Air Midterm 2025

Relax. This “air midterm” does not count toward your grade, and you do not even turn it in. Instead, use it to appraise your own progress in the course. Try out this practice test, either in your head or on paper. If you flounder, then you should take more care with class sessions and assigned readings.

I. Identifications In a short paragraph each, explain the meaning and significance of the following items. 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;
• Items that cover several pages in the readings.

Items

• “Energy in the executive”
• Prosecutorial discretion
• Self-evident truths
• Moeurs
• Richard Henry Lee
• Nuclear Freeze
• The 25th Amendment
• The Progressive Theory of the Constitution
• Mitch McConnell
• "Civil Religion"

II. Short essays. In a couple of paragraphs each, answer the following.

With reference to Amar, explain the "republic or democracy" distinction

Explain the significance of the phrase "Save Social Security first."

“[A]nd to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit.” Explain.

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's [sic] most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. " Explain.

III. General Essays 

• According to Tocqueville, what are the main causes that maintain a democratic republic in the United States? Explain.
• Explain the major arguments for and against originalism.
• Explain the impact of the Three-Fifths Compromise on political power in antebellum America.
• Explain how a president exerts influence over Congress.

Bonus questions.  Very briefly identify the following:

• Linda McMahon
• Brooke Rolllins
• Lee Zeldin
• Susie Wiles
• Patricia Macica Smaldone