Poli Midterm 2

Question 1

Barron v Baltimore

Answer 1

Barron sued the city of Baltimore because under the fifth amendment, he had been unconstitutionally deprived of his property. The debate asked the question of whether the Bill of Rights also limits the actions of state governments seem to have been settled in this case.

Question 2

What did Barron v Baltimore confirm?

Answer 2

Dual citizenship- that each American was both a citizens of the national government and separately a citizen of the United States

Question 3

Amendment 1- Bill of Rights

Answer 3

Freedoms, petitions, assembly

Question 4

Amendment 2- Bill of Rights

Answer 4

Right to bare arms

Question 5

Amendment 3-Bill of Rights

Answer 5

Quartering of soldiers

Question 6

Amendment 4- Bill of Rights

Answer 6

Search and arrest

Question 7

Amendment 5- Bill of Rights

Answer 7

Rights in criminal cases

Question 8

Amendment 6- Bill of Rights

Answer 8

Right to a fair trial

Question 9

Amendment 7- Bill of Rights

Answer 9

Rights in civil cases

Question 10

Amendment 8- Bill of Rights

Answer 10

Bail, fines, punishment

Question 11

Amendment 9- Bill of Rights

Answer 11

Rights retained by the people

Question 12

Amendment 10- Bill of Rights

Answer 12

States’ rights

Question 13

Define Civil Rights

Answer 13

Regulations on who can participate in the political process and civil society and how they can participate Ex: the right to vote

Question 14

Define Civil Liberties

Answer 14

Protections of citizens from improper governmental action Ex: freedom of religion

Question 15

Citizens United (2010)

Answer 15

In Citizens United v Federal Election, the court ruled that corporate funding of independent election ads could not be limited under the first amendment, corporations and unions could spend an unlimited amount of money on ads and political tools

Question 16

Dual Citizenship

Answer 16

That each American was both a citizen of the national government and separately a citizen of the United States

Question 17

Establishment Clause (1st Amendment)

Answer 17

The first amendment clause that states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”
Later this lead to the lemon test

Question 18

What are the different interpretations of the Establishment Clause?

Answer 18

1. First amendment author’s view: The clause only prohibits the government from establishing an official church
2. A “accommodationist view”: holds that the government may not take sides among competing religions, but it is not prohibited from providing assistance to religious institutions or ideas so long as it shows no favoritism
3. The most commonly held view today that is the “wall of separation” between church and state that the government cannot breach

Question 19

First Amendment Define

Answer 19

Freedom of speech and the press, “Congress SHALL make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to PEACEABLY assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Question 20

Fourteenth Amendment

Answer 20

Suggest that it was almost perfectly designed to impose the Bill of Rights on the states and reverse Barron v Baltimore
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside”
Explanation of quote: provides for a single national citizenship, which at a minimum means that civil liberties should not vary drastically from state to state
Equal protection clause: Separate but equal, applied to Plessy v Ferguson

Question 21

The Spirit of the 14th amendment

Answer 21

To nationalize the Bill of Rights by nationalizing the definition of citizenship
-created in response to the Barron v Baltimore case- due process clause, gave rights to the states
-no state shall make or enforce any law which shall restrict your rights
-no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of the citizens of the United States

-the last clause, the equal protection clause, has transformed the civil rights in the United States by creating the foundation for equal rights for women, African Americans, etc.

Question 22

Free Exercise Clause (1st Amendment)

Answer 22

Protects the right of citizens to believe and practice whatever religion they choose, and protects the right to be a nonbeliever “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”/ have not drawn a test for it yet

Question 23

Free Speech

Answer 23

First amendment, in 1939 freedom of speech was given extraordinary constitutional status when the Supreme Court declared that any legislation attempting to restrict these fundamental freedoms would be “subjected to a more exacting judicial scrutiny…than are most other types of legislation.” By establishing this principle, the court in effect signaled that the democratic political process must be protected at almost any cost.

Question 24

Griswold v Connecticut

Answer 24

Violated the 14th amendment, the sphere of privacy was drawn in earnest in 1965, when the Court ruled that a Connecticut statue forbidding the use of contraceptives violated the right of marital privacy

Question 25

Lemon Test

Answer 25

A rule articulated in Lemon v Kurtzman that says governmental action with respect to religion is permissible if it is secular in purpose, does not lead to excessive entanglement of government with religion, and neither promotes nor inhibits the practice of religion. This is generally used in relation to governmental aid to religious schools

Question 26

Prior Restraint

Answer 26

An effort by a government agency to block publication of material by a newspaper or magazine, censorship

Question 27

Right to Privacy

Answer 27

The right to be left alone, which has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to entail individual access to birth control and abortions

Question 28

Selective Incorporation

Answer 28

Adding provisions to the bill of rights such as freedom of press, religion, assembly
This one-by-one application of the provisions of the Bill of Rights
Double Jeopardy: helped establish the principle of selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights

Question 29

Strict Scrutiny

Answer 29

the strictest standard of judicial review of a government’s actions, in which the government must show that the law serves as a “compelling state interest”
It implies that speech will be protected almost absolutely

Question 30

15th Amendment

Answer 30

gives African Americans voting rights, and during Reconstruction the federal government enforced those rights.
Black southerners had little hope of changing their state laws because the laws worked in the favor of state legislators. Also, congress was reluctant to pass federal legislation to enforce the 15th amendment. The supreme court finally took action which struck down the White primary in Smith v Allwright, asserting the federal government’s power to intervene in the state’s conduct of elections in order to protect the voting rights of Black Americans.

Question 31

19th Amendment

Answer 31

legally guarantees American women the right to vote

Question 32

Civil Rights v Civil Liberties

Answer 32

civil liberties are restrictions on government, and they restrain the collective decision making of the people as expressed through the decisions of governmental institutions, civil rights are rules that government must follow in regard to the treatment of individuals, especially concerning participation in political and social life. Civil rights also shape collective action and decision making but in a different way. Civil rights regulate who can participate in the political process and civil society and how they participate. Ex: who can vote, serve in office, granted a trial, or serve on juries, and when and how citizens can petition the government. Civil rights also encompasses how people are treated in employment, education, and other aspects of American society.
Civil rights are guaranteed in both federal and state constitutions. The federal constitution provided the right to be represented in Congress, established who can serve in congress and become president, and guaranteed habeas corpus for all people. The Bill of Rights helped define civil rights further, especially the right of all persons to due process of law, guaranteed in the 5th amendment.
Civil rights are not only defined by laws or constitutional interpretation but are highly contextual.
Civil rights are the rules that the government must follow in regard to the treatment of individuals when making collective decisions.
Who, what, and how much?

Question 33

Cognitive Liberation

Answer 33

A transformation of consciousness within a significant segment of the aggrieved population- McAdam

Question 34

Collective Action

Answer 34

American women began to engage in collective action to advance their political and social rights, including the right to vote.

Question 35

Declaration of Sentiments

Answer 35

asserted that women were entitled to rights in every way equal to those of men. Key women present at the meeting were individuals who would later lead the movement for women’s civil rights: Elizabeth Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglas

Question 36

Desegregation/ Segregation (de facto/ de jure)

Answer 36

De jure segregation: racial segregation that is a direct result of law or official policy.
De facto: racial segregation that is not a direct result of law or governmental policy but a reflection of residential patterns, income distributions, or other social factors
A decade of frustration followed Brown v Board of education and that adjunction alone would not succeed in desegregating American society.

Question 37

Information Benefits

Answer 37

Conferences and publications, professional contacts, training programs, coordination among organizations, research, legal help, professional codes, collective bargaining

Question 38

Jim Crow

Answer 38

State and local laws introduced in the southern states that enforced racial segregation, enacted after the Civil War

Question 39

Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 39

upholding a Louisiana statue that required racial segregation on trolleys and other public carriers. Homer Plessy was defined as “one-eighth black” had violated a Louisiana law that provided for “equal but separate accommodations” on trains and imposed a fine on any White passenger who sat in a car reserved for blacks or any Black passenger who sat in a car reserved for Whites. The Supreme Court said that laws drawing racial distinctions did not violate the fourteenth amendment “equal protection laws” because they applied to both races equally.

Question 40

Political Process Model

Answer 40

1. Conveys social movements are political rather than psychological.
2. Conveys movements are a process from generation to decline.
   Conveys: “neither environmental factors nor factors internal to the movement are sufficient to account for the generation and development of social insurgency”- McAdam 39
   Three factors:
3. Level of organization of aggrieved- heart of the political process model
4. Collective assessment of success
5. Political alignment of other groups
   Indigenous organizations bring members, solidary incentives, communication, leaders.
   “People must collectively define their situations as unjust and subject to change through group action”- McAdam 51
   Three points of the decline of political process model:
6. Oligarchization- “the establishment of formal movement organizations may create a certain class of individuals who come to value the maintenance of that organization over the realization of the movements goals.” 55
7. Co-optation- “The establishment of external support linkages, however, grants considerable control over movement affairs to the source from which the resources are obtained.” 55
8. Dissolution- “As insurgents increasingly seek to cultivate ties to outside groups, their indigenous links are likely to grow weaker.”

Question 41

Purposive Benefits

Answer 41

Advocacy, representation before government, participation in public affairs
-appeal of the interest group’s purpose
-offer virtually no material benefits

Question 42

Selective Benefits

Answer 42

Benefits that do not go to everyone, but rather, are distributed selectively to only those who contribute to the group enterprise
-limits free riding
Types of selective benefits:
1. Informational benefits
2. Solidary benefits
3. Purposive benefits
4. Material benefits

Question 43

Separate but equal reversed in Brown v Board of education

Answer 43

the separation but equal rule was the legal principle that public could be segregated by race but still equal, which would not be reversed until 1954.
Brown v Board of Education- USA laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality

Question 44

Solidary benefits

Answer 44

Friendship, networking opportunities

Question 45

Suffrage and the right to vote

Answer 45

A public consensus emerges that our constitution and our laws must be changed to expand our conception of civil rights. The right to vote is not guaranteed in our constitution. It took an entire century of protest and political maneuvering to guarantee women’s voting rights.

Question 46

Ambition

Answer 46

James Madison’s idea that the best way to restrain governmental power is to divide it among several institutions that will work to keep one another in check. Setting power against power is far more effective means of protecting citizens liberties than merely guaranteeing liberties on paper.

Question 47

Anti-Federalists

Answer 47

feared that a strong central government would encroach on individual liberty, pressed for such an amendment as a way of limiting national power

Question 48

Creative Freedom

Answer 48

a type of federalism that shifted more power towards the national government by bypassing state governments and allowing the federal government to have direct control over statewide programs

Question 49

Commerce clause

Answer 49

brought up below in the Gibbons v Ogden

Question 50

Devolution

Answer 50

the policy of delegating a program or passing it down from one level of government to a lower level, such as from the national government to the state and local governments.

Question 51

Divided government

Answer 51

the condition in American government in which one party controls the presidency, while the opposing party controls one or both houses of Congress.

Question 52

Dual v Cooperative Federalism

Answer 52

dual federalism is a two-layered system- national and state- in which the states and their local principalities did most of the governing. This is the “traditional” system because it remained relatively stable during 2/3 of America’s history, with the exception of the Civil War years. The state and federal tiers were functionally quite different from each other.
Cooperative federalism- the system that prevailed after the 1930s in the New Deal Era, in which grants in aid have been used strategically to encourage states and localities to pursue nationally defined goals. A system of supportive relations, sometimes partnerships, between the national government and the state and local governments. Under this brand of federalism, the federal government far greater control over the domestic political agenda. Under dual federalism, corporations mainly concerned themselves with state-level regulation of their business.

Question 53

Executive Privilege

Answer 53

During President George W. Bush’s second term, Congress and the president battled constantly over the president’s refusals to disclose information on the basis of executive privilege and his assertions that only the White House was competent to manage the nation’s security. Bush famously said “I am the decider”
Definition: the claim that confidential communications between the president and close advisors should not be revealed without the president’s consent.

Question 54

Faction

Answer 54

a group of individuals, especially within a political organization, such as a political party, a trade group, or other group with a political purpose.

Question 55

Federalists, and Federalist Papers

Answer 55

Federalist 51- James Madison’s idea that the best way to restrain governmental power is to divide it among several institutions that will help to keep one another in check. Setting “power against power” would be a far more effective means of protecting citizens’ liberties than merely guaranteeing liberties on paper.
Federalists agreed to the 10th amendment- the powers the Constitution does not give to the national government or deny to the states are “reserved to the states respectively, or to the people”. The tenth amendment is also called the reserved powers amendment because it aims to reserve the powers to the states

Question 56

Gibbons v Ogden

Answer 56

1824: the issue was whether the state of New York could grant a monopoly to a steamboat company to operate between New York and New Jersey. Ogden had secured his license from the state, whereas Gibbons had secured a competing license from the U.S. government. Chief Justice Marshall argued that Gibbons could not be kept from competing because the state of New York did not have the power to grant the monopoly in the first place, since it affected the commercial interests of other states. Marshall based his decision on the Commerce clause, which delegates to Congress the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states and with Indian tribes”. Marshall insisted that the definition of “commerce” in this clause was “comprehensive” but added that comprehensiveness was limited “to that commerce which concerns more states than one” This opinion gave rise to the legal concept that later became interstate commerce.

Question 57

Grants-in-aid vs Categorical grants vs project grants vs formula grants

Answer 57

Grant-in-aid is a kind of incentive whereby Congress appropriates money for state and local governments with the condition that it be spent for a particular purpose. Congress uses grant-in-aid because it does not have the political or constitutional power to command state and local governments to do its bidding. Grant-in-aid is an example of the fact that institutions shape policies because the United States constitutional system gives the states de facto veto power over many potential federal programs, the national government has learned to craft policies likely to elicit the states’ cooperation.
-World war 2 temporarily stopped grants-in-aid. But after the war, Congress resumed making grants for urban development and school lunches. Categorical grants are funds given to states and local governments by Congress that are earmarked by law for specific policy categories such as education or crime prevention.
-Many of the Categorical grants enacted during the 1960s were project grants, which require state and local governments to submit proposals to federal agencies, which provide funding for them on a competitive basis.
-Formula Grants: a formula is used to determine the amount of federal funds a state or local government will receive.

Question 58

McCulloch v Maryland

Answer 58

issues between national and state governments. This case was about whether Congress could charter a bank- in particular, the Bank of the United States, which Congress had created in 1791 over Thomas Jefferson’s opposition. Although no expressed power exists in Article 1 Section 8, Chief Justice Marshall stated that such a power could be “implied” from the commerce clause by applying the necessary and proper clause. Because the Constitution expressly granted Congress the power to regulate commerce, and chartering a bank was both reasonably related to commerce and not prohibited by the Constitution, Congress’s action was constitutionally permissible. The Court significantly increased the potential scope of the government’s power. Congress could now exercise powers implied by the powers specifically mentioned in Article 1, Section 8. The power to regulate commerce in particular has become the foundation of governmental actions not mentioned in the Constitution.
A second question of national versus state power arose in McCulloch: Could the state of Maryland tax the bank that Congress had created? Marshall and the Supreme Court sided with the national government, arguing that a bank created by a legislature representing Congress could not be taxed by a state legislature (Maryland) representing only a fraction of the American people. Here the Supreme Court relied on the Supremacy Clause: whenever a state law is invalid because “the Laws of the United States… shall be the supreme Law of the Land”

Question 59

Necessary and Proper Clause

Answer 59

has created a struggle over the distribution of powers between national and state governments throughout the nation’s history. The national government remained steadfastly within the strict limits established by this clause.

Question 60

New Federalism

Answer 60

Nixon and Regan called their efforts to reverse the trend toward national standards “new federalism”. They helped craft national policies that would return more discretion to the states. Examples include Nixon’s revenue sharing and Regan’s block grants, which consolidated a number of categorical grants into one larger category, leaving the state (or local) governments that received them more discretion to decide how to use the money.
The states can exert a good deal of power over nominally federal programs. Still, the United States began as a nation of semi-sovereign states and is now closer to being a unitary republic

Question 61

Nullification

Answer 61

The constitutional theory that individual states can invalidate federal laws or judicial decisions they deem unconstitutional

Question 62

Police Powers

Answer 62

of the state, includes the power to regulate the health, safety, welfare, and morals of its citizens. For example, when issued a traffic ticket, the state exercises its police power, often through the agency of a country or city police officer. Policing is what the states do- they coerce you in the name of the community for the purpose of maintaining public order. This was exactly the type of power that the Founders intended the states to exercise.

Question 63

State Sovereignty

Answer 63

sovereignty- independent political authority, the framers preserved a strong role for the states through the 10th amendment.

Question 64

Unfunded mandates

Answer 64

National standards or governments imposed on state and local governments by the federal government without accompanying funding or reimbursement

Question 65

Administrative Adjudication

Answer 65

The application of rules and precedents to specific cases to settle disputes with regulated parties. It is similar to what the judiciary ordinarily does. In administrative adjudication, an agency charges a person or business suspected of violating the law, and the eventual ruling applies only to the case being considered.

Question 66

Bureaucracy

Answer 66

A set of agencies created by elected politicians. These politicians seek to coordinate governmental efforts in order to accomplish public purposes and private objectives as well as to solve collective action problems. Sometimes bureaucracies are created in the face of a pressing need or crisis.
Bold definition: the complex structure of offices, tasks, rules, and principles of organization that large institutions use to coordinate the work of their personnel.

Question 67

Bureaucratic drift v coalition drift

Answer 67

Bureaucratic Drift- the tendency of bureaucracies to implement laws in ways that tilt toward the bureaucrats’ policy preferences and possibly away from the intentions of the elected officials who created the laws. Also defined as the implementation that produces policy more to the liking of the bureaucracy than faithful to the original intention of the legislation.
Bureaucratic drift could be contained if Congress spent more time clarifying its legislative intent and less time on oversight activity. If its original intent in its laws were clearer, Congress could afford to defer to presidential management to maintain bureaucratic responsibility.
Coalition Drift- the prospect that enacted policy will change in the future because the composition of the enacting coalition is temporary and provisional. Collective action problem.

Question 68

Clientele Agencies

Answer 68

Clienteles value consistency, predictability, and durability
An example of this is the department of agriculture, interior, labor, and commerce.
Clientele agency: a department or bureau of government whose mission is to promote, serve, or represent a particular interest.

Question 69

Congressional Oversight (Police v Fire)

Answer 69

Police- Congress systematically initiates investigations into the activity of agencies.
Fire-alarm oversight- Congress waits for adversely affected citizens or interest groups to bring bureaucratic perversions of legislative intent to their intention. To ensure that individuals and groups publicize these violations- to set off the fire alarm, so to speak- Congress helps them make claims against the bureaucracy, both granting them legal standing before administrative agencies and federal courts and giving them access to government-held information through FOIA.
McCubbins and Schwarts argue that fire-alarm oversight is more efficient than the police-patrol variety given the costs involved and the electoral incentives of members of Congress. Police-patrol oversight can waste taxpayers’ dollars because many investigators will not turn up evidence of violations of legislative intent. It is much more cost effective for members to conserve their resources and then claim credit for fixing the problem after the fire alarms have been sounded.

Police patrol oversight is random, with high costs and low rewards
Fire Protection oversight is targeted when constituents/interests signal an issue. It is low cost and high reward

Question 70

FDA Approval

Answer 70

An example of a regulatory agency, an agency or commission is considered regulatory if Congress delegates to it broad powers over a sector of the economy or a type of commercial activity and authorizes it to make rules governing the conduct of people and businesses within that jurisdiction. Rules made by regulatory agencies have the force of legislation, these rules are referred to as administrative legislation.
Thalidomide was prescribed for pregnant women who experienced morning sickness which led to birth defects.
This was the original case which led to a shift in public perception of the FDA

Question 71

Iron Triangle

Answer 71

bureaucracies, congressional committees, and interest groups
exist because Clientele Agencies hire the individuals who share the interests they represent. The result is a group composed of business interests, regulatory agencies, and congressional committees all who share a goal of advancing one particular group
Ex: the department of agriculture wants the farmers and the farmers want them
You can get a lot of group think without a lot of outside regulation
In clientele agencies and regulatory agencies

Question 72

Material benefits

Answer 72

provisions of goods or services, not money

Question 73

Principal Agent Problem

Answer 73

“The relationship between someone with authority (the principal) and someone to whom he or she delegates the authority (the agent). This relationship may be affected by the fact that each party is motivated by self-interest, yet their interests may not align.”
Hypothetically, consider a land management bureau whose existence Congress must renew every 10 years by passing new legislation. The issue facing the House, Senate, and the president in considering renewal involves how much money to permit it to spend. The President agrees to split the difference between the House and the Senate on the matter of authority but feels beholden to land management interests and is thus prepared to shower the LMB with resources. Bureaucrats in the LMB want more authority than the Senate is prepared to grant and more resources than the House is willing to grant. Eventually the House and the Senate and the president agree on a policy reflecting a compromise among their various points of view. The LMB bureaucrats are not pleased with this compromise because it gives them considerably less authority and funding than they hoped for.
The bureau tilts policy toward its own preferences and away from the political compromise reached by the executive and legislature, but the tilt is subtle enough that it does not stimulate a political response.

“Each party is motivated by self-interest, yet their interests may not align.”
Agent side: Bureaucratic Goal: Implementation that produces policy more to the liking of the bureaucracy than faithful to the original intention of the legislation.
Things to avoid: delegation to others, budget cuts

Question 74

Revolving door

Answer 74

exist because Clientele Agencies hire the individuals who share the interests they represent. The result is a group composed of business interests, regulatory agencies, and congressional committees all who share a goal of advancing one particular group

Question 75

Transaction costs

Answer 75

the cost of negotiating and policing behavior of agent
President: how do I make sure my bureaucrats are following my regulations?

Question 76

Amicus Curiae

Answer 76

“friend of the court”- an individual or group that is not a party to a lawsuit but has a strong interest in influencing the outcome

Question 77

Article III, Constitution

Answer 77

• gives the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction in all federal cases and original jurisdiction in cases involving foreign ambassadors and issues in which a statue is a party. Judicial power of the United States
  Appellate jurisdiction: Supreme Court may hear cases appealed to it by a party to a case first heard in a lower federal court or a state court
  Original jurisdiction: The initial destination of cases involving a state or an ambassador
  Article III assigns original jurisdiction in all other federal cases to the lower courts.

Question 78

Concurring v Dissenting Opinions

Answer 78

Concurring: An opinion agreeing with the decision of the majority in a Supreme Court case but with a rationale different from the one provided in the majority opinion.
Dissenting: A decision written by a justice who voted with the minority opinion in a particular case, in which the justice fully explains the reasoning behind his or her opinion

Question 79

Criminal law, civil law, public law

Answer 79

Criminal law- cases arising out of actions that allegedly violate laws protecting the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the community. In criminal cases, the government is always the plaintiff (the party that brings the charges) and alleges that a named defendant has committed a criminal violation. Most criminal cases arise in state and municipal courts and involve matters ranging from traffic offenses to robbery and murder. However, there is a growing body of federal criminal law which addresses such matters as tax evasion, mail fraud, and the sale of narcotics. Defendants found guilty of criminal violations may be fined or sent to prison.
Civil law- cases involving disputes among individuals or between the government and individuals that do not involve criminal penalties. Unlike criminal cases, the losers in civil cases cannot be fined or sent to prison, although they may be required to pay monetary damages. In a civil case, the one who brings a complaint is the plaintiff and the one against whom the complaint is brought is the defendant. The two most common types of civil cases involve contracts and torts, and both are often handled by state courts. In a typical tort case, one individual charge that she has been injured by another’s negligence or malfeasance. Medical malpractice suits are one example of tort cases.
Example: Smith Manufacturing Corporation may charge that Jones Distributors failed to honor an agreement to deliver raw materials at a specified time, causing Smith to lose business. Smith asks the court to order Jones to compensate it for the damage allegedly suffered.
Public Law- Cases involving the powers of government or rights of citizens.
A case becomes a matter of public law when a plaintiff or defendant in a civil or criminal case seeks to show that his case involves the powers of government or the rights of citizens as defined by the Constitution or statue.
One major form of public law is constitutional law, under which a court will determine whether the government’s actions confirm to the Constitution as the judiciary interprets it.
Ex: A defendant claims that the police violated her constitutional rights.
Another form of public law is administrative law, which involves disputes over the jurisdiction, procedures, or authority of administrative agencies.
Ex: Civil litigation between an individual and the government may become a matter of public law if the individual asserts that the government is violating a statue or abusing its constitutional power.
Ex: Land owners have asserted that some federal and state regulations on land use violate the fifth amendment’s restrictions on the government’s ability to confiscate private property.
It is now getting more common for ordinary civil disputes to transform into a major issue of public law.

Question 80

Docket, Case Selection

Answer 80

Thousands of cases are appealed to the Supreme Court. The nine justices must sort through these petitions and according to the rule of four, build their docket each session. Dockets contain information about the judge hearing the case, parties involved, attorneys involved, and the events of the case.

Question 81

Judicial elections

Answer 81

the president appoints federal judges, the Constitution requires the Senate to “advise and consent” to federal judicial nominations

Question 82

Judicial restraint v Activism

Answer 82

Judicial Restraint: the judicial philosophy whose adherents refuse to go beyond the text of the Constitution and interpreting its meaning
Judicial Activism: the judicial philosophy of the court should see beyond the text of the constitution or a statue to consider the broader societal implications of its decisions

Question 83

Judicial Review

Answer 83

the Supreme Court and other federal courts of appeals can strike down actions of Congress, the president, or the states if judges deem those acts to be violations of the Constitution
The power of the courts to determine whether the actions of the president, Congress, and the state legislators are consistent with the constitution
The power of the courts to determine whether the actions of the president, Congress, and the state legislators are consistent with the constitution

Question 84

Judicial Selection (State and Federalism)

Answer 84

Cases are heard in the Federal courts if they involve federal laws, treaties with other nations, or the US Constitution. In addition, any case in which the US government is a party is heard in the federal courts.
Ex: if an individual is charged with violating a federal criminal statue- such as evading the payment of federal income taxes- charges would be brought before a federal judge by a federal prosecutor. Civil cases involving more than one state in which more than $75,000 is at stake may be heard in either the federal or the state courts

Question 85

Jurisdiction, Original v Appellate

Answer 85

Appellate: the class of cases provided in the Constitution (Article 3) and by legislation that may be appealed to a higher court from a lower court
Original: The class of cases provided in the Constitution (Article 3) that may be taken directly to a federal court

Question 86

Marbury v Madison

Answer 86

(1803)- the court declared part of the judiciary act unconstitutional, establishing the court’s power of judicial review

Question 87

Mootness

Answer 87

no longer requiring resolution by the courts, typically because the facts of the case have been changed or have been resolved by other means.

Question 88

Ripeness

Answer 88

A case before a court must involve an actual controversy, not a hypothetical one, with two truly adversarial parties.
Ripeness: The requirement that a case must involve an actual controversy between two parties, not a hypothetical one

Question 89

Stare Decisis

Answer 89

Latin phrase meaning “let the decision stand”, the doctrine whereby a previous decision by a court applies as a precedent in similar cases until that decision is overruled.

Question 90

State courts

Answer 90

most civil litigation is brought in state courts

Question 91

Standing, judicial

Answer 91

Standing- the requirement that anyone initiating a court case must show a substantial stake in the outcome

Question 92

Writ of Certiorari

Answer 92

how most cases reach the supreme court, a formal request to have the Supreme Court review a decision of a lower court