Q 01/05

A 1916 Supreme Court case named after forty barrels of Coca-Cola was a government bid to remove which ingredient?

A) Caramel coloring

B) Caffeine

C) Saccharin

D) Phosphoric acid

Answer · why

B) Caffeine

Caffeine was what federal chemist Harvey Wiley wanted out of Coca-Cola; he thought even small amounts harmful, but the government never managed to for...

Q 02/05

Which unanimous 1954 ruling, argued by Thurgood Marshall, declared segregated public schools unconstitutional?

A) Brown v. Board of Education

B) Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg

C) Sweatt v. Painter

D) Milliken v. Bradley

Answer · why

A) Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education began when third-grader Linda Brown was sent to a Black school a mile away although a white school stood seven blocks from...

Q 03/05

In 2011 the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, struck down a California ban on selling what to minors?

A) Realistic toy guns

B) Explicit music albums

C) Violent video games

D) Cans of spray paint

Answer · why

C) Violent video games

Violent video games got the same First Amendment protection as books and films in the 7–2 ruling; at argument, Scalia asked whether the ban might also...

Q 04/05

Which 1966 ruling requires police to tell suspects in custody of their rights to silence and a lawyer?

A) Escobedo v. Illinois

B) Betts v. Brady

C) Powell v. Alabama

D) Miranda v. Arizona

Answer · why

D) Miranda v. Arizona

Miranda v. Arizona was decided 5–4 and threw out Ernesto Miranda's confession, yet he was convicted again at a 1967 retrial that relied on other evide...

Q 05/05

Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) upheld a fine on a pastor who refused what during a smallpox outbreak?

A) Vaccination

B) Quarantine

C) A health inspection

D) Closing his church

Answer · why

A) Vaccination

Vaccination could be made compulsory, the Court held, because individual liberty is not absolute; pastor Henning Jacobson had been fined $5 for refusi...