Take this Exam: AP US Government — interactions among the branches | Zestly

Question 1

The Constitution gives the Senate a role in both treaties and appointments, but the two requirements are not identical. What is the difference, and what does it imply?

Accepted Answer

A treaty requires the concurrence of two thirds of senators present, while an appointment requires only a majority — so a President may staff an administration with support that would not suffice to bind the country to another state

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The Senate initiates treaties and the President ratifies them, the reverse of the arrangement for appointments

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A treaty may be rejected by a simple majority, while an appointment requires a supermajority to be confirmed

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Both require two thirds of senators present, the framers having treated foreign commitments and executive staffing as equally grave

Question 2

Congress instructs an agency to set standards at a level protective of health, without specifying numbers. The agency then issues detailed rules carrying the force of law. How is that best characterised?

Accepted Answer

Delegated authority: Congress set the objective and left the technical determinations to an agency with the expertise and the time to make them, and the rules are binding because a statute says they are

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Usurped authority: the agency has taken a legislative power the Constitution assigns to Congress alone

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Executive authority: the rules bind because the President directed them, independently of any statute

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Judicial authority: the agency is interpreting the statute, which is a function reserved to the courts

Question 3

Marbury asked the Supreme Court to order the delivery of his commission. The Court held that he was entitled to it, and then refused to order it. Why does the case matter?

Accepted Answer

Because in declining jurisdiction the Court held that the statute purporting to give it that jurisdiction conflicted with Article III and could not be applied — asserting a power to set aside an act of Congress that the Constitution nowhere states

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Because it fixed the boundaries of the commerce power over state economies

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Because it established that the President may appoint federal judges without the Senate's concurrence

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Because it confirmed that the Court may order executive officers to act, which is what Marbury had asked for

Question 4

Two judges disagree about how far a court should go in setting aside a statute. One argues for judicial restraint. What does that position claim?

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That courts should treat the protection of individual rights as outweighing any interest a government asserts

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That courts should take the lead in remedying injustices the elected branches have failed to address

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That courts should presume a statute valid and set it aside only where its conflict with the Constitution is clear, leaving contestable judgements to officials who can be voted out

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That courts should read the Constitution in the light of present-day conditions, since the text cannot anticipate every circumstance

Question 5

The Supreme Court decides a case and the decision proves unpopular with Congress. Which statement about the constraints on the Court is accurate?

Answer

The President may remove a justice whose rulings he objects to, subject to Senate concurrence

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The Court commands no police, army or treasury of its own, so its rulings take effect only as far as other institutions carry them out

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Congress may overturn any decision of the Court by passing an ordinary statute

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A state governor may decline to give effect to a ruling within that state's borders