PT16.S4.P2.Q9 > Analytics

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The United States Supreme Court has not always resolved legal issues of concern to Native Americans in a manner that has pleased the Indian nations. ████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████

Issue at hand · SCOTUS decisions concerning Native Americans have been controversial

Author's position · Judgments have generally been (somewhat) beneficial for Native Americans

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Signposting · Two examples will support the author's position against critics

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First example · Judicial doctrines generally favour Native American rights

Second example · Federalism is used to protect tribes from state encroachment

Passage Style

Single position

According to the passage, one ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████

Question Type

Stated

What has caused the US Supreme Court to make these kinds of decisions? This question is answered in the next sentence of the first paragraph: at least some of these decisions were political compromises. The Supreme Court made its rulings for political reasons rather than based on legal principles.

Native Americans have ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ █████ ████████ ████████████

The first paragraph doesn't discuss Native American litigants' ability to make a persuasive case—this isn't an idea connected with the disadvantageous rulings the author mentions. In fact, the idea of barriers to persuasive argumentation isn't mentioned anywhere in the passage.

the Court has ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████

The first paragraph, where these disadvantageous decisions are first raised, doesn't compare the treatment of Native American nations to that of other groups. The only time anything like this is mentioned is in the fourth paragraph, where the author tells us that the federal government is in charge of tribal governments. But this doesn't amount to equating the two groups.

the Court has ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████

This is an idea raised in the fourth paragraph. But it's not a reason given for why the US Supreme Court has made decisions that were disadvantageous to Native American rights. Instead, this is given as support for the opposite claim: that the Supreme Court has protected Native American rights.

Native Americans faced ████████ █████████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████

This claim is stated in the passage, but it's not used to explain why the Supreme Court has made decisions that harmed Native American nations. Instead, the author argues that courts' recognition of these disadvantages has actually led to more beneficial decisions for Native Americans.

the Court has ████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████

Reading further in the first paragraph, the author states that many Supreme Court decisions were political compromises. Because this immediately follows the discussion of judgments that disadvantaged Native American nations, we can infer that this idea of compromise explains why those judgments were made.

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PrepTest 16 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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PrepTest 16 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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