EAB -- Spring 2026 -- Class 05

Question 1

What principle does Marbury v. Madison establish?

Answer 1

Judicial review

This principle allows federal courts to strike down unconstitutional laws and actions by the Executive Branch.

Question 2

The Countermajoritarian Difficulty refers to what issue in constitutional law?

Answer 2

Judicial review’s anti-democratic nature

It highlights the judiciary’s power to override the will of the democratic majority.

Question 3

List the justifications for judicial review.

Answer 3

• Supervising inter- and intra-governmental relations
• Finality/settlement
• Uniformity
• Preserving fundamental values

These justifications help explain the role of judicial review in a democratic system.

Question 4

What are the possible sources of limits on the Court?

Answer 4

• The President
• Congress
• The Supreme Court itself
• The States
• ‘We the People’

These sources can influence the power and jurisdiction of the judiciary.

Question 5

The process to amend the Constitution requires what?

Answer 5

• Proposal by 2/3 of both Houses of Congress or 2/3 of states calling for a convention
• Ratification by 3/4 of states

This process ensures significant supermajority support for constitutional changes.

Question 6

Which amendment overturned Dred Scott v. Sanford?

Answer 6

The Fourteenth Amendment

This amendment established natural-born citizenship and addressed issues related to slavery.

Question 7

What does Article 3, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution outline?

Answer 7

Jurisdictional categories of the Supreme Court

It defines original and appellate jurisdiction.

Question 8

The Case-or-Controversy Requirement states what?

Answer 8

Judicial power extends to actual cases and controversies

This requirement ensures that courts only hear disputes that are real and not hypothetical.

Question 9

What is the Political Question Doctrine?

Answer 9

Courts should not decide certain political questions

This doctrine limits judicial intervention in political matters.

Question 10

What is the significance of Article III, § 1?

Answer 10

Establishes the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction

It grants Congress the power to regulate this jurisdiction.

Question 11

In United States v. Klein (1872), what did the Supreme Court rule?

Answer 11

Congress cannot instruct the Court how to rule

This case reinforced the separation of powers.

Question 12

What was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793?

Answer 12

Made it a crime to assist a fugitive from slavery

It established procedures for the return of fugitives, even in free states.

Question 13

The Missouri Compromise (1820) allowed for what?

Answer 13

Admission of Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state

It prohibited slavery in the Louisiana territory north of 36°30’.

Question 14

What was the outcome of Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)?

Answer 14

Scott was ruled not a citizen and remained enslaved

The case addressed citizenship and Congress’s power over territories.

Question 15

What does the Fugitive Slave Clause state?

Answer 15

No person held to service in one state shall be discharged in another

It mandates the return of escaped enslaved persons.

Question 16

Who was Frederick Douglass?

Answer 16

An anti-slavery advocate and orator

He escaped slavery and published the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Question 17

What was the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 17

Admitted California as a free state and included a punitive Fugitive Slave Act

It aimed to balance the interests of slave and free states.

Question 18

What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) do?

Answer 18

Repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed popular sovereignty

It led to violence as pro- and anti-slavery factions clashed.

Question 19

Did Scott become free when he set foot in MN?

Answer 19

No

The question reframed by Taney concerns Congress’s power to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Question 20

What was the holding of the court regarding the citizenship of the descendants of enslaved people?

Answer 20

Cannot be maintained

This was based on attitudes toward Blacks in state and federal law, and the implication that the enslaved African race did not form part of the people who framed the Declaration of Independence.

Question 21

What earlier Supreme Court decision did Taney rely on to answer whether Scott became free in a free state?

Answer 21

Strader v. Graham

This decision held that the law of the state from which the plaintiff travels controls.

Question 22

How did Taney frame the question regarding Congress’s power over slavery in the territories?

Answer 22

Whether Congress can prohibit a citizen from taking their property from a state into a territory

This framing avoids the abstract question of Congress’s power to abolish slavery.

Question 23

What was the court’s conclusion regarding the Missouri Compromise?

Answer 23

Unconstitutional

The court ruled that if enslaved people cannot be brought into free territories, it constitutes taking property without due process of law.

Question 24

Did Taney determine that the Court had jurisdiction over the case?

Answer 24

No

Despite lacking jurisdiction, Taney reached the merits regarding Congress’s power to abolish slavery in the territories.