge to safeguard the rights of a man accused of a
brutal mass murder.
a. change of venue
b. secret trial
c. pretrial release order
d. gag order
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.
In 1897, the ___________ became the first provision of the Bill of Rights to be
incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment and thus made applicable to the states.
a. Just Compensation Clause
b. Contracts Clause
c. right to a jury trial
d. None of the above is true.
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
In ___________________, the Supreme Court held that private educational institutions
that practiced racial discrimination could be denied their federal income tax exemptions
by the Internal Revenue Service.
a. Mueller v. Allen (1983)
b. Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)
c. Widmar v. Vincent (1981)
d. Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)
In the face of a rising tide of economic legislation, the Supreme Court of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became more adamant in its defense of
a. economic equality.
b. the police power.
c. laissez-faire capitalism.
d. the general welfare.
InUnited States v. Classic (1941), the Supreme Court held that the federal government
could regulate party primaries in order to prevent
a. discrimination against women.
b. racial discrimination.
c. discrimination against the poor.
d. election fraud.