AP US Government : Civil Rights, Amendments, and Court Cases

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP US Government

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Example Questions

Example Question #51 : Civil Rights, Amendments, And Court Cases

The Slaughterhouse Cases essentially wrote off the effectiveness of the Privileges and Immunities clause. Which Amendment is the Privileges and Immunities clause in?

Possible Answers:

17th

16th

15th

14th

Correct answer:

14th

Explanation:

The correct answer is the 14th Amendment. The details of the Slaughterhouse Cases are largely irrelevant. The most important thing to note is that the Slaughterhouse Court completely discarded the applicability of the “Privileges and Immunities” clause of the 14th Amendment, the text of which reads: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” In fact, the central holding of that case has never been overturned! In other words, the Supreme Court, to this day, STILL does not use the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

Example Question #52 : Civil Rights, Amendments, And Court Cases

The _________________ Amendment granted the right to vote to all men.

Possible Answers:

15th

13th

17th

14th

Correct answer:

15th

Explanation:

This should be a relatively easy question. The 15th Amendment granted the right to vote to all men. There is a good reason that the word “men” is emphasized in the question: many people learn, erroneously, that the 15th granted the right to vote only to black men, but this is incorrect (read the text of the amendment). Having said that, it realistically granted the right to black men (because white men largely already had the vote).

Example Question #53 : Civil Rights, Amendments, And Court Cases

The twenty-third amendment to the Constitution granted what right to the District of Columbia?

Possible Answers:

The power to control water rights to the Potomac River

The right to 3 electors in the Electoral College

The right to elect a governor

Status as a state

The right to vote in all elections

Correct answer:

The right to 3 electors in the Electoral College

Explanation:

The District of Columbia is the location of our government. It is also a city in its own right. Until the passage of the twenty-third amendment while the citizens of the District of Columbia had the right to vote, they did not have any representation in the Electoral College. The passage of the amendment gave them status as a “state” in the Electoral College with three electors.

Example Question #54 : Civil Rights, Amendments, And Court Cases

Which section of the Constitution contains the document’s SOLE explicit mention of civil rights?

Possible Answers:

The Fourteenth Amendment 

The Thirteenth Amendment 

The Privileges and Immunities Clause 

The Bill of Rights 

Correct answer:

The Fourteenth Amendment 

Explanation:

Although it may seem rather odd, the Constitution actually makes direct mention of civil rights only once – and this is not even done in the original body of the document but is instead contained as part of an amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment, which was passed after the Civil War, forms a special trifecta with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; together, these Amendments offer explicit protection to every American, mainly through the preservation of the right to vote and the prohibiting of slavery. Neither of these two Amendments make direct mention of civil rights, however – that is left to the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that every American citizen, regardless of race, gender, sex, or religious belief, is entitled to all rights, fair treatment, and “equal protection of the laws.” In this manner, the Fourteenth Amendment is most famous for its so-called Equal Protection Clause, which played a crucial legal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Example Question #1 : Impact Of Constitutional Amendments

The extension of the Bill of Rights to apply to State governments as much as they do to the Federal government is primarily because of __________

Possible Answers:

Congress attempting to win over support in the South during the Reconstruction Era.

Congress attempting to subjugate the South during the Reconstruction Era.

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Supreme Court’s rulings in cases like Gibbons v. Ogden.

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the necessary and proper clause.

Correct answer:

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Explanation:

The Bill of Rights, and the individual protections it ensures, has been almost universally extended to the State governments by a series of Supreme Court rulings. All of these rulings are drawn from the Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Amendment states, among other things, that state governments have no right to deny life, liberty, or property outside of the law of the land. This is called the due process clause.

Example Question #1 : Impact Of Constitutional Amendments

Prior to the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, representatives in the Senate were chosen by __________.

Possible Answers:

the House of Representatives

the State Governors

the State Legislatures

a vote of the people

the Supreme Court

Correct answer:

the State Legislatures

Explanation:

The Seventeenth Amendment, passed in 1913, established that senators would no longer be chosen by a vote in the State Legislature, but would instead be elected by a vote of the people who lived in each senator's district. This represented the culmination of a decades-long struggle by the Progressives to extend greater suffrage rights and responsibilities to the people of the United States.

Example Question #2 : Impact Of Constitutional Amendments

What constitutional amendment allowed the Supreme Court to later enforce the Bill of Rights on state governments?

Possible Answers:

The 14th Amendment

None of the other answers are correct

The 18th Amendment

The 12th Amendment

The 17th Amendment

Correct answer:

The 14th Amendment

Explanation:

The passage of the 14th Amendment and the due process clause was interpreted by the Supreme Court to mean all persons have a right to equal due process, both before the federal and state governments. The federal government is supreme over state governments, and thus the states were forced to incorporate the Bill of Rights.

Example Question #3 : Impact Of Constitutional Amendments

Which constitutional amendment secures citizens from unreasonable search and seizure by government forces?

Possible Answers:

The Fourth Amendment

The Eleventh Amendment

The Eighth Amendment

The Sixth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment

Correct answer:

The Fourth Amendment

Explanation:

The Fourth Amendment is one of the most important parts of the Bill of Rights. It protects citizens from random government raids on their homes, and requires police to have probable cause or a court-sanctioned warrant to search a person's home. The Fourth Amendment is the reason the police, unless in an extenuating circumstance in which harm is imminent, need warrants to search homes and persons.

Example Question #4 : Impact Of Constitutional Amendments

What amendment lifted Prohibition?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

This answer requires relatively little explanation—it’s one of those questions that requires rote memorization. That said, there is a trick to remembering which amendment lifted prohibition (I believe we covered it in a previous question); 21 to drink—the 21st Amendment lifted prohibition.

As for the others, they are incorrect:

18th: Enacted Prohibition

19th: Granted the franchise to all women

20th: Does a number of things, primarily ending lame duck, and setting succession

23rd: Extends the franchise to residents of Washington DC (why was this necessary?)

Example Question #4 : Impact Of Constitutional Amendments

Which of the following amendments expanded the categories of enfranchised people?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The 15th Amendment expanded the right to vote to people regardless of their race. The 19th Amendment expanded the right to women. The 9th Amendment reserves some unlisted powers in the Constitution for the states.  

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