These questions are based on the “Sex Class Action” article:

What did the Supreme Court decide in the Wal-Mart case? And more importantly, how did it justify its decision? (HINT: the key word here is “commonality” (and how it related to “class-action lawsuit”). Try to understand what this legal terms means, as it is key to the court’s decision).

The Supreme Court decided Wal-Mart won in this case, even though they class-action lawsuit, in law they don’t share the same commonality, due to the reason that those women were in the different Wal-Mart, not in the same market, under the same manager.

1. In what ways is the court system better suited to protect the individual, than are the elected branches of government (such as Congress and the President; or the Mayor of NYC and the NYC City Assembly)? Give an example to illustrate your argument.

The court system is better suited to protect the individual because the law is passed to protect individuals. The case of Brown v. Board showed that even if the public doesn’t like the decision, it wouldn’t affect the decision of the court system.

2.Think about how federal judges get to become judges – unlike Presidents, Mayors and members of Congress (and other legislatures), they are not elected, but rather appointed. Many Americans have thus called the federal courts system, and especially the Supreme Court, anti-democratic PLACES IN OUR GOVERNMENT. Do you agree that the Supreme Court, for example, is an anti-democratic part of our government? What could be the reason for this way of choosing judges in federal courts? (HINT: think about our discussion of “Federalist #10”, and which social class plays a leading role in our government system.)

I think it’s somewhat anti-democratic, but America isn’t specifically a democratic country, since the capital class won’t want that to affect their benefit. And in another hand, the judge might be biased, if they have to be elected to be the judge.

1. P. Williams writes in her essay, that the war on terror is a new type of a war. What’s new about it, how is it different from traditional wars?

The war on terror is the war in mind, which means there’s no specific enemy in the war, only fear and panic about the possibilities of  surrounding people becoming terrorists. The difference between war on terror and traditional war is that the traditional war has a specific enemy or target, people know who’s the target that they should be against.

2. In what ways does the “Roving Wiretaps” of the Patriot Act seem to violate the Bill of Rights? Which amendment(s) does it seem to violate and why?

It violated the Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution, because the Roving Wiretaps are violating the individual’s right to protect their privacy.

3. What about “Sneak and Peek” Warrants?

While people have the right to remain silent or the protection of one’s property, the action of sneaking into an individual’s house is considered violating the US Constitution.

1. Describe how you understand the “Establishment Clause” and the related “Lemon Test”.

The Congress is prohibited to create or support a religion under the Establishment Clause and the Lemon Test is also to prevent the government from passing a law that would break the balance of religious freedom, because the government is supposed to stay neutral on religion.

2. Is burning the US flag protected by the First Amendment? Explain by referring to the relevant court case discussed in the reading.

Yes, it was counted as constitutionally protected free speech, “ However, in 1989, the Supreme Court decided in Texas v. Johnson that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment and found the law, as applied to flag desecration, to be unconstitutional” (Reading 9.1). 

3. What does it mean when someone says “I’m taking the Fifth”?

It means that people have the right to remain silent in front of the law enforcement officials, “This provision is so well known that we have a phrase for it: “taking the Fifth.” People have the right not to give evidence in court or to law enforcement officers that might constitute an admission of guilt or responsibility for a crime” (Reading 9.2).

1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems.

The government authority is divided into two sets of power to separate the power, citizens vote for the representatives in the Federal system. The confederation system relies on the local government, which is also by voting representatives for the local government, while the unitary system is the central government doing everything, and the citizens don’t have much power.

2. Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power.

The national organization of the United States was formulated based on the two major political ideas of separation of powers and the federal system. When the constitution was drafted, it was feared that the excessive concentration of power on individuals or a certain department would endanger the freedom of the people. Therefore, the legislative, judicial, and executive powers are independent to check and balance each other to avoid government abuse of power.

3. How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government provides the financial funds, the state, and local government will have the decision of using those grants, incentives, or aid to help the citizens depending on the place they are in charge of. During the COVID-19, the federal government provided millions of dollars to state and local governments.  These institutions provided the first batch of US$25 million to the most affected areas for medical supplies, laboratory equipment, additional personnel, and other preventive measures. Another $10 million in federal funding is being used to help state and local governments across the country detect new cases. The state and local governments in each state have declared a state of emergency, allowing government officials to implement strong public health protection measures. California protects consumers, prohibits driving up the prices of food, gasoline, and other daily necessities, and allows out-of-state medical workers to come to help.  Washington State officials provide labor insurance to all health care workers.

1. What concept that we have already discussed does “faction” remind you of?

A small group in politics, like wealth class to working class.

2. According to Federalist #10 (written by James Madison), what is the source of wealth (private property)? What factor explains why some people get to possess wealth by owning private property, and others don’t (thus remaining poor)? This is a key question, because it shows how the authors of the Constitution thought about the difference between different classes of Americans! HINT: focus on the passage that begins: “The diversity in the faculties (WHAT DOES FACULTIES mean or refer to?) of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not les….”

The source of wealth is one’s abilities, their intelligent and inherited property, people can use the knowledge and wealth from their ancestors to create more wealth for the next generation and poor people remain poor.

3. Do you agree with this explanation of wealth and poverty?

Yes, because society didn’t change much, but at the same time.

4. What is the core mission (“first object”) of the US government? Does this surprise you, does it sound different from what our society today seems to suggest the core mission of the government is? Explain.

The core mission is to preserve the interest of the wealth class. I’m not surprised at all, since this society is dependent, we need wealth class as they need the lower class. On the other hand, the wealth class are usually famous people, the government needs them to go in front of other countries.

5. Given the discussion in questions 1-4, are you surprised that Federalist #10 is not in favor of democracy, and supports a Republican (representative) form of government? Why would d the author dislike a (pure) democratic form of government? Hint: think about how this question connects with the social classes…

I’m not surprised that they don’t support democracy, and support Republican. Since they want to preserve the benefits of wealth class, democracy surely wants the wealthy class to give out their benefits for balance. The author dislike a pure democratic form of government, because he think the safety of personal property won’t be provided.

1. Based on the arguments presented in Readings 6.1 and 6.2, which social class wrote the Constitution, and which class was excluded and not allowed to participate in this process? In your comment, make sure you clearly specify the difference between the two classes by giving examples from the readings.

The wealth class signed the constitution, the social class that under the wealth class, like the middle and working class are excluded and not able to participate. The middle and working class were the largest percentage of the population.

2. Would say that the social class structure of early United States society, was the same as ours today, or different? Explain.

I think mostly the same, since the wealth class are still less, but at least women are allowed to work and get equal rights compared to the past.

3. Why were the people who wrote the Constitution so afraid of democracy? Hint: think about how to answer this question by discussing it in terms of social classes.

Because the Constitution is not equal for all people, the wealth class benefited from it, and if we want democracy, which means equal, we need to take away their wealth to balance the society.

1. Which statistic on wealth inequality in the US (discussed on p. 29) made the biggest impression on you? Explain why?

It surprised me when it said that,“the top 1 percent own between 40 and 50 percent of the nation’s total wealth , more than the combined wealth of the bottom 90 percent.” It means to me that no matter how hard me and my family work, we won’t really be able to have much wealth, since the top 1% are holding that much of the nation’s total wealth.

2. What could be some of the implications of living in a society that has such huge wealth inequalities? Do you see this dynamic getting played out in everyday life in our society? How so? Example?

I would say that the rich people can keep their wealth based on the work of their ancestors, they might be poor like us now in the past, their wealth inherited to the next generation, one by one. But still, only a few people who have this huge amount of wealth are not equal, they can have many privileges and just watch the people who have lower class competition with others to try to climb up. Humans are always competing, for learning to get a good grade, for getting a better job, everyone always hopes they can have a better life.

1. As we learned thus far, the capitalist class consists of people who own wealth, as well as the means of production in American society. An important question in understanding how these class works are to ask: how does a capitalist remain wealthy? The answer to this question depends largely on understanding the diagram M-C-M’. So, let’s practice by explaining what happens in this diagram in our own words (but basing our ideas on Reading 5.1). Respond to the following question: Explain M-C-M’ to show how capitalists maintain and increase their wealth. (hint: your answer should weave a summary that includes what you reviewed in the self-assessment exercise question 1-7)

M is for money, C is for commodity, second M is for surplus value. The capitalists maintain and increase their wealth by inheriting their money from family, then hire people to work, extort their labor power to create more products in exchange for money, in order to get more surplus value, like a cycle, so Americans who are rich will keep rich and gain more wealth.