J1

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/08/18131900-a-census-first-black-voter-turnout-passes-whites
The census has shown that black people have increased in their voting turnout while white people have been declining greatly.

What are three reasons why people choose not to vote?
-One reason is that the people are physically not able to arrive at the voting areas due to illness, disability, or voting area location inconvenience.
-Another reason is that people are "too busy" to vote
-The last, and usually most popular reason to not vote, is that people simply don't care about the elections or disliked the candidates.

What demographics are most likely to vote Democrat? Republican?
It is very typical for women, people of racial minorities(such as african americans), and people with lower income to vote for a democrat while it is more likely for a white, rich, male to vote for a republican.

H7

1. Civil Liberties v. Civil Rights: What's the difference?
1. Civil Liberties cover a more vast amount stuff like freedom of speech but civil rights are more specific like the basic equality of humans regardless of race sex, or gender.
2. Bill of Rights: Why have them? We have a Bill of Rights so that the members of government don't have total control. If there was no Bill of Rights, Congress could create laws that violate our basic liberties and rights.
3. First Amendment: What are the five freedoms? The five freedoms are freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition.
4. Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971): What's the point of the Lemon test? The point of the Lemon test is to determine when a law has the effect of establishing religion.
5. Engel v. Vitale (1962): What did the Court say? The court said in this case that there is no school-led prayer allowed during school.
6. What is due process? Due process is the fundamental, constitutional guarantee that all legal proceedings will be fair to everyone.
7. What is selective incorporation? Selective incorporation is the legal code that protects the rights of citizens from state laws.
8. Establishment clause v. free exercise clause: What's the difference? The difference is that establishment clause prohibits the government from imposing a religion that all citizens must follow and the free exercise clause says you can practice any religion you want without the government stopping you.

H11

1. Discuss and evaluate the difference between equal opportunity and equal results.
1. Equal opportunity is the chance to have an opportunity that everybody else also has but depending on what you do you might not get the same results as everybody else.
2. What did the 13th amendment say?
1. The 13th amendment abolished slavery.
3. What did the 15th amendment say?
1.  It said that no U.S citizen can be denied the right to vote.
4. What was the purpose of Jim Crow laws? 
1. The purpose of Jim Crow laws was to deprive African-Americans from receiving the same rights as white people like voting rights, due process, and equal protection under the law.
5. What's the difference between de jure and de facto segregation
1. De jure segregation is segregation that is approved by the government while de facto segregation is segregation that is not officially legal but is practiced nonetheless.
6. Identify major provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1. Some provisions of this act are that it banned any segregation in a public area, and allowed the Attorney General to sue any school systems that had segregated schools.
7. Identify major provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1. Some provisions of the Voting RIghts Act of 1965 were that it allowed for any citizen to vote without having to take a literacy test like in the past. Also, if there were major minorities, a ballot had to be bilingual and there could be no change to the voting unless it's approved by the Attorney General.
8. Explain how states used white primaries to enforce discrimination.
1. White primaries allowed for southerners to declare that the Democratic party was a private group that could exclude anybody it wanted.
9. Explain how states used grandfather clauses to enforce discrimination.
1. the grandfather clauses said that anybody who had the right to vote between 1866 and 1867 could vote without being taxed but slaves weren't allowed the right to vote until 1870.
10. Explain how states used poll taxes to enforce discrimination.
1. Most freed blacks couldn't afford the poll tax that was around $200 so this discriminated against them.
11. Explain how states used literacy tests to enforce discrimination.
1. Most of the questions on the literacy tests were questions too hard even for a white person to answer. Somebody could say that the answers are wrong and not let you vote if you're black and somebody could say the white person was right and could vote even if the answers were actually wrong.
12. What does the 24th Amendment say?
1. This amendment ended all of the poll taxes.

H6

(a) Define judicial review.

Judicial review is the act in which the Supreme Court looks over legislative acts to check if they are constitutional or not.
(b) Explain how judicial review empowers the Supreme Court within the system of checks and balances.

 Judicial review empowers the Supreme Court by allowing them to bring down a law proposed by Congress if it goes against the Constitution. This gives them power because, although Congress creates the laws, if a majority of the justices say a bill is unconstitutional, it will not be able to become law. The same goes for an executive act, the Supreme Court can stop any of the president's acts from occurring.
(c) Describe the process through which the Court grants a writ of certiorari.

Writ of certiori is when the Supreme Court decides to receive information on a case from a lower court. These cases come through a petition filed with the Supreme court, it comes with an explanation of why the case should be heard by the Supreme Court. If five out of the nine justices agree to hear the case, the Supreme Court will hear the case.

(d) Explain how each of the following influences decisions made by individual justices when deciding casesheard by the Court.

Stare decisis: Stare decisis is the policy that courts abide by in which they must follow all the priniciples established by precedents (earlier rulings). So if there was a case about a child being allowed to wear a shirt with obscenities on it and a judge said that he can't do that, another judge with a similar case would probably rule the same.

Judicial activism: Judicial activism is when a judge makes a ruling due to personal or political consideration rather than on existing laws. A more liberal justice could make a ruling about a case saying that all gay people have rights because all men are created equal. By making this ruling, the justice has practiced judicial activism because he/she probably did it because he/she thought it would be best for the country.

H4

(a) Identify three characteristics of Supreme Court nominees.

Three characteristics are ideology, age, and sex.

(b) Discuss how each characteristic has been politically relevant during the appointment process. 

When a president nominates a justice, he typically chooses one with the same ideology as him. If the president is conservative, he will most likely pick a conservative justice.

Age is an important factor in nominating a justice because the older a nominee is, the more experience he/she has and the more rulings that can be seen from their history.

Sex is another important characteristic. The sex of the justice can give new perspective on a case. If there are already 8 men on the court, it's best to include a woman for a different perspective.

(c) USE real facts from the confirmation of Elena Kagan to illustrate at least ONE of these characteristics.

Obama chose Kagan because he "wanted someone who could counter the court's conservative leaders." So he chose her because she was liberal, like him.

2.

(a) Identify two methods that have been used by interest groups to influence the appointment process. 

Interest groups use donations and smear campaigns to influence the appointment process.

(b) Explain how each of these methods has been used to influence that process.

By donating money, interest groups are endorsing a candidate, and more money means  a bigger chance of winning an election. Smear campaign are campaigns that ruin the reputation of a candidate or make them look bad to the people, this lessens their chance of winning.

(c) USE real facts from the confirmation of Elena Kagan to illustrate at least ONE of these methods.

H1

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
1.) Sotomayor is an advocate for minority rights
2.) Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina on the Supreme Court
3.)Sotomayor rejected a claim by a New Yorker who said his 2nd amendment right was being violated.

G15

Many people are concerned about large deficits in the federal budget. Rarely does the government balance its budget.

(a) Define balanced budget.

Balanced budget means that the amount of expenditure is the same as the amount of revenue, that there is no deficit or surplus.

(b) Define federal entitlements.

Federal entitlements are federal payments to a specific group of people that is mandatory and or legally obligated to be dispersed to these people under certain criteria.

(c) Identify an entitlement and explain how entitlements are a barrier to the federal government achieving a balanced budget.

An entitlement would be receiving social security checks. Entitlements are a barrier to the federal government achieving a balanced budget in that they are money promised by the government, money that must be given to the people or else the government would be breaking its own laws by not giving it out because it's permanent.

(d) Describe a consequence of large budget deficits.

A budget deficit is when the amount of expenditures exceeds the amount of revenue. A consequence of large budget deficits is that it makes it hard for the government to create new policies because it is too busy trying to fix or compensate for the policies it already created.

(e) Find the most recent budget numbers. What was our projected revenue for 2012? What were our expenditures? What was the budget deficit? Cite your source.

Our revenue was 5.4 trillion dollars and the expenditures was 6.1 trillion, so the deficit was  0.7 trillion dollars.

http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/total_revenue_2013USrn
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/.

(f) What is the total national debt? Cite your source.

The total national debt is $17,467,228,205,267

http://www.concordcoalition.org/issues/indicators/us-total-national-debt