Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

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Click here for, inter alia, our traditional Short Quizzes followed by Suggested Answers.

This month, there is enough time for 3 quizzes.

Traditionally, the quizzes provide “thought piece” suggestions regarding what to look for in a focus book, or what to be aware of in reading it.

So I have tried to judge the 6 most important constitutional issues facing America at the moment, so that we can judge how well “The Quartet” did in creating the American Constitution. My list (which is NOT NECESSARILY in my order of importance, but rather in order of how quickly it would be able to concoct Quizzes and Reference Materials which address them appropriately) --

(1) School desegregation and charter schools.
(2) Abortion.
(3) Gun/knife control (NB: Britain is now banning knives but what about motor vehicles?).
(4) Campaign finance.
(5) Ruling by Executive Order and the Senate’s Filibuster Rule Which, Until The Last Decade Or So, Was Used SOLELY To Perpetuate Segregation.
(6) FISA and Authoritarian Rule by Our Intelligence Services.

I will try to address two of these topics in each of the 3 Short Quizzes.

Anyone who believes there should be an addition to this list is invited to post her/his views post haste.

BTW, consideration of these issues, primarily in terms of U.S. Supreme Court opinions, should afford ample opportunity to consider other dimensions of our consideration of “The Quartet” such as “original intent” vs. “legislating from the bench.”

Respectfully submitted 4/12/2018,

John Karls
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johnkarls
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Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

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Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz


NB: The text of U.S. Supreme Court opinions referenced in this quiz are posted in the “Reference Materials” section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org for our 5/16/2018 meeting.

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Part I – Questions Relating To School Desegregation and Charter Schools

Question 1

Were all of “The Quartet” (George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) slave owners?

Answer 1

President George Washington owned a plantation and many slaves.

President James Madison also owned slaves his entire life. Moreover, James Madison was the author of the notorious idea, etched in the Constitution, that even though a slave was not entitled to vote, each slave should be counted as 3/5 of a human being for such purposes as determining the number of seats each state would have in the House of Representatives.

[BTW, 10 of America’s first 12 presidents were slave owners. Only No. 2 John Adams and his son No. 6 John Quincy Adams, both of Massachusetts, did NOT own slaves. Indeed, all of the other early Presidents were MAJOR slave-owners – No. 1 George Washington with more than 300, No. 3 Thomas Jefferson with more than 600, No. 4 James Madison with more than 100, No. 5 James Monroe with approx. 75, and No. 7 Andrew Jackson with more than 200.]

But back to “The Quartet”!!!

Alexander Hamilton, who never became President, was a New York attorney who handled many slave purchases and slave sales for clients. Some biographers claim he opposed slavery; other biographers report that he actually owned slaves personally.

John Jay, who also never became President though he did become the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789-1795) and Governor of New York (1795-1801), was a slave owner and his father, Peter Jay, was one of the largest slave owners in New York. However, he did take an active role after 1777 (which was AFTER the Declaration of Independence but BEFORE the Constitutional Convention) in trying to abolish slavery in New York by proposing an unsuccessful abolition law (NB: by the time John Jay joined the “band wagon,” every member of the New York Legislature, except one, had already voted for abolition in one form or other).

Question 2

Because most of America’s “founding fathers” were slave owners, were the so-called Civil War Amendments (13, 14 and 15) required to treat African Americans as human beings?

Answer 2

To the everlasting shame of the “founding fathers”!!!

Question 3

Did the Fourteenth Amendment require states to provide all citizens, including the freed slaves, “equal protection of the law”?

Answer 3

At least on paper!!!

But please see the second and third sections of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “Possible Topic Beginning Fall 2011 - Inner-City Holocaust and America’s Apartheid ‘Justice’ System (In Honor of Jonathan Kozol and In Memory of John Howard Griffin)” for which the “Question Presented For Review” to the U.S. Supreme Court in deciding whether to accept our appeal was --

“Can state court judges order their decisions which they know are diametrically-opposed to well-settled law, not to be published or cited (a strategy labeled ‘the segregated toilet’ in correspondence with 51 inner-city clergy who represent the 10 million inner-city children who have been disclosed from the outset as the ‘real parties at interest’ in this law suit) in order to flush away the rights of the 10 million inner-city children without disturbing the rights of first-class American citizens -- without violating the ‘Equal Protection of the Law’ requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?”

On 10/4/2011, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear our appeal after 21 prominent National and California politicians (beginning with President Obama) refused our multiple requests to file Amicus Curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs urging the Court to hear our appeal, and after 43 news-media superstars (starting with Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill, and including virtually all of the luminaries at NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post) refused multiple appeals to “shine a light” on what was happening -- EVEN THOUGH President Obama and the other 20 prominent national/California pols AND EVEN THOUGH every one of those 43 news-media superstars KNEW THAT ANY ONE OF THEM LIFTING A SINGLE FINGER might have been sufficient FOR 10 MILLION INNER-CITY CHILDREN TO ESCAPE “A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH”!!!

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In addition, please read on Q&A-4 through Q&A-12 about school segregation, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Parents vs. Seattle School District No. 1, with the underlying factual pattern which served as an excuse for the Supreme Court’s decision being condemned in one of the last of Jonathan Kozol’s zillions of books on America’s schools, this one entitled “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America” (Random House 2005).

Question 4

Even though the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868, three years after the end of the American Civil War, did the U.S. Supreme Court decide 28 years later in its notorious Plessy v. Ferguson decision that racial segregation of public facilities (not only schools but restaurants, hotels, even public drinking fountains and toilets, etc.) did NOT violate “equal protection” so long as “separate but equal” public facilities were provided for African Americans?

Answer 4

Incredibly!!!

Question 5

Following the Civil War, did the 11 Confederate states and 6 additional “slave states” that did not secede from the Union during the Civil War, establish by force of law “separate” school systems for African Americans even though they were often living “side by side” with whites?

Answer 5

Yes.

BTW, Abraham Lincoln is wrongly credited with fighting the American Civil War to abolish slavery!!!

Yes, that may have been the motivation for many of the Northern States to join the fight.

But both before and throughout the war (Lincoln was fatally shot 4/14/1865 which was BEFORE the 4/26/1865 end of the war), Lincoln’s stated reason was to “Preserve the Union” because he wanted desperately to keep the 6 “slave states” that did NOT join the Confederacy, from doing so.

Indeed, even Lincoln’s famous “Emancipation Proclamation” has its own mythology!!!

Lincoln was not trying to free the slaves!!!

If you actually read Lincoln’s 1/1/1863 “Emancipation Proclamation,” Lincoln was explicitly using his “Commander in Chief” power --

(1) to declare free ONLY THE SLAVES who were “held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States…..” and

(2) to offer each of the Confederacy’s freed slaves immediate employment (for those who met military standards) in the Union Army/Navy.

ACCORDINGLY, LINCOLN’S “EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION” REWARDED THE SIX “SLAVE STATES” THAT HAD REMAINED IN THE UNION -- WITH THE INTENT, ACCORDING TO MANY REPUTABLE HISTORIANS, OF PREVENTING FURTHER DEFECTIONS!!!

Question 6

In 1954, did a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, reverse Plessy v. Ferguson and rule that “separate is inherently unequal”?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

Did President Eisenhower decide to do nothing to enforce Brown v. Board until after his 1956 re-election so as not to jeopardize it?

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

BTW, even though President Truman is often credited with de-segregating the Armed Forces by Executive Order, did it actually take until 1954 for President Eisenhower to implement it because President Truman had neglected to do so?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

So is it any surprise that following President Eisenhower’s re-election in 1956, the focal point of Southern defiance would be Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus calling out the Arkansas National Guard on 9/4/1957 to prevent 9 African American students from entering Little Rock’s Central High School?

Answer 9

The defiance shouldn’t be!!! Though the defiance could have happened first at any of a zillion different venues!!!

Question 10

Was the nation then treated to 3 weeks of stand-off as President Eisenhower effectively kept saying to Gov. Faubus “don’t make me do it” and Gov. Faubus effectively kept replying “over my dead body”?

Answer 10

Yes.

Question 11

On 9/24/1957, after three weeks of stand-off, did President Eisenhower finally nationalize the 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops and then, as their new Commanding Officer, order them to “stand down” while he ordered the “Screaming Eagles” of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the 9 students into Central H.S., and then to establish an impregnable perimeter defense around the school?

Answer 11

The 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops who had just been nationalized knew that disobeying their new Commanding Officer would result in court martial.

And the 10,000-plus “Screaming Eagles” of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, which had been created in 1942 for its famous “Rendezvous With Destiny” parachuting into three different “drop zones” behind Nazi lines on “D-Day” followed by pivotal roles in other crucial battles with the Nazis, such as the Nazi counter-attack at the The Battle of the Bulge” which nearly succeeded -- were an intimidating-enough sight to “keep the peace” in what could have been a very bloody and wide-ranging rebellion.

Question 12

Did the 2007 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Parents v. Seattle School District No. 1 effectively restore school desegregation by ruling that segregated school districts based on segregated housing where there had been no previous history of “separate but equal” de jure dual school systems, are just fine under “equal protection of the law”?

Answer 12

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 13

In 2009, did Stanford University conduct a study of 2,403 charter schools (about half of all charter schools and 70% of all charter-school students) which found that 37% had learning gains that were SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW those of local public schools, 46% had gains that were NO DIFFERENT, and ONLY 17% showed growth that was significantly better?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

Was this surprising because charter schools typically select only students of parents who were functional enough to have their children apply – and because charter schools typically expel under-performing students?

Answer 14

Yes.

Question 15

Was it even more surprising because the Stanford University study was funded by PRO-CHARTER groups including the Walton Family Foundation, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation?

Answer 15

Yes.

Question 16

Did this cause us to opine, after noting yet once again (which we have done so often over the years) that the abysmal performance of inner-city schools is a SOCIOLOGY problem rather than an EDUCATION problem -- that substituting charter schools (which typically do NOT have qualified teachers) for public schools is like closing an inner-city police precinct in whose jurisdiction a crime is committed, and hiring amateurs in place of the trained police officers?

Answer 16

Yes.

BTW, the 2009 Stanford U study was discussed at length in the focus book for our 9/12/2012 meeting authored by Diane Ravitch (NYU’s Research Professor of Education and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education) and entitled “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” (Basic Books 2010).

Obviously, Prof. Ravitch liked our opinion “that substituting charter schools (which typically do NOT have qualified teachers) for public schools is like closing an inner-city police precinct in whose jurisdiction a crime is committed, and hiring amateurs in place of the trained police officers”!!!

Because she included it (without attribution) in her next book which was entitled “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the School Privatization Movement” (Knopf 2013) and which was the focus of our 6/17/2015 meeting!!!

We, of course, feel honored whenever anyone adopts one of our ideas -- with or without attribution!!!

Question 17

In doing so, were we necessarily opposed to the concept of charter schools, or only the vast majority of charter schools that Stanford University demonstrated were “fake schools” because there had been a failure to police them properly?

Answer 17

Our analysis, if memory serves, was NOT this detailed.

So let’s discuss the issue!!!


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Part II – Questions Relating To Abortion

Editorial Note: Much of the following information necessary to answer the following questions can be found on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org by scrolling down to the materials for our 12/11/2013 meeting on “Third Trimester Abortions” and 1/9/2013 meeting on “Assisted Suicide.”

Question 1

Are the famous “Ten Commandments” actually 10 of the 613 laws of Judaism?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Does the Roman Catholic Church emphasize the Ten Commandments?

Answer 2

Yes. Some would say exclusively.

Question 3

Does official Roman Catholic Doctrine hold that life begins at conception and that, therefore, abortion violates “Thou Shalt Not Kill” of the Ten Commandments?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Do all of my Jewish friends call Roman Catholicism “Judaism Lite” because it only preaches compliance with the Ten Commandments?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

Do many of my Protestant friends believe that the Ten Commandments have NOTHING TO DO with Christianity because Christ had only TWO Commandments for “inheriting eternal life” (Love God With All Your Heart/Soul/Strength/Mind and Love Your Neighbor As Yourself, which Christ immediately followed with the Story of the Good Samaritan to drive home the point that EVERY HUMAN BEING is your neighbor)?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

For example, is it possible to “Honor Your Mother and Father” without actually loving them?

Answer 6

What do you think???

Question 7

Or is it possible to avoid bearing false witness against your neighbor, and avoid coveting your neighbor’s house, wife, servants, animals or anything else that is thy neighbor’s – without actually loving your neighbor?

Answer 7

What do you think???

Question 8

Accordingly, is it any surprise that many (if not most) Protestants do not believe abortion violates Christ’s TWO Commandments?

Answer 8

It shouldn’t be!!!

Question 9

For example, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade recognizing a constitutional right to abortion during the first two trimesters, did the United Methodist Church condone abortion provided: (1) it is legal in the jurisdiction in which it occurs, (2) proper medical procedures are employed, (3) parental notification is required for minors, (4) abortion is not a means of gender selection, (5) abortion does not comprise “late-term abortion” (aka “partial birth abortion”); and (6) thoughtful and prayerful consideration is employed and is accompanied with medical, family, pastoral and other appropriate counsel?

Answer 9

Absolutely!!!

Question 10

Was Roe v. Wade surprising because the Supreme Court based its decision on a constitutional “right to privacy” EVEN THOUGH a “right to privacy” is NOT mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution (including Amendments)?

Answer 10

Yes.

Question 11

Had the result in Roe v. Wade been widely expected ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS of “equal protection of the law” because wealthy women could afford to go to other jurisdictions where abortion was legal?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

BTW was the plaintiff, Jane Roe, a fictitious name? In other words, when courts decide to protect the identity of male plaintiffs/defendants, are they typically called “John Doe” for which the female equivalent is “Jane Roe”?

Answer 12

Yes.

Norma Leah McCorvey Nelson (9/22/1947 - 2/18/2017) went public as “Jane Roe” in her 1994 autobiography entitled “I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice” (HarperCollins 1994).

Question 13

And BTW, was our 12/11/2013 meeting on “Third Trimester Abortions” prompted by the news accounts of how notorious Dr. Kermit Gosnell was convicted of snipping the spinal cords of just-born babies, rather than aborting them before birth?

Answer 13

Yes.

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