Chapter 14 Quiz
Multiple Choice (12 questions)
1. The number of Supreme Court justices is set by:
A) Article III of the Constitution B) Federal statute C) The Supreme Court's own rules D) Senate confirmation procedures
Answer: B. Article III creates "one supreme Court" but does not specify the number of justices. The number has been set by federal statute since the Judiciary Act of 1789. It has been nine since the Judiciary Act of 1869.
2. The "Rule of Four" refers to:
A) The number of justices required to overrule a precedent B) The number of justices required to grant a writ of certiorari C) The number of justices required to issue a stay on the shadow docket D) The number of justices required to convene a special session
Answer: B. Granting cert requires four votes — an internal Court tradition designed to ensure that a minority of the Court can bring a case to the full Court's attention.
3. When the Chief Justice is in the majority, the Chief Justice has the power to:
A) Issue a binding directive to the dissenting justices B) Veto a separate concurring opinion C) Assign which justice writes the opinion of the Court D) Skip oral argument and proceed to summary disposition
Answer: C. Opinion-assignment power is one of the Chief Justice's institutional tools. When the Chief is in dissent, the senior justice in the majority assigns.
4. The "shadow docket" is:
A) The Court's docket of cases involving classified information B) The Court's emergency docket of stays, injunctions, and orders issued outside the normal merits process C) A nickname for cert denials D) The Solicitor General's recommendations to the Court
Answer: B. The term, coined by Will Baude in 2015, refers to the emergency docket. It has grown substantially in volume and consequence since 2017.
5. The "nuclear option" was used in 2013 (by Senate Democrats) and 2017 (by Senate Republicans) to:
A) Eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations B) Increase the size of the Supreme Court C) Strip the Court of jurisdiction over particular subjects D) Override a presidential veto with a simple majority
Answer: A. The 2013 nuclear option eliminated the filibuster for executive-branch and lower-court judicial nominees (excluding the Supreme Court). The 2017 nuclear option extended it to Supreme Court nominees.
6. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health (2022) overruled:
A) Marbury v. Madison B) Brown v. Board of Education C) Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey D) Citizens United v. FEC
Answer: C. Dobbs held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, overruling Roe (1973) and Casey (1992).
7. The "history-and-tradition" methodology was prominently applied in:
A) Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) B) New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) C) Allen v. Milligan (2023) D) Bostock v. Clayton County (2020)
Answer: B. Bruen established that gun regulations must be assessed against historical analogues from the time of the Second Amendment's ratification (1791) or the Fourteenth Amendment's incorporation (1868).
8. Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) is consequential because it:
A) Overruled Chevron deference, requiring courts to independently interpret ambiguous statutes B) Expanded the major-questions doctrine C) Held that former presidents have absolute immunity for official acts D) Struck down race-conscious admissions in higher education
Answer: A. Loper Bright overruled Chevron v. NRDC (1984), which had instructed courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
9. Of the nine sitting justices in early 2026, how many were appointed by Republican presidents?
A) Four B) Five C) Six D) Seven
Answer: C. Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett were appointed by Republican presidents. Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson by Democratic presidents.
10. The Garland nomination (2016):
A) Was confirmed 53-47 B) Was withdrawn by the White House before confirmation C) Received Senate hearings but was rejected by a vote of the full Senate D) Was held open by the Senate without hearings or a vote
Answer: D. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate would not consider Obama's nominee until after the November 2016 election. The vacancy remained open for 293 days.
11. The "swing justice" frame:
A) Has remained consistently applicable since the 1980s B) Was central to the Court's behavior under O'Connor and Kennedy but is harder to apply to the current 6-3 Court C) Refers to the Chief Justice in all 5-4 cases D) Was eliminated by the Loper Bright decision
Answer: B. O'Connor (1981-2006) and Kennedy (1988-2018) were the central swings of their eras. On the current 6-3 Court, no single justice's vote is required for a conservative majority, though Roberts and Kavanaugh have most often crossed over on specific kinds of cases.
12. The 2023 Code of Conduct adopted by the Supreme Court is:
A) A binding statute enforced by the Department of Justice B) Constitutionally required under Article III C) Non-binding, with no enforcement mechanism D) An amendment to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Answer: C. The Code, adopted in November 2023, is non-binding and has no enforcement mechanism. Critics call it toothless; defenders argue that statutory enforcement against the Court would raise serious separation-of-powers concerns.
Short Answer (4 questions)
13. (200-300 words) Explain the difference between the merits docket and the shadow docket. Include in your answer: how each functions procedurally, what types of cases each handles, and the institutional concerns critics like Stephen Vladeck have raised about the growth of the shadow docket. Then state, in one sentence each, the strongest argument for the shadow docket's expansion and the strongest argument against it.
Sample response framework: The merits docket is the visible Supreme Court — cert granted, full briefing, oral argument, signed opinion. The shadow docket is the emergency docket — stays, injunctions, summary rulings, often without full briefing or signed opinions. Vladeck's critique is that the shadow docket has grown in volume and consequence since 2017, that its rulings often lack written reasoning, and that it can produce substantive doctrine without the deliberative process of the merits docket. The strongest argument for the shadow docket's expansion is that some legal questions require emergency resolution and the Court has always had an emergency docket. The strongest argument against is that consequential doctrine is being made without the deliberative scrutiny that supports the Court's institutional legitimacy.
14. (200-300 words) Trace the institutional logic of the 2016 Garland and 2020 Barrett episodes. What position did Senate Majority Leader McConnell take in 2016, what position did he take in 2020, and how did each side justify the apparent inconsistency? Be specific about the substantive arguments offered by both Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats, and identify what the textbook calls the "honest assessment" of the sequence.
Sample response framework: In 2016, McConnell argued that election-year vacancies should be filled by the next president. In 2020, he argued the situations were different because the same party held the Senate and presidency. Republican defense in 2020 emphasized historical precedent for same-party Senate-president confirmations. Democrats argued the 2020 acceleration was a clear reversal. The textbook's honest assessment is that both episodes involved instrumental constitutional reasoning by the side that benefited in the moment, and that both parties have contributed to the escalation of confirmation politics over four decades.
15. (200-300 words) Distinguish three of the methodological approaches used by current justices: originalism, textualism, history-and-tradition, common-law constitutionalism, and pragmatism. For each one you choose, identify a current justice known for that approach (where applicable), and identify a recent decision that illustrates the methodology in operation.
Sample response framework: Students should pick three of the listed methodologies. Originalism: associated with Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Barrett. Decision: Bruen (Second Amendment). Textualism: associated with Gorsuch. Decision: Bostock (Title VII statutory reading). History-and-tradition: applied across the conservative bloc. Decision: Bruen and subsequent cases. Common-law constitutionalism: descriptive of how all justices actually operate; especially associated with Kagan in practice. Pragmatism: associated with Sotomayor on the liberal side, Roberts on the conservative side. Decisions vary.
16. (200-300 words) Steel-man both sides of the "is the Supreme Court in a legitimacy crisis" debate. State the strongest case that the Court is facing a legitimacy crisis, citing specific developments referenced in the chapter. State the strongest case that the Court is functioning normally, citing the historical parallels and substantive defenses also referenced. Conclude by noting that the chapter does not adjudicate the question.
Sample response framework: The legitimacy-crisis argument: post-Dobbs approval drop, partisan gap in confidence at historic levels, doctrinal moves enabled by procedural irregularities (Garland 2016, Barrett 2020), shadow-docket concerns. The functioning-normally argument: Court has always had ups and downs in popularity, Warren Court was unpopular among many for different reasons, decisions are reasoned legal interpretations, conflating disagreement with legitimacy crisis is itself a partisan tactic. The chapter does not adjudicate; both have serious adherents.