Past information

Question 1

Four sources of law in the US

Answer 1

1: the Constitution, its amendments, and treaties.
2: administrative law
3: statutory law
4: common law

Question 2

Rule of law

Answer 2

The restriction of the arbitrary or excessive exercise of government power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws

Question 3

Consequences of the rule of law

Answer 3

1: if the government tries to interfere in the life of its citizens, it must prove to the satisfaction of the courts that that interference is warranted based upon facts
2: all must follow the rule of law, including the government

Question 4

Four principles of the rule of law

Answer 4

1: all government actions and decisions must be based upon written and promulgated laws or rules.
2: the government must give written and timely notice before it deprives a person of life, liberty, or property following due process of law
3: as far as possible, the law should administered fairly and impartially, without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, or physical disability
4: the courts must give written reasons for its decision, based upon the law

Question 5

Five manifestations of the rule of law

Answer 5

1: an independent and impartial judiciary
2: Constitutional safeguards are in place to prevent one branch of government from exercising too much power at the expense of the power of the other two branches
3: the balance of powers
4: free and fair elections
5: a free press

Question 6

Five reasons for recusal

Answer 6

1: if the judge has a bias or prejudice towards the defendants, a lawyer, etc
2: if the judge has knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts in the case
3: if prior to joining the bench, the judge was a lawyer working on the case at hand or was a witness in the case
4: if a judge publicly expresses an opinion on the outcome of a case before the arguments are heard
5: if the judge or a close relative to the judge has a financial stake in the outcome of a case

Question 7

Conflict of interest cases

Answer 7

Newdow v. Elk Grove Unified School District

Caperton v. Massey

Question 8

Three areas of dispute in writing the Constitution

Answer 8

1: slaves and representation
2: banning the slave trade
3: fugitive slaves

Question 9

Consequences of the compromises on slavery

Answer 9

1: 3/5 increased southern power
2: moratorium on a vote on the slave trade until 1808
3: the Fugitive Slave Clause led to the kidnapping of many free African-Americans in the North

Question 10

Precedent

Answer 10

AKA stare decisis. The application of legal rules and principles established in previous cases to new cases provided that those subsequent cases have “substantially similar facts” to the original case

Question 11

Three core values of precedent

Answer 11

1: predictability
2: consistency
3: stability

Question 12

Three factors in overturning a precedent

Answer 12

1: the age of a precedent
2: the nature and extent of public and private reliance on the precedent
3: the precedent’s consistency or inconsistency with similar laws

Question 13

Consequences of Somerset v. Stewart

Answer 13

1: Somerset was set free
2: Somerset became binding precedent for future cases involving slaves in England and the American colony. It was applied in Winny v. Whitesides

Question 14

Consequences of Winny v. Whitesides

Answer 14

1: Winny was set free
2: Winny became a precedent along with Somerset in MO

Question 15

Holdings of the decision in Scott v. Sandford

Answer 15

1: The Founding Fathers never intended for African-Americans to be citizens (“colored people have no rights which white people are bound to respect”
2: Scott was legally a slave according to MO law and must remain a slave, which legally endorsed slavery
3: The MO compromise was overruled because it deprived a property owner of property without due process, violating the fifth amendment

Question 16

National ramifications of Scott v. Sandford

Answer 16

1: The decision strengthened Northern opposition to slavery
2: The Democratic Party was divided among geographic lines
3: The decision emboldened Southern supporters of slavery to make even bolder demands
4: It bolstered the nascent Republican party

Question 17

The major lacuna in the Constitution until the Reconstruction amendments

Answer 17

The Bill of Rights only bound or restricted the power of the federal government, not the states. Constitutional protections only applied to the federal government. Most disputes between a citizen and the government are between the citizen and his state, not the federal government

Question 18

Five provisions to the “Black Codes”

Answer 18

1: Blacks were denied the right to own property, to enter into legal contracts, and to testify in court.
2: Vagrancy laws, which made it illegal to be unemployed, were selectively applied on blacks
3: “Convict leasing”: blacks were entrapped, convicted, and sentenced to prison. Then, they were leased to white businessmen and plantation owners
4: Debt peonage: blacks were convicted of bogus charges and sentenced to pay a fine, which they could not do. White people paid the fine and then the convicted person was obliged to pay off the debt by working for the white business owner.
5: Miscegenation. Racial segregation was enforced in the realm of marriage by criminalizing interracial marriage and sexual relations

Question 19

Three types of rights

Answer 19

1: Civil rights, which include the rights to own property, to enter into legal contracts, to sue in court, and to testify
2: Political rights, which include the rights to vote, to run for office, and to serve on a jury
3: Social rights, which include the right to marry a person of one’s choice, to have an education, to choose one’s occupation, and to travel

Question 20

Ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 20

The SCA was constitutional. States can separate the races, as long as the facilities are equal.

Question 21

Consequences of Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 21

1: Public facilities were always separate de jure, but de facto virtually never equal
2: The decision led to legalized segregation in all aspects of Southern life, a tremendous boon to Jim Crow

Question 22

Two aspects of Jim Crow

Answer 22

1: De jure, state and local laws mandated segregation in all aspects of Southern life.
2: De facto, it contained a set of social customs and normative behaviors of how blacks were expected to interact with whites

Question 23

Four methods of disenfranchisement

Answer 23

1: “Grandfather clauses”: if one’s father or grandfather was eligible to vote in 1867, then that person could also vote
2: Literacy tests: a person would have to read a part of the Constitution and then explain its meaning to the satisfaction of local officials
3: Poll taxes, which were usually waived for poor whites
4: Excessive voting requirements, which included a large time of residency, information African-Americans did not have, frequent re-registration requirements, and infrequent hours of registration for African-Americans

Question 24

The precedent of Berea v. Kentucky

Answer 24

It expanded the precedent of Plessy. States could now enforce segregation in private schools, not just public ones

Question 25

Two factors that led to the founding of the NAACP

Answer 25

1: With Berea, many now believed that segregation was increasing and spreading, rather than declining
2: Many believed that Plessy and the codification and growth and Jim Crow now imposed “another form of slavery” on African-Americans

Question 26

Three key concerns of the NAACP

Answer 26

1: The disenfranchisement of blacks in the South: the concerns of blacks would never be seen without political power
2: The disparity in public funding of segregated white and black facilities
3: The increasing curtailment of blacks in general

Question 27

Two foundational premises of the NAACP’s legal strategy

Answer 27

1: Just as the American legal system now works against the interests of African-Americans, it can be made to work eventually in their favor
2: When laws concerning the rights of a person or group are change, permanent changes are made

Question 28

Two goals of the NAACP’s legal strategy

Answer 28

1: To undermine the legal system of white supremacy linked to Plessy
2: In order to undermine the legal system of white supremacy linked to Plessy, they had to successfully challenge the legal underpinnings of Plessy

Question 29

Charles Hamilton Houston’s legal strategy

Answer 29

He argued that the NAACP must attack the states where they are most vulnerable legally: when states do not provide state professional schools to qualified minority applicants

Question 30

Ruling of Murray v. Pearson

Answer 30

6-0 in favor of Murray.

1: Public facilities, paid for by tax dollars, must be equal in access to all
2: If the state only offers one state or public law school, as MD did, it must be opened to all qualified applicants, regardless of race

Question 31

Three outcomes of Murray v. Pearson

Answer 31

1: Murray was admitted and the UMD Law School became integrated
2: It was a narrow ruling: not all public schools in Maryland were integrated
3: Murray did not become a national precedent that was binding on all state law schools

Question 32

Two legal outcomes from Gaines v. Canada

Answer 32

1: If a state only offers one type of professional school, it must be open to all qualified applicants
2: The Supreme Court reviewed for the first time the feasibility of the precedent of Plessy and recognized for the first time the impossibility of having a separate school system by race that was truly equal

Question 33

Ruling of Sweatt v. Painter

Answer 33

Houston school was “grossly unequal to Austin

1: Empirical/quantitative data showed that Austin was clearly the better school
2: “Intangible factors” were part of the “equation of equality”

Question 34

The key legal question of Brown v. Board of Education

Answer 34

Is segregation by race in public schools - though the schools are equal - ever constitutional?

Question 35

Two grounds for the ruling in Brown v. Board

Answer 35

1: Segregation by race in public schools is a blatant violation of the EPC
2: The Court overruled Plessy as a precedent because it was doing significant harm to the country