Gideon v. Wainwright established that indigent defendants are to be provided lawyers
when faced with a(n):
a. custodial interrogation
b. deprivation of liberty
c. period of incarceration exceeding one year
d. adversary criminal proceeding
A person’s refusal to give consent to search can be used to establish probable cause.
a. True
b. False
The landmark case in the issue of affirmative action is:
a. United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (1979).
b. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978).
c. United States v. Paradise (1987).
d. Fullilove v. Klutznick (1980).
The scales of justice represent:
a. keeping individual and societal needs in balance.
b. the struggle for power between good and evil.
c. the two sides of prosecution and defense.
d. the weighing the evidence of guilt or innocence.
Which of the following is not within the power of the Supreme Court?
a. It can override the will of the majority expressed in an act of Congress.
b. It can require redistribution of political power in every state.
c. It can issue proactive opinions to address and avoid future controversies.
d. It has original jurisdiction in all cases involving ambassadors, other public ministers
and consuls.
The first Supreme Court was established by the:
a. Bill of Rights
b. Federalist Papers
c. Federal Judiciary Act of 1789
d. First Amendment
The establishment clause of the First Amendment sets forth all of the following, except:
a. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
b. Congress is prohibited from establishing a national church.
c. Congress may establish a national church if three-fourths of the states vote to ratify.
d. government cannot show preference to any particular religion.
State supreme courts derive their power from the United States Constitution.
a. True
b. False
Everson v. Board of Education made the separation of church and state, as well as the
Establishment Clause, applicable to the states.
a. True
b. False
States’ penal codes contain:
a. Civil laws
b. Criminal laws
c. Codified laws
d. common law
In determining which cases to hear, the justices are often looking for cases involving
matters that directly influence the law and the nation.
a. True
b. False
In Adamson v. California, Justice Black wrote that the 14th Amendment required total
incorporation of the Bill of Rights.
a. True
b. False
The Supreme Court has said that a Fourth Amendment _________is a governmental
infringement of a legitimate expectation of privacy.
a. search
b. seizure
c. arrest
d. investigative stop
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Sixth Amendment to mean that an accused has
the constitutional right to counsel at:
a. every critical stage during a criminal proceeding.
b. any critical stage, excluding post-trial appeals.
c. every critical stage after arraignment.
d. any stage in the criminal investigation.
A search can be incident to arrest only if it is substantially ___________with the arrest
and is confined to the immediate vicinity of the arrest.
a. extemporaneous
b. noncontemporary
c. contemporaneous
d. asynchronous
The Supreme Court ruled that an airline employee inspecting a defendant’s luggage was
covered by the Fourth Amendment in the case of
a. United States v. Ross
b. Wolf v. Colorado
c. United States v. Cleaveland
d. United States v. Parker
The Fifth Amendment requires just compensation when the government takes property.
a. True
b. False
Conscientious objection to military service based on religious beliefs is not a
constitutional issue since everyone has a duty to serve their country.
a. True
b. False
The Supreme Court stated that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to
possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia in:
a. United States v. Miller
b. District of Columbia v. Heller
c. Presser v. Illinois
d. Stevens v. United States
The Supreme Court stated that a school child has little need for protection of the Eighth
Amendment in
a. Arave v. Creech
b. Miller v. Alabama
c. Ingraham v. Wright
d. Rhodes v. Chapman
The prohibition against excessive fines:
a. has been incorporated to apply to the states.
b. does not apply in civil cases.
c. limits punitive damages in civil cases
d. does not apply in criminal cases.
In which of the following situations are school officials justified in searching without a
warrant or probable cause if they have reasonable suspicion to believe contraband
exists?
a. University dorm rooms
b. Students and student lockers at public and private schools
c. Students and student lockers at public schools
d. Adult students
In United States v. Salerno, the Supreme Court stated that __________under the Bail
Reform Act of 1984 did not violate due process or the Eighth Amendment.
a. pretrial release
b. mandatory detention for murderers
c. requiring house arrest for child molesters
d. preventive detention
The first prong of the two-pronged test to establish a claim of ineffective counsel
requires the defendant to show:
a. representation falling below an objective standard of reasonableness.
b. representation whose incompetence “shocks the conscience.”
c. representation falling below community standards of excellence.
d. representation that resulted in an unfavorable outcome.
The case of Dred Scott v. Sandford held that:
a. blacks had equal rights with whites.
b. the concept of “separate but equal” was unconstitutional.
c. freed slaves did not have the right to remain free in territory where slavery was still
legal.
d. states could determine whether ex-slaves could be citizens.
Affirmative action programs were created to spread equal opportunities throughout the
diverse American population.
a. True
b. False
The police may not make a nonconsensual warrantless arrest inside a person’s home or
arrest a guest within that home without:
a. reasonable suspicion.
b. information that meets the two-pronged test for reliability.
c. justification under the community caretaker exception.
d. exigent circumstances.
If members of the militia were called to service, they were to bring:
a. only their own arms. Ammunition was supplied by the government.
b. only their own ammunition. Arms were supplied by the government.
c. their own arms and ammunition.
d. nothing-the government supplied both arms and ammunition.
The concept that courts will continue to rely on prior cases to ensure consistency in the
law is called:
a. original jurisprudence.
b. lex talionis
c. stare decisis.
d. venue.
The right to counsel attaches when a person faces custodial interrogation.
a. True
b. False
Case law is promulgated by legislatures or governing bodies.
a. True
b. False
An unlawful search and seizure can include all of the following consequences, except:
a. departmental sanctions.
b. criminal liability.
c. evidence would be admissible in court.
d. civil liability.
The totality of the circumstances test made establishment of probable cause by use of
_________easier for police.
a. warrantless investigative stops
b. informants
c. victim reports
d. articulable reasonable suspicion
The USA PATRIOT Act improves counter-terrorism efforts by all of the following,
except:
a. allowing investigators to use tools already available to investigate organized crime
and drug trafficking.
b. facilitating information sharing and cooperation among government agencies.
c. increasing penalties for those who support or commit organized crime.
d. Updating the law to reflect new technologies and new threats.
The maxim that it is unreasonable for officers to search for “an elephant in a matchbox”
means the size of the item(s) sought determines where officers may reasonably search.
a. True
b. False
In the supremacy clause, the declared itself to be the supreme law of the land.
The term refers to the interaction and assimilation that occurred over time among the
colonists.
You are a police officer and have pulled over a motorist on suspicion of drunk driving,
based on your personal observation of the car weaving and repeatedly crossing the
double yellow line in the middle of the road. When you approach the vehicle, the driver
gets out of the car and starts to run away. Assume that you are authorized under state
law to “shoot to injure” a fleeing suspect. What would you do? Why? What if shooting
to injure was the only way to stop the suspect? Would this change your answer?
Discuss the historical background of the Second Amendment.
Overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in arrest, prosecution, imprisonment
and capital punishment as both the product of inequality and an expression of prejudice
against minorities may be explained by ______ theory.
Explain the role of the Magna Carta in framing the U.S. Constitution.
Explain the process used in deciding which cases will be heard by the Supreme Court.
Under the Eighth Amendment punishments must be proportional or________to the
crime committed.
When a full body search is lawful, police might still be found to have gone too far. This
area of law is still being shaped. What limits do you think should be placed on these
searches? Do you think your standard adequately reflects the need for effective law
enforcement to be balanced with individual rights? Explain.
In 1994 80% of the US public supported capital punishment. In 2013, 63% of
Americans were in favor of the death penalty. A survey of police officers found that
94% favored the death penalty, with 96% of the police giving as the primary reason that
it removed a dangerous person from the population. Another reason given was that
capital punishment serves as a powerful deterrent to murder. In 2010, 88% of the
country’s top academic criminological societies rejected the notion that the death
penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. Do these statistics strongly support the argument
that capital punishment is inappropriate one in the United States today? Can you
suggest an alternate explanation for these statistics?
The judicial power of the Supreme Court can be found in__________ of the
Constitution.
A _____ is a system of basic laws and principles that establishes the nature, functions,
and limits of the government or other institution.
The adult criminal justice system emphasizes punishment, while the juvenile justice
system emphasizes rehabilitation of the offender. Do you think the rehabilitative
emphasis of the juvenile justice system is still valid today? Explain your answer.
Discuss the progression and impact of amendments relating to voting.
If a police officer stops a person based on reasonable suspicion that the person was
recently involved in an active indecent exposure, the stop would be justified, but a
________might not be.
In our American adversarial judicial system, attorneys represent both the suspect and
the people. Frequently, defense attorneys are asked, “how can you defend someone
accused of such a horrible crime?” Assume that you are defense attorney and need to
answer this question. How would you answer it?
A ____ requires an individual to appear in court to testify, or bring documents or other
physical evidence to the court.
General searches are ____________.