TX Bar Constitutional Law 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under First Amendment free speech doctrine, a content-neutral regulation of speech in a public forum must satisfy which test?
- Strict scrutiny (compelling interest, narrowly tailored)
- Intermediate scrutiny (significant interest, narrowly tailored, ample alternative channels) (Correct answer)
- Rational basis (legitimate interest, rationally related)
- Clear and present danger test
Correct answer: Intermediate scrutiny (significant interest, narrowly tailored, ample alternative channels)
Content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions in public forums must be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest and leave open ample alternative channels of communication.
Question 2: The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment generally does NOT require religious exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws under which landmark case?
- Sherbert v. Verner
- Wisconsin v. Yoder
- Employment Division v. Smith (Correct answer)
- Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah
Correct answer: Employment Division v. Smith
Employment Division v. Smith held that neutral, generally applicable laws that incidentally burden religion do not violate the Free Exercise Clause and need only survive rational basis review.
Question 3: Which doctrine holds that a law is unconstitutionally overbroad if it substantially burdens more protected speech than necessary to achieve the government's interest?
- Void-for-vagueness doctrine
- Overbreadth doctrine (Correct answer)
- Prior restraint doctrine
- Secondary effects doctrine
Correct answer: Overbreadth doctrine
The overbreadth doctrine allows facial challenges to laws that sweep too broadly and chill protected expression, even if the challenger's own speech is unprotected.
Question 4: Under the Establishment Clause, which test asks whether a law has a secular purpose, neither advances nor inhibits religion, and avoids excessive government entanglement with religion?
- The endorsement test from Lynch v. Donnelly
- The Lemon test from Lemon v. Kurtzman (Correct answer)
- The coercion test from Lee v. Weisman
- The neutrality test from Zelman v. Simmons-Harris
Correct answer: The Lemon test from Lemon v. Kurtzman
The Lemon test, established in Lemon v. Kurtzman, provides a three-pronged framework: secular purpose, primary effect neither advancing nor inhibiting religion, and no excessive entanglement.
Question 5: The Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement is subject to many exceptions. Which exception allows police to conduct a warrantless search incident to a lawful custodial arrest?
- Plain view exception
- Exigent circumstances exception
- Search incident to arrest exception (Correct answer)
- Inventory search exception
Correct answer: Search incident to arrest exception
Under Chimel v. California, police may conduct a warrantless search of the arrestee's person and the area within their immediate control at the time of a lawful custodial arrest.
Question 6: The 'reasonable expectation of privacy' test for Fourth Amendment protection originates from which case?
- Olmstead v. United States
- Katz v. United States (Correct answer)
- Terry v. Ohio
- Mapp v. Ohio
Correct answer: Katz v. United States
Katz v. United States established that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places, and that a search occurs whenever the government violates a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable.
Question 7: Which First Amendment doctrine prohibits government from restricting speech based on the viewpoint expressed by the speaker?
- Prior restraint doctrine
- Viewpoint discrimination doctrine (Correct answer)
- Compelled speech doctrine
- Forum selection doctrine
Correct answer: Viewpoint discrimination doctrine
Viewpoint discrimination—singling out particular views on a subject for disfavored treatment—is the most egregious form of content discrimination and is presumptively unconstitutional.
TX Bar Constitutional Law 3
Under First Amendment free speech doctrine, a content-neutral regulation of speech in a public forum must satisfy which test?