PT115.S4.Q2

PrepTest 115 - Section 4 - Question 2

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Tom: Critics of recent high court decisions claim that judges' willingness to abide by earlier decisions is necessary to avoid legal chaos. █████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████████

█████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position

Tom mentions that critics of certain recent high court decisions argue that judges must be willing to abide by precedent to avoid legal chaos. But Tom then appeals to the behavior of past high courts, which often repudiated legal precedents, with no legal chaos ensuing. On the basis of this analogy (remember that comparisons with the past are a form of analogy), Tom rejects the critics' objections, which he also claims, without support, are "politically motivated".

Mary responds by pointing out an important difference between the behavior of past high courts and the current high court. When past high courts overturned precedents, those precedents were old and clearly outdated. The current court has overturned recent rulings, and Mary argues that overturning recent rulings makes the law seem unstable.

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2.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███ █████

a

whether the overturning ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████
Correct. Tom thinks that the recent decisions will be similar to cases in the past when high courts have overturned precedent: no legal chaos will ensue, and claims that it will are unfounded and can be safely ignored. Mary, meanwhile, thinks the overturning of recent high court precedents does bring negative consequences: it "diminishes the law" by making it seem "unstable and capricious."
80%
b

whether the overturning ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
Incorrect. This is a trap answer choice, because the phrase "politically motivated" does show up in Tom's dismissal of the criticism of the overturning of recent high court precedents, and we know Mary disagrees with Tom's dismissal. But (B) isn't talking about whether the criticism of the overturning of these precedents is politically motivated, as Tom claims. (B) is talking about whether the overturning itself — i.e., the decision by the high court — was politically motivated. We don't know what either Tom or Mary thinks about that.
9%
c

whether critics of ██████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ █████
Incorrect. For (C) to be correct, Mary would have to question whether the critics actually said what Tom claims. She would have to say that Tom is misquoting them, and that the critics actually said something else. She never does that, so we can't say Mary and Tom disagree about this.
7%
d

whether a precedent ████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
Incorrect. Neither Tom nor Mary makes any claims about whether a "clearly outdated" precedent needs to be overturned.
3%
e

whether judicial decisions ████ ████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████
Incorrect. Neither Tom nor Mary talks about "progressive"-seeming judicial decisions quickly becoming "outdated."
1%

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