Supreme Court and Civil Rights

Question 1

What did NFIB v Sebelius (2012) decide

Answer 1

Obamacare is constitutional under the tax clause.

Expanding Medicaid is unconstitutional under the commerce clause.

Question 2

Which article and section of the Constitution gives power to the Supreme Court?

Answer 2

Article III, Section 1

Question 3

Who is the current Chief Justice?

Answer 3

John Roberts

Question 4

Define the term ‘originalist’

Answer 4

A Supreme Court justice who interprets the Constitution in line with the meaning or intent of the framers at the time of enactment

Question 5

What 2008 case protected the right to bear arms?

Answer 5

DC v Heller

Question 6

What case ruled legislative bodies could begin meeting with prayer even if it favoured one religion?

Answer 6

Town of Greece v Galloway

Question 7

What 2010 case extended the right of freedom of speech to corporations ?

Answer 7

Citizens United v FEC

Question 8

What did Burwell v Hobby Lobby (2014) decide

Answer 8

Contraceptive mandate under PPACA violated privately held, for-profit corporations’ rights to religious freedom

Question 9

What did King v Burwell (2015) decide

Answer 9

Upheld Obamacare’s insurance subsidies

Question 10

What does article 3 establish (4 points)

Answer 10

1. National judiciary should be Supreme
2. SC has original jurisdiction in cases involving ambassadors, other public ministers, consults and states.
3. SC has appellate jurisdiction in all other states
4. Judges nominated by President and approved by Senate

Question 11

What case confirmed the principle of judicial review?

Answer 11

Marbury v Madison 1803

Question 12

Which case upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities (separate but equal)

Answer 12

Plessy v Ferguson 1896

Question 13

Which Supreme Court justice was appointed in 2018?

Answer 13

Brett Kavanaugh

Question 14

Which Supreme Court nominee’s hearing was indefinitely put off by Mitch McConnell?

Answer 14

Merrick Garland

Question 15

What case outlawed segregation in state funded education?

Answer 15

Brown v Board of Education 1954

Question 16

What case allowed abortion?

Answer 16

Roe v Wade 1973

Question 17

What case ruled that Obamacare was constitutional?

Answer 17

NFIB v Sibelius 2012

Question 18

What case legalised gay marriage ?

Answer 18

Obergefell v Hodges 2015

Question 19

Memory is the residue of what?

Answer 19

Thought

Question 20

What case ruled out racial quotas in university admissions programmes in 1978?

Answer 20

University of California v Bakke

Question 21

What did Chief Justice Roberts say in the 2007 case Parents Involved v Seattle School District about racism?

Answer 21

‘The only way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discrimination on the basis of race’

Question 22

What recent case led to voter identification laws being reintroduced in Texas?

Answer 22

Shelby County v Holder (2013)

Question 23

Activist judges could be said to be acting like…

Answer 23

…politicians in robes.

Question 24

Scalia: “The constitution is not a living organism; it is…

Answer 24

…a legal document.”

Question 25

Justice Holmes, 1914: “The provisions of the constitution are…

Answer 25

…organic, living institutions.”

Question 26

Thomas Jefferson: the Constitution must not become “a mere thing of…

Answer 26

…wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”

Question 27

Thomas Jefferson likened the idea of the constitution being set in stone to what?

Answer 27

“Requiring a man to wear still the coat which fitted him as a boy.”

Question 28

Around how many cases per year does the SC take, and who decides which ones they hear?

Answer 28

About 100; the SC itself.

Question 29

Of what key SC principle did Marbury fall foul in Marbury v Madison?

Answer 29

It’s an appellate court - it only hears appeals, which means it has to wait for issues to reach it - it can’t just decide to take, say, an abortion case. Marbury failed to go to a lower court first (idiot).

Question 30

Griswold v Connecticut 1965 inferred a constitutional right to privacy from which four amendments?

Answer 30

1, 3, 4, 9. This might be described as judicial activism.

Question 31

Which three amendments make up the “Reconstruction Amendments”?

Answer 31

13, 14, 15

Question 32

What did the 13th Amendment outlaw?

Answer 32

Slavery - except as a punishment following conviction

Question 33

What did the 14th Amendment guarantee?

Answer 33

Equal protection and due process for all US citizens.

Question 34

What did the 15th Amendment guarantee?

Answer 34

The right to vote regardless of race, colour or having previously been a slave.

Question 35

Give two cases in which the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment was instrumental in protecting the rights of minorities.

Answer 35

Brown v Board 1954, Obergefell v Hodges 2015

Question 36

Gratz v Bollinger and Grutter v Bollinger (both 2003) did what?

Answer 36

Gratz struck down one university admissions affirmative action programme as “too mechanistic”, but affirmed another for being “individualised.”

Question 37

How has Clarence Thomas described affirmative action programmes?

Answer 37

“The faddish slogan of the cognoscenti.”

Question 38

Who famously provided an amicus brief in favour of the University of Texas in Fisher v Texas 2016?

Answer 38

Obama. The case involved a white woman, Abigail Fisher, claiming she has suffered racial discrimination because minority race students with poorer academic qualifications had got a place at Texas and she hadn’t. She lost.

Question 39

How did Alito describe the SC decision in Fisher v Texas?

Answer 39

“Affirmative action gone berserk.”

Question 40

Give an example of a case in which the SC has upheld civil rights even when to do so is unpopular.

Answer 40

Snyder v Phelps 2011: the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests at soldiers’ funerals (“God killed your sons! Pray for more dead soldiers!) were protected by the First Amendment.