We picked some articles from the discussion section reading list about which we may write questions. Those articles are:

1. "Texas v. Johnson (1989)." Landmark Cases.
2. Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Warning: This is a Rights- Free Workplace." The New York Times. March 5, 2000.
3. Emily Kaiser, "IsThisTheFaceOfATerrorist" Star Tribune, August 4, 2008

Ch. 16 Civil Liberties

1. Does the Bill of Rights apply to the states? (You need to know what Barron v Baltimore held and ought to understand the impact of it)
2. What is selective incorporation? Why does it make the due process clause of the 14th amendment important?
3. How free is speech? Which First Amendment civil liberties are currently incorporated? (answer: all!)
4. How much freer are speakers today than they were in 1915-1925?
5. What is the clear and present danger test? The bad tendency test? Where did it come from? How does that relate to yelling Fire in a movie theater? How have these tests been interpreted?
6. How free is the press in the U.S.? When could there be prior restraint? Answer: Prior restraint is allowed in theory, but in practice it is almost never allowed.
7. What is the difference between the free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment as they apply to religion?
8. How has selective incorporation protected people against state governments in criminal procedures?
9. Describe the exclusionary rule, What was important about Mapp v Ohio?
10. Miranda Rights.
11. What was the significance of the Scottsboro case for rights of suspects?
12. Where in the Constitution can you find the justification for a right of privacy or freedom to have an abortion?

It seems to me that the most difficult thing for you might be figuring out which Supreme Court decisions are the most important and which you need to know by name. The test refers to these cases (in random order because I randomized the questions):

Brown v. Board of Education (school segregation), Barron v Baltimore (bill of rights), Texas v Johnson (flag burning), Mapp v Ohio (exclusionary rule), Plessy v Ferguson (segregation), Powell v. Alabama (right to counsel), Gideon v Wainright (right to counsel), Miranda v Arizona (counsel & self-incrimination)

Honestly, I don't think the most important thing is to try to memorize case names. I think the most important thing is to understand the substance of the issues and remember that we (professors) use the case names as "handles" to refer to these things. So I've tried to rewrite most questions so they don't just test your memorization. It's always tempting and easy to write questions like "which case gave you XYZ right?" or "what did case XYZ say?" But I'm trying not to.

Ch. 17 Civil Rights

1. What was the First Reconstruction?
   • remember: there were Constitutional amendments
   • remember: significant laws passed in the decade after the Civil War
2. What's in the 14th amendment? 15th amendment? (you need to know
   1. which level of government does the amendment apply to
   2. how do these provisions get enforced? How can Congress enforce? Or Courts?
   3. although you'd expect the 14th to justify the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that's wrong. The Commerce Clause is the justification for that. Why?
   4. on the other hand, Congressional laws on equal voting rights do rely on the 15th amendment. See why?
3. Why did reconstruction fizzle?
4. What did the Supreme Court hold in Plessy v. Ferguson?
5. What are Jim Crow laws? Define "grandfather clause"
6. What is separate-but-equal (what case approved it, and which struck it down)?
7. What is the Equal Protection clause? Why is it important?
8. What did the Supreme Court hold in Brown v Board of Education?
9. What was the Second Reconstruction? Critical aspects of the Civil Rights Movement?
10. Describe the main elements of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (esp. Title VII)
11. Does it matter "who" is in charge of protecting "your" rights? (You or an administrative agency?)
12. Revival of the First Reconstruction laws. How did that happen?
13. Define "de jure segregation" and "de facto segregation". Why is the difference important?
14. What kinds of affirmative action plans are allowed, according to the Supreme Court?

Ch. 18. Domestic Policy Making

1. What are the major stages in the policy making process? (agenda setting, etc.)
2. What were the social programs adopted during the New Deal (1930s)?
3. What do you know about these programs: TANF (the program formerly known as AFDC)? Social Security? Medicare? Medicaid?
4. Which levels of government administer these programs? BIG HINT. The test will ask in which programs (and their benefits) are provided directly by the federal government and which are provided by the states.
5. Education policy. What do the state and local governments do? What does the national government do? The big point here is that the No Child Left Behind act represents a big big increase in national control.
6. Monopoly, externalities, and consumer ignorance are sometimes called "market failures" that justify economic regulation. How does the possibility of market failure justify government intervention into the economy?
7. Describe the typical Congressional response to crisis: creation of independent regulatory commissions and agencies. What kinds of political maneuvering typically follows? What is the capture theory? What role does the Congress play in a Commissions decision making? How about the President?

Ch. 19 Economy

1. What is the difference between "fiscal" policy and "monetary policy".
2. What is the Federal Reserve Board? What power does it have over the economy (no precise economic theory required here!). How would you best describe the power of the Congress and the President over the FRB?
3. What is a progressive tax system? What is a tax preference?
4. What did the 1986 tax reform do to change rates and tax preferences?
5. If the deficit is terribly unpopular, why did we keep having deficits?
6. What role does the president have in making the federal budget?
7. What steps does Congress go through in making the budget?
8. What is the difference between authorization and appropriation?

How to read the textbook

Many students ask "how much of the test is from the book, how much is from lectures." We'd guess it is about 80% is in both, and we aim to have 20% that is drawn from the textbook. We don't aim to surprise students with little details from the book. Instead, we focus on major bold-faced headings and terms on which the authors place emphasis. If we gave you a specific list of things to study, it would defeat the purpose. Students should read the whole chapter and attempt to fit the pieces together.

From time to time, we have experimented with the way to coach readers. Sometimes we ask only very vague questions, other times we list paragraph-by-paragraph questions. "What's this?" "What's that?" and so on. The detailed approach did not help because students focused on the trees, but did not see the forest.

In the end, I think the best answer is to read the book as we go through the semester. When the exam time approaches, look again at each chapter and gaze at each section, the part between bold faced headlines. Ask yourself "Why is this here?" If your best answer, "It is here to waste my time," then either 1) you didn't understand what it was about or 2) you are right, in which case you should ask us if there really is no point and why we wasted your time.

I suggest the same thing about lectures, actually. Look at each slide. Wonder what the point was. If there was no point, you probably did not understand yet. If there actually is no point, well, I owe you an apology.

-- PaulJohnson -7 Dec 2010