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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Fortas notes that there is a recent history of the Justices declining to approve petitions that would _____________________.

2. In what city in Florida did Gideon reside?

3. In what city did Gideon commit his crime?

4. How many Supreme Court decisions has Gideon read?

5. What does Gideon tell his attorney is the primary reason he needs to get out of jail?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Fortas discover in Gideon's file regarding how he questioned witnesses and how an attorney would have been better able to manage?

2. What incriminating testimony had been provided by the prosecution's witness, Henry Cook, during Gideon's criminal trial?

3. What is the seeming difference between how the Supreme Court views indigence and how Gideon was treated in the lower court?

4. What role has Gideon assumed while in prison regarding helping some of the other inmates?

5. What is meant by federalism and how could Gideon's Supreme Court case impact it?

6. What sentence does Gideon receive for the petty larceny charge?

7. Do the Supreme Court Justices get to decide which cases they will hear?

8. What kind of power do the Supreme Court Justices have and how do some of them feel about it?

9. How does Fortas learn more about Gideon during the months after he is appointed to represent him?

10. How does Fortas get the information he needs about Gideon's previous trial?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the irony of Gideon's not being able to ever hold a job very long in his life yet having the tenacity to hand write pages and pages of his petition to the Supreme Court. What gave Gideon his inspiration to keep pushing forward? How would Gideon's life have been different if he had applied this same tenacity to making a decent living and caring for his family? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Create a brief character study of Gideon. What does he look like? What are his positive personality traits? What are some of his negative characteristics? What are his hopes and fears? What is his primary motivation?

Essay Topic 3

Explain the role of indigent men with diminished intelligence in the South in the 1960s. What precedents do they feel compelled to follow? What restrictions do they have? Do they have any freedoms that 21st century men do not have?

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