SAMPLE EXAM QUESTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW
Please hit your browser's "REFRESH" button each time you visit this page to be certain you are viewing the most current version of this page.

1. The tendency of presidents to seize power to cope with the exigencies of their times is what led which constitutional scholar to remark that “the history of the Presidency has been a history of aggrandizement.”
A. Alexander M. Bickel
B. Raoul Berger
C. Walter Murphy
D. Edward S. Corwin*

2. What powers are enumerated in Article II, sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution to the president?
A. nominate federal judges*
B. regulate interstate commerce
C. declare war
D. all of the above

3. Who said the president should “exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific rant of power or justly implied and included within such express grant as proper and necessary to its exercise.”
A. Abraham Lincoln
B. Alexander Hamilton
C. William Howard Taft*
D. Theodore Roosevelt

4. In an episode that became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” President Nixon fired Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, both of whom refused to follow the President’s order to dismiss Watergate special prosecutor ___________.
A. Robert H. Bork
B. William H. Rehnquist
C. Fred Dalton Thompson
D. Archibald Cox*

5. Who was the first President who used Presidential power to commit military forces to combat situations.
A. George Washington
B. James Madison
C. Thomas Jefferson*
D. John Adams

6. In Haig v. Agee (1981), the Supreme Court upheld the Reagan Administration’s decision to revoke the __________ of a former agent of the Central Intelligence Agency whose foreign activities were deemed a threat to national security.
A. citizenship
B. security clearance
C. transactional immunity
D. passport*

7. In response to the possibility that presidential reliance on treaties might override the limitations of the Constitution, which Senator in the 1950’s once proposed a constitutional amendment that would have nullified any treaty provision conflicting with the Constitution.
A. James Eastland
B. Joseph McCarthy
C. Strom Thurmond
D. John Bricker*

8. In Korematsu v. United States (1944) what did the Supreme Court state about a presidential order authorizing the exclusion of persons of Japanese ancestry from designated areas along the west coast of the United States?
A. it was an unconstitutional deprivation of due process and equal protection
B. it was inherently suspect but ultimately constitutional*
C. it had a rational basis
D. it presented a nonjusticiable political question

9. A treaty negotiated by the President and ratified by the Senate ________________.
A. may not be overturned by a duly enacted federal statute
B. may be negated by any of the fifty states acting in its sovereign capacity
C. cannot interfere with the implementation of previously enacted state legislation
D. may be overturned by a duly enacted federal statute*

10. In Dames and Moore v. Regan (1981), the Supreme Court upheld the validity of executive agreement between the United States and what other country?
A. Turkey
B. the Soviet Union
C. Cuba
D. Iran*

51. In 1964 Congress, through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, gave limited authority to President Johnson to take necessary military action to defend American interests and personnel in what country?
A. Cuba
B. Berlin
C. the Philippines
D. Vietnam*

52. In the Curtiss-Wright case of 1936 the Supreme Court asserted that the President is the “_____________of the federal government in the field of international relations.”
A. ultimate arbitrar
B. sole organ*
C. conveyor
D. partner

53. Which President was involved in the Prize Cases where the Supreme Court upheld a Presidential order for a naval blockade?
A. Hamilton
B. Jefferson
C. Lincoln*
D. Taft

54. In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), what did the Supreme Court do about President Truman’s order directing the federal government to seize control of certain steel mills?
A. upheld the order*
B. declared it suspect and unconstitutional
C. expressed dicta that the President ought to be impeached
D. declared no such national security powers exist

Last updated: Sept. 28, 2006
Not an official webpage of APSU, copyright restrictions apply, see Megalinks in Criminal Justice
O'Connor, T.  (Date of Last Update at bottom of page). In Part of web cited (Windows name for file at top of browser), MegaLinks in Criminal Justice. Retrieved from http://www.apsu.edu/oconnort/rest of URL accessed on today's date.