Opponents of the Citizens United decision cite what they call violations of the Fifth
Amendment.
In interpreting the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court has ruled that police always
need a warrant to conduct a search.
It is illegal to publicly deny the Holocaust in the European Union.
If a survey with a margin of error of 4 percent reveals that 50 percent of a sample
supports Obama’s new health care agenda, then the overall public support for the
agenda falls anywhere between 48 and 52 percent.
The removal of several “deadwood” provisions of the Texas Constitution in 1969
resulted in a major overhaul of the meaning of the document.
Following the Civil War, Texas was required to adopt a new constitution that complied
with the demands of presidential Reconstruction, and thus, the 1866 Texas Constitution
included a provision abolishing slavery.
The governor of Louisiana expressed mixed emotions about how involved the federal
government should have been in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel.
Charter schools are semi-public schools that may receive funding from private sources.
The Gray Panthers is a labor group in Texas
Developing a new type of tank would be an example of one of the two types of
spending on which the U.S. budget is primarily focused.
After the Civil War, states passed laws banning blacks from testifying against whites.
This is an example of a Black Code.
The George W. Bush administration gave states power that was once considered the
domain of the national government.
Democratic President Bill Clinton successfully put in place several environmental and
energy policy reforms.
Political scientist Charles Beard discussed the purely social consequences of the
Articles of Confederation.
Members of Congress vote in conformity with the prevailing public opinion in their
districts about 60 percent of the time.
Despite early voting opportunities in several states, almost a fifth of registered voters in
the United States claim they did not vote in 2008 because they were too busy.
Sarah Palin performed poorly during her interviews with ABC News and CBS News.
Crises have often triggered expansions of presidential power.
The Articles of Confederation failed due to an inability to pay war debts, levy taxes, and
conduct general business.
The most successful early economic interest groups came from the railroad industry.
The U.S. Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was relatively
scandal free.
Before 1974, the term of office for the governor was two years.
All provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be implemented
by 2012.
Partisan newspapers fell by the wayside because more accessible (and thus more
popular) papers were politically independent.
Less than one-third of the American public can name a single justice of the Supreme
Court.
For a bill to become law, it must be passed by both houses of the legislature in exactly
the same form.
All current members of the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals are Republicans.
Four men have won the presidency without winning the popular vote.
According to a 2010 poll, over half of Americans believed that country is headed in the
wrong direction.
The first major effort to regulate business was caused by growing concern over the
power of the railroads.
There is a conflict over whether local governments should use at-large or district-based
elections for their officials.
The consumer population of a court decision refers to the interest groups who buy
advertising time to increase visibility of cases.
The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was established in 1965.
In both the Texas House and Senate, bills reported from committee are referred to a
procedural
committee.
The Texas constitutions have never had a bill of rights.
The process of bringing charges against the president or vice president is called
A) impeachment.
B) removal.
C) recall.
D) initiative.
E) conviction.
The first major national presidential nominating convention was held in
A) 1788.
B) 1800.
C) 1832.
D) 1860.
E) 1868.
All of the following have the authority to function as courts of original jurisdiction
EXCEPT
A) state trial courts.
B) federal specialized courts.
C) the U.S. Supreme Court.
D) U.S. district courts.
E) All of the above have original jurisdiction.
How agencies execute congressional wishes is most accurately called policy
A) implementation.
B) execution.
C) performance.
D) sequestration.
E) management.
The sole responsibility to try a president or vice president on charges of “treason,
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” falls to the
A) House of Representatives.
B) state legislatures.
C) Supreme Court.
D) federal court system.
E) Senate.
There are currently more than ________ subunits of Cabinet-level departments and
independent agencies.
A) 1,000
B) 1,250
C) 1,500
D) 1,800
E) 2,000
In “Bowling Alone,” political scientist Robert Putnam essentially argues that
A) bowling alleys are good places for citizens to become informed about politics.
B) fewer citizens are joining interest groups.
C) interest groups fill the void left by declining parties.
D) more Americans are joining newer groups such as soccer associations.
E) American individualism is the backbone of democratic government.
The only officially bilingual state is
A) Florida.
B) New Mexico.
C) Arizona.
D) Texas.
E) California.
When evaluating the bureaucracy, it seems that Americans
A) tend to despise it, regardless of the agency.
B) like programs such as NASA, but not the Internal Revenue Service.
C) are generally satisfied with the current state of the bureaucracy.
D) like specific agencies to which they are exposed, but not the bureaucracy as a whole.
E) want to eliminate it.
Which of the following arguments is given by those who support the current structure
of the Texas supreme courts?
A) Having two supreme courts allows the reflection of diverse interpretations of the
Constitution.
B) Only the Texas Supreme Court should be able to determine what the Texas
Constitution means.
C) The Texas judicial system mirrors that used with much success by most states.
D) The current system allows members of the supreme courts to specialize in either
criminal or civil law.
E) A simple judicial system is nearly always most efficient.
According to the table in the text, the ______ was the most prevalent design of local
governments in the United States in both 1984 and 2009.
A) mayor-council
B) commission
C) representative town meeting
D) town meeting
E) council-manager
All of the following were created within a few years of passage of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 EXCEPT
A) the G.I. Bill.
B) the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
C) the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
D) the Department of Transportation.
E) the Great Society programs.
According to the text, it was often said of Standard Oil that
A) its members were crude.
B) it did everything to the legislature but refine it.
C) it added fuel to the legislative fire.
D) it powered state government.
E) it greased the wheels of policymaking.
The Senate has no real counterpart to the House Committee on
A) Budget.
B) Armed Services.
C) Rules.
D) Veterans Affairs.
E) Appropriations.
White House staffers
A) are confirmed by the Senate, like all presidential appointees.
B) derive their power from personal relationships with the president.
C) number over 1,000.
D) are often former members of Congress.
E) possess independent legal authority.
As of 2010, the Supreme Court has had ________ African American members.
A) one
B) two
C) five
D) nine
E) fifteen
What did the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments have in common?
A) Both amendments increased the power of the states.
B) Both amendments increased the power of the federal government.
C) Both amendments were passed during the Civil War.
D) Both amendments increased the federal government’s ability to tax individual
citizens.
E) Both amendments granted civil rights to African Americans.
Which of the following courts never uses a jury?
A) County trial court
B) Municipal court
C) State intermediate appellate court
D) Justice of the peace court
E) District court
The Texas courts of appeals are the
A) courts of the intermediate appellate level for the state.
B) courts of last resort in Texas.
C) appellate courts which hear death penalty convictions automatically appealed from
the district court to the court of appeals in which that district court sits.
D) principal trial courts.
E) only appellate courts that sit juries to review new evidence presented by the losing
side in the original trial.
American Indians’ hunting and fishing rights
A) must comply with environmental and recreational laws.
B) supersede regulations on environmental issues.
C) generally conform to state rules on similar issues.
D) are subject to limitations by the state government.
E) are subject to limitations by the local government.
Complete the analogy: What a city charter is to a home-rule city, a
A) city manager is to the mayor.
B) law is to a legislature.
C) constitution is to a state.
D) police chief is to a fire chief.
E) treaty is to an executive order.
Among the strategies that campaigns use to control the media are
A) making the candidate more available to the press.
B) staging media events.
C) ignoring negative campaign events.
D) appearing on the major networks’ nightly news shows.
E) holding unrehearsed, spontaneous press conferences.
In response to an outcry of environmentalist rhetoric and the green movement,
eighty-one members of Congress came together to form the Congressional ____
Caucus.
A) Fossil Fuel
B) Oil
C) Coal
D) Paper
E) Plastic
________ each have four district courts.
A) California and Texas
B) New York, California, and Texas
C) Texas, New York, and Florida
D) California, Texas, New York, and Florida
E) California, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania
Most of the women elected to governorships during the 2010 election were
A) Democrats.
B) veterans.
C) Republicans.
D) over age 65.
E) liberals.
Overall, the Republican and Democratic Parties have
A) gotten more competitive over state legislative seats in the last fifty years.
B) gotten less competitive over state legislative seats in the last fifty years.
C) maintained equal shares of seats in statehouses over the last fifty years.
D) maintained the same level of competitiveness over the last fifty years, with
Democrats always controlling more legislative seats.
E) maintained the same level of competitiveness over the last fifty years, with
Republicans always controlling more legislative seats.
President James Monroe would have ignored an attempt by France to annex Canada.
The right of a state’s reserved powers is guaranteed by the
A) supremacy clause.
B) elastic clause.
C) Tenth Amendment.
D) full faith and credit clause.
E) Eleventh Amendment.
Governor Perry set a record for the 2001 legislative session by vetoing
A) no bills.
B) only one bill.
C) eighty-two bills and seventy-eight bills in one day.
D) every bill submitted to him by the legislature.
E) all but one bill.
Ex post facto laws
A) are unconstitutional.
B) require judges to remove prisoners from jail.
C) are found in the Seventh Amendment.
D) inflict punishment on individuals without judicial action.
E) require authorities to prove a prisoner is being held lawfully.
In a 2010 survey of news and broadcast executives, the highest percentage of those
surveyed believed that the Internet is
A) opening the door to more bias in journalism.
B) decreasing the originality of news stories.
C) lowering journalistic standards.
D) allowing for greater access to news.
E) making news more superficial.
Of the 300 million people in the United States, about _____ contribute time or money
to a campaign.
A) 500,000
B) 750,000
C) 1 million
D) 3 million
E) 5 million
The 1786 rebellion in which an army of 1,500 disgruntled farmers marched on
Springfield, Massachusetts, to prevent foreclosure on their farms was called
A) Shays’s Rebellion.
B) Paul Revere’s Ride.
C) Bacon’s Rebellion.
D) the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
E) the Second Boston Tea Party.
The House of Burgesses was
A) created in 1615.
B) the Governor’s board of advisors.
C) the first representative assembly in North America.
D) the lawmaking body for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
E) created by the Governor of Virginia.
In 2010, Arizona and Oregon used _______ to increase sales taxes.
A) recall elections
B) voter referenda
C) initiatives
D) preemption
E) state legislators