Part 1. T/F

1. According to Thomas Edsall, conservatives have unsuccessfully tried to shift 
the focus of American politics from distributing shared abundance to deficit 
reducing austerity. 

2. The Supreme Court's "appellate jurisdiction" names the authority of the 
Court to review a case that has not been heard in any other court. 

3. Because state courts play a subordinate role, the federal judicial system is the 
most significant court system in America. 

4. According to Thomas B. Edsall, the partisan policy responses in Congress to 
the growing pressures of austerity, essentially pits "taxpayers against tax 
consumers." 

5. The constitutional guarantee that federal judges and justices hold office 
"during good behavior" has meant essentially that they sit on the bench for 
life, enabling presidents through their appointment power to influence the 
exercise of judicial power long after they have left the White House. 

6. Most of the work of Congress takes place in the meetings of its thirty-six 
standing committees and their numerous subcommittees. 

7. The primary job of the Supreme Court is to correct the legal errors 
committed by all lower courts in the federal and state systems. 

8. In Congress, the apogee of leader power occurs when they can devise policy 
positions that can enable members to work as one. 

9. The doctrine of judicial review places the judgment of unelected judges with 
life-tenure, above that of elected officials when interpreting the Constitution. 

10. In having a "plural executive," the State of California follows the federal 
model. 

11. Advocates of "judicial activism" maintain that courts should work closely 
within the confines of legislation and precedent and apply settled rules to 
specific cases rather than search for new principles. 
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12. Presidential use of the veto power can backfire and be interpreted as a sign 
that the President has no power to persuade. 

13. Because the judiciary's primary focus is the law, the facts of a legal case are 
largely irrelevant. 

14. According to Thomas B. Edsall, "the politics of austerity" forces a "zero-sum 
logic," meaning that appropriating benefits to some requires taking money 
from others. 

15. The argument for judicial review rests on the proposition that without this 
power, federal courts would be unable to check and balance constitutionally 
renegade political actors in the legislative and executive branches. 

Part 2 short essay
Describe in detail the nature of the "dysfunction" the authors of "Finding the 
Common Good in an Era of Dysfunctional Governance" argue is currently 
infecting Congress.