Supreme Court Flashcards
On average, how many Supreme Court appointments might a one-term president expect to be able to make?
Two - on average they come up every two years.
How many SC appointments did Clinton, GWB and Obama make each?
Two, two, two.
Give three reasons why SC appointments are so significant
Here are four: they are rare; they are for life; there are only nine SC Justices; and the SC has the power of judicial review.
Who is the longest serving current SC justice, and which president appointed him?
Clarence Thomas; GHBush
Where do most SC justices come from?
The federal Court of Appeals
Who is the only current SCJ not to have previously been a federal appeal court judge?
Elena Kagan (she was Solicitor General at the Dept of Justice)
Who said, “The constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document”?
Justice Scalia
Name two SC nominees who failed to make it to the court, and the presidents who nominated them.
Robert Bork (Ronald Reagan), Merrick Garland (Obama)
According to whom is the Senate approval process “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks”?
Clarence Thomas.
How did Trump change the nomination process for Supreme Court justices?
He changed the rules so that they could be approved by a simple majority in the Senate and so cannot be filibustered.
Who is the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee?
Chuck Grassley
What’s another word for a “strict constructionist”?
Originalist
If you believe that the US constitution is a living constitution, what kind of constructionist would you be?
Loose
Judicial restraint believes strongly in adherence to which principle relating to previous cases?
Stare decisis - “stand by what has been decided”.
Thomas Jefferson warned against treating the constitution as:
“A mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
