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30 multiple-choice questions and 17 flashcards on Constitutional Law, about 10% of the UBE bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
Constitutional Law is one of 16 chapters in CoStudy's UBE — Uniform Bar Examination bank, and it holds 30 of the bank's 301 multiple-choice questions — roughly 10% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.
Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.
10 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.
The Contracts Clause of Article I, § 10 restricts:
Answer: D — State laws impairing existing private contract obligations
A) The Contracts Clause applies to states, not the federal government. D) Correct — the Clause bars state laws substantially impairing existing contract obligations unless they serve a significant and legitimate public purpose. C) Private modifications are unregulated. B) Federal courts can hear state contract disputes in diversity.
State action is required to trigger constitutional constraints, including under the Fourteenth Amendment:
Answer: C — Public utility acting under significant state authority
A) Purely private employer decisions typically lack state action. B) Neighborhood associations are private absent significant state entanglement. C) Correct — utilities operating under significant state authorization can be treated as state actors (Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison; entwinement doctrine). D) Retailer product decisions are private.
A state prisoner challenged a prison grooming rule. While the appeal was pending he was released, but the record showed the state routinely reimposed the rule on returning parolees and that litigation of such claims regularly outlasts confinement. The court should MOST likely hold the case is:
Answer: D — Justiciable, because the harm is capable of repetition yet evading review
D) Correct — the exception preserves review where the challenged action is too short to be fully litigated and the same party may face it again. A) applies the general mootness rule while missing the recognized exception. B) misuses the political question doctrine; prison rules are routinely reviewed. C) inverts the problem, which is that review may come too late, not too early.
A city ordinance denied business permits to anyone who had not resided in the city for five years. A recent arrival challenged it. What standard of review will a court MOST likely apply?
Answer: C — Strict scrutiny, because the rule penalizes the fundamental right to interstate travel
C) Correct — durational residence requirements that penalize newcomers burden the right to travel and draw strict scrutiny. A) is the usual test for economic rules but overlooks the travel penalty. B) invents a tier; residence duration is not a quasi-suspect classification. D) treats benefits as unreviewable, contrary to unconstitutional-conditions doctrine.
A state law barred the sale within the state of milk produced outside the state unless the out-of-state producer paid a fee equal to the difference between its home price and the higher in-state minimum price. Producers elsewhere challenged the law. The law is MOST likely:
Answer: B — Invalid, because it neutralizes the competitive advantage of out-of-state producers
B) Correct — a measure whose design is to erase the cost advantage of out-of-state goods is economic protectionism and is virtually per se invalid under the dormant commerce clause. A) states a true general power but ignores the discriminatory operation. C) is true-but-irrelevant; the dormant doctrine operates without congressional action. D) reaches the right outcome by the wrong route; the defect is discrimination, not apportionment.
Congress's authority to regulate purely intrastate activity that, in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce derives from:
Answer: B — The Commerce Clause of Article I, Section 8
A) The Tenth Amendment reserves power to the states — it is not an affirmative grant to Congress. B) Correct — the Commerce Clause, as construed in Wickard, Lopez, and Raich, reaches activities that in the aggregate substantially affect interstate commerce. C) The Spending Clause conditions federal funds but does not directly regulate commerce. D) The N&P Clause is auxiliary to another enumerated power, not a standalone source.
Under the Indian Civil Rights Act and Oliphant v. Suquamish, a tribal court generally:
Answer: D — Lacks criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians absent specific federal authorization
A) Oliphant rejects criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians as a general matter. D) Correct — tribes lack inherent criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, but Congress has restored limited authority (VAWA 2013, expanded 2022) for certain offenses. C) Federal criminal law is applied by federal courts. B) Tribal courts do not review state-court criminal proceedings.
Under intermediate scrutiny for a sex-based classification, the government must show:
Answer: B — An important interest served by substantially related means
A) That is strict scrutiny. B) Correct — Craig v. Boren requires an important governmental interest and means substantially related to that interest. C) That is rational basis. D) Administrative convenience alone is insufficient (Frontiero).
The Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV protects out-of-state citizens from:
Answer: C — Discrimination as to fundamental rights and economic activity
A) Licensure is permissible where substantially related to legitimate state interests. B) General-service fees survive constitutional review. C) Correct — the Clause bars state discrimination against nonresidents concerning fundamental rights, including the right to pursue a livelihood (Toomer, Piper). D) Higher taxes are permissible if not discriminatory.
A city banned all signs on public utility poles to reduce visual clutter, with no exception based on message. A political campaign challenged the ban as applied to its posters. The ordinance is MOST likely:
Answer: C — Valid, if it is narrowly tailored to a substantial interest and leaves other channels open
C) Correct — a content-neutral restriction is judged as a time, place, and manner rule requiring narrow tailoring to a significant interest and adequate alternative channels. A) overstates the protection for political speech, which is still subject to neutral rules. B) treats a medium ban as automatically fatal, which it is not when the interest is aesthetic and neutral. D) reaches a defensible result by the wrong route; the analysis here still requires tailoring.
4 cards from the 17 in this chapter.
Name the three tiers of equal protection review and their tests.
Strict scrutiny: narrowly tailored to a compelling interest. Intermediate: substantially related to an important interest. Rational basis: rationally related to a legitimate interest.
Content-based vs content-neutral speech?
Content-based: strict scrutiny. Content-neutral (time, place, manner): intermediate.
Levels of scrutiny?
Strict (suspect class, fundamental right), Intermediate (gender, illegitimacy), Rational basis (economic, social).
When is a content-based restriction on speech valid?
Only if it survives strict scrutiny, or falls in an unprotected category such as incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, fighting words, obscenity, or defamation.
These are a sample. The full Constitutional Law chapter runs 47 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.