Acts

Question 1

Habeas Corpus Act (1679)

Answer 1

o Bring the body to court for explanation of why they are in custody and they have been charged with.
o Within 3 days
o Except treason or felony
o This is a trump on the executive power.
o This also strengthens the rule of law and the courts.
o Patriot Act is today’s example of a violation of Habeas Corpus to a degree.

Question 2

Judiciary Act of 1789

Answer 2

• Further defined SCRT: 1 Chief Justice, 5 Associate Justices
• Further defined SCRT’s Jurisdictions
Limited Appellate Jurisdiction, Why?
 AntiFederalists were afraid of Federal Judiciary, Why?
 State courts had concurrent jurisdiction, and federal courts had to adopt methods & procedures of their given states.
 SCRT did not possess diversity jurisdiction (when more than one state is involved), but it could review federal questions upon appeal from the highest state court with jurisdiction when that court ruled.

• Created 2 Inferior Courts

Question 3

Navigation Acts (1650), Mollasses Act (1733), Sugar Act (1764)

Answer 3

A series of acts aimed to raise revenues for maintaining British armies and to close Colonial trade to countries other than Britain. They were cause for smuggling and the Writs of Assistance Case where James Otis flipped sides to defend those accused of having smuggled goods into Massachusetts.

Question 4

Article III

Answer 4

Created judicial independence (new development)
Established one Supreme Court and an option for inferior courts
Gave federal judges life tenure (during good behavior, subject to impeachment)
Appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate
Judicial Review not explicit

Question 5

Article VI

Answer 5

“supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”

All officials “…bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution…”

Question 6

Alien and Sedition Acts

Answer 6

Enacted under Adams to suppress anti-war/anti-government sentiments
-despised by Jefferson and Madison
(Virginia-Madison and Kentucky-Jefferson Resolutions declared them unconstitutional)

Question 7

Judiciary Act of 1801

Answer 7

Six circuit courts
Five Supreme Court Justices
-reduced to prevent Jefferson from choosing the next one
Full diversity jurisdiction and all cases in law and equity
-changed limited appellate jurisdiction outlined in the Constitution
-Federal Common Law threat, Federal Judiciary policing criminal matters now

Question 8

Organic Act of 1801

Answer 8

42 new justices of the peace
-Jefferson later lowered it to 30
(specifically removed those he didn’t like, including William Marbury)

Question 9

Judiciary Act of 1802

Answer 9

Repealed new circuit courts and 16 circuit judges who were already appointed
Kept the six circuits but brought back circuit riding
-one supreme court justice and district court justice per circuit court
-divided opinion could be appealed to the Supreme Court
(way to keep judges honest and in touch)

Question 10

1802 Amendatory Act

Answer 10

changed supreme court session from semi-annual to a four week annual term with the justices on circuit twice a year
-to prevent the Supreme Court from exercising full power in making decision

Question 11

Quartering Act (1765)

Answer 11

Amendments to the Mutiny Act which assured the quartering and care of British troops in the colonies
-10 years of martial and quasi-martial law during time of peace

Question 12

Intolerable “Coercive” Acts (1774)

Answer 12

A series of acts that targeted the Boston Tea Party resistance by stripping Massachusetts of self government and historic rights.

• 1773 – Protested Tea Tax & Troops
o it had been 8 years since the war was over
• 1774 – Coercive “Intolerable” Acts followed
1. Closed Boston Harbor
2. Revoked Colony Charter (military rule)
3. British officials charged with murder were tried in GB
4. Expanded Quartering Act – public houses
5. Quebec Act (included colonists)
 Established state religion - Catholic
 Allowed French to come in and settle

Question 13

Tea Tax (1773)

Answer 13

An attempt to unload surpluses of tea from England and the West Indies on the colonists and to force them to pay taxes under the Townshend Acts.

Question 14

Quebec Act (1774)

Answer 14

Threatened to strip the colonies of their elected assemblies, and promoted the Roman Catholic faith in preference to widely-held PRotestant beliefs. It also limited opportunities for colonies to expand on their western frontiers (land fought for and won in the French and Indian War), by granting most of the Ohio Country to the province of Quebec.

Question 15

Restraining (Townshend) Acts (First in 1767)

Answer 15

A series of acts set on raising revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would be independent of colonial rule, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations.

Question 16

Stamp Act (1765)

Answer 16

A direct tax by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America that required many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used.

Question 17

Sugar Act (1764)

Answer 17

taxes without consent, violators tried in UK, no trial by jury of peers.

Question 18

Molasses Act (1733)

Answer 18

mposed a tax of six pence per gallon on imports of molasses from non-British colonies. Parliament created the act largely at the insistence of large plantation owners in the British West Indies.

Question 19

Navigation Acts

Answer 19

Were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the Netherlands, France and other European countries.