Law & Politics in the News — Set 1: In Context flashcards
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Fill the blank: 25 of the Set 1 words, each in a new sentence from court reports, legislatures, campaigns and diplomacy, whose clues point to exactly one word of the pack.
Learn deck · part of Law & Politics in the News · written against: 150 words of courts, lawmaking, elections and world affairs; US usage; nonpartisan; not legal advice. Updated 2026-10-10.
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The state board suspended the nurse's license without telling her the charges or letting her respond, which her lawyer called a denial of ______.due processCourts & Trials
Notice of the charges and a chance to respond are the fair procedures that due process requires. Equal protection would need others in her position treated differently, which the sentence never mentions. -
The museum found the overbilling eight years later, too late to sue its cleaning contractor: the ______ for contract claims there is six years.statute of limitationsCourts & Trials
A legal deadline for suing over an event is a statute of limitations, and eight years outran this six-year one. A docket lists a court's scheduled cases; it sets no time limit. -
Spared any time behind bars, the vandal must check in with an officer every month and keep a curfew during his twenty-four months of ______.probationCrime & Punishment
A supervised sentence served in the community instead of prison is probation. Parole also means reporting to an officer, but it comes only after time in prison, and he served none. -
Because setting fire to the empty barn could bring up to ten years in prison, the farmhand faces a ______ charge, not a minor one.felonyCrime & Punishment
Felonies form the gravest class of crime, with maximum sentences over twelve months behind bars, and arson that risks ten years is one. A misdemeanor is the minor kind, capped at about a year, and larceny is theft, not fire. -
Hours before the vote, the party's ______ phoned each wavering member herself, reminding them that party leaders expected a yes.whipLawmaking
The party official who rounds up members' votes is the whip. A caucus is a whole group or meeting of members, and this is one person making calls. -
Before the new session opened, the minority party's senators met behind closed doors in a ______ to elect their leader.caucusLawmaking
Senators of one party gathering in private to elect their leader are holding a caucus. A bloc votes together but is not a meeting, and a recess is a break, not a gathering. -
Only a third of residents in the spring poll said the governor was doing a good job, the lowest ______ of her six years in office.approval ratingElections & Campaigns
An approval rating is the figure, usually a percentage, that polls give for how many people approve of an official in office. Turnout counts voters at an election; this poll asked about her work. -
Under the constitution, only the ______, now an elected president with wide powers, may sign treaties on the nation's behalf.head of stateGovernment & Power
The person who formally acts for the whole nation, as in signing treaties, is the head of state. A figurehead has little real power, and this president's powers are wide. -
A resident's online video mocking the mayor falls under the First Amendment right of ______, so the city cannot fine her for posting it.free speechRights & Citizenship
A video's message is expression, and the right that shields it from government punishment is free speech. Civil liberties is the whole set of such freedoms, not one right. -
For forty years the two island republics never fired a shot at each other, yet their ______ shaped everything from school textbooks to the films each side's studios made.cold warWorld Affairs & Trade
Rival nations that keep up a struggle for years with propaganda and threats rather than battles are waging a cold war. An arms race covers only the weapons each side piles up, and this rivalry reached textbooks and films.
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Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Senses, parts of speech and pronunciations checked against Merriam-Webster.com, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Learner's, Longman and Cambridge learner's dictionaries; all definitions, notes and example sentences are original.
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