How to: SCOTUS Comparison Question [AP Gov FRQ]

hey there welcome back to heimlich's history in this video i'm going to show you how to get a perfect score on your skoda's comparison frq for ap government so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked then let's get to it okay so first of all just in case you don't know scotus is short for supreme court of the united states so this question is all about comparing a scotus case that you don't know with a scotus case you do know or you know you're supposed to know if you don't know what cases you're supposed to know then i've got a whole playlist covering each of them so get your clicky finger out and have a look anyway when you get to this question you're going to see a written stimulus and that's going to be the summary of the case that you have not studied and apparently enough students have froke out at this point that they tell you right up front you're not supposed to know this case so just chill your beans and be a piece now before we get into this question let me give you some general advice on answering it after the stimulus you'll see three parts of the question labeled a b and c and the advice i have for the skoda's comparison question is the same i have for the concept application and the quantitative data question for each of those prompts you need to write your answers in complete sentences don't just throw a single word in there or write in bullet points and then if the prompt begins with the word identify you really only need one sentence naming what they're asking for if you see a prompt beginning with any other word like explain or describe then you're gonna need a little more and the general rule of thumb is two to three content rich sentences and remember two things be specific with your evidence and always relate it back to the prompt and now let me give you some advice specific to this question if you watch my videos on the required cases you'll notice there's always a four-part structure the facts of the case the constitutional principle at stake the decision and the impact of the case i do that because those are the four things you need to know in order to answer this question and earn full points okay so let's look at an example of this question from the 2019 ap government exam the first thing you'll see is the stimulus and for the sake of time i'll just give you the basic gist in the 1950s pete hernandez a mexican-american agricultural worker was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison by an all-white jury in jackson county texas the five jury commissioners testified under oath that they selected jurors based only on their qualifications and did not consider race or national origin in their decisions in the ensuing case hernandez v texas the supreme court unanimously ruled in favor of hernandez deciding that evidence of discrimination against mexican americans existed in jackson county and that the constitution prohibits such discrimination okay so that's the description of the case you don't know and now they're going to ask you to compare it with a case that you are required to know so look at part a identify the clause in the 14th amendment that was used as the basis for the decision both in brown v board of education and in hernandez v texas okay so they go ahead and tell you that the amendment both of these cases have in common is the 14th amendment but your job is to produce the clause that they share in common and that in case you don't know is the equal protection clause so since it just asked you to identify the clause your answer would be the clause of the 14th amendment both cases have in common is the equal protection clause all right done earned the point and again there isn't any other heavy lifting you have to do in this question as far as complex reasoning goes either no brown and hernandez were based on the equal protection clause or you don't you know there really are two ways to get to that answer first you can just have that fact about brown v board of education tucked somewhere away in your brain folds and since this question asks you about the clause for brown you already know it or if that knowledge has somehow leaked out of your brain you can reason your way there from the stimulus okay this is a case about racial discrimination what clause in the 14th amendment was brought up over and over and over in my class about racial discrimination oh the equal protection clause it doesn't matter how you get there just as long as you get there okay now let's look at part b explain how the facts in both brown v board of education and hernandez v texas led to a similar decision in both cases now before i show you the answer notice that this question is asking you to do more than the previous question it's asking you to do two things namely explain the facts of both cases and how they led to similar decisions that means that the question is worth two points not just one so if they ask you to do two things it will always be worth two points okay here's an answer that earns both points for this question brown was about segregated school slash racial discrimination in schools in brown segregated schools led to discrimination against african-american students which was a violation of the constitution equal protection clause in hernandez discrimination against mexican-americans in jury service was found to be a violation of the constitution equal protection clause because it led to the conviction of hernandez by a jury that excluded mexican americans so notice here that one point is awarded for correctly describing a fact from the required case here and you might object and say wait a minute it says that you have to talk about the facts for both cases that's true but you only get the point for describing a fact from the required case because the other case has all the facts right there for you to read anyway the answer earns the second point for demonstrating how both cases dealt with discrimination against minorities and thus violated the equal protection clause okay now we just earned another two points so let's look at part c explain how an interest group could use the decision in hernandez v texas to advance its agenda okay now they've taken you out of the realm of comparing these two cases and they want you to bring other concepts of the course into it in this case interest groups and how they might use this decision to advance its agenda okay now let me show you a student answer to this question that earns the point an interest group could use the decision as a precedent and bring another trial case to a court in order to secure more strict guidelines on how a jury is picked and how to prevent this defacto or de jour segregation they could also write amicus curiae briefs for the supreme court on future cases in which they cite the decision hernandez v texas as the reason for the court to rule a certain way each action can result in a decision that affects public policy and fulfills the interest group's agenda now this answer definitely earns the point and actually goes way overboard notice that the answer identifies a strategy interest groups could use in this case two strategies bring another case to court or write amicus curiae briefs and the answer also shows the outcome of that act namely stricter guidelines on how a jury is picked and then further notice at the end the student tied the answer back to the prompt always always always tie your answer back to the prompt so if you do all that you will no doubt earn a perfect score on the scotus comparison question all right i hope that helped and if you need even more help in ap government then you can click right here and grab my ultimate review packet which is going to help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam and make click here to see my other videos on how to nail the frqs in this course and if you were helped by this and you want me to keep making these videos then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige heimler out

Channel: Heimler's History

Views: 103,494

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Id: ci57dHJxoDo

Length: 5min 51sec (351 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 13 2021