Questions and Answers of Introductory Sociology

What concerns have law enforcement officers expressed about enforcing Arizona’s Immigration Law SB 1070 effectively and fairly?
Explain the connection between Arizona’s Immigration Law SB 1070 and existing federal laws.
How did the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act affect detention during criminal deportation proceedings?
How did the Immigration and Nationality Act affect detainment during deportation proceedings?
Identify two major considerations in deciding whether to detain noncitizens during noncriminal deportation proceedings.
Distinguish between the rights we give an illegal immigrant detained on suspicion of crimes in the United States and the rights of an immigrant detained on suspicion of having a criminal record
List some factors the court considered when judging whether one immigration checkpoint met constitutional requirements to balance personal privacy with government need.
List and summarize the major provisions in the Military Commissions Act of 2006.Sort them according to the power of the government and the rights of the accused.
How do the constitutional requirements that apply to Article III (ordinary) criminal courts differ from those of military commissions?
Identify the sources of authority for the Military Order of November 13, 2001, and describe the jurisdiction of military commissions created by the order.
Identify and describe the two kinds of proceedings for the trial of suspected terrorists.
Describe how Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab’s Christmas attack differs from past incidents and how views of “terrorism as war” and “terrorism as crime” are affected by his case.
Describe how habeas corpus rights changed after Boumediene v. Bush.
Explain how Congress has responded to the Supreme Court expanding habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Describe how the court’s opinion on habeas corpus rights for detainees changed under Rasul v. Bush, and summarize the reasons they gave for that change.
What reasons did the U.S. Supreme Court give for denying German combatants in Japan access to U.S. federal courts after World War II?
How are lawful enemy combatants distinguished from unlawful enemy combatants?
Summarize the two sides of the argument over sneak-and-peek warrants that followed passage of the Patriot Act.
List and describe the three conditions under which the Patriot Act authorizes judges to issue sneak-and-peek warrants.
What were “sneak and peek” searches originally used for, and how has their legal status and definition changed since 9/11?
How, if at all, has the Patriot Act modified this balance?
Identify and describe the three tiers of the surveillance system designed to balance government power and individual privacy. Include in your description both government powers and the limits on that
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, why aren’t they protected?
Identify three types of personal information not protected from electronic surveillance by the Fourth Amendment.
Describe both sides of the argument about the changes in the balance between power and liberty brought about by the September 11, 2001, attacks.
What requirement of a constitutional democracy are all federal antiterrorism procedure laws based on?
Describe how our study of antiterrorism laws is limited, and give two reasons for this limitation.
Identify the difference between the responses to ordinary crime we’ve studied in previous chapters and the responses to domestic and international terrorism.
Summarize the history of criminal procedure in wartime.
Identify and describe two limits on government’s emergency powers.
According to the Rehnquist Court, what’s the main problem in habeas corpus review?
Identify eight interests furthered by limits to habeas corpus review.
List the three causes of the controversy over habeas corpus identified by U.S.Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.
Summarize the difference between the broad and narrow views of habeas corpus review.
Describe appellate review of criminal convictions by direct appeal and collateral attack.
What’s the difference between an appeal and a collateral attack?
Identify the nature and circumstances of the right to appeal a conviction.
When is the sentence of death not cruel and unusual punishment?
Summarize the significance of Williams v. New York (1949); Apprendi v. New Jersey(2000); Harris v. U.S. (2002); Blakely v. Washington (2004); U.S. v. Booker (2005);Rita v. U.S. (2007); and Gall v.
Identify and summarize the procedure rights convicted offenders enjoy during sentencing procedures.
Explain how the proportionality principle affects challenges to the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments.
List and summarize the five main findings of empirical research on the effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentences.
Identify the three aims of criminal punishment that mandatory minimum sentences are supposed to satisfy.
Identify the two main targets of current mandatory minimum sentences.
List the reasons for the abandonment of mandatory minimum sentences in the 1970s.
List the reasons for the revival of mandatory minimum sentences in the 1950s.
What two elements are balanced in sentencing guidelines?
Compare and contrast sentencing guidelines with mandatory minimum sentences.
Identify three aims of both sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences.
Identify and describe the three divisions of sentencing authority.
List three ideas that came to dominate thinking about sentencing in the 1970s.
Trace the history of sentencing from A.D. 700 to the present.
In the debate over sentencing, identify the two sides that have characterized its history for more than a thousand years.
Describe the reasons for the assumption that one shot of justice is enough.
Why is the change of status from defendant to offender more than “just a change of words”?
Explain why plea bargains have special importance to prosecutors of white-collar crimes.
List reasons why a plea bargain might not be a rational attempt to settle a dispute according to the “strength of the evidence and the expected punishment after trial.”
Describe and explain the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brady v. U.S.
Explain how a defendant can be factually innocent but legally guilty.
List three constitutional rights defendants waive when they plead guilty.
Summarize the arguments for and against plea bargaining.
Explain the difference between straight and negotiated guilty pleas.
Describe and explain the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Apodaca v. Oregon and Johnson v. Louisiana.
What’s the difference between the jury’s verdict and the judgment of the court?
Describe and explain the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court case of In re Winship.
List and briefly summarize the stages in the criminal trial.
Explain the difference between peremptory challenges and challenges for cause.
Identify five sources most jurisdictions use to draw up jury lists, and list six reasons jurors give to be excused from jury service. Why do most courts accept their excuses?
Contrast conviction by trial with conviction by guilty plea.
What kind of question is answered by the motion to suppress evidence?
Describe and summarize the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sheppard v. Maxwell.
Summarize the arguments against changes of venue.
According to the Federal Speedy Trial Act, when does the government have to begin prosecution? Arraign defendants? Bring defendants to trial?
Describe and explain the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Heath v. Alabama and Ciucci v. Illinois.
Identify the four possible pleas defendants can enter at their arraignment.
List and describe the differences between testing the government’s case by grand jury review and by preliminary hearing.
Identify, define, and explain the two-prongs of the U.S. Supreme Court’s test of“effective” counsel adopted in Strickland v. Washington.
List four guidelines for defining indigence developed by the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and summarize the detailed definition of indigence adopted in Minnesota.
Summarize the facts of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Argersinger v. Hamlin.
List the “critical stages” of criminal prosecutions.
What constitutional rights do pretrial detainees have regarding the conditions of their confinement?
According to the 1984 Bail Reform Act, when can judges preventively detain defendants?
Describe the obstacles pretrial detention creates for defendants trying to prepare their defense.
Identify three constitutional rights our bail system denies to poor defendants, and explain how each is denied.
Exactly what does the constitutional right to bail consist of?
Describe the balance struck in the decision to bail or detain defendants.
Identify and describe the consequences of detention before trial.
List the “administrative steps” police officers can complete before they take detained suspects to magistrates.
What’s the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court case Gerstein v. Pugh?
Explain the difference between probable cause to detain a suspect and probable cause to go to trial.
Why and when do police officers have to take arrested suspects to a magistrate?
List and explain the importance of the reasons behind the decision of prosecutors to charge, divert, or drop criminal cases.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, why is the initiation of judicial proceedings not just a “mere formalism”?
Identify the two roles of prosecutors and how the roles affect their decisions.
List the reasons that affect whether police drop cases or take them to prosecutors.
Describe what occurs following arrest, interrogation, and identification procedures.
Does civilian review work? Explain.
Identify three reasons why police oppose civilian review.
Identify the basic objection to internal review. How is external review supposed to overcome the objection?
Identify and describe the stages, possible dispositions, and disciplinary actions in internal review procedures.

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