November/December 2001Question:
What was "the first plan for a self-determining government in America" called and when was it drawn up?
Answer:
The Mayflower Compact, signed by all adult male Pilgrims in November 1620, created a civil body politic to enact law and established majority rule.
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October 2001 Question:
What person, educated in law at University College in London in 1891, became a world-renowned leader of civil disobedience?
Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), born in India and educated in the law in London, England, developed his ways in nonviolent protest first in South Africa and later in his native India.
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September 2001 Question:
The U. S. Constitution originally stated that the U.S. Senate was to be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the state legislatures. When and how did that rule change?
Answer:
The 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, provided direct election of U.S. Senators.
Correct Entries:
E. Flewelling, Holden, Maine
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August 2001 Question:
Which state passed the nation's first bottle deposit law and in what year?
Answer:
Oregon passed the first bottle bill law in 1971. Nine states followed: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Vermont.
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July 2001 Question:
Who was the first woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court and the first woman attorney to run for the U.S. Presidency?
Answer:
Belva Ann (Bennett) Lockwood (1830-1917), admitted to the Bar in Washington, D.C. in 1873, lobbied Congress to pass a law to allow women to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. When the law passed in 1879, she became the first woman to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1884 and 1888 she ran for the U.S. Presidency as a member of the Equal Rights Party.
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June 2001 Question:
"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."
Who wrote the quote above and where can it be found?
Answer:
In 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. The decision determined that segregation of children by race in public schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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May 2001 Question:
What distinguished American served as President of the United States and later as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court?
Answer:
William Howard Taft was the 27th U.S. President, from 1909 to 1913 and the 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, from 1921 to 1930.
Correct Entries:
E. Flewelling, Holden, Maine
H. Leeming, Poulsbo, Washington
M. Puls, Denver, Colorado
J. Finotti, Poulsbo, Washington
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March/April 2001 Question:
Name the five men standing in the center of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence.
Answer:
John Adams (left), Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, members of the drafting committee, present the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress.
Correct Entries:
E. Flewelling, Holden, Maine.
C. Jones, Coralville, Iowa.
