A Few Movie Clips to Finish the Course

Allegory:  The Lion King (1994)

where it came from....

The lure of fascism: Gabriel Over the White House (1933):

Prophecy: Contagion (2011!)

The rule of law:  A Man for All Seasons (1966)

What makes us Americans: Bridge of Spies (2015):

Practice Final

I. Identifications. 

Explain the meaning and significance of 12 of the 15 following items (4 points each).Each answer should be a brief paragraph. 

What is fair game for an identification?

• Items that we have discussed in class or on the blog;
• Items that appear in bold or italics in the readings, or are in the glossary or key terms lists in Lowi;
• Items that cover several pages in the readings.

1. Iron Triangle
2. Majority faction
3. Latinx
4. "Shadow machines"
5. Civil religion
6. National Economic Council
7. PAC
8. Party identification
9. Socialization
10. Amicus curiae
11. The House Bank
12. Exclusionary rule
13. Unfunded mandate
14. Expressed powers
15. Descriptive representation

II. Short answers. 

Answer 3 of 5 (6 points each). Each answer should be a brief paragraph.

1. Briefly explain: “I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous.”
2. Briefly explain: “Our written laws are often hard to understand, but everyone can read them, whereas nothing could be more obscure and out of research of the common man than a law founded on precedent.”
3. Briefly explain: "The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error."
4. Did the Framers believe in "republics" but disdain democracy?
5. How did the structure of local government hinder the response to the Eaton and Palisades fires?

III.  General Essays. 

Answer 2 of 3 (17 points each). Each answer should take 3-4 small bluebook pages.

1. How would Tocqueville explain why a case such as Edwards v. Aguillard came to the Supreme Court?
2. Explain the major ways in which Congress can check the president. Do they still work?
3. See this article. Why did the witness invoke Madison and Hamilton? What would supporters and opponents of the president say to these Founders? https://www.foxnews.com/politics/impeachment-witness-tells-lawmakers-to-consider-having-to-answer-to-hamilton-and-madison-in-the-afterlife 

IV. Bonus questions (one point each) Very briefly identify the following:

• Scott Bessent
• Beryl Howell
• James Clyburn
• Ryan Iwasaka
• Kari Lake

Religion, Immigration, and War

Will post a practice final this week.

Adjourn at noon for student experience survey

Bellah:

Considering the separation of church and state, how is a president justified in using the word "God" at all? The answer is that the separation of church and state has not denied the political realm a religious dimension. Although matters of personal religious belief, worship, and association are considered to be strictly private affairs, there are, at the same time, certain common elements of religious orientation that the great majority of Americans share. These have played a crucial role in the development of American institutions and still provide a religious dimension for the whole fabric of American life, including the political sphere. This public religious dimension is expressed in a set of beliefs, symbols, and rituals that I am calling American civil religion. The inauguration of a president is an important ceremonial event in this religion. It reaffirms, among other things, the religious legitimation of the highest political authority. 

JFK:

Solemn oath

JFK quoted the Protestant King James Bible, not the Catholic Confraternity Douay Bible.  Protestant Ted Sorensen actually wrote the speech.  

See his 1960 speech to the Houston Ministerial Association (start about one minute in):

• Winthrop's "City on a Hill" (New Testament verse)
• The Liberty Bell: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10)
• 1777 Thanksgiving Proclamation

SCOTUS 

• Supeme Court  door and a problematic frieze

Trends in religion

Immigration:

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (JFK supported, LBJ saw it become law)

Immigration trends (Mo is a CMC alum)

War

• Religion, immigration, and the Manhattan Project
• Forbes story

Disability: