1. Which of the following describes judicial review?
c. Courts review laws to determine if they are constitutional.
Judicial review is the Supreme Court's power to review laws and actions of the executive and legislative branches (such as enacting an order or passing a law, respectively) in order to determine if they are constitutional. This power is part of the Checks and Balance system that the U.S. government has.
2. Which amendment to the Constitution said that states could not deny men the right to vote based on color, race, or previous conditions of servitude?
c. 15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment granted African Americans men the right to vote for the first time in American history by establishing that the rights of U.S. citizens to vote must not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It was one of the many first steps to legally stop discrimination in the nation.
3. Changes to the Constitution are known as which of the following?
c. Amendments
An amendment is an alteration or change made in a bill or motion that adds, changes, substitutes, or omits. The U.S. Constitution, for example, has twenty-seven amendments.
4. Cruel and unusual punishment is prohibited by which Amendment?
c. Eighth
The Eighth Amendment states the following: <em>Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.</em>
5. How did Jim Crow laws affect African Americans?
c. Kept African Americans socially inferior to white Americans
The Jim Crow laws were a series of American laws designed to prevent African Americans from gaining equality and to keep them socially inferior to white Americans. These laws legalized racial segregation by enacting a series of restrictions on black civil rights from 1877 through the beginning of the Civil Right Movement in the 1950s, especially in the Southern States of America.
