Take this Exam: AP US Government — civil liberties and civil rights | Zestly

Question 1

Gideon was tried in a Florida court without a lawyer, having asked for one and been refused because state law provided counsel only in capital cases. How does Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) illustrate incorporation?

Accepted Answer

The Sixth Amendment right to counsel, which had bound only federal courts, was held to be among the liberties the Fourteenth Amendment protects against the states, so states must now provide a lawyer to a defendant who cannot afford one in a serious criminal case

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The federal government assumed responsibility for conducting state criminal trials in which no lawyer had been provided

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States were required to adopt the federal criminal code so that procedures would be uniform across the country

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The Court held that whether counsel is provided is a question of state law, on which the federal Constitution has nothing to say

Question 2

What did the Supreme Court hold in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and what earlier decision did it displace?

Accepted Answer

That separating children in public schools by race is inherently unequal and denies equal protection of the laws, displacing the separate-but-equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

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That separate facilities satisfy the Constitution provided the state funds them equally, which is what the Fourteenth Amendment requires

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That every public school must be integrated within one year of the decision, a deadline the Court set in the same opinion

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That the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach public education, schooling being a matter for the states

Question 3

A privately owned shop refuses to serve a customer on a ground the owner chooses. Why does the equal protection clause not, by itself, settle the matter?

Accepted Answer

Because the Fourteenth Amendment is addressed to states and those acting for them, so it reaches governmental conduct and not, in general, the acts of private persons and businesses

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Because equal protection applies to private businesses in exactly the same way it applies to public bodies, so no separate question arises

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Because private businesses must first be incorporated by the state before any constitutional obligation attaches

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Because the clause applies only where a state has expressly adopted it into its own constitution

Question 4

Congress enacted civil rights legislation in the 1960s reaching hotels, restaurants and employers. Which constitutional power did it chiefly rely on to reach PRIVATE businesses, and why was legislation needed at all?

Answer

The Tenth Amendment, which reserves to Congress any power the states have declined to exercise

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The war powers, Congress treating the matter as one of national defence

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The commerce power, since businesses serving interstate travellers and buying goods from other states are engaged in interstate commerce — legislation being needed because the Fourteenth Amendment reaches state action and not private conduct

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The amendment power, the statutes operating as amendments to the Constitution passed by ordinary majorities

Question 5

Roe v. Wade (1973) was overruled by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022). In terms of WHICH INSTITUTION decides, what changed?

Answer

Dobbs held that the Constitution expressly names this right in its text, removing any room for legislative variation

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Roe had held that the Constitution protects a right to abortion, placing limits on what any state could enact; Dobbs held that it does not, so the question is now settled by legislatures — state legislatures and Congress — rather than by constitutional adjudication

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Dobbs reaffirmed Roe while permitting states to add procedural requirements around the same underlying right

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Dobbs enlarged the federal constitutional right, overriding restrictions that individual states had enacted