U.S. Government
SEMESTER ONE FINAL STUDY GUIDE
Students should be able to:
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Recognize the differences in responsibilities among executive, legislative, and judicial branches
Identify the definition of sovereignty
Identify and explain examples of different functions of government
Recognize the differences in the theories of the origins of government:
a. Divine right
b. Natural law and rights
c. Social contract
Describe the similarities and differences of Thomas Hobbes’ and John Locke’s views on government and
citizens
Explain the social contract
Identify described differences among the structures of government:
a. Unitary
b. Confederate
c. Federal
Recognize the differences of the different forms of government:
a. Monarchy: constitutional and absolute
b. Authoritarian systems: dictatorship and totalitarianism
c. Oligarchy
d. Theocracy
e. Democracy
i. Direct
ii. Representative
1. Presidential
2. Parliamentary
Identify and explain principles of American democracy
Recognize the roots of American democracy which England contributed:
a. Magna Carta
b. Petition of Rights
c. Bill of Rights
Identify the differences in governance among North American colonies: royal, proprietary, and charter
Recognize what the Stamp Act and Stamp Act Congress did leading to the Revolutionary War.
Identify what colonial leaders accomplished at the Second Continental Congress
Identify and explain weaknesses under the Articles of Confederation
Recognize the importance of Shays’s rebellion to the calling of the Constitutional Convention
Identify the compromises of the Convention, including:
a. Great Compromise (Virginia Plan v. New Jersey Plan)
b. Three Fifths Compromise
Describe the differences between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists regarding the Constitution
Recognize the differences in the Constitutional principles and the ways in which they have been
interpreted:
a. Popular Sovereignty
i. Reynolds v. Sims
ii. Baker v. Carr
b. Separation of Powers
i. Myers v. United States
ii. Buckley v. Valeo
c. Limited Government
i. Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut
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d. Judicial Review
e. Checks and Balances
i. War Powers Act
ii. Impoundment
f. Rule of Law
g. Federalism
i. Dual Federalism
ii. Cooperative Federalism
iii. McCulloch v. Maryland
iv. Gibbons v. Ogden
Identify Expressed, Implied, Inherent and Concurrent constitutional powers and recognize examples of
each
Identify the goal of the Necessary and Proper Clause
Recognize the Full Faith and Credit Clause
Identify the goal of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
Recognize the ways in which each of the following altered the Constitution:
a. 1st Amendment
b. 2nd Amendment
c. 3rd Amendment
d. 4th Amendment
e. 5th Amendment
f. 6th Amendment
g. 7th Amendment
h. 8th Amendment
i. 9th Amendment
j. 10th Amendment
Explain the circumstances that led to and the results of each of the following Amendments:
a. 11th Amendment
b. 12th Amendment
c. 13th Amendment
d. 14th Amendment
e. 15th Amendment
f. 16th Amendment
g. 17th Amendment
h. 18th Amendment
i. 19th Amendment
j. 20th Amendment
k. 21st Amendment
l. 22nd Amendment
m. 23rd Amendment
n. 24th Amendment
o. 25th Amendment
p. 26th Amendment
q. 27th Amendment
Identify which Amendments deal with extending voting rights and explain how rights were expanded
Identify the terms: jurisdiction, precedent, stare decisis, amicus curiae briefs
Recognize the difference between exclusive and concurrent jurisdiction
Identify and recognize specifics aspects of the three levels of the federal judiciary as detailed in the
Judiciary Act of 1789:
a. District courts
b. Appeals courts
c. Supreme Court
29. Explain the differences between judicial restraint and judicial activism
30. Identify the differences among the three kinds of decisions:
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a. Majority
b. Concurring
c. Dissenting
Identify the terms: civil rights and civil liberties and recognize the differences
Describe the two parts of the 14th Amendment
Recognize the exclusionary rule in obtaining evidence (6th Amendment)
Understand and explain the SCOTUS rulings in each of the following cases:
a. Schenck v. the US
b. Texas v. Johnson
c. Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
d. Gratz v. Bollinger
e. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
f. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
g. Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. The City of Hialeah
h. Gideon v. Wainwright
i. Edwards v. South Carolina
j. Sheppard v. Maxwell
k. Roe v. Wade
l. Griswold v. Connecticut
m. Planned Parenthood v. Casey
n. Wallace v. Jaffree
o. Lee v. Weisman
p. West Virginia v. Barnette
q. Tinker v. Des Moines
35. Identify and explain the two clauses of the First Amendment that deal with religion
36. Recognize the three prongs of the Lemon Test
37. Explain the differences between the rational basis test and the suspect classification test
38. Explain the difference between de jure and de facto segregation and provide examples
39. Recognize the rights of the accused as included in the 6th Amendment
40. Identify and describe the examples of speech that are not protected by the 1st Amendment (slader, libel,
defamatory speech, false advertising, obscenity)