US Judicial Review 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which Federalist Paper is most associated with the argument that courts should have power to void unconstitutional laws?
- Federalist No. 10
- Federalist No. 51
- Federalist No. 78 (Correct answer)
- Federalist No. 84
Correct answer: Federalist No. 78
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 78 that courts must have the authority to declare void any legislative acts contrary to the Constitution.
Question 2: What is 'strict scrutiny,' a standard used in judicial review?
- Review giving maximum deference to the legislature
- The highest standard requiring the government to show a compelling interest and narrow tailoring (Correct answer)
- Review only of procedural fairness
- A standard used only in economic regulation cases
Correct answer: The highest standard requiring the government to show a compelling interest and narrow tailoring
Strict scrutiny demands a compelling governmental interest and a law narrowly tailored to achieve it, and is applied to fundamental rights and suspect classifications.
Question 3: Under judicial review, the Supreme Court's power to review state court decisions on federal questions derives from which statute?
- The Bill of Rights
- Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 (Correct answer)
- Article II of the Constitution
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866
Correct answer: Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789
Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 authorized the Supreme Court to review final judgments of state courts where a federal right was denied.
Question 4: What constitutional clause forms the textual foundation for federal supremacy over conflicting state laws?
- Due Process Clause
- Equal Protection Clause
- Supremacy Clause (Correct answer)
- Commerce Clause
Correct answer: Supremacy Clause
The Supremacy Clause in Article VI declares the Constitution and federal laws the 'supreme Law of the Land,' trumping conflicting state law.
Question 5: Which case first applied federal judicial review to strike down a state law as unconstitutional?
- McCulloch v. Maryland
- Fletcher v. Peck (1810) (Correct answer)
- Gibbons v. Ogden
- Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Correct answer: Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
Fletcher v. Peck (1810) was the first case in which the Supreme Court invalidated a state law as unconstitutional under the Contract Clause.
Question 6: What does 'standing' require of a party seeking judicial review of a law?
- They must be a citizen of the state where the law was passed
- They must show injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability (Correct answer)
- They must exhaust all legislative remedies first
- They must file within one year of the law's enactment
Correct answer: They must show injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability
To have standing, a plaintiff must demonstrate a concrete injury caused by the challenged law that a court ruling can remedy.
Question 7: What is the 'political question doctrine' as a limit on judicial review?
- Courts can review all political disputes
- Courts refuse to adjudicate issues committed to another branch or lacking judicially manageable standards (Correct answer)
- Courts apply heightened scrutiny to political cases
- Courts defer to the President on all executive matters
Correct answer: Courts refuse to adjudicate issues committed to another branch or lacking judicially manageable standards
Under the political question doctrine, courts decline to rule on matters the Constitution assigns to Congress or the President, or where no manageable standards exist.
US Judicial Review 3
Which Federalist Paper is most associated with the argument that courts should have power to void unconstitutional laws?