IN Bar Constitutional Law 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the First Amendment, which standard of review applies to a content-neutral government regulation of speech?
- Strict scrutiny
- Intermediate scrutiny (Correct answer)
- Rational basis review
- Compelling interest test
Correct answer: Intermediate scrutiny
Content-neutral regulations are subject to intermediate scrutiny, requiring the regulation to be narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest and leave open alternative channels of communication.
Question 2: The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause requires strict scrutiny when a law discriminates on the basis of which classification?
- Age
- Wealth
- Race (Correct answer)
- Sexual orientation
Correct answer: Race
Race is a suspect classification that triggers strict scrutiny, requiring the government to show the law is necessary to achieve a compelling governmental interest and is narrowly tailored.
Question 3: Under the Commerce Clause, Congress may regulate activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. Which Supreme Court case established the 'substantial effects' test?
- Gibbons v. Ogden
- Wickard v. Filburn (Correct answer)
- United States v. Lopez
- Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States
Correct answer: Wickard v. Filburn
Wickard v. Filburn (1942) established that even purely local activities can be regulated by Congress under the Commerce Clause if they have a substantial effect on interstate commerce in the aggregate.
Question 4: The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from doing which of the following?
- Funding private religious schools for secular subjects
- Opening legislative sessions with a nondenominational prayer
- Establishing an official state religion (Correct answer)
- Displaying religious symbols on private property
Correct answer: Establishing an official state religion
The Establishment Clause's core prohibition is against government establishing an official state religion or giving preference to one religion over others.
Question 5: Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which of the following is NOT considered a fundamental right requiring strict scrutiny?
- Right to marry
- Right to interstate travel
- Right to education (Correct answer)
- Right to privacy in reproductive decisions
Correct answer: Right to education
The Supreme Court has not recognized education as a fundamental right under the Constitution, so laws affecting access to education are generally reviewed under rational basis.
Question 6: The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, incorporated against the states, requires just compensation when the government takes private property. A regulation that denies an owner all economically beneficial use of land is called a:
- Partial taking
- Regulatory taking
- Physical invasion
- Per se taking (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Per se taking
Under Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, when a regulation deprives an owner of all economically beneficial use of land, it constitutes a per se taking requiring just compensation.
Question 7: Which doctrine allows federal courts to decline to exercise jurisdiction over a case involving an unsettled question of state constitutional law?
- Abstention doctrine (Correct answer)
- Political question doctrine
- Standing doctrine
- Mootness doctrine
Correct answer: Abstention doctrine
The abstention doctrine (particularly Pullman abstention) allows federal courts to defer to state courts on unresolved questions of state law that might make a federal constitutional ruling unnecessary.
IN Bar Constitutional Law 1
Under the First Amendment, which standard of review applies to a content-neutral government regulation of speech?