Can you pass this law school pop quiz on the Constitution?

[StarfishSaver]

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I gave my law class a pop quiz today.

10 questions.

Go ahead and take it.

1. Which of the following is a right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights?
_____Public Education _____ Employment ____ Trial by Jury _____Voting

2. When the Constitution was approved by the original colonies, how many states had to ratify it in order for it to be in effect?

3. If a person flees from justice into another state, who has authority to ask for his return?

4. Money is coined by order of: __U.S. Congress ___The President’s Cabinet ___State Legislatures

5. A U.S. senator elected at the general election in November takes office the following year on what date?

6. Name the man who runs the FBI

7. Name two of the purposes of the U.S. Constitution.

8. Name the Attorney General of the United States

9. Name two things which the states are forbidden to do by the U.S. Constitution:

10. If it were proposed to join Alabama and Mississippi to form one state, what groups would have to vote approval in order for this to be done? _____

10 questions.

How’d you do?


Now imagine 55 more questions like this.

If you got 7 wrong total (out of 65), you would not have been allowed to vote in Alabama in 1965.

This was the “literacy test.”

(And no class I’ve ever taught, 2Ls and 3Ls, has ever passed).

END

[Deuxcents]

1. Did not know this..1965?

I taught a citizenship class for a couple of years..it was voluntary and I had people from Cuba, Peru, Columbia n a couple other places. They studied hard and a couple had other classes to learn English. I learned a lot, too, but it’s shameful that our kids aren’t taught civics n I’ll bet my students knew more about US than any kid graduating today.

[BigmanPigman]

2. I had to take the test to become a teacher

and I studied. I remember reading the booklet while OJ Simpson was being chased down a freeway. There was so much that I didn't know. I ended up making my 1st grade classroom into a little democracy based on actual voting and fairness...the kids LOVED it.

[UTUSN]

3. Where's the clickable link - I wanna take it!

[lastlib]

5. Here is one from Alabama:

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/pdfs-docs/origins/al_literacy.pdf

68 questions

[UTUSN]

16. I get it now that it's a voter discrimination thing.

Last edited Sun Sep 12, 2021, 01:35 AM - Edit history (1)

[StarfishSaver]

4. Kick

[Sneederbunk]

6. How many law students have ever been subjected to a pop quiz?

[StarfishSaver]

7. Did you read the OP?

[Poiuyt]

25. I read it, but I don't know what 2Ls and 3Ls stand for

[StarfishSaver]

26. Second and third year law students

1L = First Year
2L = Second Year
3L = Third Year

This professor gave his students a 1965 Alabama voter literacy test as a pop quiz, probably to help them understand how difficult, if not impossible, it was for Blacks to register to vote.

[Poiuyt]

27. Thank you!

It must have been an eye opener for the law students.

[EYESORE 9001]

10. ...

[Mysterian]

19. Most all of them in my experience

Every class, you had the chance to be questoned by the professor. If you didn't know your stuff, the prof would move on to another student, which was extremely embarrassing. If you knew the particular subject and answered several "what if" questions correctly, the prof would be pleased and move on to the next topic.

[Sneederbunk]

20. First time I have ever heard the Socratic method described as a pop quiz.

[StarfishSaver]

22. Again I ask, did you read the OP?

If you had, you'd have already known the answer to your question before you asked it:

"At least the ones in Prof. Pepper's class."

[Mysterian]

23. But that's exactly what it is

Isn't it?

[betsuni]

8. K&R

[DFW]

9. I wonder how many members of the Alabama state legislature

Could get even half of those questions right? Or how many members of the state government, including the governor?

I have long been in favor of requiring incoming members of the US Senate and House of Representatives to take the same civics test that immigrants are required to take in order to become US citizens. Fail, and you are disqualified until the next election. Any replacement, be they by appointment or special election, should face the same test. If this means we get Rain Man instead of Tommy Tuberville as Senator from Alabama, I would still consider it an improvement.

[StarfishSaver]

11. I love the idea is a test for senators and MOC

Unfortunately, this can only be required by Constitutional amendment, so we'll never see it. Too bad.

[DFW]

12. Tell me about it.

It's too bad that something that should seem so obvious is so impossible.

I think that some widely respected (that may in itself be a non-starter) media or academic organization should offer to administer it to every incoming Congressperson anyway. Those who refuse to take the test should be identified, and those who do take it should agree to have their scores published.

[StarfishSaver]

13. Great idea!

Like releasing tax returns ...

[DFW]

14. Yeah, but remember how popular THAT one was with the "leader" of the last administration

No one will have the guts to propose it because everyone knows who would be for it and who would be against it, and we'd be right back where we started from.

Question 32. Who is buried in Grant's tomb?
Democrat: Grant
Republican: I don't answer Gotcha questions made up by liberals.

[jmowreader]

28. The real answer is "no one"

Grant's Tomb is a mausoleum. Grant and his wife Julia are enshrined in sarcophagi which are above ground, not buried.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. K&R

[Polybius]

17. What's the answer to 7?

7. Name two of the purposes of the U.S. Constitution.

[StarfishSaver]

18. The Constitution has six purposes, set out in the Preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to [1] form a more perfect Union, [2] establish Justice, [3] insure domestic Tranquility, [4]provide for the common defence, [5] promote the general Welfare, and [6] secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

[dsc]

21. There were 68 on the one linked

I missed 15 but some questions were duplicates including some I missed. But I would have failed.

[Elessar Zappa]

24. I definitely

wouldn’t have been allowed to vote in Alabama. Of course, I’m white so I doubt this test would have been required of me.