The Constitution of the United States

Base your answer to this question on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

— Preamble to the United States Constitution

• loyalists and revolutionaries

• Federalists and Anti federalists

• Democratic Party and Whig Party

• executive branch and judicial branch

Base your answer to the question on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.

…No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic [essential] value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.…

— James Madison, The Federalist, Number 47

Which constitutional principle was established to protect American citizens from the tyranny suggested in this quotation?

• due process of law

• states rights

• popular sovereignty

• separation of powers

The primary purpose of the Federalist Papers was to

• Justify the American Revolution to the colonists

• promote the continuation of British rule

• encourage ratification of the United States Constitution

• support the election of George Washington as president

Which action would be considered an example of the use of the unwritten constitution?

• ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920

• declaration of war against Japan in 1941

• passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• cabinet meeting called by President Bill Clinton in 1993

According to the Constitution, the president is required to

• sign or veto bills passed by Congress

• establish income tax rates

• review Supreme Court decisions

• raise money for political parties

Base your answer to the question on the chart below and on your knowledge of social studies.

Which constitutional principle is best illustrated by the chart?

• federalism

• implied powers

• due process

• property rights

The establishment of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison (1803) gave federal courts the authority to

• decide whether a law is constitutional

• create lower courts

• approve foreign treaties

• appoint judges to lifetime terms

The primary aim of the writers of the United States Constitution was to

• eliminate the bicameral legislature

• strengthen the power of the central government

• preserve the supremacy of the states

• weaken the independence of the judiciary

According to the United States Constitution, the federal census is used to determine the

• size of the United States Supreme Court

• maximum number of cabinet members

• apportionment of members in the House of Representatives

• number of senators allotted to each state

The Supreme Court decisions in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) were important because they

• increased the power of the federal government

• expanded the powers of the president

• encouraged westward expansion

• placed limits on the spread of slavery