SECOND SEMESTER FINALS

Question 1

What is the rule of law and what does it safeguard

Answer 1

The principle that governmental authority is exercised only in accordance with public laws that are adopted and forced according to established procedures

Question 2

What were Rutherford and Montesquieu’s contribution to the rule of law

Answer 2

Rutherford advocated using law to control the power of the Monarch or other ruler. Montesquieu promoted the principle of separation of powers -dividing government into three branches

Question 3

What does the American creed consist of?

Answer 3

Consist of the countries basic governing principles: rule of law, sovereignty, checks and balances, (separation of powers and federalism) individual rights and judicial review

Question 4

What principle of the Declaration of Independence uphold’s Locke’s ideas?

Answer 4

The ideas about natural or God-given rights, popular sovereignty, the social contract theory of government based on the consent of the governed and even the people’s rights to revolt against an unjust government

Question 5

What was the result of Shays rebellion on the national scale?

Answer 5

It caused the federal government to scrap the Articles and write the Constitution

Question 6

What two factions were created during the Constitutional convention

Answer 6

Federalists and anti-federalists

Question 7

What did The Federalists support?

Answer 7

The Federalists supported the country needing a strong federal government

Question 8

What did the anti-Federalist support?

Answer 8

The anti-Federalist opposed ratification’s because it gave too much power to the federal government

Question 9

What are the three parts of the basic framework of the constitution?

Answer 9

1) The Constitution creates a republican form or government
2) federal system with
3) separation of power

Question 10

What are the competencies of each branch of the government

Answer 10

Legislative branch representation. Executive action and administration. Judicial resolution of disputes.

Question 11

What are the differences between civil rights and civil liberties

Answer 11

Civil rights are statutory rights (provided by legislation) and protect individuals against discrimination; it is a legislative body they deal with particular groups of people. Natural law is life liberty and property.

Question 12

Why is congress called the broken branch?

Answer 12

Effectiveness. Because the public and political scientists considerate it ineffective or it’s too slow

Question 13

How has the basis of the political system shifted over the years?

Answer 13

Congress is still the first branch but it is no longer the primary. The modern system has developed into a political system based on executive government versus legislative.
Executive over congress (senators)

Question 14

What powers does the house have over other branches?

Answer 14

The power of impeachment charging a government official treason, bribery, and other crimes or Misdemeanors, and controls the budget.

Question 15

What powers does the senate have over the other branches?

Answer 15

The Senate acts as the court for impeachment, has the power to approve important presidential appointments, and approves all treaties.

Question 16

What are enumerated powers?

Answer 16

Enumerated powers are those that are specifically mentioned in the Constitution, powers that the Constitution actually delegates to government

Question 17

What are implied powers

Answer 17

The implied powers are the powers that are not specifically mentioned, but can be logically implied to flow from those that are enumerated.

Question 18

Give three enumerated powers of Congress

Answer 18

Power to lay and collect taxes.
Power to regulate commerce with foreign nations.
Power to coin money or inflation.

Question 19

What part of the constitution leads us to believe that there are implied or elastic powers?

Answer 19

The necessary and proper clause or elastic clause has been interpreted to mean that Congress can make laws necessary and proper to achieve its enumerated powers.

Question 20

Why are tax bills originated in the house?

Answer 20

The founders believed that decisions to tax should originate with the government institution closest to the people.

Question 21

How many legislative districts do we currently have

Answer 21

435

Question 22

What is a bicameral system?

Answer 22

A bicameral system is a two house body. It is part of the system of checks and balances and part of the functional differences and legislative government.

Question 23

What is the power problem for the president

Answer 23

A power problem is on the accountability side. It is hard to hold presidents accountable for their actions.

Question 24

What is an imperial president?

Answer 24

President with too much power. They make executive orders out of their power or jurisdiction

Question 25

What is an imperiled president?

Answer 25

A president who is not powerful enough.

Question 26

Why are Ford and Carter considered imperiled residents?

Answer 26

Ford’s response to economic threats were ineffective, and Carter seemed incapable of responding to national security issues.

Question 27

What are the inherent powers of the president

Answer 27

Powers inherent in the presidency because he has the president. (Inherently in charge of the US)

Question 28

Why is the president called the chief legislator

Answer 28

Congress has delegated so much power to the present that he has become important part of the process. Congress gave it to him

Question 29

What does party loyalty undermine?

Answer 29

It undermines the system of institutional checks and balances. Madisonian factions will happen.

Question 30

What is the purpose of the State of the Union address?

Answer 30

What are the highlights of the previous year and the goals of the years to come

Question 31

What are the qualifications of the executive office

Answer 31

Natural born citizens 35 years old and resident of the US for 14 Consecutive years

Question 32

How is the president elected

Answer 32

Through the electoral college

Question 33

What is a primary election

Answer 33

An election to determine who will be the political party’s candidate for office

Question 34

Why did our founders choose the electoral college as the way of electing the president?

Answer 34

They did not trust people enough to allow them to directly elect the president

Question 35

Why is the electoral college controversial

Answer 35

It is inconsistent with the general principles of democracy, it does not provide citizens with a constitutional right to vote for president, the candidate who gets the most popular votes can lose the electoral college vote.

Question 36

What is the fourth branch of government

Answer 36

Bureaucracy much of our taxes go to paying interest the interest rate for bureaucracy.

Question 37

What is the hierarchy of law in the US system

Answer 37

It includes the constitutional law legislative or statutory law and the administrative or regulatory law

Question 38

What is pragmatism and social Darwinism

Answer 38

Pragmatism sees the easy fix (not ethical) is what you got to do. Social Darwinism says we are all progressing towards a an end. We might never get there but we need to be quick on our feet to change and progression. The ultimate goal of this doctrine.

Question 39

How did Oliver Wendell Holmes interpret the Constitution?

Answer 39

First of all he believed that there are no objective standards of right and wrong, law cannot be based on some timeless natural law and law must only be concerned with the practical effects that it will have on society. Truth is what gets accepted in the market place of ideas. Truth is what triumphs. We need to progress and always have an aim towards progression then he thought we need to progressively interpret the law. Progress can only come about through dominant ideas, weaker ideas must be opposed. Cases are decided upon not by reasons but by “felt necessities” and therefore judges make decisions first, and then come up with reasons afterwards. His ideas are not rooted in reason. Laws can be changed illy a shift in the whims of public opinion.

Question 40

What are the clear and present dangers that Oliver Wendell Holmes brought up? What is the importance of this?

Answer 40

He thought that progress can only come through dominant ideas, weaker ideas must be opposed. The desire for progress motivated holm’es decision in. Buck and bell to uphold the compulsory sterilization of the mentally handicapped. His judicial activism set the stage for modern attitudes towards the jurisprudence.

Question 41

What are some lasting effects on our legal system as a result of Oliver Wendell Holmes?

Answer 41

Abortion SOCIAL DARWINISM
AND PRAGMATIC AIMS LOOKING at the consequences.
Opportunistic progression guy

Question 42

What are the felt necessities and effects on positive and natural law?

Answer 42

Judges cannot decide a case by reason alone but must look to science and economics; their decisions are based on the common sentiments of certain historical period. Particular cases are decided upon not buy reasons but felt necessities and therefore judges make decisions first and then come up with reasons afterwards. These are going to change ALLL the time because you feel different things all the time. He thought what is right is what prevails. Natural rights are only those that are agree upon and willed by a particular community at a particular time.

Question 43

What does due process do (due)?

Answer 43

Due process minimizes the states freedom to exercise its power maximizes the communities input in the court decision and maximizes respect for the individual liberty one of their checks and balances and two through the centrality of the jury

Question 44

What is due process in a criminal trial?

Answer 44

In a criminal trial:
formal accusation
rights to the defendant to call witness not to witness against oneself
to help choose the jurors
presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt a jury of 12 good men in true issue is the verdict by unanimous vote based on the judges instructions on which laws govern the case.

Question 45

What is due process in a civil trial

Answer 45

Standards of judgment is preponderance of the evidence judgment awards monetary damages.

Question 46

What are the checks and balances in the judicial system

Answer 46

Judge and jury are distinct the prosecution and the defense are distinct losing side has the right to appeal to a higher court

Question 47

What is precedence?

Answer 47

What has gone before. it is when you judge something on what has been done before and you judge that is being true and good

Question 48

What did John Locke propose?

Answer 48

He proposes individual rights and limited government.

Question 49

What is morality based on in Locke’s view and in Hobbes’s view?

Answer 49

Thomas Locke says that the natural law theory states morality is fundamentally about man’s duty to follow the natural law. Thomas Hobbes bases morality not on duty but on each individual’s rights to preserve himself and to pursue his own good.

Question 50

What does Hobbes think about man?

Answer 50

Man is by nature a solitary creature and independent creature in Hobbes’s “state of nature”. He is an individual he must be independent and left to fed for himself; thus because his state of nature, there is a war of all against all without moral ties between persons. Society is not natural but men should consent to a social contract for their own safety.

Question 51

What is John Locke’s view of the state of nature?

Answer 51

John Locke also speaks of state of nature were men are free equal and independent man consent to give authority to the government in the social contract and government must respect the rights of individuals. Mark says that men in the state of nature are free within the bounds of law they have to do your true spec the rights of others including the rights of property even within the state of nature Hobbs does not knowledge this limitation romance liberty property is useless and Hobbes in state of nature because individuals do not have the duty to respect others property

Question 52

What is the source of law in Locke’s view?

Answer 52

God

Question 53

What are men’s rights and man’s duty according to Locke?

Answer 53

Locke says that men in the state of nature are free within the bounds of law they have a duty to respect the rights of others including the right to property even within the state of nature

Question 54

What is Locke’s view of liberalism

Answer 54

Americans would profit from studying Locke and Hobbes in order to understand the character of liberalism such study is important for considering the interplay and relationship of rights and responsibilities or duties. Must a right’s based society degenerate into selfishness or could it emphasize men’s responsibility to respect the rights of others. If so would it have to place not true about natural rights must natural law have a religious dimension?