CAS Bar Constitutional Law 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under Washington v. Glucksberg, rights qualify as fundamental under substantive due process when they are:
- Recognized by a majority of state legislatures
- Deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty (Correct answer)
- Expressly enumerated in the Bill of Rights
- Recognized by international human rights instruments
Correct answer: Deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty
Glucksberg requires that asserted fundamental rights be carefully described and deeply rooted in history, tradition, and the concept of ordered liberty.
Question 2: The Mathews v. Eldridge balancing test for procedural due process weighs:
- Severity of deprivation, government interest, and political feasibility
- The private interest, risk of erroneous deprivation and value of additional safeguards, and the government's fiscal and administrative burden (Correct answer)
- Nature of the right, available remedy, and cost to the government
- Legislative history, executive practice, and judicial precedent
Correct answer: The private interest, risk of erroneous deprivation and value of additional safeguards, and the government's fiscal and administrative burden
Mathews requires courts to balance what the individual stands to lose, the risk that current procedures will produce error, and the burden additional process would impose on the government.
Question 3: Under equal protection doctrine, a law classifying persons by race must survive:
- Rational basis review
- Intermediate scrutiny
- Heightened scrutiny based on historical usage
- Strict scrutiny (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Strict scrutiny
Race is a suspect classification under equal protection doctrine, triggering strict scrutiny that requires a compelling interest and narrow tailoring.
Question 4: Under United States v. Virginia, a sex-based governmental classification must be:
- Rationally related to a legitimate government interest
- Substantially related to an important government interest (Correct answer)
- Necessary to achieve a compelling government interest
- The least restrictive means available to the government
Correct answer: Substantially related to an important government interest
Sex-based classifications are subject to intermediate scrutiny requiring that the government show an exceedingly persuasive justification that is substantially related to an important objective.
Question 5: The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause to protect:
- All fundamental rights of American citizens
- Only rights of national citizenship, not state citizenship (Correct answer)
- All rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights against state interference
- Economic liberty and the right to pursue a lawful occupation free from monopoly
Correct answer: Only rights of national citizenship, not state citizenship
The Slaughterhouse Cases narrowly held that the clause covers only rights deriving from national citizenship, gutting it as a vehicle for applying the Bill of Rights to states.
Question 6: Under the selective incorporation doctrine, provisions of the Bill of Rights apply to states when:
- All Bill of Rights provisions apply automatically to states by amendment
- The Supreme Court finds a particular right fundamental to ordered liberty, incorporating it through the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause (Correct answer)
- States voluntarily choose to adopt federal constitutional standards
- Only criminal procedural rights are selectively incorporated
Correct answer: The Supreme Court finds a particular right fundamental to ordered liberty, incorporating it through the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause
Selective incorporation means courts determine case by case which Bill of Rights guarantees are sufficiently fundamental to apply against state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Question 7: A regulatory taking requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment occurs when:
- Government regulation causes any measurable decline in property value
- A regulation denies the owner all economically beneficial use of property, or fails the Penn Central balancing test (Correct answer)
- Government physically uses private property for public purposes temporarily
- Any land-use restriction limits the owner's preferred development plan
Correct answer: A regulation denies the owner all economically beneficial use of property, or fails the Penn Central balancing test
Under Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council and Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, a regulatory taking requires either a total economic wipeout or failure of the Penn Central three-factor test.
CAS Bar Constitutional Law 3
Under Washington v.
Glucksberg, rights qualify as fundamental under substantive due process when they are: