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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP American Government
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
civics
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. In states using primaries - the most common form of primary election is the ___________ primary.
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Pocket Veto
Closed
Vietnam War
2. When neither political party is dominant.
Rank and File
Party Dealignment
Federalism
Executive Agreements
3. A declaration by the President in 1823 that warned European powers to keep out of the Western Hemisphere and pledged that the United States would not intervene in the internal affairs of Europe.
Right to Counsel
Monroe Doctrine
2/3
5 -000
4. The state officer typically responsible for overseeing federal elections at the state level is the
Reserved Powers
16th Amendment
Secretary of State
Speech Plus
5. Minor criminal offenses - such as speeding.
Legislative
Misdemeanors
Concurrent
Rank and File
6. The Supremacy Clause appears in ________________ of the Constitution.
Dark Horse
Politics
Article VI
Delegate
7. Number of Federal District courts across 50 states - DC and Puerto Rico.
Murray v. Curlett
Writ of Mandamus
89
Executive Privilege
8. States that arrestees must be informed of their right to remain silent - that anything they say can be held against them in a court - that they have a right to an attorney and that an attorney will be appointed to them if they cannot afford one.
Bureaucracy
Miranda Rights
Mallory Rule
Republic
9. Year of the 2nd Continental Congress.
1776
Weber
Civilian Supremacy
English Bill of Rights
10. In a 1943 case - the Supreme Court upheld the right to refuse to salute the American flag on the basis of the constitutional guarantee of _________________.
Free Speech
Isolationism
Coordinated Spending
Writ of Mandamus
11. Powers of government that are specifically granted to the three branches of the federal government under the Constitution.
Articles of Confederation
5 -000
Enumerated Powers
Speaker of the House
12. In lieu of an indictment - the state prosecutor may file a _______________ charging the person with a crime.
Categorical Grant
Clear and Present Danger
Party Regulars
Criminal Information
13. In this 1972 case - the Supreme Court established four guidelines for determining if a trial was appropriately speedy and fair: cause of delay - length of delay - affect on the outcome - and the defendant's claim to a speedy trial.
Home Rule
8th Amendment
Baker v. Wingo
Northern and Southern
14. Cabinet department responsible for managing school lunch programs and food safety. Established in 1862.
Department of Treasury
Selective Incorporation
Exit Polls
Agriculture
15. Guarantees that citizens cannot be compelled by the government to act in a way that is contrary to their religious beliefs. (ex. Conscientious objection to military service required by the draft is the execution of ______________)
Realigning Elections
Free Exercise Clause
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka - Kansas
Random Sample
16. Elects the President if no candidate receives 270 Electoral College votes.
Roe v. Wade
House of Representatives
Government
Social Contract
17. There is an _____________ relationship between Presidential approval ratings and unemployment.
Reverse Discrimination
State Auditor
Inverse
Export Taxes
18. The total amount of money that the United States owes to its creditors.
Pocket Veto
National Debt
Misdemeanors
Press Secretary
19. The permanent committees of a legislature that consider bills and conduct hearings and investigations.
Good Faith Exception
Constitutional Initiative
Standing Committees
Voting
20. In Woodson v. North Carolina - the Supreme Court struck down mandatory sentencing of capital punishment as ______________________ because it does not allow for any discretion.
Hatch Act
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Energy
Cruel and Unusual
21. Legislative house whose membership was intended to represent the state.
Committees
Judicial Activism
Senate
Primary
22. Unwritten law based on custom and tradition.
Earmarks
Common Law
States
Declining
23. In _______________ cases such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) - the Supreme Court has upheld that while Affirmative action policies are legal - race and gender cannot be the only determining factors.
Freedom of Religion
Charter Colonies
Logrolling
Reverse Discrimination
24. Powerful standing committee that puts bills on the legislative calendar and establishes the processes by which the bill will be discussed on the floor.
Rules Committee
States
Public hearing
Globalization
25. The party-column ballot - or Indiana ballot - encourages _______________.
Bicameral
High
Straight Ticket Voting
Town Meeting
26. Infamous 1735 English case established the precedent for Freedom of the Press in the US.
Zenger
Self-Incrimination
Federalist Papers
Policy
27. It is possible either to describe people - government - politics - and power as isolated - static elements - or to look at them as interacting elements in a_______________.
W.E.B. DuBoise
Political System
Secretary of State
14
28. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be ___________.
Supremacy Clause
Antitrust Legislation
Appealed
de jure
29. The 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act - the 1965 Highway Beautification Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act are all examples of ____________________.
Restrictive Covenant
Regulatory Federalism
Fiscal Federalism
Political Culture
30. Special spending projects that are set aside on behalf of individual members of Congress for their constituents.
Earmarks
Lemon Test
Secondary Group
Local
31. A system of voter registration in which voters must register only once in their district.
Original
Trustee
Enumerated Powers
Permanent Registration
32. Special courts assigned to deal with specific legislative issues such as taxes - military appeals - and international trade.
Parallel
Legislative Courts
Misdemeanors
Categorical Grants
33. In which case did the Supreme Court rule that the concept of privacy included the right to a legal abortion?
Roe v. Wade
14
Closed
Shay's Rebellion
34. Congress defined the steps for the creation and admission of new states. It forbade slavery while the region remained a territory although citizens could legalize it. First congress would appoint a territorial governor and judges. Second as soon as 5
Confederation
Interventionism
8th Amendment
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
35. The 1st Amendment states that government cannot issue ______________ - censoring publications before they are published.
Prior Restraint
Valence issue
Magna Carta
Monopoly
36. Theory of democracy in which competition among common interest groups promote ideas to influence politics
Retrospective Voting
Pluralist Theory
US v. Ballard
Implied
37. A group of writers - journalists - and critics who exposed corporate malfeasance and political corruption in the first decade of the 20th century.
435
Home Rule
War Powers Resolution
Muckrakers
38. A controversial law overwhelmingly passed by Congress in October 2001 - after the terrorist attacks of September 11 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It greatly expanded the power of federal law enforcement authorities to move against suspe
Ratification
Patriot Act
Pass the fundraising threshold
19th Amendment
39. California measure designed to deny welfare and other benefits to illegal aliens. Overwhelmingly passed the popular vote - but overturned in federal court because it extending beyond the bounds of state rights to attempt to control immigration.
Proposition 187
Legislative
Party Realignment
Lord Acton
40. An opinion of one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment.
Divided Government
Administrative Law
Dissenting Opinion
Suburbia
41. This 1932 case established that a case can be too speedy and under-counseled - providing defendants in a capital case the right to a reasonable amount of time to establish a defense.
Scottsboro Boys Case
Executive Agencies
Libel
Jus Sanguinis
42. Private groups that attempt to influence the government to respond to the shared attitudes of their members.
Interest Groups
Federalist
Enact a Bill of Rights
Plurality
43. Communication with legislators or other government officials to try to influence their decisions.
Internal Efficacy
Rhode Island
Roe v. Wade
Lobbying
44. Minimum number of voters per state in the Electoral College.
3
congressional oversight committee
Substantive Due Process
Populous
45. The estimated number of illegal aliens living in the US.
Majority Rule
Writ of Certiorari
8 Million
Woodrow Wilson
46. Freedoms that protect the individual from the government.
Periodic Registration
2
Civil Liberties
Mugwumps
47. A court decision in an earlier case with facts and legal issues similar to a dispute currently before a court.
State
Vice President
Precedent
Appealed
48. In 1998 - the Supreme Court struck down the________________ law - declaring it unconstitutional - because Congress did not have the constitutional authority to hand that power to the President.
presidential line-item veto
14
Zenger
Hatch Act
49. The period of time after the election of FDR until the Vietnam War was dominated by the Democratic Party and know as the __________________ Era.
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
Conference Committee
New Deal Era
Nuclear Proliferation
50. A method of polling - considered less reliable than a random sample - in which interviewers are instructed to question members of a particular group in proportion to their percentage in the population as a whole.
Quota Sampling
Judicial Activism
unlimited
Public hearing