5 Steps to a 5: 500 AP U.S. Government and Politics - Brian Stevens, William Madden 2022

Answers

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy

1. (B) The Marshall quote refers to the government coming “directly from the people,” which is the consent of the governed. None of the other answers deal with consent of the governed.

2. (D) Because Marshall’s quote refers to consent of the governed, the only institution listed that comes from consent of the governed is the House of Representatives. The House was the only original institution that was directly elected by the people.

3. (B) Most of the second paragraph comes from the constitutional goals listed in the Preamble to the Constitution.

4. (D) The entire Declaration of Independence is a nod to the social contract, which is largely attributed to the thinking of John Locke.

5. (B) As alluded to in question 4, the social contract was the political philosophy that dominated the Declaration.

6. (D) King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” touched on the relationship between government and the people (social contract) as well as natural rights, which were emphasized in the Declaration of Independence.

7. (B) McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) helped establish the supremacy of the national government over the states when the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Maryland could not tax the Bank of the United States, a federal institution. Thus, the case started in motion the supremacy of the federal government over the states.

8. (C) In Article VII of the Constitution, the document called for constitutional ratification by special state conventions, not state legislatures. It was a sly political move by Federalists who dominated the Constitutional Convention, who realized that the Constitution may very well not get passed by state legislatures, so they called for the special state conventions, packed them full of Federalists, and won ratification.

9. (A) When Lincoln was referring to the country belonging to the people, the House of Representatives was called the “People’s Chamber.”

10. (A) The Fourteenth Amendment gave the nearly freed slaves citizenship as natural-born citizens. The framers of the amendment were wary of southern states not giving the freed slaves due consideration as citizens; thus, they took the steps to guarantee citizenship right away.

11. (D) Lincoln was referring to the social contract theory. If the government violates its end of the contract, then the people have the right “to dismember or overthrow it.” Ironically enough, the southern states used the same philosophy to justify secession.

12. (D) Federalist #70 promoted the idea of a strong executive. Hamilton believed that the executive set the course for the government and the country. This was in contrast to the Articles of Confederation, which had no executive branch.

13. (C) Wilson was referring to the checks and balances system, which called for the branches to have a system in place if any branch garnered too much power. Congress, for example, can impeach and remove a president from office if that person violates a law.

14. (D) In order to create policy and sidestep Congress, the president can use executive orders as a method to bypass Congress. For example, when Congress failed to pass significant immigration law, both Presidents Obama and Trump issued executive orders to affect immigration policy.

15. (A) Although critics of Congress like to say that the Commerce Clause is abused, it is definitely an explicit power given to Congress in Article I, Section 8, thus making it an enumerated power.

16. (C) Although Congress definitely has the power to regulate commerce, critics at times say that the Commerce Clause has been used to promote policies not focused on commerce. Many civil rights laws have been passed with the Commerce Clause, citing the need to protect citizens when they move from state to state. Critics would argue that this is dangerous because the intent of the law was something other than commerce.

17. (B) Justice Brandeis was touting the power of the federal government. Its supremacy was established in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).

18. (D) The Framers of the Constitution realized very early the need to establish the dominance of the Constitution and did so with the Supremacy Clause.

19. (D) The incorporation doctrine called for the Bill of Rights to be applied to the actions of the state governments. When states failed to apply the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court ruled in multiple cases that the Bill of Rights also applied to the states, regardless of the rulings of state courts.

20. (C) Because of the Supremacy Clause found in Article VI, state supreme courts cannot overturn a federal court decision.

21. (D) Because Supreme Court decisions have the force of law and create public policy, who fills a seat on the Supreme Court becomes of crucial importance. And unlike other positions in the federal government, a seat on the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment and a person who can craft policy for decades.

22. (B) The Senate has the power of advice and consent in regard to Supreme Court justices, which means that that body confirms new justices appointed by the president. Justices are not always confirmed by the Senate.

23. (D) The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, but the Court is at the mercy of the president to enforce their decisions. Typically, presidents respect the rule of law and do this. The notable exception was when President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the Court’s decision in regard to removal of Cherokee Native Americans from Georgia.

24. (A) In the quote, Madison refers to enumerated powers. These specific powers call for a limited government, a government with defined powers that, in theory, cannot go beyond those listed powers.

25. (D) Brutus found fault with the new Constitution, and all the answers address his concerns. Brutus saw any but a limited government, one that was supreme, as a vague necessary and proper position that could be abused and, because of these issues, a federal government that can overreach.

26. (C) Brutus worried about a federal government that could expand its power. Brutus would most likely be concerned about the balance of power between the federal government and the states—and probably be alarmed by the power of the federal government. Other Founding Fathers, such as Alexander Hamilton, would be less alarmed and possibly pleased.

27. (C) Article IV’s Full Faith and Credit Clause allows legal documents issued by a state to be recognized in another state. This, at times, comes with some controversy. For example, states issue marriage licenses. So do states also get to determine what marriage is and who can get married? If a state does not agree with the marriage license of a couple from another state, does it have to recognize it? Although the Full Faith and Credit clause usually allows states to easily recognize these records, at times there are some questions about those records.

28. (D) The Anti-Federalists were alarmed by the lack of a Bill of Rights in the original Constitution. In order to ease their fears, James Madison promised to deliver a Bill of Rights to the first Congress, and he did.

29. (B) Rhode Island did not attend the Constitutional Convention. Its leaders were worried that the delegates were going to get rid of the Articles of Confederation—and they were right. Rhode Island ratified the Constitution in 1791.

30. (D) Shays’ Rebellion alarmed the Founding Fathers. They understood the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and thought that more state uprisings could be on the horizon. Thus a new convention was called and drafted the Constitution.

31. (C) Congress has the power to tax and determine spending on all federal institutions, including the bureaucracy. The threat to defund or limit a bureaucracy’s budget provides Congress with a powerful oversight of the bureaucracy.

32. (D) The Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution . . . are reserved to the states respectively, or the people.” This amendment clearly draws a line between the powers of the federal government versus the states, thus calling for a federal system of government.

33. (B) Judicial review has relatively recently been applied to state laws, questioning the constitutionality of these laws. This is largely because of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, prohibiting states from denying its citizens life, liberty, or property. Because at times states have denied their citizens their constitutional rights, the federal courts have stepped in and made sure that states guarantee realization of our rights.

34. (C) The Bill of Rights was added to protect American citizens from an oppressive federal government. Many citizens, mainly Anti-Federalists, wanted a guarantee that the federal government would not suppress our rights. Thus, James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights as a layer of protection against an oppressive federal government.

35. (D) Nowhere in the Constitution is judicial review listed. In Federalist #78, Hamilton argues that it is the function of the judicial branch to interpret laws. Thus, the judicial branch has the ability to interpret the highest law—the Constitution. Therefore, the judicial branch has the power to strike down any laws that violate the Constitution.

36. (D) Federal laws are made by Congress but not part of the Constitution.

37. (D) To create a judiciary that is largely devoid of politics, the Framers gave federal judges lifetime appointments. In theory, this allows judges to make decisions based on the law without worrying about elections and other political scenarios.

38. (A) In Article I of the Constitution, each state is guaranteed at least one House representative and two Senators. Because the formula for Electoral votes per state is the number of representatives plus the number of senators per state, the minimum number of Electoral votes per state is three.

39. (C) Unlike a unitary structure of government with one central government and a federal structure of government that has a sharing of power between the national government and state governments, a confederate structure of government has a weak central government with a loose alliance of states. America has had two times where confederate structures were used: the Article of Confederation and the Confederate States of America.

40. (B) Although the Founding Fathers definitely wanted to dump the Articles of Confederation, some elements of the Articles carried over to the Constitution. One was the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which calls for citizens to respect the laws, records, and judicial decisions from one state to another. Found in the Articles, the Full Faith and Credit Clause is the focus of Article IV of the Constitution.

41. (D) Although all the answers provided are tenets of the American government, consent of the people is popular sovereignty. The people are the ultimate authority in our democracy, and everything flows from it. Because of this principle, we have seen the Constitution become more responsible to it throughout the years, such as the Seventeenth Amendment’s call for the direct election of U.S. senators.

42. (C) Of all the institutions listed in this question, only the House of Representatives is directly chosen by the people in the original Constitution. Later, U.S. senators were elected by the people but not originally. Senators were selected by their state legislatures.

43. (D) All the answers are correct. All answers eliminated barriers that prohibited Americans from voting.

44. (D) In this Federalist #45 quote, James Madison tries to reassure skeptics that the new Constitution calls for a national government of limited powers while states retain far more power than the national government.

45. (A) The “few and defined” powers found in the Constitution are expressed powers—powers specifically listed in the Constitution. With a limited government, these are the only powers that the federal government has.

46. (B) Any powers not given to the federal government in the Constitution are given to the states or the people. These powers are known as reserved powers—such as the ability to educate the states’ children.

47. (C) One of the many weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation was the inability to tax. That inability prohibited the Articles from carrying out the usual functions of government and paying off the debt from the American Revolution.

48. (B) One traditional reserved power given to the states is educational services. The Constitution does not mention education at all. However, the federal government has become more active in this area, such as passing the No Child Left Behind Act.

49. (D) All the answers represent concurrent powers—powers that both the federal and state governments have. Both systems can tax, create a judiciary, and enact laws.

50. (A) To ease the Anti-Federalists’ fears about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights was passed in 1791. The Bill of Rights was drafted as protection against encroachment of rights by the federal government. Historically, however, the states proved to be the level of government that violated rights more often. This was addressed in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause with the gradual application of the Bill of Rights to the actions of the states.

51. (D) The major concurrent power is the power to tax—a power necessary to operate governments in a democracy. Coining money and naturalization are explicitly listed in the Constitution, and the ability to regulate marriage is largely a reserved power for the states.

52. (A) In our bicameral legislature, the Founding Fathers decided to have tax bills originate in the House of Representatives. This was a carryover prior to the American Revolution when the British taxed the American colonists without having Americans represented in Parliament. So the body closest to the people, the House, was given the responsibility to start tax policy.

53. (B) The Senate is given the power of “advice and consent,” meaning that the Senate ratifies treaties and confirms public officials the president nominates, such as cabinet secretaries.

54. (D) Early in American history, the United States used a confederate structure under the Articles of Confederation, whereas the Constitution created a federal structure of government. The federal structure obviously continues today.

55. (C) Gerrymandering is the redistricting of congressional districts, usually in favor of one party over the other. The Constitution allows each state legislature to draw congressional district lines after the Census. Many times the party in power at the state legislative level draws up districts favorable to that party. This is called gerrymandering.

56. (B) Federalism is the balance of political power shared by the federal and state governments. Each level acts as a check against the other and prevents tyranny by decentralizing power.

57. (D) The Anti-Federalists were very worried about creating a strong central government that would strip states and individuals of their rights as well as keep states from making laws. In Brutus #1, the most famous Anti-Federalist paper, the author made these points in his article. One way of easing the Anti-Federalist fears was by enacting a federal bill of rights.

58. (B) The Necessary and Proper Clause, or Elastic Clause, was written to allow Congress to pass laws that carry out the expressed powers found in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. For example, Congress has the power to tax, but the Constitution is silent on how tax money can be housed. So the Necessary and Proper Clause would allow Congress to create a bank to house the tax money—although it is not explicitly listed in the Constitution.

59. (B) The two-thirds vote of Congress followed by ratification of three fourths of the states’ legislatures has been used in 26 of the 27 amendments so far. The Founding Fathers made it very difficult to create a constitutional convention to ratify a new constitutional amendment. Why? Because the Founders did not want to see this happen like it did when the Founders circumvented the Articles of Confederation and wrote a new Constitution.

60. (C) The Virginia Plan, which called for a two house legislature, an executive branch, and an independent judiciary became the principal plan for the Constitution.

61. (D) The New Jersey Plan, proposed as a reaction to the Virginia Plan, retained the equality on the one-state, one-vote structure found in the Articles of Confederation. The states with smaller populations favored this plan.

62. (A) The Seventeenth Amendment called for the direct election of U.S. senators, as opposed to allowing state legislatures to select senators under the original Constitution. Electing senators is more in line with shared federalism, which allows both the federal and state governments to operate much alike—such as directly electing public officials.

63. (B) Marbury v. Madison (1803) allowed the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional, better known as judicial review. Although not found in the Constitution, judicial review was discussed by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #78.

64. (D) All the examples provided—categorical grants, block grants, and funded mandates—are examples of how the federal government uses money, or the power of the purse, to impose national goals on the states. If the states want federal funds, they must obey the conditions of aid to receive the money.

65. (A) Block grants are lump-sum payments for a particular state action or item. They do not cause as much reckless spending on the part of the states as do matching grants; the states know that once the money from the block grant is spent, there is no more. Thus, state budgets are managed much more effectively.

66. (A) Largely devised by English philosopher John Locke, the social contract is an agreement between the people and government. It is a prominent theory in the American political system and is the focus of the Declaration of Independence.

67. (B) This is the official request by the Supreme Court to review records of a case from a lower court, typically the appellate level. The Supreme Court can grant or deny “cert” with a need for explanation, but the assent of four justices is required to grant cert.

68. (A) The Tenth Amendment is clear about state authority and was placed in the Bill of Rights to satisfy Anti-Federalist states’ rights advocates. Unfortunately for the states, the amendment has largely been ignored, and national authority has increased.

69. (A) When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of McCulloch in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court acknowledged the attack on the national bank by Maryland when Maryland attempted to tax the bank. By shooting down the tax, the Supreme Court established the supremacy of the national government over the states.

70. (A) In the checks and balances system, the principal check the judiciary has on the legislative and executive branches is declaring laws and executive orders unconstitutional.

71. (A) When Congress passed the Guns-Free School Zone Act in 1990, it used the Commerce Clause as the constitutional justification for passing the law. However, in United States v. Lopez (1995), the Supreme Court ruled that the law did not deal with commerce and that Congress exceeded its power when passing this law.

72. (C) Devolution is the term used for the federal government to return some political power back to the states. A reaction to the expansion of the federal government during the Depression and World War II era, devolution largely began under the Reagan presidency. Although largely considered a Republican initiative, it was embraced to a certain extent by President Bill Clinton when he allowed the states to determine their welfare policies, often with federal dollars.

73. (D) Although much of the Declaration of Independence is focused on the social contract theory, this particular quote is referring to the natural rights theory, also known as unalienable rights. Jefferson claimed that these unalienable rights—rights that come from God and cannot be taken away—were being violated by the British, thus justifying the American Revolution and the break from the British.

74. (B) The Bill of Rights is essentially the codification of natural rights in the Constitution. The more essential rights are found in the First Amendment: religion, speech, press, right to assemble peacefully, and right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

75. (C) Jefferson’s statement on natural rights, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is largely borrowed from John Locke’s definition of natural rights as the individual pursuing “life, liberty, and property.” Locke’s term is found in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

76. (B) The Anti-Federalists were concerned about the Elastic Clause found in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Also known as the Necessary and Proper Clause, Anti-Federalists found the clause vague and that it could be exploited by Congress to pass laws exceeding congressional power. This sentiment was particularly articulated in the Anti-Federalist article Brutus #1.

77. (B) Madison believed that good government had to have some connection with the people, a somewhat novel idea from the period, and there had to be an institution that reflected a relationship between the federal government and the people. In the original Constitution, the only institution that embodied this concept was the House of Representatives. Neither the Senate, the presidency, nor the Supreme Court called for direct elections by the people, just the House of Representatives. The House was Madison’s testament to the people.

78. (A) Madison believed that in some form, good government had to have a participatory democracy. In the original Constitution, this was found in the House of Representatives. Without some version of a participatory democracy, “every government degenerates into tyranny.”

79. (B) The power to tax is retained by both the federal government and state governments.

80. (D) All the examples provided are criticisms of a federal system. The federal government and state governments may come into conflict, states at times pass laws that are discriminatory but appease a state political base, and because there are two levels of government, there may be confusion when creating and enforcing policy.

81. (C) The federal government can take your private property for public use, but it has to pay you for it. This is found in Article V’s Taking Clause. The Founders understood that the government from time to time needed to take private property for public works such as roads, dams, courthouses, and so on. But instead of just having his or her property seized, the owner is compensated. Many times the private property owner benefits financially because if the government wants your property, it will pay top dollar for it.

82. (A) Shays’ Rebellion was the pivotal event in terms of problems with the Articles of Confederation. Fear of rebellion in other states prompted the Constitutional Convention the very next year.

83. (C) The main arguments of Federalist #10 (factions in the new system of government) and Federalist #51 (the positive check and balances) are found in this answer.

84. (A) Enumerated powers are found throughout the Constitution, but the specific powers for Congress are found in Article I, Section 8. The Tenth Amendment notes that any powers not discussed in the Constitution go to the states. These are known as reserved powers.

85. (A) The Declaration of Independence lays out the list of grievances against the British justifying the American Revolution, whereas the Constitution serves as the blueprint for the American government.

86. (D) Hamilton argued in Federalist #70 for a single and active president. Hamilton also pointed out in Federalist #78 that the domain of the judicial branch is to interpret laws. If a law violates the Constitution, it is null and void this is judicial review.

87. (B) In the Anti-Federalist paper Brutus #1, the author argues that the Constitution could produce a government that would infringe on citizens’ and states’ rights. Federalist #10 argues that a federal government with decentralized power would mitigate the effect of factions.

88. (B) Many of the differences between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans came from the composition of their legislatures. The Virginia Plan called for a bicameral legislature, whereas the New Jersey Plan called for a unicameral legislature.

89. (A) The Full Faith and Credit Clause expects citizens to respect the laws of another state while visiting that state. The Supremacy Clause clearly makes the Constitution the highest recognized set of laws in the country.

90. (B) The president’s ability to veto laws is a clear check on the legislative branch. The president’s function under separation of powers is to enforce federal law.

91. (C) Expressed powers are powers given to the federal government under the Constitution, which includes handling disputes between the states, such as border disputes. Educational services are largely the domain of the states, not listed in the Constitution, and thus reserved powers.

92. (B) Federalist #51 supported the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, whereas Brutus #1 was the major Anti-Federalist paper.

Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government

93. (B) The “compound republic of America” Madison mentions in Federalist #51 is a federal structure with a balance of power between the national government and the state governments.

94. (A) When Madison refers to governments “subdivided among the distinct and separate departments,” he is referring to separation of powers, where different branches of government have their own unique function. Interestingly enough, the states have largely emulated the national government by creating their own separation of powers.

95. (B) Madison believed in a government in which power is decentralized. Thus, factions could be controlled because it would be difficult for one faction to dominate politically. This may be true at the national level, but controlling factions at the state level has proved to be much more difficult.

96. (D) Alexander Hamilton is attempting to quash the fears of the Anti-Federalists in regard to an independent judiciary. As Hamilton noted, the judiciary has neither the power of the purse nor the sword—thus making it the least dangerous branch.

97. (C) It is safe to say that Hamilton underestimated the power of the judiciary, largely from the development of judicial review—the ability of the judiciary to declare laws unconstitutional. Eventually, the Supreme Court came to use judicial review against state laws. There is little doubt that the Supreme Court is a more powerful institution than what Hamilton envisioned.

98. (C) The civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) used the Constitution as its weapon in the judiciary to secure rights for African Americans. Led by Thurgood Marshall in the mid-twentieth century, the NAACP filed lawsuits that challenged discrimination throughout the United States.

99. (D) United States v. Lopez was challenged on the grounds that the Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990) was unconstitutional because the law did not involve commerce. While the law sought to protect school children from gun violence, the Supreme Court ruled that indeed the law was not commercial in nature and struck it down.

100. (D) Although Nixon committed many missteps in his handling of the Watergate scandal, he realized that even the president is accountable to the law, so he had some degree of respect for the rule of law. If Nixon did not, he could have fought on and even been impeached and likely removed from office. But Nixon finally realized that he was being held accountable and resigned, thus respecting the rule of law.

101. (D) To combat “an apparent and flagrant abuse of legislative power,” options come with all three answers: presidential veto, judicial review, and voting out legislators. The first two answers are checks on the legislative branch. The voting option is a classic democratic response—consent of the governed.

102. (B) The Senate filibuster is not a constitutional provision. It is a procedure developed by the Senate over time. For many pieces of legislation to make it to the Senate floor, 60 votes are required—the number of votes needed to end a filibuster (cloture). Constitutionally speaking, a simple majority, 51 votes, is needed to pass legislation in the Senate.

103. (C) Executive privilege, the ability of a president to withhold information from the public in order to have frank discussions with advisors, is an informal presidential power. However, it is not unlimited. In the United States v. Nixon (1974), the Supreme Court ruled that there are limits on executive privilege, particularly when a criminal investigation is involved.

104. (B) When a case goes to the Supreme Court involving presidential actions, it is judicial review and a check on the president.

105. (C) Public support for Nixon was deteriorating prior to the case. After the ruling, congressional support also declined, most importantly within the Republican Party. Seeing this, Nixon resigned.

106. (B) When a case goes before the Supreme Court in which the United States is a party, the solicitor general represents the United States. The solicitor general is the second-ranking officer in the Justice Department behind the attorney general.

107. (A) A signing statement is used by the president to provide his or her interpretation of how a law will be enforced. Tacked on after the law is signed, the president’s interpretation of the law’s enforceability may alter how the law is ultimately carried out.

108. (A) When the Supreme Court hands down a ruling, the majority opinion has the force of law. Although a case may come from a certain section of the country, a majority opinion applies throughout the United States, like a law being passed. Of course, this is only true if the president chooses to enforce the decision.

109. (A) The White House Chief of Staff is not a constitutionally mandated position and does not require Senate approval. The top aide to the president, the Chief of Staff wields much power in the executive branch.

110. (D) Congress does not determine the constitutionality of any federal office—that is the job of the Supreme Court. Congress would deny an agency funds and let it die that way, but not from determining if the agency was constitutional or not.

111. (C) Because this is a discrimination case, the constitutional application would be the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The claim of being denied access to a bathroom because of sexual identification would come under the Equal Protection Clause.

112. (D) Whenever the Supreme Court rules that a law, federal or state, comes in conflict with the Constitution, it is using its power of judicial review.

113. (A) The Rule of Four dictates that the minimum number of justices needed to bring a case to the Court is four. This helps protect minority rights by requiring less than half the justices. Still, it is difficult to get four justices to agree to a case. Only 1 percent of all cases sent to the Supreme Court are accepted.

114. (C) When the president recommends or even writes legislation, he or she acts as the chief legislator. Although the president is not part of the legislative branch, his or her legislative agenda commands the attention of Congress, particularly when the president’s party has a majority in one or both chambers.

115. (B) The president has easy access to the media and can make a plea to the public by using the “bully pulpit.” The president can use his or her access to the media to sell his or her programs and initiatives to the public—a huge advantage to the president.

116. (D) All the items listed are obstacles Congress can put up to derail a president’s legislative agenda. Many times these obstacles are used by members of the opposite party.

117. (B) The Commerce Department is not part of the original Cabinet. Those positions included secretaries of state, treasury, war (not defense), and attorney general. The number of cabinet departments now has grown to fifteen.

118. (D) The Takings Clause does not involve finances. The Takings Clause allows the federal government to take private property for public use—as long as the government compensates the property’s owner. State governments frequently use this power as well.

119. (C) The function of the executive branch is to enforce the law. The attorney general, a member of the executive branch and the country’s top law enforcement officer, can determine how laws are enforced, including the federal death penalty.

120. (C) The death penalty is a concurrent power—both the federal government and the states have the ability to use it.

121. (B) Critics of the death penalty cite the Eighth Amendment’s “no cruel and unusual punishment” clause as the reason capital punishment is unconstitutional. Capital punishment has been challenged in the courts on numerous occasions but was ultimately affirmed in Gregg v. Georgia (1976).

122. (B) Congressional oversight allows Congress to investigate government institutions and activities, such as the bureaucracy, or a particular event, such as the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Congressional oversight can take many forms, such as hearings, examination of a bureaucracy’s budget, or confirming an agency head.

123. (D) Standing committees are the workhorses of Congress. Standing committees meet on a regular basis, research bills, and can conduct oversight on other institutions they may oversee, such as the IRS.

124. (D) With such a high-profile event as the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Speaker Pelosi sought bipartisanship to achieve credibility in the eyes of the public. Without the participation of both parties, the select committee would be seen as a partisan push by the Democratic Party.

125. (A) State legislatures are given the power to select presidential electors in Article II of the Constitution. In a nod to federalism, the Founders decided to let the states have a hand in selecting a president. Today, 48 of the 50 states use a winner-take-all method, meaning that whichever candidate wins a plurality of the state’s popular votes wins all the state’s Electoral votes.

126. (A) The “King Andrew” political cartoon exemplifies the imperial president, meaning that the president has powers rivaling those of a monarch. Although Jackson was president from 1829 to 1837, the concept of the Imperial Presidency was popular in the twentieth century.

127. (C) The Twenty-second Amendment limits a president to two terms. The amendment is largely seen as a reaction to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms. Possibly the closest thing to an imperial president, Roosevelt accumulated immense power, spurring Congress to propose the amendment to curb presidential power.

128. (B) When a new justice comes to the Supreme Court, the justice brings a different perspective and possibly changes a voting bloc. Thus, for example, if a liberal justice resigns and a conservative justice is appointed, the voting process may change dramatically.

129. (B) Because the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court has become so important in many citizens’ eyes, the nomination of a new justice has become paramount to many Americans. The vetting process is deeper, and confirmation hearings are more contentious.

130. (A) The president can only pardon citizens who have been convicted of a federal crime. Presidents have no jurisdiction in international or state laws.

131. (D) Although the chart shows several dips from 1980 to 2012, the greatest drop came in January of 2010.

132. (B) Like other American political, social, or economic institutions, the federal government is reactive to economic situations. The federal government may see loss of assets or tax revenue, which can cause fewer federal departments to dislike hiring bureaucrats.

133. (B) Following Shays’ Rebellion in 1786, the Founding Fathers were alarmed and called for a national convention. State legislatures sent delegates to amend the existing constitution, the Articles of Confederation. But delegates such as James Madison had other thoughts, hijacked the Convention, and wrote a new constitution.

134. (D) To break away from the spoils system and patronage, Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Act in 1883. The Pendleton Act created a more professional bureaucracy by instituting a merit system for employment.

135. (D) Conference committees are joint committees designed to reconcile differences between House and Senate versions of a bill. For a bill to go to the president, it must be passed in the exact same form by both chambers.

136. (B) The attorney general leads the Justice Department, the federal government’s prosecutorial arm. The Justice Department enforces federal law, led by the attorney general.

137. (A) In an effort to insulate the federal judiciary from politics, the Founding Fathers gave judges lifetime terms. Electing judges would make them beholden to political agendas. Lifetime terms allow judges to rule on the merits of a case and not worry about political considerations.

138. (D) All the items in this question are checks on the judiciary. Presidents nominate judges and use their pardon power when the president finds the judiciary excessive in its power, and the Senate uses its advice and consent power to determine the fitness of a potential federal judge.

139. (D) Alexander Hamilton addresses fears about a new and independent judiciary in Federalist #78. In terms of political power, Hamilton calls the judiciary the “least dangerous branch.”

140. (B) Because of a federal system, an argument can be made that allowing state sovereignty gave the states the ability to pass discriminatory laws, such as Jim Crow laws. With inclusion of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, discriminatory state laws could be challenged in the federal courts.

141. (C) Federalist #10 acknowledged that factions were inevitable, even constitutional, in a republic. However, the ill effects of factions could be mitigated by a federal government with decentralized power. This decentralization would prohibit a faction from being too powerful in this system.

142. (C) The two events that led to the expansion of federal power came back to back: the Great Depression and World War II. In these crisis situations, the federal government, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used its power to expand into the economic and governmental arenas. After these crises, the federal government did not retract—in fact, some would argue that it even expanded its power further.

143. (C) The Supreme Court has both original and appellate jurisdiction. Article III of the Constitution outlines that certain cases can rise directly to the Supreme Court, such as disputes between states and cases involving public ministers or ambassadors. These cases are relatively rare. For the most part, the Supreme Court exercises appellate jurisdiction—cases rising to the Court from lower courts where conflicts exist. These cases usually come from the federal circuit courts.

144. (B) The federal courts of appeal is the middle level of federal courts between the federal district courts and the Supreme Court. Cases are appealed from the federal district court to the federal courts of appeal, whereas many Supreme Court appeals come from the federal courts of appeal.

145. (A) From 1970 to 2004, federal criminal cases saw a huge upswing. This is significant because most criminal cases are heard in the state courts.

146. (D) Because of the abundance of states and the nature of their court systems, state court systems handle far more cases than federal courts. With passage of the Eleventh Amendment, federal courts were prohibited from hearing most civil cases against a state. State court systems have handled the bulk of American civil and criminal cases.

147. (D) Federalist #78 was written to support the federal government’s independent judiciary, but it’s safe to say that Hamilton supported state judicial systems as well.

148. (B) The Department of Education is an executive cabinet department. The Department of Education provides programs and services to public schools throughout the United States.

149. (C) The Secretary of Education leads a cabinet department. The Department of Education was the thirteenth cabinet position, created in 1979.

150. (A) The president can fire the cabinet secretary. The president has the power to appoint federal officials (with the approval of the Senate) as well as the power to remove them.

151. (C) A key provision of the War Powers Act (1973) requires the president to inform Congress within 48 hours of putting troops into the field of combat. The president has 60 days with the troops in combat. At that time, Congress can request that the troops be withdrawn from combat.

152. (C) The Vietnam War was very unpopular in the United States. Because the war was a “police action” with no declaration of war passed by Congress, the War Powers Act was enacted.

153. (A) The powerful Ways and Means Committee oversees congressional tax policy. Because tax bills must begin in the House of Representatives, this committee is a plum position for a House member.

154. (C) Unless a party has a supermajority, some degree of bipartisanship is required to move legislation in the Senate. With the threat of the filibuster, 60 votes are needed on most legislation to bring a bill to the floor. Because one party rarely gets that many members, bipartisanship is necessary.

155. (A) The president has a public microphone like no other, so the president can use the bully pulpit to bring awareness to the issue. If the president has high approval ratings, the issue could move the Senate.

156. (A) The first cabinet position created, the secretary of state, deals with foreign affairs. This is a prestigious position and the first cabinet position in presidential succession.

157. (C) The solicitor general is the second-ranking official in the Justice Department, behind the attorney general. The solicitor general’s main function is to act as the federal government’s lawyer before the Supreme Court.

158. (A) An amicus brief is a form of judicial lobbying by an interest group. By providing information and legal analysis, a well-written amicus brief could prove pivotal in how a justice rules on a case.

159. (D) All the listed interest groups used the federal court system as a forum for their rights. The ACLU represents Americans with violated civil liberties, the NAACP fights against discrimination primarily against African Americans, and NOW serves as a group that represents women’s legal rights.

160. (D) Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) incorporated the right to counsel in criminal cases. Because of Gideon, indigents now received the constitutional right to counsel, creating a need for public defenders. Now citizens accused of a crime without financial resources will be provided with a government-supplied attorney.

161. (B) Grants given to states with a wide range of discretion are block grants. Usually block grants have a broad theme, such as education, that allows the states to spend money on education-related initiatives. One state may spend money on raising teachers’ salaries, while another may spend money on teacher training programs.

162. (D) Plea bargains are agreements between a prosecutor and the accused. The accused agrees to plead guilty to a lesser crime in exchange for a shorter prison/jail term, bypassing trials. Plea bargains are part of the reason bench trials have become rare in the United States.

163. (C) In the federal courts, to be accused of a crime, a person must be indicted by a grand jury. A grand jury is a group of citizens empaneled to determine if there is enough evidence for a person to be accused of a crime. Grand juries are mandated in the federal courts but not in state courts, where a huge majority of criminal cases is heard.

164. (B) After the president and vice president, next in line in presidential succession is the Speaker of the House. However, the country has never gone beyond the vice presidency.

165. (D) Largely the architect of the Constitution, Madison helped construct a federal structure that diffused political power with checks and balances to mitigate tyranny. Many of these principles were also accepted by the states and their governments.

166. (C) The Founding Fathers gave Congress great powers and responsibility, thus creating the concept of legislative supremacy. This branch is closest to the people. Initially, only the House of Representatives used participatory democracy. With passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, the Senate also saw direct elections by the people.

167. (C) Federalist #51 was a treatise on the merits of a checks and balances system. Employed in some of the states, checks and balances were never used at a national level prior to the Constitution. Federalist #51 was written by James Madison to promote a system that prohibited excessive power in any branch of government.

168. (C) Because of the sharing of power in a federal system, local governments have the sovereignty to deal with local issues such as COVID-19. The disease may be more prevalent in one locality than another, thus demanding different policy initiatives.

169. (B) Because political power is so decentralized in a federal system, coordinating national policy is very difficult. In regard to COVID-19, it is widely understood that the president does not have the authority to issue a national mask mandate. Questions remain at what level of government these issues are best handled.

170. (A) In a unitary-structured country such as Great Britain, all political power is centralized in the national government. So the British would develop a policy that is enforced uniformly throughout the country. Some would argue that a unitary structure is better equipped to handle national crises like COVID-19.

171. (D) The political leader of the Senate is the majority leader. Unlike the House, in which political and constitutional leadership resides in the Speaker, those roles in the Senate are split between the majority leader (the political leader) and the president of the Senate (the constitutional leader of the Senate). The president of the Senate acts as the presiding officer and does not vote unless there is a tie. That person does not introduce bills or sit on committees. The majority leader is a full-fledged member of the Senate and directs legislation much like the Speaker does in the House.

172. (D) The city could apply for a federal grant to build an industrial park, but it would most likely be very narrow and defined, with strings attached. This would be a categorical grant.

173. (D) A joint committee designed to reconcile the differences in bills that passed both the House and Senate is a conference committee. This committee is made up of three House and three Senate members. Generally speaking, when a bill comes out of conference, it is passable in both chambers.

174. (B) If a vice president dies or resigns from office, the president selects a new vice president to be confirmed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is the only federal position for which this occurs, its basis being found in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Prior to this amendment, the vice presidency was left open, with the Speaker of the House next in the line of presidential succession.

175. (A) Most bills do not make it behind a smaller portion of the standing committee, a subcommittee. It has been said that committees act as the filter of bills. Subcommittees filter a committee’s bills. Thus, some subcommittees hold an immense amount of political power.

176. (B) The president has the role of chief administrator, overseeing day-to-day activities of the federal government. Obviously, the president cannot fulfill this obligation by himself or herself, so a federal bureaucracy was created to help the president carry out this responsibility.

177. (C) Only Congress has the authority to remove federal judges from the bench through impeachment proceedings.

178. (C) Amicus briefs and the solicitor general indirectly let the court know which cases are the most significant.

179. (A) The congressional committee system is a vital component of the legislative process because it represents a division of labor that can assess and formulate opinions on the myriad issues facing the national government in a limited amount of time. Through expert testimony and analysis, committees are able to put forth logical approaches to policy initiatives that the entire Congress can vote on.

180. (B) Party committees may exist within a political party but not in Congress.

181. (D) The Government Accountability Office (GAO) provides members of Congress with vital information for their committees as legislation is considered and policy is initiated.

182. (A) All these answers can apply to Congress, but investigations and bringing government activities to the public’s attention constitute the real power to limit the activities of the other branches.

183. (C) Congressional committees oversee many government agencies. Any member of a specific committee with responsibility for agency oversight can effect change in that agency’s position or action in regard to policy.

184. (D) Congress possesses the power of the purse, and even though the president submits the budget, it is Congress that decides where the money is spent. If a party is in control rather than powerful individuals on committees, then where money is spent will be of utmost importance to federal agencies.

185. (D) Committee members decide what issues are considered. It stands to reason that committees do not consider issues with which they do not agree, unless it is to make sure that they are dismissed from further consideration.

186. (C) The Rules Committee is the committee that creates the rules and procedures on the order of legislation to be considered as well as whether it is possible to attach amendments to the legislation. Through this powerful committee, the majority party can set the legislative agenda in the House of Representatives.

187. (A) Championed by Teddy Roosevelt, the bully pulpit is used by presidents to pursue their policy issues via the media. By using the media in this role, the president hopes to use public opinion to pursue his or her agenda, such as passing his or her legislation through Congress.

188. (D) The Constitution does not grant any of these powers to the president; it gives these powers to Congress. Also, the president must be a civilian because the Founding Fathers were fearful of military leaders holding civilian office.

189. (A) Treaties need to be ratified by the Senate. To avoid possible rejection by the Senate, the executive branch has developed and effectively used executive agreements, which are informal agreements between the president and a foreign country. They can pertain to trade, military bases, and so on. This is an efficient way to conduct lesser business when the government already has too much on its plate.

190. (B) Modern presidents have used executive privilege much more than their earlier predecessors did. This privilege is not mentioned in the Constitution, but presidents claim that it secures separation of powers because some practices are purely executive in nature and are decided by the president.

191. (C) Although not found in the Constitution, executive orders traditionally have been a prerogative of executive authority throughout history. At times, presidents use executive orders to sidestep Congress or negate a court ruling.

192. (B) The State of the Union address is required by the Constitution in that the president must report to Congress on the government’s current situation. However, since the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, presidents have used the State of the Union Address to announce their political agendas for the upcoming year.

193. (B) With all the military divisions under one umbrella, the Department of Defense is the largest cabinet department and one of the country’s biggest employers. It also has a budget in excess of $700 billion.

194. (A) After a perceived weakness on the part of the government to coordinate national security information, the Department of Homeland Security was created to centralize security data and better protect the country.

195. (D) In response to the Vietnam and Korean wars, which were never declared wars, Congress sought to limit the commander-in-chief’s ability to enter conflicts. The president must remove troops from the conflict within 60 days; otherwise, Congress can pull military funding. This law has proved to be ineffective because once a president has committed troops, it is politically impossible to cut funding to the troops and put American lives at risk. Hence we have the recent example of the Iraq War, where many in Congress disagreed with U.S. involvement but did not cut funding of soldiers.

196. (D) Although Congress does have final oversight, the bureaucracy was established long ago as part of the executive branch. Most policy functions are performed from the executive branch, of which the president is head, so the president has great control over the policy agenda.

197. (D) In perhaps his greatest political blunder, Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to reconstitute the court because he was angry at the justices for overturning key New Deal legislation. While he lost the political battle, he won the war because over the next few years, four justices retired from the bench.

198. (C) Delegation allows the bureaucracy to handle details while Congress and the president take care of larger political and policy goals. Delegation allows for everyone’s needs, including the public’s, to be met consistently.

199. (B) The Government Accountability Office (GAO) budget has risen greatly since 2000, witnessing a 69 percent increase during that time span.

200. (C) When an agency such as the GAO has such flexibility on how it spends its money, the agency has bureaucratic discretion. Although this appears to be a positive thing for the agency, showing that it spends its budget may call for a raise in the budget without much accountability.

201. (D) Although it is not conclusive from the chart, if the GAO’s budget goes up nearly every year, the federal government’s budget most likely does as well. Rarely do you see any agency receive fewer dollars on a year-to-year basis, so the federal government’s budget increases as well.

202. (A) The GAO’s goal is to provide unbiased, nonpartisan information to Congress. Often called the “congressional watchdog,” the GAO investigates federal spending.

203. (A) Because of name recognition and electability, incumbents tend to raise far more money than their challengers do. With this huge advantage, incumbents in Congress, particularly the House, win elections easily.

204. (B) The function of the executive branch is to enforce the law. As the role of the federal government has grown, the president needs help with the enforcement of federal laws, thus the creation and expansion of the bureaucracy.

205. (A) The U.S. Postal Service is an example of a government corporation. It acts like a company with its own service and revenue generation. However, the U.S. Postal Service has fallen on hard times, with increased competition and declining revenue.

206. (C) Although judicial review was inferred in Federalist #78, it was officially used by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

207. (B) This case involved President Harry Truman seizing the steel mills to avoid a strike by workers. Truman took measures that went against existing legislation and believed that he had the authority to do so. He felt that the mills needed to keep production moving because the United States was in the middle of the Korean War, and steel was of vital importance. The Supreme Court found that Truman did not have the authority to seize the mills to avoid a labor strike.

208. (C) Categorical grants are narrowly tailored and very specific. Block grants, usually given to a state, generally have a broad theme and allow some flexibility on how the money is spent—as long as it meets the intent of the block grant.

209. (D) Although the function of the cabinet has changed throughout the years, now the cabinet secretaries manage their federal departments. Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Executive Office of the President (EOP) in 1939. The EOP largely provides the president with information and data in regard to the position.

210. (D) Judicial activism and restraint are the two leading theories on how the Constitution is interpreted by the Supreme Court. Judicial activism is the belief that the courts and their decisions can be used to affect public policy. Judicial restraint advocates believe that judges should only interpret the Constitution without attempting to affect public policy.

211. (C) The question asks for the top political leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate. The Speaker of the House is the top political and constitutional leader of the House. The majority leader is the top political leader of the Senate—the leader of the majority party. Much like the position of the Speaker, the majority leader shepherds legislation through the Senate.

212. (C) Congress has several oversight options, one of which is to have standing committees call hearings investigating the activities of federal bureaucracies. The president has oversight by appointing citizens as heads of bureaucratic agencies. Although the Senate confirms these people, the president can still fire them.

213. (A) Two prominent cases from the Marshall Court helped shape American government and the way it operates. Marbury v. Madison (1803) established the ability of the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional—judicial review. Ultimately, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) helped establish the supremacy of the federal government over the states.

214. (D) Both executive orders and executive privilege are informal powers used by the president. Executive orders are commands given by the president that have the force of law. The president is limited, however. Executive orders apply only to the execution of powers involving the executive branch. Executive orders cannot overturn a law and are subject to judicial review. Executive privilege allows the president to have frank conversations with staff members without divulging the information to the public. Like executive orders, executive privilege has its limits. Those limits were tested in United States v. Nixon (1974) when Nixon claimed executive privilege when asked to hand over audiotapes of White House conversations. Nixon did not comply—but the Supreme Court did not agree and ruled the tapes to be possible evidence in a criminal investigation. With the handing over of the tapes and the public pressure that ensued, Nixon resigned from the presidency.

215. (B) The House Rules Committee determines the conditions that each bill is subject to when it goes to the House floor—such as if amendments can be added. The House Ways and Means Committee deals strictly with tax bills. This is extremely important because by constitutional decree, tax bills must start in the House—thus making the Ways and Means Committee extremely powerful in national tax policy.

216. (D) Both of these powers deal with the ability to make war. Article II, Section 2, makes the president the civilian commander-in-chief. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war. At times, the powers given to the president and Congress in regard to war-making have caused clashes between the two branches.

217. (B) Standing committees are the workhorses of Congress, the filters for bills and oversight in their given areas. Conference committees are designed to reconcile different House and Senate versions of a bill, hopefully for passage by both chambers.

218. (D) Formal presidential powers are given to the president by the Constitution, including the ability to negotiate treaties. Informal powers are powers acquired by the president because of the nature of the office, including using the bully pulpit, and are largely attributed to Teddy Roosevelt.

219. (D) Because of the sizes of the House and Senate, debate is very different in each chamber. In the House, the powerful Rules Committee lays out the rules for debate on each bill—and this can change from bill to bill. Senate debate is largely unlimited, giving the Senate the moniker of the “greatest deliberative body in the world.”

220. (B) Some observers believe that a presidential election can produce a down-ballot coattail effect, where members of the president’s party receive a boost from a strong presidential candidate. Incumbency is huge for members of Congress. Name recognition, the ability to raise money, and the franking privilege all help incumbents.

221. (A) Examples of a trial court include federal trial court judges—the judges who run the court of entry in the federal system. The highest appellate court is the U.S. Supreme Court, where nine justices are members of the Court.

222. (C) Federalist #70 was a treatise on the necessity of a single, strong executive. Hamilton rejected the call for a plural executive; he believed that the executive branch needed one strong voice that would provide direction for the branch. Dividing the duties of the executive would cause confusion and result in lack of a clear direction for the branch. Proponents of such an arrangement liked the diffusion of power.

223. (D) All the positions listed help the president administer federal law, albeit in different roles. The cabinet and federal bureaucracy have a direct hand in making sure that federal law is enforced. The EOP provides vital information to the president to make good decisions when enforcing federal law.

224. (C) The House of Representatives can vote to impeach—bring charges against—a president. If successful against a sitting president, the process moves to the Senate, which considers removing the president from office.

225. (B) Unlike independent and cabinet agencies, government corporations generate their own revenue with the intent to make enough money to meet their expenditures; in essence, they are state-owned companies that operate within the confines of the federal government. The U.S. Postal Service is a government corporation. Like other businesses, it has substantial competition and has come under much scrutiny in recent years.

Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

226. (B) The quote is from the famous Civil Rights Act of 1964. This sweeping legislation banned discrimination in public places and the workplace.

227. (D) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a piece of legislation enacted by Congress. With the presidential pressure exerted by Lyndon Johnson and in the wake of President Kennedy’s assassination, the Civil Rights Act proved to be one of the most significant laws passed by Congress.

228. (B) As the title suggests, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a reaction to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. After hard-fought battles in the courts and using civil disobedience, African Americans pushed to have this law passed in their march to equal protection under law.

229. (C) Chief Justice John Marshall saw the Constitution as a document that was written for future generations but allowed to be interpreted as a living document that could be adapted to modern times and circumstances.

230. (B) Martin Luther King, Jr. is expressing concern in regard to the social contract—the agreement between the government and the people. King acknowledges the paradox in obeying the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling and disobeying other laws. King would argue that the other laws, Jim Crow laws, for example, violate the social contract and should be disobeyed. These laws are not legitimate expressions of the social contract.

231. (D) The famous 1954 case King is referring to is Brown v. Board of Education.

232. (C) Martin Luther King Jr.’s main method of fighting discrimination was civil disobedience—peacefully disobeying laws, usually disrupting the local economy. King borrowed these methods from the teachings of Gandhi and applied them to fighting segregation and discrimination.

233. (B) Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) incorporated the right to counsel in criminal cases. Prior to Gideon, thousands of accused citizens were indigents without legal assistance. After Gideon, public defenders were employed to make sure that all accused persons have counsel in criminal cases.

234. (D) Selective incorporation, applying most of the Bill of Rights to the actions of the states, came with the adoption of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The clause says that “no State shall deny to any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Although the original intent was to provide protection to the newly freed slaves, the Due Process Clause has been used to ensure the protection of rights against state infringement. It’s an ongoing process, and not all of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated.

235. (D) The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was incorporated with the case of McDonald v. Chicago (2010). A huge victory for gun rights advocates, McDonald ensured that states could not deny this right, although the ongoing battle involves the limits that can be placed on citizens in terms of the types of weapons they may possess.

236. (B) Engel v. Vitale (1962) involved the practice of school-sponsored prayer in New York public schools to begin the school day. Although the prayer was relatively moderate in terms of acknowledging religion, the Supreme Court ruled that the prayer violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Coercing prayer was an action taken by the state to promote religious values in public schools. This entangled church and state, and the prayer was struck down.

237. (A) The Engel decision essentially struck down school-sponsored prayer during the school day. However, the decision did not completely stop religious activities in schools. Bibles can be made available on school grounds with limitations, religious groups have access to schools for meetings just like other groups, and students may initiate prayers at athletic events, such as team-led prayers before a game.

238. (C) The Establishment Clause is officially in the First Amendment and has led to the concept of separation of church and state—that churches and government should be separate from each other. Coined by Thomas Jefferson, the separation of church and state is readily used in the discussion of civil liberties.

239. (B) The Amish believed that forcing their children to go school beyond eighth grade was a violation of their right to practice their religion as they saw fit, generally guarantied by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Most states had compulsory education until at least 16 years of age. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Amish contended that this mandatory education violated their right to practice their religion freely; this religious sect did not need their children to go to school beyond the age of 14 to function well in their society. The Court agreed, and mandatory schooling for the Amish beyond 14 years of age was struck down throughout the United States.

240. (B) A staunch defender of civil liberties, the ACLU defended the Amish in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972). Representing citizens in First Amendment and criminal due process cases, the ACLU has used the courts as a venue to defend those rights.

241. (B) James Madison would label the ACLU a “faction.” Madison saw the danger of factions but also acknowledged their existence and understood the risks of trying to extinguish them. This was eloquently expressed in Federalist #10.

242. (C) In the famous Pentagon Papers case, the Nixon administration attempted to block the New York Times from publishing information leaked from the Pentagon. In the case of New York Times v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government was using prior restraint, or the censoring of the newspaper, and allowed publication of the Pentagon Papers.

243. (C) The constitutional application in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court decided that equal protection meant “separate but equal,” that citizens could be separated by race as long as accommodations were equal. This case helped promote segregation largely in the South for the next 60 years.

244. (B) Eventually Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling in Brown helped start the desegregation of public schools throughout the United States.

245. (D) All of the following was true in regard to African Americans using the courts as a vehicle to fight for civil rights: the Constitution was on their side, and the courts would be a logical place to recognize those rights; African Americans lacked support with elected officials, and public opinion was not on their side, so the courts gave African Americans the best venue to seek civil rights.

246. (B) Justice Harlan argued in Maxwell v. Dow (1900) that the courts had no authority to select which rights may be protected by the states and which would not. Harlan appears to be arguing against selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights—favoring the idea that all rights should be incorporated.

247. (B) If Justice Harlan was arguing for the entire incorporation of the Bill of Rights to the states, he could cite the superiority of the federal government over the states by citing Article VI’s Supremacy Clause. If the Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution, and it obviously is, it should be applied to the actions of the states totally.

248. (B) Not all of the Bill of Rights has been applied to the states. As cases rise to the Supreme Court, the Court has applied most, but not all, of the Bill of Rights to the states. Notably the Fifth Amendment’s right to a grand jury has not been incorporated to the states.

249. (C) The right to privacy, established in Griswold v. Connecticut (1967), was the cornerstone to Roe v. Wade (1973), which established the right to abortion. The right to privacy was extended to the ability to determine a woman’s right to reproduce. Roe became a landmark case in Supreme Court history.

250. (A) The Sixth Amendment is the principal criminal due process amendment, including the right to an attorney in a criminal trial. The right to an attorney has become a vital right in criminal due process. This right was incorporated in the celebrated Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) case. Prior to Gideon, thousands of indigent defendants had to defend themselves in criminal hearings, a huge advantage for the state. Now public defenders are common, and no person should have to defend himself or herself in a criminal trial.

251. (B) The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause was the constitutional application in Shaw v. Reno (1993). In this case, North Carolina drew an unusual congressional district, with the main consideration being to create a “majority minority” district, a district that would yield a Black representation. The Supreme Court ruled that creating a congressional district solely based on race was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause, stating that race could be a consideration, but not the only consideration.

252. (B) The Establishment Clause provided the constitutional foundation for the concept of separation of church and state. Some constitutional scholars have indicated that there should be a wall of separation—Justice Hugo Black suggested that the wall should be very high. However, entanglements of church and state exist in our society, such as “In God We Trust” on paper money and allowing chaplains to recite prayers at Senate sessions.

253. (B) When the Amish choose to keep their children from attending public school after eighth grade, they are exercising their right to the free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court found this action allowable in the required case Wisconsin v. Yoder (1973).

254. (B) When the Supreme Court struck down school-sponsored prayer in Engel v. Vitale (1962), the Court invoked the Establishment Clause. The Establishment Clause provides a line of separation between the government and religion.

255. (C) The premier interest group that has vigorously protected civil liberties is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU takes cases that involve largely First Amendment and criminal due process rights.

256. (C) The Sixth Amendment is the amendment that deals with criminal due process rights such as the right to trial by jury and the right to an attorney, as witnessed in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963).

257. (B) The chart shows that a slim majority (54 percent) favored the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The civil rights movement was still in its infancy, and public support was not particularly strong.

258. (D) For most of the twentieth century, the southern states were opposed to civil rights and demonstrated this by passing Jim Crow laws, jailing protestors, and physically intimidating African Americans.

259. (D) President Lyndon B. Johnson proved to be a champion of civil rights and used all his presidential powers to ensure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination and at the height of the civil rights movement, Johnson used his unparalleled political skills to pass the bill.

260. (A) President Harry S. Truman understood the contributions of African Americans in World War II and the need to have a more cohesive military. With this in mind, Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948.

261. (C) Segregation brought about by living and social practices is called de facto segregation. De facto segregation is very difficult to address. In schools, for example, this may break the practice of neighborhood schools and call for integration by other means, such as busing.

262. (C) Selective incorporation has increased the power of the federal government over the states. By having the federal court system adjudicate cases involving the Bill of Rights, the federal government has used its power to change the ways states operate and protect rights. State governments and their courts failed to recognize and protect the Bill of Rights.

263. (B) Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1973 proved to be a powerful tool in promoting women’s sports in the United States. Prior to Title IX, women’s sports often were not offered in public schools. By making sure that women had the same opportunities as men, women’s sports expanded greatly. Many observers credit Title IX as the catalyst for the prominence of American women on the world sports stage, such as the national soccer team.

264. (D) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was wide ranging, including prohibiting discrimination in any places of public accommodation as well as discrimination by race, religion, color, or national origin. Also, any institution that receives federal funds was subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

265. (C) After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress reacted by passing the Patriot Act. It allowed law enforcement more flexibility in surveillance, expanded counterterrorism programs, and increased penalties for terrorist activities. It is widely used in the United States today.

266. (B) Interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses has allowed more intervention by the federal government, largely through the courts, when state laws are subject to constitutional scrutiny. With passage of federal statutes such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the federal government is permitted to examine the actions of the states. This can be problematic because voting procedures come under the domain of state powers. However, laws such as the Voting Rights Act directly challenge how states have conducted themselves in regard to ensuring the right to vote, considered to be a sacred American right.

267. (D) Given that the Voter Rights Act of 1965 is a federal law that examines the actions of the states in regard to voting, a tension is put on our federal system of government. The right to vote is a crucial civil right, and this is a battle being fought even today. If the right to vote is a civil right guaranteed to all citizens, the federal government may be a big player—even on the state level.

268. (D) The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause states that “no State shall deny any person life, liberty, or property without the due process of law.” Because the clause directly mentions the state, a state can come under constitutional scrutiny even in the federal courts.

269. (C) Today’s trial by public opinion arguably could violate an accused’s right to privacy and procedural due process. The accused is given some degree of privacy in regard to testimony, claiming no self-incrimination, and so on. Social media may affect procedural due process on how a juror may come across on social media and affect his or her judgment in a trial. Although it can be argued that the media have always played a role in criminal cases, people have direct access to social media and can participate in it more readily.

270. (C) The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has been used to incorporate the Bill of Rights to the actions of states. Now nearly all of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated.

271. (D) Every right on the list has been incorporated to the states except indictment by a grand jury. Grand juries fit into the concept of criminal due process but are expensive and time-consuming. Thus, prosecutors at the state level have a great amount of power and discretion on whether to move forward with a case.

272. (C) The right to a free press has been a cornerstone of American politics. New York Times v. United States (1971) challenged this right when the Nixon administration attempted to block publication of the leaked Pentagon Papers. The Supreme Court ruled that this was prior restraint, and publication was allowed.

273. (D) As with many other cases, the decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) relied on other precedent-setting cases. In the case of Roe, one such case was Griswold v. Connecticut (1967). This case established the right to privacy—the right cited in Roe that allowed women to determine their own reproduction abilities, including abortion.

274. (A) When several parties are brought together in a lawsuit that has similar characteristics (and results), this is called a class action lawsuit. Class action lawsuits allow resources to be pulled together, and hopefully, all similar parties receive a desired result. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was obviously a civil rights lawsuit, but class action lawsuits are used in a variety of legal situations.

275. (B) Quid pro quo and a hostile work environment are conditions for potential sexual harassment cases. Quid pro quo is the exchange of sexual favors for potential job advancement. A hostile work environment is created when lewd or inappropriate sexual remarks are made to make the work environment undesirable. Both are deemed harassment.

276. (B) The Supreme Court ruled in Riley v. California (2014) that a search of a cell phone incident to an arrest is unconstitutional. The data and information on a cell phone are considered to be private and not searchable unless a warrant has been issued.

277. (D) With new advancements in technology and access to virtually unlimited information, the right to privacy has taken an entirely new meaning. Unlike a fixed domain such as a home where information could be found and a warrant would need to be issued, the storage and easy access to online information have raised concerns about privacy. What exactly does the government have access to? Only time will tell how this plays out.

278. (D) The exclusionary rule—any information obtained illegally would be inadmissible in a court of law—excludes any cell phone information from being used as evidence against an accused.

279. (D) Created in 1934, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable throughout the United States. With the proliferation of social media, the work of the FCC has become much more difficult.

280. (D) Highly controversial, Citizens United v. FEC (2010) challenged federal election laws in regard to raising money for campaigns. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that donating money to a campaign/candidate was a form of political speech/expression and that any limits on that was a violation of the First Amendment. This case opened up the floodgates for campaign spending after 2010.

281. (B) In Shaw v. Reno (1993), the Supreme Court ruled that the redistricting of congressional districts on the basis of race would be held to a high standard known as strict scrutiny. Race, the Court ruled, could be a consideration but not the only consideration.

282. (A) In Baker v. Carr (1962), the Supreme Court declared that Tennessee had apportioned its congressional districts by population. For decades, Tennessee kept the same legislative boundaries while its demographics changed. The Baker case called for legislative districts to be roughly equal in population, giving us the famous term “one person, one vote.”

283. (B) The Fourteenth Amendment contains the Due Process Clause, originally intended to protect the new freed slaves against abusive state action. The Due Process Clause later was interpreted to apply the Bill of Rights to the states. The first case used to apply the Bill of Rights to the states was Gitlow v. New York (1925).

284. (A) McDonald v. Chicago (2010) incorporated the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. Surprisingly enough, the Second Amendment has come late in the selective incorporation process. A very similar case came before the Supreme Court, District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), but it was not an incorporation case because Heller involved a federal enclave, not a state.

285. (B) Incorporation is the process of having cases brought to the Supreme Court challenging states to recognize the federal Bill of Rights. Using the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, incorporation began with Gitlow v. New York (1925), and the latest case was Timbs v. Indiana (2019).

286. (D) The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment states that “no State shall deny a person life, liberty, or property with the due process of law.” This means that if a state is to deny a person rights, the state must follow established procedures.

287. (A) The Supreme Court has reasoned that law enforcement on the local level must meet the needs of the community and region. Constitutional rights must be provided, but every practice of local law enforcement does not necessarily require close constitutional scrutiny, nor is it necessarily a violation of Fourteenth Amendment due process.

288. (D) Required case Engel v. Vitale (1962) struck down a New York State—mandated prayer to begin the public school day. The Supreme Court ruled that the state prayer violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and prohibited state-sponsored prayer in public schools.

289. (B) Required case Schenck v. United States created the famous clear and present danger test in regard to free speech. A person’s speech is not protected if it creates a dangerous situation for people subjected to the speech. Oliver Wendell Holmes’s example that “you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater” is found in the Court’s ruling.

290. (B) The First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause was the focus of Wisconsin v. Yoder (1971). Wisconsin, like many other states, had a compulsory education law; in Wisconsin, the compulsory age was 16 years. The Amish in Wisconsin believed that the law violated their free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court agreed and struck down Wisconsin’s compulsory education law.

291. (D) Political expression is considered to be the highest form of speech, even in public schools. Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) solidified the right in public schools. In a case involving the wearing of black armbands to protest American involvement in the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court struck down the school’s suspension of the Tinkers, upholding their right to protest in schools.

292. (C) This case is important legal doctrine because it establishes a limit to what most Americans view as their most fundamental right—freedom of speech. The Supreme Court found that speech that incites violence or panic is not permissible, with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes making the analogy that someone cannot yell fire in a crowded theater because that might lead to injury.

293. (C) In Dennis v. United States (1951), the clear and present danger test, which implies an immediate threat to safety, was extended to include the possibility of danger in the future.

294. (C) The government cannot establish one religion or give one religion any better legal standing than another. This has been generally interpreted with the Free Exercise Clause as granting freedom of religion.

295. (D) The other protection not listed is freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. All citizens can seek to change laws they feel are unjustified, and they will not be punished in any way by the government for issuing their complaints. The Founding Fathers believed this to be as important to a free society as the other guarantees in the First Amendment.

296. (B) The Fourth Amendment is the first in the Bill of Rights that applies to the criminally accused. Government needs a legitimate reason to search a person’s private belongings for evidence of wrongdoing. This prevents the government from choosing to harass citizens for reasons that would be considered discriminatory or biased in any way.

297. (D) Those two cases were pivotal in framing the right to privacy. Both deal with the personal choices that a woman makes regarding her own body—either to prevent pregnancy through the use of contraception or to terminate an unwanted pregnancy through abortion. The latter has had political ramifications ever since the ruling owing to the fact that many people believe that abortion is legalized murder because life begins at conception.

298. (D) The Ninth Amendment states that any powers not given to Congress are reserved for the people. Thus, because there is no right to privacy in the Constitution, it is not associated with Congress and must belong to the people. The Supreme Court has used this amendment sparingly in deciding privacy cases.

299. (D) The right to privacy, the basis of Roe v. Wade (1973), was recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut (1967). A penumbra officially created by Griswold, the right to privacy became the foundation for the right to abortion found in Roe.

300. (C) An incorporation case, Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) recognized the right to an attorney where most criminal cases take place—in the state courts. After Gideon, public defenders were installed throughout the United States, and true justice was served.

301. (C) Mapp v. Ohio (1962) extended Fourth Amendment protection to the states. It found that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s illegal search and seizure requirements must be excluded from state criminal proceedings.

302. (A) This is the case that requires the police to read suspects their rights. As seen in every television and movie depiction of an arrest since 1966, when someone is placed under arrest, the officer says, “You have the right to remain silent. . . .” This is a reading of the accused’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.

303. (C) Although passed in 1867, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause was not fully realized until the mid-twentieth century through federal litigation. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court struck down the ability of states to segregate based on race and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

304. (C) Legislation designed to limit activity or deny a group the opportunity to do what others are allowed to do is suspect. This does not mean that the group is suspicious; rather, it refers to the historic discrimination or marginalization the group has faced in society and through legal limitation.

305. (D) The strict scrutiny given fundamental rights in landmark civil rights cases in the 1950s and 1960s looked at how individuals and groups were treated by the law in terms of restrictions and discrimination in the legal process. All the responses reflect those considerations.

306. (A) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) resulted in a decision that validated Jim Crow laws in the South at the end of the nineteenth century. Plessy, who was one-eighth African American, was arrested for riding in a whites-only passenger car on a train. The Supreme Court held that as long as alternative accommodations were made, “separate but equal” was constitutional.

307. (C) Affirmative action, designed to level the playing field for groups that were historically discriminated against, was applied to many different situations, including college and graduate school admissions. Often schools would set quotas to satisfy the need for diversity. This case stated that such quotas were unconstitutional because they amounted to reverse discrimination in limiting the opportunity of people based on the color of their skin.

308. (B) This amendment has been used to apply the protections of the Bill of Rights, designed to limit the power of the federal government, to state governments.

309. (A) This case involved the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II. The military issued orders to detain Japanese citizens because of a possible attack by the Japanese on the West Coast. The Supreme Court found that even though strict scrutiny was used, the military still had a responsibility to protect all citizens, even if it meant sacrificing the rights of a few. Further, the court reasoned that because it was not possible to separate loyal Japanese from disloyal Japanese, the military was reasonable in removing all Japanese Americans.

310. (B) Although most students are familiar with Brown v. Board of Education (1954), or Brown I, the Supreme Court gave power to federal district courts to oversee desegregation through Brown II, decided in 1955. The case decided that desegregation should take place “with all deliberate speed.”

311. (C) Some opponents to the ERA argued that the amendment was extraneous. Proper interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause could provide relief to distressed groups such as women. Proponents of the amendment argued that women need more focused and directed constitutional protection.

312. (B) The Fourteenth Amendment provides that every person born or naturalized in the United States is a U.S. citizen. Recently, as the political debate over immigration has increased, some people have called for this part of the amendment to be revised to prevent “anchor babies.” Immigrants, often illegal, come to this country to give birth. The child would automatically be an American citizen, and the parents would be allowed to stay. A decision that was originally meant to grant full citizenship to freed slaves has grown to include anyone born on American soil.

313. (B) The Supreme Court has ruled that certain attempts to create new congressional districts to reflect a correction of past racial discrimination is unconstitutional and violates the Equal Protection Clause. Additionally, any plan that dilutes an ethnicity or race is prohibited.

314. (C) Class action lawsuits are used by many groups who seek the same solution. In the case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), affected litigants in southern states banded together to sue states that practiced segregation in public schools.

315. (D) All the items named were Jim Crow laws except death taxes—taxes placed on a person’s estate after death.

316. (D) The celebrated American Judge Learned Hand was referring to criminal due process in this quote. Hand believed that liberty must be recognized in all cases, including people accused of a crime. The protection of these liberties, Hand noted, developed over centuries with English common law.

317. (D) Judge Learned Hand was referring to common law, judge-made law that is passed down from generation to generation. Common law has shaped much of American jurisprudence, such as criminal due process.

318. (A) One example of criminal due process Hand was referring to is the right to an attorney in a criminal case. Proper adjudication of criminal due process must include a lawyer for the defendant—without one, the process would be unfair and give the state an even greater advantage.

319. (A) The “weapon of protest” favored by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was civil disobedience—the refusal to obey immoral laws as a form of peaceful protest. King’s methods proved to be highly effective, helping to draw attention to the civil rights movement and eventually producing legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

320. (B) Providing a contrast to King in an equally effective way, the NAACP, led by chief litigator Thurgood Marshall, sought to fight racial discrimination in the courts. Marshall used constitutional law as the way to attack discrimination, mainly through interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

321. (B) Of the many NAACP victories, perhaps the most celebrated was Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which ended public school segregation.

322. (B) Practically written in conjunction with each other, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 eliminated discrimination in public places, whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned the use of literacy tests as a qualification for voting.

323. (B) Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) laid the foundation for Roe v. Wade (1973). Griswold established the right to privacy, paving the way for Roe, which used privacy as the right to monitor a person’s body; for a woman, this also included the ability to terminate a pregnancy.

324. (A) Under the Fourteenth Amendment, Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) was an incorporation case using the Due Process Clause, while Baker v. Carr (1962) was an Equal Protection Clause case involving equal voting representation.

325. (A) The two clauses here both come under the umbrella of freedom of religion under the First Amendment. Engel v. Vitale (1962) involved school-sponsored prayer violating the Establishment Clause. In the second case, Wisconsin v. Yoder (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that the Wisconsin compulsory education law violated the free exercise rights of Wisconsin Amish students, making Amish students obligated to attend school only until the age of 16.

326. (C) Both cases deal with criminal due process. In Mapp v. Ohio (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that the exclusionary rule must be applied to the states. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) gave the country the famous “Miranda rights,” a list of rights that must be given to an accused while subject to a custodial interrogation.

327. (B) Free speech is not unlimited. The Supreme Court has ruled that libel—written untruths—and slander—spoken untruths—are not protected by the First Amendment. Libel and slander are examples of limitations put on the Bill of Rights.

328. (A) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) are companion civil rights cases. Plessy established the “separate but equal” doctrine and essentially allowed segregation throughout the United States, particularly in the South. Plessy was overturned by Brown, which ruled that segregated schools (and later other public facilities) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

329. (B) Civil rights pioneers the NAACP and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pushed against discrimination in the United States using different tactics. The NAACP, led primarily by Thurgood Marshall, filed lawsuits in the court system using the Constitution as a weapon. Dr. King was known for promoting civil disobedience but also wrote the influential “Letter from Birmingham Jail” admonishing his fellow white clergymen for not supporting the civil rights movement.

330. (C) Both the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment included “the right to life, liberty, and property” straight out of John Locke’s playbook. The difference is that the Fifth Amendment’s clause was directed toward the federal government, whereas the Fourteenth Amendment’s clause was directed toward state government abuse. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause also became the foundation of the incorporation doctrine, applying the federal government’s Bill of Rights to the states.

331. (B) Both Baker v. Carr (1962) and Shaw v. Reno (1993) involved representation in legislative districts. In Baker, the Supreme Court decided that legislative districts, both state and federal, need to be roughly equal in population sizes. With Shaw, the Court ruled that race could be a consideration, but not the major factor, when drawing up legislative districts.

Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

332. (B) Because of the delay in drawing congressional district lines, political parties cannot adequately plan for the crucial midterm elections. Until the lines are drawn and announced, it is difficult to name candidates, plan strategy, and raise money for particular candidates. In states that are now reforming this process and possibly eliminating gerrymandering, the delay has been very difficult for political parties.

333. (A) Because the U.S. Census provides population distribution information and how many congressional districts each state receives, this affects the distribution of Electoral votes per state. For example, Michigan lost one congressional seat, dropping the number of Electoral votes the state receives from 16 to 15. Of course, this doesn’t come into play until the 2024 election cycle.

334. (B) Federal money follows the population. Federal grants can be tied to a state’s population, as can entitlement programs such as welfare. Although the skill of a state’s members of Congress can come into play, a loss of population also almost always means a loss of federal money.

335. (A) According to Article II, Section 1, state legislatures determine how electors are selected in each state. Early in American history it was literally that—state legislatures would appoint electors. Now 48 of 50 states use a winner-take-all system, meaning that whoever wins the most popular votes in a state receives all the state’s Electoral votes. Many states are currently considering reforms in regards to how Electoral votes are allocated.

336. (B) Before announcing a major piece of legislation, presidents will use a random-sample poll that reflects the demographics of the nation. This provides the president with a snapshot of the nation’s perceptions in regard to the legislation. Other political actors, such as interest groups, use these polls as well.

337. (D) Based on the information provided in the chart, all the items are correct. White people make up a majority of the Democratic and Republican parties, but with the Republicans, the number is about a third higher. Minorities also tend to join the Democratic Party.

338. (B) Because minority populations are growing at a faster clip than white people and minorities gravitate toward the Democratic Party, the Democrats appear to have an advantage. However, because of our federal system and constitutional provisions, Republicans tend to dominate in small states and offset Democratic advantages elsewhere. Regardless of a state’s population, every state gets two U.S. senators. The margins of members of each party in both chambers of Congress are very tight.

339. (B) According to the Constitution, each state receives two senators regardless of the state’s population. Although a party may be outnumbered nationally, a minority party may be very strong in any given state. Madison noted this in Federalist #10 when addressing the issue of factions and how any given faction could be strong in a state.

340. (C) The bureaucracy’s function is to carry out the law at both state and federal levels. However, many citizens express frustration in getting access to governmental bureaucracies, whether seeking to see a bureaucrat or cutting through the maze of red tape. Interest group lobbyists, armed with information, usually have easier access to bureaucracies than the common person the bureaucracy is supposed to serve.

341. (A) The many levels of a bureaucracy and the obstacles a citizen faces when trying to access a bureaucracy are called red tape. Many citizens find bureaucracies frustrating at the federal, state, and local levels.

342. (A) Perhaps the most famous of Federalist Papers, Madison’s Federalist #10 would call today’s interest groups “factions.” Madison would also put political parties in this category. Madison and other Founding Fathers keenly watched British politics and were alarmed by the behavior of parties and interest groups. But Madison knew that there was no way to stop them, so he helped design a federal structure of government that would offset the power of factions. It is debatable whether this worked.

343. (A) The execution of random-sample polls has been questioned recently. Particularly after the 2016 presidential election was widely predicted wrongly, questions have arisen about the field of people being sampled and how it reflects the American public as a whole. Although politicians continue to use such polls, there is much skepticism about random sampling and the validity of such polls.

344. (A) Because the president usually initiates broad public policy, whether as the chief legislator or in other roles, the president likes to get a political sense of whether his or her initiatives sit well with the public. This is even more true in the second half of a presidential term if the president is running for reelection. The president may avoid broad policy initiatives that inflame the public and perhaps deny the president a second term.

345. (C) When the media emphasize the competitive side of politics, they act as a scorekeeper. Monitoring elections via polls certainly is an example of this role. Critics of the media as a scorekeeper note that public policy is ignored by the media, which focuses too much on who is winning.

346. (B) President Obama’s quote suggests that change comes to Washington via the people. In theory, he is right—most of the power in Washington rests in elected officials, who are supposed to reflect the will of the people, including the president. But many observers are skeptical of other players involved, such as interest groups, and how much influence they have. This is a debate about what type of democracy the United States employs: participatory, elite, or pluralist.

347. (C) With the idea that the people are sovereign, a federal structure best facilitates change coming to Washington. Elected officials from the states carry the message of their constituents. Unitary governments find power centralized in the national government—this could be despotic. A confederate structure has such a weak central government that it cannot reflect the will of the people—this is done at the state level. And in an authoritarian structure, the people are not likely to be represented at all.

348. (B) President Obama was widely criticized for an excessive use of executive orders. Particularly in his second term, Obama encountered a divided government. He found little, if any, common ground with Republicans, so he used the powers of the executive branch to achieve his policy initiatives. This usually came in the form of executive orders—commands given by the president that have the force of law.

349. (D) Gay/lesbian marriage rose to the high level of 59% by 2014. With this, political support for gay/lesbian marriage also has risen. The legality of this marriage was clarified in 2015 when the Supreme Court ordered all states to issue marriage licenses to gay/lesbian couples in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges.

350. (C) Much like the NAACP in the civil rights movement, the LGBTQ movement has relied on the judicial branch in its quest for equal rights. Although support for this movement appears to be growing, relief from legislative and executive branches is minimal.

351. (C) While Democrats and Republicans have some fluctuations in U.S. Supreme Court approval, the independents stay relatively consistent. The party numbers may be in reaction to favorable/unfavorable Supreme Court decisions that are viewed in a more partisan lens. The number of independents is more likely less based on such a reaction.

352. (D) The year all three groups converged above a 50 percent approval rating was 2020.

353. (D) The two major parties most likely react more to major cases than do independents. They may look at the Supreme Court’s members’ ideological/political views, the decisions made that year, and so on. Independents also may view the Court in less ideological terms and thus the lack of fluctuation in their views.

354. (A) The Supreme Court tends to have the highest approval rating of any federal institution. The president’s approval rating fluctuates, and Congress’s approval ratings tend to be below 50 percent; however, the approval ratings of individual members of Congress are much higher.

355. (C) 2004 was an exceptional year for congressional job approval ratings, powering up to the mid-80 percent range.

356. (C) Although Congress enjoyed a few years with approval ratings above 50 percent, in most years, Congress was well below 50 percent, with some years below 20 percent. Unfortunately for Congress, these ratings are typical. Some reasons may be that Congress is viewed to be too large, unproductive, and unresponsive.

357. (B) It’s true, people hate Congress but love their congresspeople. Congress’s approval ratings are consistently below 50 percent, sometimes much lower. Members of the Senate are reelected more than 80 percent of the time, while House members are reelected at a 90-percent clip. If members of Congress vote with their constituents in mind, they are reelected even if Congress is unpopular.

358. (D) Members of Congress in office, incumbents, have huge advantages in regard to reelection. Having free mailing privileges (franking), the favor of interest groups and their money, and name recognition all aid in an incumbent’s reelection.

359. (C) The only federal official on this question that faces term limits is the president. Because of the Twenty-second Amendment, the president is limited to two terms. House and Senate members have no term limits, and Supreme Court members have lifetime appointments.

360. (C) Although some may object to the politicization of churches, ministers are not agents of the state, and churches are not publicly funded, a focus of the Establishment Clause. Thus, ministers are free to express themselves politically. Although recent sermons have witnessed a rise in political messaging, this is nothing new. It is said that churches during the American Revolution had extensive and intensive political messaging, helping fan the flames of independence in the 13 colonies.

361. (A) Because two thirds of all American churches were subject to political messaging, a supermajority of American churches heard sermons that were politically motivated. Although all presidential elections are highly charged, the 2020 election appeared to be much more so. This is witnessed in the record number of Americans who voted, even in the middle of a pandemic.

362. (B) Exit polls and random-sampling polls seek different types of information. Exit polls are used on election days to see how someone voted. Exit polls, along with voter turnout and past results, help the media make predictions on the result. There are also strict rules on where exit polls can be conducted—certainly not at the voting booths. Random sampling seeks to acquire information from a sample of the public at large. By getting a snapshot of the population, politicians and other groups can make policy decisions based on that information. Sometimes the accuracy of random-sample polling is questionable.

363. (B) Studies show that the best indicator of a person’s political will is the influence of family. Although all the answers play a role, the political environment of a person’s family makes the biggest impact.

364. (D) With the highest population group listed in the chart, Puerto Rico suffers the most from not having full voting rights. According to the 2020 Census, Puerto Rico has more people than 16 other states and the District of Columbia. Other than voting, Puerto Ricans have citizenship status.

365. (C) An argument can be made that a citizen who has a felony conviction has violated the social contract. According to the social contract, when a citizen violates that contract, there are consequences. One consequence may be the loss of voting rights. Opponents would argue that the citizen has paid his or her debt to society and should be given full status under the social contract.

366. (C) Because all the residents listed are American citizens, on moving to a U.S. state, the right to vote would be given. The issue is that their home territory doesn’t have full voting status (not a state). Puerto Rico is a notable issue because of its large population, about 3.1 residents, according to the 2020 Census.

367. (D) None of the groups listed—Black, Hispanic, or white people—believe that minorities receive equal treatment in the criminal justice system. Only 36 percent of white people believe that minorities receive equal treatment, and that was the highest group.

368. (A) Only 44 percent of the polling subjects are confident in police training to avoid excessive force, meaning that 56 percent of respondents did not have this confidence, a significant majority. The two minority groups were very low (Blacks, 20 percent, and Hispanics, 34 percent). Only half of the white people in the poll were confident that police don’t use excessive force.

369. (B) It is clear in the graph that minority groups do not believe that there is equal protection under the law, and even white people are skeptical. Because most police action is done at the state level, national reform would be very difficult in a federal system such as the United States employs. One option may be for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to investigate civil rights violations by local police.

370. (B) The poll shows that a majority of Americans, regardless of race, did not want to shrink the police. A somewhat surprising response to the poll was that 50 percent of Blacks said, “Should not,” whereas only 44 percent of whites responded in this way. Although many Americans would like to see some police reform, most do not want to see the police force shrink.

371. (C) Generally speaking, law enforcement has been the domain of the states. Because law enforcement is not explicitly listed as a power of the federal government under the Constitution, it has been viewed as a reserve power given to the states—a nod to the Tenth Amendment. Thus, a national police policy is very difficult to implement.

372. (B) With its vast financial resources, the federal government uses money as a “carrot” to manipulate the states to achieve its agenda. One way is by providing categorical grants to the states. Unlike block grants, categorical grants are narrowly tailored with strings attached. If the states want federal money, and they usually do, they need to meet the conditions stipulated in the grant. This could be one way the federal government could attempt to change police training.

373. (D) Push polls are designed to influence voter behavior under the guise of a poll. Push polls are not interested in collecting data—this is a form of negative campaigning where a group tries to influence voters using a “poll” as the means to communicate with voters. To call push polls “polls” is a stretch.

374. (C) When a president introduces legislation and uses presidential powers to seek passage, he or she is acting in the role of chief legislator. President Biden has the difficult task of trying to manage all the congressional “factions” in order to pass legislation through Congress: Republicans, moderate Democrats, progressive Democrats, and so on. Although our system of government is designed to have tension between the legislative and executive branches, it is perceived to be easier with a united government.

375. (B) In Congress, with the various groups involved and with no one central power, the interaction between the president and Congress provides us with a pluralist democracy. Even just mentioning the political parties and wings is too simplistic. The Senate presently has the Gang of Six moderate senators from both parties that is highly influential. The House has the Freedom Caucus, a group of highly conservative Republicans. Juggling the goals of all these groups is, to put it politely, very difficult.

376. (B) The previous scenario is a classic example of Madison’s discussion of factions in Federalist #10. How Congress is behaving is a microcosm of Madison’s thesis about how the effect of factions is mitigated in a large republic. With power so decentralized, it is difficult for one faction to become dominant. On the other side, the scenario also demonstrates how difficult it is to build a coalition.

377. (D) The Federal Reserve’s major role is to oversee monetary policy. Monetary policy is the control of money in our economic system. One power the Federal Reserve has to manage monetary policy is to control interest rates. Raising interest rates slows borrowing and the access to money, while lowering interest rates does the exact opposite. When business needs a boost, the Federal Reserve typically lowers interest rates.

378. (C) The Federal Reserve determines the prime interest rate—the cost for American commercial institutions to borrow money from the Federal Reserve. The prime interest rate can be used to curb inflation by raising it, steadying the prices of goods throughout the United States and, to a certain extent, the world.

379. (C) The Federal Reserve is an example of an independent government agency. These types of agencies exist outside the executive department and to a certain degree are insulated by politics. In theory, the Federal Reserve monitors monetary policy using economic data to make decisions. Directors of independent government agencies frequently are given terms that do not coincide with a president’s term and sometimes longer. Hopefully, these agencies act in the best interest of the American people and try to stay above the political fray.

380. (C) People unlikely to get vaccinated are the group that believes that U.S. officials are exaggerating the risk posed by the Delta variant, and by a wide margin—73 percent. This is precisely why this group is so large—there is wide disbelief that government officials are telling the truth about the variant, so the vaccine is fraudulent or unnecessary.

381. (A) With only 45 percent of Americans polled believing that the risk posed by the COVID-19 Delta variant is being accurately described by U.S. officials, a significant majority does not believe the government is providing accurate information.

382. (D) Partisan politics, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and the overall trend toward government distrust all come into play here. Thus, regardless of the truth, it proves to be difficult to convince Americans about the validity of government information. Access to information through the advance of technology is much easier and at times allows for false information to be digested by Americans.

383. (D) Although many Americans like the decentralization of power afforded by a federal structure of government, it may be a negative when dealing with a national crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Implementing policy involves too many political institutions at the federal and state levels. As we have seen with mask mandates, the federal government lacks jurisdiction to carry them out. And without national authority to implement policy, national policy initiatives are often refuted by the states. Many political observers have noted that a unitary structure of government is better suited for fighting an enemy that has no knowledge of state lines.

384. (B) There is a clear trend indicating that after the age of 45, Americans become more favorable toward capitalism, growing significantly so in each year thereafter.

385. (C) A possible reason is that as Americans grow older, they may wish to protect their assets, some of which they have spent a lifetime building. Moving toward more socialist programs, such as higher taxes to support welfare or even Social Security, could be seen as a threat to the preservation of those assets.

386. (A) The federal government’s healthcare system for people 65 years of age or older is Medicare. Once Americans turn 65, they are immediately eligible for this program, financially supported by federal taxes. Medicare could be deemed a socialistic program.

387. (D) Although the surgeon general routinely announces health advisories such as the harmful effects of smoking or the high fat content of movie popcorn, it is highly unusual for this office to call out information providers in regard to public health—in this case social media for their lack of regulating information about the COVID-19 pandemic. With misinformation and conspiracy theories rampant on social media, the surgeon general directly called on this medium to monitor this content more readily because public health is at risk, even loss of life. This is an indication of just how powerful social media has become.

388. (C) There have been criticisms of the surgeon general’s approach to social media and his handling of information in regard to COVID-19. One argument is that this is a federal institution that is attempting to censor social media, which is clearly a First Amendment violation. Another argument is that it goes beyond the surgeon general’s scope and intent. The surgeon general here, critics say, is not directly dealing with public health, and there may also be other political intentions involved.

389. (C) Although the surgeon general did not directly block any social media comments, there was some attempt to get social media to monitor their content. So a guiding case may be New York Times v. United States (1971), in which the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not practice prior restraint. Some parallels can be made here.

390. (A) The federal court system is not part of the iron triangle for public policy making. The iron triangle deals with political networking, in this case between congressional committees, interest groups, and a bureaucratic agency. Trying to rise above politics, the federal courts seek to avoid this arrangement at all costs.

391. (D) America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal is credited with leading a trend to distrust of the federal government. The strong reaction to the war and the prolonged period it took to disengage from the war disgruntled many Americans. The actions of President Nixon and his intensive cover-up of the Watergate scandal further enhanced this mistrust. As a result, we can see reactions to these events. The War Powers Act of 1974 curtailed the president’s power to make war, and several new federal campaign laws were enacted after the Watergate scandal. Polls have also shown a decline in public trust of the government after these events.

392. (D) Political participation took a new meaning with the ruling in Citizens United v. FEC (2010). In this case, political donations were deemed to be a form of free speech—and could be unlimited. Although federal regulations remain in place in many areas, interest groups not directly involved with a campaign or candidate, Super PACs, emerged. With no formal affiliation, these groups can raise and spend as much money as they please. Critics argue that donation limits are not a violation of free speech—just a regulation of campaign activity. Regardless of interpretation, Citizens United opened the floodgates on campaign spending.

393. (D) Political socialization is the process where people acquire their political beliefs and their beliefs on how power should be structured and how society is organized around them. Political socialization may begin very early in life, but for many people it is a work in progress and constantly evolving. For others, political socialization may be set early in life.

394. (A) Tracking polls are popular with political campaigns to monitor the perceptions of voters and how they react to daily events, especially involving a candidate. These polls are particularly important in regard to daily messaging and the tone of the campaigns. Tracking polls involve the same universe of voters, so it is entirely possible for a candidate to have several tracking polls going on at the same time.

395. (C) Voting is easily the most common form of political participation, and it is seen by many Americans as a civic responsibility as well as a civic right. Although voting is the most common form of political participation, it is not always readily used. Although the 2020 presidential election saw a record voter turnout, other lower-level elections do not enjoy this type of participation. Movement in recent years to absentee voting and mail-in voting has greatly increased voter turnout.

396. (B) A trial balloon is information anonymously given to the media to gauge public reaction to a possible public policy initiative or government event, such as a scandal. Journalists love to be the receiver of a trial balloon because they believe that it makes them a political insider who is able to receive more inside tips in the future. Trial balloons are intentional leaks seeking a response from the public.

397. (A) Although members of Congress may be in the same party, their constituencies may be far different, reflecting different political views. Thus, there may be strong policy clashes within a party. For example, a Democrat from New York City may reflect a progressive constituency, whereas a Democrat from Ohio may be more moderate in his or her political views. In both major political parties today, there are various factions that reflect their constituencies.

398. (C) Party leaders want to make sure that their party is unified, and they do not want to create a legislative or policy agenda that threatens that unity. Therefore, leaders concentrate on items with which all members agree as members of the party, for example, lower taxes for Republicans and better government service for Democrats.

399. (A) Because they are no longer beholden to party bosses for their nominations, candidates could run on their own merits and appeal to voters directly to win primaries and then, hopefully, the general election.

400. (C) The economic calamity of the Great Depression sparked the creation of many government programs that acted as safety nets for Americans during that difficult time. One of these laws was the Social Security Act of 1935, which provided retirement benefits for Americans over the age of 65. The Social Security Act has proved to be one of the most successful laws of all time, although current funding is in doubt.

401. (D) Interest groups have a hand in many aspects of public policy making. Interest groups are a part of the iron triangle, policy making that goes on with a network of an interest group, a congressional committee, and a bureaucratic agency. Interest groups also give money to favored political candidates, often by creating a political action committee (PAC) to dispense funds. Perhaps the greatest technique an interest group has is by providing expert information to members of Congress, hopefully earning their trust on specific issues. This credibility allows interest groups to lobby Congress for their special issues.

402. (C) The Republican Party is considered a strong defender of Second Amendment rights, and this is usually a plank in the party’s presidential platform. Many conservatives defend gun rights and gravitate toward the Republican Party, and the National Rifle Association is a key conservative ally.

403. (D) All the listed items are traditional planks for the Democratic Party’s presidential platform, which tends to be liberal. Democrats favor using the federal government for more expansive healthcare coverage, higher taxes on the wealthy, and seeking equal rights for women.

404. (D) Cornerstone concepts of supply-side economics are protecting personal financial assets, letting supply and demand determine the market, and less taxation on citizens. The theory is that if the government stays out of the economy, business and companies will grow, create jobs, and generate tax revenues through higher economic growth. Supply-side economics is usually favored by the Republican Party.

405. (A) Entitlements—government-sponsored programs that certain Americans are entitled to by law—make up a large portion of the federal budget. One of these entitlements is Medicare, government-sponsored healthcare for Americans over the age of 65. Other examples of entitlements include Social Security and veterans’ benefits.

406. (B) Ohio and Wyoming tied for being two of the slowest-growing states in terms of population, only growing at a rate of 2.3 percent. Only Connecticut and Michigan were lower.

407. (B) Although Utah and Idaho had higher percentages of growth, Texas had the highest jump in total population, adding nearly 4 million residents, according to the 2020 Census. Texas is the second-largest state, trailing only California.

408. (D) All the items listed are political results from the 2020 Census, affecting federal-state relations. Because of the population jump, North Dakota will most likely receive more federal dollars. Texas will gain two congressional seats, but Wyoming, with low population growth, will constitutionally keep one congressional seat.

409. (D) The multiracial group saw about an 8 percent increase in population from 2010 to 2020, making the biggest jump of all groups in the chart. Both the Black and white populations saw negative growth percentagewise in the Census.

410. (A) Traditionally, minorities tend to join the Democratic Party, and because those groups made the biggest jumps in the Census, it appears that Democrats will benefit. Blacks also tend to join the Democratic Party, but their numbers dropped slightly, according to the Census.

411. (A) Because minority groups are growing at a faster rate and likely to bring more voters to the polls, politicians will take note and address their issues more readily. This is also an issue for party dynamics and recruitment. As minorities become bigger players in voting, Republicans may need to adjust their platform to recruit minority voters.

412. (D) The program of Health and Human Services, along with the Social Security Administration, made up 48 percent of the federal budget, nearly half of the entire budget. The costs of Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Social Security benefits, eats up nearly half of the federal budget.

413. (B) Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are all considered entitlements—benefits given to certain areas of the population. One example is that people over the age of 65 receive Medicare. As older Americans become a larger part of the population, more pressure is placed on these programs to deliver services, a dilemma for the American government.

414. (C) Although Congress has the power of the purse, the president prepares the annual federal budget. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 gave the president responsibility for preparing the federal budget and presenting it to Congress. Much negotiation goes on between the president and Congress in regard to the federal budget, and neither side always gets what it wants. However, a strong defense allocation is universally accepted by both branches and political parties.

415. (C) The connection here is straightforward—public opinion may lead to new candidates being elected, which will change the makeup of the legislature. This is true for all levels of government and is the basis for our electoral process.

416. (C) The Founders were very worried about the political arguments concerning the ratification of the Constitution. The Federalist Papers were written to support the Constitution in New York newspapers. Federalist #10 focused on the political powers of factions, usually self-serving, which would be addressed in the new republic. Federalist #51 defended the system of checks and balances and defined how there would be checks by each branch on the other, curbing the political ambitions of each.

417. (B) Prospective voting focuses on what a candidate hopes to do while in office, often expressed in a platform (usually adopted by a presidential candidate and his or her party). Retrospective voting calls for voters to examine a candidate’s past performance, such as his or her legislative voting record.

418. (B) Two types of democracy discussed in politics are participatory democracy and pluralist democracy. Participatory democracy calls for the direct participation of a country’s citizens, such as voting. The only federal institution that called for the direct vote of its citizens was the House of Representatives. Pluralist democracy believes that public policy is enacted by the participation of groups, often elite, in government. In Federalist #10, James Madison labeled these groups “factions.” A modern example of Madison’s factions would be interest groups.

Unit 5: Political Participation

419. (D) Madison’s dark definition of factions would include political parties, interest groups, corporate lobbyists—all the items in this question. Like other Founding Fathers, Madison was concerned about the effects of factions in the new republic. Ironically, Madison and his kindred Virginian friend, Thomas Jefferson, constructed one of the first political parties, the Democratic-Republicans.

420. (B) Madison believed that the new federal republic, with two levels of government and separation of powers, provided a decentralized system that would mitigate the influence of factions. At first, the worry of people like the Anti-Federalists was that there would be an overwhelming national government. But if we look at American history, there is a good argument that factions at the state and local levels have violated rights more so than the federal government. Factions can mobilize much more readily at the state level than the national level and be destructive.

421. (A) Although Madison was concerned with the effect of factions, eliminating factions would also call for eliminating liberty—and this would be far more disastrous. The liberty in question here is the freedom of speech, which factions use to achieve their goals. Perhaps Madison came full circle in 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC that campaign donations were a form of political speech and should be protected, regardless of the cost. These donations are made to political parties and interest groups—factions.

422. (B) The federal bureaucracy is a policy institution, not a linkage institution. Like Congress and the presidency, the federal bureaucracy formulates policy. Linkage institutions are the bridge between the people and policy institutions such as the federal bureaucracy.

423. (B) Congressional incumbents have many advantages in a general election, one of which is name recognition. Name recognition comes from years of service, the ability to use the franking privilege, and being in the public eye. Incumbents also can raise money easily, using the funds to buy ads and elevate their public exposure.

424. (B) When the media monitor the behavior of government officials and report it to the public, they fulfill the role of watchdog. Scandals, inappropriate behavior, and so on come under scrutiny of the watchdog role. The Watergate scandal is the prime example of this watchdog role, with Washington Post reporters exposing the illegalities of the Nixon administration, eventually forcing Nixon to resign from the presidency.

425. (D) When a voter examines the plan a candidate has for office and uses this to determine his or her vote, the voter is using prospective voting. If a candidate is elected and offers the proverbial “campaign promise,” the prospective voter will hold that candidate to that promise when the next election comes around.

426. (D) Although American democracy calls for their citizens to participate in many elections, presidential elections generate the highest turnout by far. The year 2020 saw a record for a presidential election, where 66.1 percent of eligible voters participated. In the last midterm election in 2018, 49.4 percent of eligible voters participated, the highest since 1914.

427. (C) Because of the federal structure of government and dual court systems (federal and state), there are many courts with different jurisdictions to file lawsuits. States largely oversee elections, so a lawsuit may be filed in a state. The federal government has election laws, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, so lawsuits can be filed in the federal district courts. And although usually denied, cases have been sent to the Supreme Court. With so many points of access, lawsuits have proliferated.

428. (A) Because the Electoral College calls for 51 elections (the 50 states and the District of Columbia) and allows the states to determine how Electoral votes are allocated, a national election based on the popular vote would limit the points of access for presidential election lawsuits. Right now, the national popular vote means absolutely nothing but would eliminate many problems caused by the Electoral College method.

429. (B) In a system of checks and balances, the media provides an informal “check” on the federal government as a whole. They investigate and report on the activities of the federal government, providing information to the public in their roles of watchdog, scorekeeper, and gatekeeper. Many politicians loathe the media but acknowledge that the media play an important role in our governmental system.

430. (D) Early in our republic, major political parties provided information to the public on government affairs. In recent times, however, interest groups and third parties have become important dispensers of information as well. Interest groups use various tactics to provide public information—usually slanted toward their special interest. Although third parties are not usually successful in getting their candidates elected, they do provide a different perspective or focus on an issue that the public notices and sometimes major parties incorporate into their platform.

431. (B) When the media determine what the news is, the media operate as a gatekeeper. In this role, the media can be selective on what they report to the public, how much time they give an issue, and what they determine to be important. Sometimes media outlets have political agendas. Thus, in the gatekeeping role, the media can shape their agenda by the information they choose to share with the public.

432. (C) When the Supreme Court declared in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) that political donations and spending were a form of political speech and not subject to monetary limits, money flooded into the world of campaigns and elections. Some FEC regulations endured, but what emerged from the decision were Super PACs, political action committees not associated with a candidate or campaign. Super PACs have proliferated in American politics and have affected every type of U.S. election.

433. (C) If James Madison were alive today, he would call Super PACs a faction, as he described in Federalist #10. Madison most likely would not support their activities, but he would support their existence.

434. (A) Exercising the right to vote is the epitome of a participatory democracy. Voting has permeated not only the government but other organizations as well in the United States. We vote for leadership in nearly every organization, vote for policy changes, and use the vote for social institutions such as homecoming queen. A record number of citizens voted in the 2020 presidential election.

435. (B) A government that vests its power in elected officials is a republic. It is a form of democracy where the people do not participate in the everyday affairs of the government but allow their elected representatives to do so on their behalf. This version is different from a classical republic, where the focus of society is work for the common good.

436. (C) With ratification of the Constitution, the United States created a federal structure of government. This structure calls for the sharing of political power between the national government and state governments. A federal structure was not spelled out in the Constitution but later clarified with the addition of the Tenth Amendment.

437. (D) Voting is considered a cherished civic obligation, but little is said about it in the original Constitution. Because voting was suppressed in some areas, such as the South, the federal government reacted by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which monitored the election activities of the states. Still, critics said that it was an overreach by the federal government, that states are sovereign and can determine their election procedures, and that Congress should not be able to pass such laws.

438. (D) Although Black Americans were aligned with the Democratic Party, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 brought a large spike in the number of Black Americans identifying with the Democrats. Blacks have been a solid voting bloc for Democrats ever since.

439. (B) Since passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there has been little change with Republicans, Democrats, and independents in regard to Black party identification. Black Americans have been a solid voting bloc for the Democratic Party.

440. (B) In the major party system, the candidate who wins a majority of delegates in the state primary and caucus system becomes the nominee, but the entire process is formalized by the national convention. Now the national convention has become a stage to launch the nominee into the general election season. Prior to the 1950s, conventions were used to determine a presidential candidate. With the advent of primaries and caucuses, this is no longer the case.

441. (A) The two-party system has dominated presidential elections, and no third-party candidate has ever won a presidential election. Third-party candidates have won Electoral votes—George Wallace of the American Independent Party won Electoral votes in 1968. But never has a third-party candidate won a presidential election.

442. (D) The two-party system has been dominant in the United States since the ink dried on the Constitution, literally. Two parties emerged over ratification of the Constitution, and the tradition has continued since then. Because we have a winner-take-all method in the United States, in 48 states, whichever candidate wins a plurality of the states’ popular vote receives all that states Electoral votes. The same method is true for legislative elections. Single-member districts are the norm—there are no positions for second or third place. And party labels mean a lot to American voters, many of whom naturally gravitate toward the Republican or Democratic parties. The two major parties are well financed, well organized, and command a huge base. These are very difficult obstacles to overcome.

443. (C) In what is considered a realigning election, African Americans as a group moved from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. After the Civil War, the newly freed slaves aligned themselves with the party of Lincoln, the Republican Party. However, with the grips of the Great Depression and the great migration of African Americans from the southern states to the northern states, African Americans moved to the Democratic Party largely because of the appeal of candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. African Americans have remained a solid Democratic voting bloc ever since.

444. (A) In order to make strong inroads with African Americans, any party would need to show a strong commitment to African American policy needs. The best way to formalize this would be to add a plank to the party platform supporting African Americans. This would demonstrate that the party has a long-term vision to help African Americans.

445. (D) Congress is the definitive policy institution, where laws are made and oversight of the other branches comes into play. The media, political parties, and interest groups all act as linkage institutions to Congress.

446. (D) The function of political parties is to elect candidates to office so that they can hopefully enact party policy initiatives. Thus, parties do what they can to aid their candidates, including but not limited to provide polling information, providing campaign contributions, and registering people to vote who will support the party. These activities are more prominent in general elections than in primary elections.

447. (B) Poll results come under the media role of scorekeeper. The scorekeeping role looks at the competitive side of politics—who is winning and who is losing. Polls reflect this but have come under fire in recent elections.

448. (B) National polls provide a random sample of national voters. They may even provide an accurate picture of the national vote. But the presidential election is based on the Electoral College, where popular votes are tallied; in 48 states, whoever wins the most popular votes wins all the Electoral votes. As history has shown, a candidate can win the national popular vote and lose in the Electoral College; the most recent example was Hillary Clinton in 2016.

449. (D) The poll has information that can alarm either candidate. Biden has a strong lead outside the margin of error (2.5 percent) and 51 percent support, a majority. But the poll was taken in early September, plenty of time for Trump to make up the difference. And as Trump knew from 2016, national polls mean very little in the Electoral College.

450. (B) According to Article II of the Constitution, if no candidate wins a majority of Electoral votes, the election goes to the House of Representatives, where each state’s congressional caucus receives one vote. The candidate who wins a majority of the states’ votes becomes president. This has happened only twice, in the elections of 1800 and 1824.

451. (C) The four to seven states that could go for either presidential candidate are called battleground states and usually determine the Electoral College winner. Battleground states change from time to time and are identified well before a presidential election. To the surprise of political observers, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, usually Democratic strongholds, went to the Republican candidate Donald Trump. In 2020, these states became battleground states and reverted back to the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden.

452. (C) Generally speaking, midterm elections see the president’s party lose seats in Congress. This was last witnessed in 2018, when both chambers of Congress went Democratic, denying the Republicans the unified government they enjoyed from 2017 to 2019. Midterm elections usually witness a push against the president in power and his or her party. Midterm elections are the most contested elections other than presidential elections.

453. (B) When there is a large bloc of voters who switch party affiliation in an election year, it is called a realigning election. In 1980, many of the normally southern conservative voters who voted Democratic switched to the Republican Party. This election made it the “Solid South,” but for the Republicans, not the Democrats.

454. (D) In the time period from 1998 to 2010, the amount of money paid for lobby spending doubled. Apparently, groups that employ lobbyists, such as interest groups and corporations, believed that they were getting a return on their investment by increasing the amount of money they paid for lobbying. This trend is also dangerous because it may demonstrate the power these groups have in our government.

455. (A) By the end of the chart in 2010, lobby spending was still increasing, but the number of lobbyists actually decreased. Because a huge amount of money is being spent on lobbying yet the number of lobbyists is dropping, the money spent for lobbying activities is not being spent on hiring more lobbyists. Lobbyists are still very important—there are just fewer of them.

456. (B) James Madison addressed the issue of interest groups as factions in Federalist #10. What Madison probably never envisioned was the huge influx of money spent by interest groups in the last 50 years. Madison encountered this on a much smaller scale. He reportedly lost his first election because his opponent provided more alcohol for his voters than Madison did.

457. (D) Most at the state’s department of motor vehicles, 2018 saw the highest number of Americans who registered to vote. This was a year of a hotly contested midterm election.

458. (C) Because voter registration drives rated next to last on the poll, these drives are not successful. This is probably due to the fact that people who attend these drives are active politically and most likely already registered to vote. So voter registration drives yield little in terms of registering voters.

459. (D) The National Registration Act (Motor Voter) Act of 1993 was enacted precisely to register citizens to vote. Citizens are given the opportunity to register when visiting their local state department of motor vehicles office or the equivalent. None of the other laws dealt directly with voter registration.

460. (D) When the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) that limits on campaign donations amounted to a limitation on free speech, campaign finance rules were greatly altered. Although regulations on traditional PACs remain, the FEC has virtually no control over Super PACs, usually controlled by corporate interests that have no limits on individual expenditures. Some Super PACs are actually the creatures of ultrawealthy individuals, who use the Super PACs to promote their own self-interests.

461. (A) The primary and caucus season, for all intents and purposes, has gotten shorter because of frontloading. For states to become players in the presidential nomination process, they must move their primaries/caucuses earlier in the cycle. The presidential nomination season runs from January to June in a presidential election year. California, the largest state, typically had its primary in May or June. Because many times by June a candidate had enough delegates to secure the nomination, California became inconsequential. Because of this, California frontloaded its primary to March 3, 2020. With its rich number of delegates, California now has become a key player in the nomination process because of moving its primary up in time.

462. (D) Interest groups have a stake in the electoral process. The hope is their favored candidate can help craft favorable public policy. To aid the candidate, like lobbying a member of Congress, the interest group can provide information to its favored candidate. To dispense money, the interest group can create a PAC. An endorsement from a well-known interest group can greatly boost a candidate’s base and encourage members of that interest group to vote for that candidate.

463. (B) Unlike iron triangles, which have rather limited group associations, issue networks are far more comprehensive and fluid. While issue networks may include the iron triangle axis of congressional committees, interest groups, and bureaucratic agencies, other members may include additional interest groups, individuals, and political pundits. This alliance is usually temporary and is usually focused on a specific issue. Recent issue networks have evolved around immigration, infrastructure spending, and gun control.

464. (D) Voters tend to view parties favorably or unfavorably over time, and the parties’ performance in elections reflects these views. These perceptions also help voters form opinions more quickly and easily because they know basically where candidates stand and what they are likely to support.

465. (A) The organization of parties is continually focused on building coalitions to further their political aims. The better the organization, the better is the coalitions, which, in turn, solidifies messaging and public perceptions with the goal of electoral victory through steadfast alliances.

466. (B) Because the structure of federalism is multiple governments over multiple levels, party unity can thrive. The local state representative caters to his or her constituents on local issues but also manages the party line on broader issues of national concern. For example, one Democrat in Billings, Montana, and another in Brooklyn, New York, have vastly different local needs but still form alliances on national issues such as defense policy or gay marriage.

467. (B) While the national convention is not the important nominating process it once was because of primaries, it still provides a large, visible venue of party unity and perspective.

468. (D) Competitive elections are the backbone of our federal republic and allow for all these actions (and more) to occur. Public opinion and perspective provide the motivation for interest groups and politicians to mobilize to deliver what American voters desire.

469. (A) This does not mean that incumbents are unbeatable, but the electoral record shows that they have tremendous reelection success. This is due in large part to elected officials preventing legitimate challengers from entering the race who do not want to waste time and money on a losing campaign. If challenged, an incumbent may lose, but unless that is a strong possibility, most opponents will not begin a campaign.

470. (C) Gridlock occurs because interest groups compete with each other over two sides of the same issue. One wins politicians to its side, while the other wins politicians as well, and no policy is furthered.

471. (D) Interest groups appeal to politicians through lobbying. Recently, this practice has come under closer public scrutiny because of the misdeeds of a few who offered gifts and bribes for support of their agendas. But overall, lobbyists serve an important function for elected officials because they provide information and feedback on the public’s view of issues.

472. (C) Interest groups, a major linkage institution in our political system, operate all throughout the United States, but the major players have their offices on K Street in Washington. This makes the street a major power hub in the capitol.

473. (D) Money is the most important thing for political campaigns, and because PACs spend large amounts on issues to make the public aware, elected officials would be foolish to ignore them.

474. (A) Scorekeeper is one of the three major roles the media play in American politics. In this role, the media are interested in who is winning and is largely devoid of substance. The media have been under attack for making this role too important and deviating away from campaign issues.

475. (C) In the role of gatekeeper, the media determine what is newsworthy and what is not. Critics contend that the media become an agenda setter with their own motives instead of an information giver and truth seeker.

476. (D) This speaks to the expertise that interest groups provide. Political information explains how the public feels, but technical information helps elected officials decide whether action is politically worth the risk of association.

477. (D) President Theodore Roosevelt, the “Trust Buster,” would probably be less than enthused with the decision in Citizens United v. FEC (2010). While Roosevelt thought that the federal government could do something to limit corporate expenditures, this case did just the opposite—it allowed unlimited campaign expenditures under the protection of free speech. It’s safe to say that Roosevelt would not have been happy.

478. (A) Limiting the activities of corporations, such as campaign or political expenditures, would limit political speech, the highest form of protected speech under the Constitution. It would be an attack, as James Madison said in Federalist #10, on liberty.

479. (D) Although Citizens United struck down some campaign finance laws, corporations are still subject to government scrutiny. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) oversees campaign finance activity.

480. (D) The results of the Census help determine if a state gains or loses congressional seats. Because Texas witnessed a 15.9 percent jump in its large population, it will gain congressional seats and did, adding two seats.

481. (B) The so-called sunbelt states of the southeast saw the largest population jump of the regions listed. Three states, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, saw double-digit population growth. With this growth, the area will most likely see more federal dollars and added congressional districts.

482. (B) Only three states witnessed negative population growth: Illinois, West Virginia, and Mississippi. Illinois and West Virginia each lost one congressional seat.

483. (D) Realigning elections are also known as critical elections. These are elections where there is a shift in ideology among a bloc of voters and movement to another political party. This happened in 1932 when African American voters shifted from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.

484. (C) Free riders are people who benefit from an interest group’s efforts but do not participate in the group’s activities. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has long been rated as the most effective interest group in the United States, seeking to protect gun rights for Americans. The NRA reports that it has 5.5 million members, but the United States has far more gun owners and Second Amendment enthusiasts. This latter group would be considered a free rider because it is not made up of active NRA members but benefits from the NRA’s initiatives.

485. (D) 2020 was a year when the most citizens registered to vote and the highest percentage voted. The gap between the two was 5.9 percent, the lowest seen on the graph. Although this election was highly contentious, it was a victory for American democracy with the record turnout.

486. (C) Much more than half of U.S. citizens registered to vote, and the percentage of citizens registered to vote was roughly the same, ranging from 69.5 to 72.7 percent. Hopefully, the United States will continue to see an uptrend in the voter registration and voter turnout witnessed in the last presidential election.

487. (D) To provide uniformity throughout the United States in terms of voting age, the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified in 1971. This amendment prohibited states from voter discrimination on the basis of age. The age of 18 is a standard age of adulthood in the United States.

488. (C) The number of Electoral votes each state receives is based on the U.S. Census, which is carried out every 10 years. Electoral votes are allocated by population, and population changes in each state proportionally in a Census year. So, for example, the population of Texas grew by 15.8 percent from 2010 to 2020. Thus, the state gained two congressional seats and two Electoral votes. Seven states lost Electoral votes in 2020.

489. (B) Each party seeks to create safe congressional districts for the party and its incumbents. This is done by gerrymandering, where a state legislature draws congressional district lines favorably to the state legislature’s majority party. Several states are attempting to reform this process, for example by creating independent commissions to draw district lines that are fair and nonpartisan.

490. (C) Midterm elections usually result in the president in power losing seats in Congress. Presidential elections are the only elections in the United States that use the Electoral College mandated by the Constitution. Unlike nearly every other election used in the United States, the Electoral College forgoes the popular vote and uses a state-by-state count of Electoral votes.

491. (A) Both primaries and caucuses are state functions that select presidential candidates. Primaries are elections held by the state at polling stations run by the state. Caucuses are party meetings where party members vote and sometimes haggle over votes. Only four states have caucuses, the most famous being Iowa, which is the first presidential contest. Primaries and caucuses are the vehicles used to select party candidates.

492. (B) One result of a presidential election may be the coattail effect—where a popular presidential candidate helps the down-ballot races in the candidate’s party. It is inconclusive whether there truly can be a coattail effect. Midterm elections, held in the middle of a president’s term, usually result in the president’s party losing congressional seats.

493. (C) Two media roles are gatekeeper and watchdog. In the gatekeeper role, the media determine what is newsworthy and also can shape policy by what they choose to cover. The watchdog role oversees the activities of the government and acts as check. Exposing scandals and corruption in the federal government is an example of acting as watchdog.

494. (B) In terms of public policy making, two important components are linkage and policy institutions. Linkage institutions are the bridge between the people/voters and policy institutions. The media are a prime linkage institution. Policy institutions are governmental organizations that make and enforce the law. Congress is a top policy institution; it makes laws.

495. (B) Fiscal policy deals with federal spending, budget, and tax policy, and is mostly the domain of Congress. Monetary policy monitors the flow of money into the economic system, such as the Federal Reserve determining the prime interest rate used for borrowing purposes.

496. (A) Both iron triangles and issue networks form groups to help formulate public policy. Iron triangles, the grouping of a congressional committee, an interest group, and a bureaucratic agency, work together to craft policy where each group benefits from the alliance. Issue networks are far less formal and may include many different members such as interest groups, politicians, political pundits, and so on. This collection of members is usually temporary and focuses on one issue.

497. (C) Money is the mother’s milk of politics, and there are two types: hard and soft money. Hard money consists of donations made to political candidates or campaigns that are limited and must be reported to the FEC. Soft money, or dark money, is not monitored and goes outside normal reporting procedures, such as making a donation to a political party. Campaign laws are byzantine, and politicians have found loopholes around them constantly. Efforts to curtail the amount of money in politics has been largely futile.

498. (A) The scorekeeper role emphasizes the competitive side of politics, using polls as a method to monitor elections. When the media act as a watchdog, the linkage institution monitors government actions and is mindful of possible scandals. Coupled with the other role, gatekeeper, the media play a very important role in the American political system.

499. (C) Only a few states are competitive in the Electoral College, and these are the states that are pivotal to either the Democratic or Republican candidate attaining the presidency. These states are called battleground states. In the Electoral College, safe states are a lock for either the Democratic or Republican candidate. California is a safe Democratic state, whereas Alabama is a safe Republican state.

500. (C) Both the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-sixth Amendments to the Constitution secure voting rights for American citizens. The Twenty-fourth Amendment made poll taxes, which was a tax on voting designed to keep African Americans from voting in the South, unconstitutional. The Twenty-sixth Amendment gave 18-year-olds the right to vote throughout the United States. Because the right to vote is barely mentioned in the original Constitution, these amendments helped secure this valuable civil responsibility.