American Government
Unit Five: Judicial Branch
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How did the Supreme Court extend civil liberties in the 1950s and 1960s?
Identify the different jurisdictions of federal and state courts.
What doctrine was established by the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson?
Identify the three options a court of appeals has when deciding a case.
What two major divisions of federal courts has Congress created?
In what two ways do political parties influence the federal court system?
A judge who shares a president’s views when first appointed may change views when
making decisions on the bench. Why?
Identify two kinds of cases where the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction and
two kinds that may be appealed from a state court.
Under what conditions is a case appealed from a state court to a Supreme Court?
In your opinion, should politics influence the selection of Supreme Court justices?
Explain your answer.
How do current Supreme Court justices influence the selection of new justices?
What are the two systems of courts in the USA?
What are the duties of a grand jury in a criminal case?
What principle resulted from the ruling in Marbury v. Madison?
What kinds of cases are heard by the Court of International Trade?
Why do federal judges serve for life?
Describe the three decision making tasks of a Supreme Court justice.
What are three duties of the chief justice of the USA?
What is the difference between courts with original jurisdiction and courts with
appellate jurisdiction?
Identify three ways in which cases reach the Supreme Court.
What steps does the Supreme Court take in selecting, hearing, and deciding cases?
Do you believe that it is proper that the Supreme Court’s deliberations are secret
and that no minutes are kept? Explain your answer.
Compare and contrast the power of the Supreme Court with its constitutional
limitations.
List five forces that shape Supreme Court decisions, and give examples of how they
have been used by the Court.
What is the basis for Supreme Court decisions?
How do personal relationships among Supreme Court justices affect decision
making?
Why did the Supreme Court overturn a precedent in deciding the Brown case?
What happens when the Supreme Court refuses to hear a case?
What procedure do the justices follow in reaching a decision in a case?
What is the importance of a Supreme Court majority opinion?
What is the importance of a dissenting opinion?
Why does the Supreme Court sometimes overturn its earlier decisions?
Why does the Supreme Court refuse to hear so many cases?
34. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes once said, “The Constitution is what the judges
say it is.” Explain the meaning of this statement.
35. Identify the major sources of American law and the key principles of the American
legal system.
36. Permitting rental agencies to refuse to rent apartments to families with children
would violate what kind of due process?
37. List the five steps in a civil lawsuit.
38. What do four of the most important branches of civil law deal with?
39. What is the difference between intentional tort and negligence tort?
40. Compare and contrast the differences and similarities between civil and criminal
lawsuits.
41. Identify three classifications of crime.
42. What two early systems of laws have influenced the development of the US legal
system?
43. In the US, what is the standard against which all other laws are judged?
44. When does a court rule that a law violates substantive due process?
45. What two kinds of cases do courts in the American legal system hear?
46. Why has plea bargaining become widely used in criminal cases?
47. How may the principle of “equal justice under law” applied in federal court cases,
benefit minorities, poor people, or young people?
48. How does the idea of “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” protect the rights of the
defendants?
49. Explain the difference between the establishment clause and the free exercise
clause of the First Amendment.
50. Compare and contrast the following Supreme Court Chief Justices:
 Earl Warren
 Roger B. Taney
 John Marshall
Identify the following in addition to the vocabulary for this unit.
Clarence Thomas
Sandra Day O’Connor
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
John Jay
John Roberts
Marbury v. Madison
Brown v. Board of Education
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Gibbons v. Ogden
Gideon v. Wainwright
Ex Parte Endo
Thurgood Marshall
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Warren Burger
William Howard Taft
Charles Evans Hughes
McCulloch v. Maryland
Plessy v. Ferguson
Ex Parte Milligan
Miranda v. Arizona
Korematsu v. U.S.
Engale v. Vitale