Tests

Question 1

Separation of Powers

Answer 1

1) Has one branch of gov exercised a power or performed a function that a specific clause of the constitution requires to be performed by, or only in conjunction with, another body or branch?
2) Has one branch of gov aggrandized its authority by usurping power that more appropriately belongs to a coordinate branch?
3) Has one branch encroached upon the functions of a coordinate branch so as to undermine that branch’s integrity or independence?

Question 2

Standing

Answer 2

Requires plaintiff to

1) Allege she has suffered an injury;
- Must be injury that plaintiff has suffered or imminently will suffer and highly probable
- Harm is individuated
2) The injury is traceable to defendant’s conduct; and
3) A favorable federal court decision is likely to redress the injury

Question 3

Prudential standing

Answer 3

1) A party generally may assert only her own rights and not the claims of third parties
2) A plaintiff may not sue as a taxpayer who shares a grievance in common with all other taxpayers
3) A party must raise a claim within the zone of interests protected by the statute in question

Question 4

Ripeness

Answer 4

• Seeks to separate matters that are premature for review because the injury is speculative and never may occur, from those cases that are appropriate for federal court action
• Distinction: ripeness centers on whether injury has occurred yet
  1) Probability that harm will take place
  2) Withholding judicial review will cause the plaintiff undue hardship
  3) Fitness of the record for resolving the legal issues presented

Question 5

Political Question Doctrine

Answer 5

Some constitutional provisions are left to political branches of gov to interpret and enforce, i.e. cases are dismissed as non-justiciable political questions
Minimizes judicial intrusion into the operations of other branches of gov and allocates decisions to branches with more expertise
1) Does the issue implicate the separation of powers?
2) Does the Constitution commit resolution of this issue to either the president or the congress?

Question 6

Necessary and Proper Clause

Answer 6

• Congress has the power to enact laws deemed Necessary and Proper in order to effectuate one of their enumerated powers
  1) must be rationally related and
  2) not specifically forbidden by the constitution

Question 7

Advantages of State Autonomy

Answer 7

1) Decreasing likelihood of tyranny
2) Enhancing democratic rule that is closer to the people
3) Allowing states to be laboratories for new ideas

Question 8

Disadvantages of State Autonomy

Answer 8

1) Adverse selection

2) Government tyranny by special interests who capture local and state gov

Question 9

Commerce Clause

Answer 9

1) Regulate the use of channels of interstate commerce
- May restrict the types of goods that can be shipped from one state to another
2) Regulate the instrumentalities of interstate commerce such as railroads, airlines, and trucking companies
3) regulate any economic activity that has a substantial relationship with interstate commerce or that substantially affects interstate commerce
- Congress can regulate any activity, intrastate or interstate, that in aggregate has a substantial effect on interstate commerce

Question 10

Tenth Amendment

Answer 10

Powers not delegated to the US by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people
States retain police powers
Fed gov has defined and limited powers

Question 11

The Taxing and Spending Power

Answer 11

• Vests Congress with the authority to impose taxes and to make expenditures whenever doing so will, in the perception of Congress, be beneficial to the common defense or general welfare of the nation

Question 12

Conditional Taxing

Answer 12

• Congress has broad spending powers and can attach limits on the receipt of federal funds
• Limits must be intended to:
  A) serve general public purposes
  B) be imposed unambiguously so that states can exercise their choice knowingly and
  C) must be related to the federal interest in particular national projects or programs
  D) Not overly coercive

Question 13

When Congress wants to let private individuals sue the state in federal court for money damages for state violations of a federal anti-discrimination statute:

Answer 13

1) Congress must ordinarily have before it evidence of widespread past constitutional violations by the states of the sort that Congress is tryign to prevent, and
2) the remedy picked by Congress must be congruent and proportional to the state violations that Congress is trying to prevent

Question 14

Necessary and Proper Clause Cases

Answer 14

McCullough:

• Landmark case providing a broad interpretation of N&P clause
• Congress had the power to create a national bank in order to carry out several of its enumerated powers
• Not subject to taxation by the state

Comstock:

• Congress had the power to institutionalize dangerous criminals
• Did not need specific power, just had to be rationally related to a goal within the proper scope of congressional power
• Congress has ability under N&P to criminalize conduct that interferes with carrying out enumerated powers