SCOTUS Cases
Foundational Docs
Institutions
Civil Rights & Liberties
Political Participation
AP Gov Grab Bag
Final Jeopardy!
200
This case established Judicial Review, giving courts the power to strike down unconstitutional laws.
What is Marbury v. Madison?
200
Written by James Madison, this Federalist essay argued that a large republic with many factions would guard liberty better than a small direct democracy.
What is Federalist #10?
200
Congress can override a presidential veto with this fraction of the vote in both chambers.
What is a two-thirds (2/3) majority in both chambers?
200
This decision overturned the infamous "Separate but Equal" doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson by ruling that segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
What is Brown vs. Board of Education?
200
Research consistently finds this factor to be the strongest predictor of how Americans will vote.
What is Party Identification?
200
This principle holds that all individuals, including government officials, are subject to the law and that no one person is above it.
What is the Rule of Law?
400
In this case, the Court ruled the Necessary and Proper Clause gave Congress broad implied powers and that federal law is supreme over state law.
What is McCulloch v. Maryland?
400
This essay is centered around the defense of checks and balances.
What is Federalist #51
400
This Senate-exclusive power requires majority approval of presidential nominees for Cabinet, federal judges, and ambassadors.
What is advice and consent (confirmation)
400
This 1963 ruling incorporated the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, requiring states to provide attorneys to defendants who cannot afford one.
What is Gideon v. Wainright?
400
Unlike traditional PACs, these post-Citizens United groups can raise and spend unlimited money, but they "cannot" coordinate directly with campaigns
What are Super PACs?
400
The Constitutional Convention replaced the Articles of Confederation largely because Congress lacked this fundamental fiscal power.
What is the power to levy taxes (No taxation power)?
600
This case from the 1960s, protected students' symbolic speech unless it caused "substantive disruption", famously saying that students don't shed their rights "at the schoolhouse gate."
What is Tinker v. Des Moines?
600
This essay warned that a powerful central government with a standing army could destroy state sovereignty and individual liberties.
What is Brutus #1?
600
This 1973 law requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops and withdraw them within 60 days without authorization.
What is the War Powers Resolution?
600
This Constitutional amendment is the primary vehicle for incorporating Bill of Rights protections to the states.
What is the 14th Amendment?
600
Every Presidential Election year, both Democrats and Republicans organize their national convention. Which political party functions is one of the main focuses of this event?
What is the Party Platforms are adopted?
600
This term describes when a popular candidate helps members of their party win - in the same election, whether that is up or down ballot.
What is the Coattail effect?
600
Though never mentioned by name in the Constitution, this concept is the foundation of an early Supreme Court decision, which deals with the supremacy of federal law, and every time a court strikes down an act of Congress.
What is Judicial Review?
800
This case ruled that corporations and unions may spend unlimited money on independent political expenditures as protected speech.
What is Citizens United v. FEC?
800
The writer of this document claimed that individuals have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws through nonviolent civil disobedience.
What is Letter From Birmingham Jail?
800
These stable three-way alliances between congressional subcommittees, bureaucratic agencies, and interest groups are known for resisting outside policy change.
What are Iron Triangles?
800
This banned discriminatory voting practices; while also allowing for Federal oversight of elections
What is the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
800
Political scientists use this term for the organizations and processes - parties, media, interest groups, and elections...that connect ordinary citizens to their government.
What are Linkage Institutions?
800
This practice - of drawing oddly shaped districts - was addressed in both Baker v. Carr and Shaw v. Reno.
What is Gerrymandering?
800
This Anti-Federalist concern - that a distant, powerful central government would be unresponsive to ordinary citizens - was directly addressed by the framers through both the Bill of Rights AND this structural feature of Congress that ensures local representation
What is Bicameralism / the House of Representatives elected by the people directly?
1000
This case established 'one person, one vote', and ruled that federal courts can hear challenges to legislative apportionment, as they are justiciable.
What is Baker v. Carr?
1000
Under this document, Congress could declare war but couldn't fund one, and could sign trade deals but couldn't enforce them - a governing record so weak it got replaced in six years.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
1000
Independent regulatory bodies like the FCC and SEC have members with fixed, staggered, bipartisan terms - making direct presidential removal very difficult. What are they called?
What are independent regulatory commissions?
1000
This case showed that there are indeed limits to free speech, because when it comes to clear and present danger, not everything said is Constitutionally protected
What is Schenck v. United States?
1000
538 total delegates. 100 for the # of Senators. 435 for the # of Representatives. 3 for D.C.
What is the Electoral College?
1000
This term describes the informal process where former government officials leave their agencies to take high-paying lobbying jobs at the very industries they once regulated.
What is the Revolving Door?