Exam 1: Concepts from text

Question 1

Shay’s Rebellion

Answer 1

An uprising of Springfield farmers who seized county courthouses and attacked a federal arsenal due to the country’s economic depression. Demonstrated that the Articles of Confederation were too weak to protect citizens from armed rebellion or to provide for the public welfare

Question 2

Great Compromise

Answer 2

Definition: the compromise between the NJ and Virginia plans that created one chamber of congress based on population and one chamber representing each state equally
Significance: Settled the disagreement between small states and large states, but diluted the power of citizens in more heavily populated states

Question 3

Checks and Balances

Answer 3

Definition: A major principle of the American system of government whereby each branch of the government can check the actions of the others
Significance: Has evolved since it was written, now congress has found ways of getting around these checks

Question 4

Gitlow vs. New York

Answer 4

Supreme Court held that the fourteenth amendment (no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property) protected freedom of speech from state infringement. The first case to spark incorporation theory.

Question 5

Engel vs. Vitale

Answer 5

The Supreme Court ruled that establishing prayer in public schools is unconstitutional because the government has no right to compose official prayers for anyone to recite.

Question 6

Epperson vs. Arkansas

Answer 6

Supreme Court rules that an Arkansas law prohibiting the teaching of Evolution violated the establishment clause because it imposed religious beliefs on students

Question 7

Washington vs. Glucksberg

Answer 7

The Supreme Court held that there is no constitutional right to commit suicide.

Question 8

5. Civil Rights

Answer 8

Definition: Rights of all Americans to equal protection under the law (rooted in the 14th amendment)
Significance: specify what the government must do to ensure equal protection from discrimination

Question 9

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka

Answer 9

The Supreme Court rules that segregated schools violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment
Significance: Despite that whites protested violently, eventually peace was achieved and blacks could go to public schools with whites

Question 10

Voting Rights Act

Answer 10

Definition: Outlawed discriminatory voter registration tests and authorized federal registration of voters anywhere (not sure about this one)
Significance: Caused a dramatic increase in the percentage of african americans registered to vote

Question 11

Equal Pay Act

Answer 11

Definition:
Significance:

Question 12

University of California vs. Bakke

Answer 12

Affirmative action: The Supreme Court decision that college admissions can not have racial quotas

Question 13

7. American Farm Bureau Federation

Answer 13

Definition:
Significance: Most successful type of group to get subsidies from taxpayers

Question 14

Tea Party

Answer 14

Definition: belief that federal gov makes almost all decisions for the nation (simple version of elite theory)
(makes the republican party even more conservative)

Question 15

Unit Rule

Answer 15

Definition: a rule by which all of the states electoral votes are cast for the presidential candidate who receives a plurality of the votes in that state.
Significance: gives minor parties a hard time competing

Question 16

“opposite and rival interests”

Answer 16

Definition: Phrase from Federalist 51
Significance:

Question 17

DOI. “consent of the governed”

Answer 17

Definition: Where the government derives its just powers from
Significance: The rebels argued that when a government gains power without the consent of the governed, the governed have a right to alter or abolish the government; this justifies the American revolution.