Federal Courts
In which article of the Constitution are the federal courts established?
What is Article III?
What is the term for the legal principle that honors previous decisions on legal questions?
What is stare decisis?
What are the two dimensions of civil liberties?
What are substantive and procedural?
Which amendment abolished slavery?
What is the 13th Amendment?
What is the case that established judicial review?
Answer: What is Marbury v. Madison?
How many justices serve on the Supreme Court?
What is nine?
What is the term for a negotiated agreement between prosecutors and the defendant?
What is a plea bargain?
What is the clause of the First Amendment that prevents the establishment of an official church?
What is the Establishment Clause?
What did the 14th amendment seek to accomplish?
Freed slaves are now citizens of the country and states in which they reside. No state shall make laws that prevents the freed slaves of due process. The 14th amendment applies most of the original bill of rights to the states specifically. States cannot discriminate against non-white citizens.
What did the Barron v Hodges ruling establish?
Supreme court ruled that the constitution only applied to the federal government, and not the states.
When did this decision change?
This view of Federal government intervention changed after the Brown v Board of Education ruling allowed for Federal intervention (lawmaking, oversight, etc...)
In the legal realm, what fundamental distinction separates civil law from criminal law?
Civil law primarily deals with disputes between individuals or entities regarding their rights and obligations, while criminal law concerns offenses against the state, punishable by fines, imprisonment, or other penalties.
Who is always the plaintiff in criminal law?
What is the type of jurisdiction where more than 97% of all court cases go?
What is state court?
Which amendment facilitates protection against actions not explicitly stated in the Constitution?
What is the 9th Amendment?
Which amendment strengthened voting rights and eliminated poll taxes?
Answer: What is the 24th Amendment?
What is the role of the Solicitor General in the Supreme Court?
The Solicitor General screens government cases and represents the United States before the Supreme Court, presenting the government's position in cases involving the federal government.
Where does a court case typically go first?
Where does it go first occasionally?
What is a trial court, where most cases go first.
Occasionally, The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases involving disputes between states or certain specific subject matters outlined by statute or the Constitution.
In the U.S. Constitution, which two amendments guarantee the right to due process of law?
What are the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments?
In the Fifth Amendment, due process is primarily concerned with procedural protections in federal criminal proceedings. It states, "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
The Fourteenth Amendment extends due process protections to the states. It states, "No State shall... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." This amendment is particularly significant in ensuring that state governments also abide by the principles of due process.
What is the type of speech that is most consistently protected?
What is political speech?
Separate but equal- Southern resistance to racial equality continued. Congress passed the civil rights act of 1875, but it was declared unconstitutional.
Plessy V Ferguson
What are the two types of affirmative action? How are they different?
Positive discrimination seeks to correct previous injustices.
Compensatory action (quota)- slots allocated specifically for those of a certain race or ethnicity
What is the Supreme Court? What do they do? How many justices are there? How are they appointed? How are they confirmed? How is the size changed?
Highest court and the court of last resort. Makes the final interpretation over the US constitution and statutory law, be it state or federal.
Nine justices (since 1869)
The constitution does not specify the number of justices. Congress has the authority to change the court's size.
All federal judges have life appointments. President can appoint federal judges, goal is that those judges will share similar views as them, but not always guaranteed.
Nominated by the president, then confirmed by the senate. Generally former state court judges or state / local prosecutors. Senators in the opposing party often work to block nominations. Senate decides how many votes are required to confirm a federal judge or supreme court. The required amount of votes was originally 60 votes, but democrats changed it to 50 votes in 2013, in 2017 the republicans applied this to the supreme court confirmation process.
Courts of Original Jurisdiction:
Appellate Courts:
What is the Supreme Court case that overturned the separate but equal doctrine?
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
Overturned separate but equal doctrine. Declared that racial discrimination violated the constitution. SCOTUS overlooked precedence as culture and public opinion had changed in favor of integration. States could no longer use race in making legal distinctions. Federal government could now intervene.
Brown v Board of Education
In which case did SCOTUS rule that laws prohibiting private activity between consenting adults were unconstitutional?
What is Lawrence v. Texas?