U.S. Citizenship Practice Test 5 (20 Questions)

Article I creates Congress and lists its powers, which shows how central lawmaking was to the framers. Article II covers the President, and Article III the federal courts.

Congress proposed the amendments in 1789, and enough states had ratified ten of them by December 1791. The year 1787 is when the Constitution itself was written.

The First Amendment begins, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." This keeps the federal government from choosing an official faith, and an ordinary law cannot get around it no matter who supports it.

Judicial review is the power of courts to declare a law or government action unconstitutional, and Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison established it. The veto belongs to the President, not to the courts.

Article I says all bills for raising revenue must start in the House of Representatives, the chamber closest to the voters. The Senate can still propose changes to such bills once the House has sent them over.

A candidate needs a majority of the 538 votes, which is 270. With 269 the race could end in a 269-269 tie, and then the House of Representatives would choose the President.

The members of the House elect the Speaker, who then leads the chamber and comes right after the Vice President in the line of succession. The President and the Senate have no vote in this choice.

The Constitution says the President shall "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union," and today this is a televised speech. An inaugural address is given only at the start of a term, and the Farewell Address was George Washington's 1796 letter to the nation.

The Constitution requires the President to be a natural-born citizen. Naturalized citizens can and do serve in the Senate, in the House and on federal courts.

Federal law sets Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, so it always falls between November 2 and November 8. Presidential elections take place on this day every four years, and House elections every two years.

The Sixth Amendment gives people accused of crimes the right to a lawyer, a speedy and public trial and an impartial jury. Courts have ruled that if a defendant cannot afford a lawyer, one must be provided.

Due process means the government must follow fair, established legal procedures, such as notice and a hearing, before it punishes someone or takes property. The Fifth Amendment limits the federal government, and the Fourteenth applies the same rule to the states.

Britain's Quartering Acts made colonists provide lodging and supplies for British troops, and the Declaration of Independence lists this among its complaints; the Third Amendment later limited it. Impressment, forcing sailors into the British navy, was a cause of the War of 1812.

Washington's crossing of the Delaware River led to a victory at Trenton on December 26, 1776, which lifted American spirits after months of defeats. Most of the soldiers at Trenton were Hessians, German troops hired by Britain.

The Underground Railroad was a network of people and hiding places that helped enslaved people escape to free states and Canada. It was not an actual railroad, and Tubman was one of its best-known guides, called "conductors."

John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, and Lincoln died the next morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson then became President; James Garfield was assassinated later, in 1881.

The United States joined Britain, France and Italy against the Central Powers led by Germany and Austria-Hungary. Japan and Canada were also on the Allied side in that war, even though Japan became an enemy in World War II.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy demanded that the Soviet missiles be removed from Cuba, and after 13 tense days the Soviet Union agreed. The crisis shows why fear of nuclear war was a main concern of the Cold War.

The 1956 law made "In God We Trust" the official national motto. "E Pluribus Unum" was the nation's first motto and has been on the Great Seal since 1782, while "liberty and justice for all" comes from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Columbus Day is observed on the second Monday in October, and some states and cities mark Indigenous Peoples' Day on the same date. Labor Day is the first Monday in September, Memorial Day the last Monday in May, and Veterans Day is always November 11.