Constitutional Law Questions with 100% Correct Answers

When can the government interfere with contracts? Correct Answer An emergency existed The legislation was addressed to a legit end (not for the mere advantage of particular individual but for interest of society) The relief afforded was of a character appropriate to that emergency The conditions upon which the extensions are granted are reasonable It is limited to the exigency which called it forth. Bill of Attainder Correct Answer Legislative acts, no matter what their form, that apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial are bills of attainder prohibited by the Const. Elements to identify if a law is a bill of attainder Correct Answer 1) Specificity naming one person 2) Punishment, Court needs to inquire whether Congress inflicted punishment. Court looks at Historical Test: Looks the history of punishment Pains and penalties Jail or death Functional Test: Analyze whether the law under challenge, viewed of the type and severity of burdens imposed, reasonably can be said to further nonpunitive legislative purposes Where such legitimate punishment of individuals disadvantaged by the enactment was the purpose of the decision makers If there are no legitimate legislative purposes, then the purpose is concluded to be punishment of individuals disadvantaged by the enactment Motivational Test: Whether the legislative record evinces a congressional intent to punish Inquiry into the existence of less burdensome alternatives by which the legislature could have achieved its legitimate non-punitive objectives. 3) Without benefit of judicial trial. Substantial Due Process Correct Answer asks whether the government has adequate reason for taking away a person's life, liberty, or property procedural Due process Correct Answer refers to the procedures that the government must follow before it deprives a person of life, liberty, or property Determining if a pre-trial is required for termination Correct Answer To determine if the Government must provide pre-termination, the balancing test considers: The private interest being affected The risk of error in the procedures that were followed and the probable value of additional or substitute procedures; and The government interest. Straightforward test for reasonableness Due Process Correct Answer What we are doing in these cases is applying a straightforward test of reasonable under the circumstances. Reasonableness under the circumstances is all that Due Process requires. Fundamental Rights Correct Answer access to the courts, access to appellate review, voting, marriage, homosexuality, contraception, procreation, parent/child relations, interstate travel, right to bear arms Equal Protection Clause Violation Correct Answer Something does not violate the Equal Protection Clause if the law is reasonable, not arbitrary, and bears a rational relationship to a permissible state objective. Claims of Equal Protection violations Correct Answer Claims of EP must have a classification which affects someone's fundamental rights or a group is treated different than another group without a good reason Determining if a regulation is a "taking" Correct Answer (1) The economic impact of the regulation on the claimant; (2) The extent to which the regulation has interfered with distinct investment-backed expectations; (3) The character of the governmental action; (4) Interference with property can be characterized as a physical invasion by the government. When does a regulation become a taking? Correct Answer When it goes too far. Zoning can go so far as to constitutionally limit and interfere with use and enjoyment, allowing the person to be compensated. However, if a regulation denies all economic or beneficial and productive uses of all the property, the court will find a taking because there is the economic equivalent of a physical appropriation. In determining due process Correct Answer Has the government by carrying out this taking violated the individual's substantive interest in life, liberty, or property? Cooperation classification in 14th amendment Correct Answer Cooperations are people in the 14th amendment Rational Review Correct Answer If the law is in an area where the rational basis review is applied, substantive due process is met where the law is rationally related to a legitimate government purpose ( or police powers: safety, health, general welfare, etc) Strict scrutiny Correct Answer If the law is in an area where strict scrutiny is used, such as for protecting fundamental rights, then the government will meet substantive due process only if it can prove that the law is necessary to achieve a compelling government purpose