130 Fun Facts About Government

How many branches make up the United States federal government?

Three branches, set out in Articles I, II and III of the Constitution, each given powers to check the others.

How many voting members does the US Congress have in total?

535: 100 senators plus 435 voting representatives, a lower-chamber size in place since 1913; the delegates and the resident commissioner do not count.

How many senators does each US state send to Washington?

Two: Article I gives every state equal representation of two senators regardless of population, which is why the Senate has 100 members.

How many justices sit on the US Supreme Court?

Nine: the Judiciary Act of 1869 fixed the Supreme Court at nine seats, the size it has had for more than 150 years.

How many electoral votes does a candidate need to win the US presidency?

270: a majority of the 538 electors, the total of 435 representatives, 100 senators and the District of Columbia's electors under the 23rd Amendment.

The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are known collectively as what?

The Bill of Rights: James Madison drafted them, Congress sent twelve articles to the states in 1789, and ten were ratified in 1791.

Which US official presides over the Senate and may vote only to break a tie?

In the vice president's absence the president pro tempore, traditionally the majority party's most senior senator, takes the chair.

Which amendment limits a US president to being elected twice?

The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, and allows only one election to anyone who served over half of another's term.

What fraction of both houses of Congress is needed to override a presidential veto?

Two-thirds of each chamber, under Article I, Section 7; a bill left unsigned as Congress adjourns is pocket-vetoed and cannot be overridden at all.

Who is second in the presidential line of succession?

The Speaker of the House is second under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947; the president pro tempore of the Senate is third, then the Cabinet secretaries in order of their departments' creation.

Which 1803 Supreme Court case established the power of judicial review?

Marbury v. Madison: John Marshall's court held Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional, asserting the Court's power to void acts of Congress.

Which chamber of Congress has the sole power to impeach federal officials?

The Senate then holds the trial, and a two-thirds vote of members present is required to convict.

How many executive departments have heads in the US Cabinet?

15 departments, from State and Treasury, both founded in 1789; Veterans Affairs became the 14th in 1989 and a 15th followed in 2002.

Where do both houses of the US Congress meet?

The United States Capitol on Capitol Hill, where Congress first convened in November 1800; the Senate sits in the north wing and the representatives in the south.

The 'checks and balances' of the US system are meant to keep which three institutions in line?

The executive, legislature and judiciary: the president can veto, Congress can override and the courts can strike laws down, so no branch acts unchecked.

How many times has the US Constitution been amended since it took effect in 1789?

27 amendments in all: the first ten were ratified together in 1791, the 11th, on suits against states, in 1795, and the 16th, allowing a federal income tax, in 1913.

What share of the states must ratify a constitutional amendment for it to take effect?

Three-fourths of the states, as Article V requires; with 50 states that means 38, acting through their legislatures or through state ratifying conventions.

Which state became the ninth to ratify the Constitution in June 1788, putting it into effect?

New Hampshire ratified on June 21, 1788, the ninth of the thirteen states and the number Article VII required for the Constitution to take effect.

Which state refused to send delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention?

Rhode Island, wary of a stronger central government, sent no one to Philadelphia; every other state did, and 39 delegates signed on September 17, 1787.

Which 1929 law fixed the size of Congress's lower chamber at 435 members?

The Reapportionment Act of 1929, also called the Permanent Apportionment Act, capped the chamber at 435; it rose briefly to 437 from 1959 to 1963 after Alaska and Hawaii joined.

What is the minimum age to serve in the US Senate?

30, under Article I, Section 3; representatives need only be 25 and a president must be 35.

How many votes are normally needed to invoke cloture and end a Senate filibuster?

60 of the 100 senators, as Senate Rule XXII has required since 1975; the 'nuclear option' of 2013 and 2017 lowered it to a simple majority for nominations only.

Which senator filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes?

Strom Thurmond of South Carolina spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in August 1957, reading state election laws and Washington's Farewell Address; the bill passed anyway.

Who was the first US president to be impeached?

Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 chiefly for sacking War Secretary Edwin Stanton in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act; the Senate acquitted him by a single vote.

Who in 2021 became the first federal officer to be impeached twice?

Donald Trump, impeached in December 2019 and again on January 13, 2021; the Senate acquitted him both times, the second trial opening after his term had ended.

Who presides over the Senate when a president is tried on impeachment charges?

The chief justice, under Article I, Section 3, since the Senate's usual presiding officer would inherit the presidency; John Roberts chaired the 2020 trial.

Which president revived the practice of delivering the State of the Union in person, in 1913?

Woodrow Wilson delivered his annual message in person on December 2, 1913; Thomas Jefferson had dropped the spoken address in 1801 as too monarchical, and successors sent written reports.

Which Cabinet member customarily skips the State of the Union address, and why?

The designated survivor, a Cabinet member kept at a secure location to preserve the line of succession if disaster strikes the chamber; the practice dates to the 1980s.

Which two states split their electoral votes rather than awarding them winner-take-all?

Maine and Nebraska, since 1972 and 1992 respectively, award a pair of electors statewide and the rest by congressional district, so a split is possible.

Which amendment barred denying Americans the vote on account of sex?

The 19th Amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, barred denying the vote on account of sex; Tennessee supplied the decisive 36th ratification.

What was the first constitution of the United States, in force from 1781?

The Articles of Confederation, ratified on March 1, 1781, gave Congress no power to tax; their weakness prompted the 1787 convention that replaced them.

Hamilton, Madison and Jay wrote the 85 Federalist essays under which shared pen name?

Publius, after Publius Valerius Publicola, a founder of the Roman Republic; the essays ran in New York newspapers from the autumn of 1787 to urge ratification.

Which amendment reserves undelegated powers to the states or the people?

The Tenth Amendment, ratified in 1791, reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states or the people; it closes the first ten amendments.

Which US president issued a record 3,721 executive orders?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, in office from March 1933 until his death in April 1945; no other president has reached even 2,000.

Which 1870 law bars officials from spending unappropriated money, the legal basis for shutdowns?

The Antideficiency Act, first passed in 1870, makes it illegal to obligate funds Congress has not appropriated, so agencies must halt non-excepted work when appropriations lapse.

Who in 2007 became the first woman to hold the House's top post, the speakership?

Nancy Pelosi of California, elected Speaker on January 4, 2007; she regained the gavel in 2019, the first to return to the chair since Sam Rayburn in 1955.

Who was the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, in 1981?

Sandra Day O'Connor, an Arizona appeals judge nominated by Ronald Reagan and confirmed 99–0 in September 1981; she served until 2006.

The Supreme Court did not get its own building until which year?

Before that it sat in the Capitol, in what is now called the Old Supreme Court Chamber.

Which country's parliament, the Althing, is the oldest legislature in the world?

Iceland: the Althing first met in 930 at Thingvellir, about 45 km from Reykjavik, and moved into the capital in 1845.

The 'Westminster system' of parliamentary government takes its name from what?

The Palace of Westminster, the palace where the British Parliament sits; the label covers the cabinet-and-Commons model of government copied across the Commonwealth.

Besides the Commons and the Lords, what is the third part of the UK Parliament?

The sovereign: Parliament is formally the Crown, Lords and Commons together, and no bill becomes law until it receives royal assent, last refused in 1708.

Which Whig politician, in office from 1721, is regarded as Britain's first prime minister?

Robert Walpole, First Lord of the Treasury from 1721 to 1742; 'prime minister' began as a jibe, and 10 Downing Street was his gift from George II.

How many members does Israel's Knesset have?

The number matches the ancient Great Assembly of 120 scribes, sages and prophets from which the parliament takes its name.

Germany's Bundestag has met since 1999 in which historic building?

The Reichstag, built 1884–94 for the imperial parliament, gutted by fire in 1933 and reopened with Norman Foster's glass dome on April 19, 1999.

What is the name of Japan's legislature?

The Diet (Kokkai), bicameral since 1890, with a lower House of Representatives and an upper House of Councillors that replaced the House of Peers in 1947.

How many permanent, veto-wielding members sit on the UN Security Council?

Five: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, the leading Allied powers of 1945; the council's other seats are filled by election for fixed terms.

Which Swiss cantons hold an open-air Landsgemeinde where citizens vote by show of hands?

Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus alone keep the Landsgemeinde, Appenzell's on the last Sunday of April; an Appenzell voter may show a ceremonial sidearm as proof of citizenship.

Switzerland's collective head of state is a council of how many members?

Seven federal councillors, elected by the Federal Assembly, each heading a department; the presidency rotates among them annually and carries no extra powers.

Which 1215 royal charter, sealed at Runnymede, is cited as a founding document of limited government?

Magna Carta, which King John sealed in June 1215; its clause 39 promised that no free man be imprisoned except by lawful judgment of his peers.

Which country has the longest written national constitution in the world?

India's constitution, in force from Republic Day, 1950, runs to roughly 145,000 words in its English text, many times the length of the American one.

Which of these countries is generally classed as an absolute monarchy?

Saudi Arabia, where the king rules by decree under the 1992 Basic Law and the Consultative Assembly is appointed rather than elected.

France, Portugal and Ukraine share which system, with both an elected president and a prime minister?

Semi-presidential: a directly elected president shares executive power with a prime minister answerable to parliament, a model Maurice Duverger analysed for France's Fifth Republic in 1980.

Which US amendment, proposed in 1789, was finally ratified in 1992 after 202 years?

The 27th, on congressional pay: ratified on May 7, 1992, it delays any change in members' salaries until after the next election of representatives; Michigan supplied the decisive ratification.

How many members sit in the Senate of Canada?

105: 24 seats each for Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and the West, plus smaller allocations for Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories; senators must retire at 75.

Why is Canada's Throne Speech delivered in the Senate chamber?

The Crown is barred from the Commons by a convention dating from January 1642, when Charles I burst into the English Commons to arrest members; Canada inherited it.

How many senators does each of Australia's six states elect, regardless of population?

12 per state since 1984, whatever its population; the ACT and the Northern Territory add a pair each, giving the Senate 76 members.

China's NPC, its supreme organ of state power, holds its annual session in which Beijing venue?

The Great Hall of the People, completed in 1959 on the west side of Tiananmen Square; the NPC's roughly 3,000 delegates gather there each March.

Germany's Bundesrat, representing the 16 states, meets in which former building in Berlin?

The Prussian House of Lords (Herrenhaus) on Leipziger Strasse, built in 1904; the Bundesrat moved in from Bonn in September 2000, a year after the Bundestag.

India's upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, translates as what?

Council of States: rajya means state and sabha assembly; its members are elected by the state and territorial legislatures rather than by voters, and it cannot be dissolved.

Up to how many Church of England bishops sit in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual?

Most other members are appointed peers for life; the last 92 hereditary seats were abolished in 2026.

Which Massachusetts governor's 1812 district map gave its name to a word for partisan redistricting?

Elbridge Gerry, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a state senate map whose Essex County district looked so reptilian that the Boston Gazette dubbed it the 'Gerry-mander'.

Who was the first vice president appointed under the 25th Amendment, in 1973?

Gerald Ford, confirmed on December 6, 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned; on becoming president in August 1974 he named Nelson Rockefeller under the same amendment.

Which amendment is the only one ratified by state conventions rather than legislatures?

The 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition on December 5, 1933 when Utah's convention became the 36th to ratify; it is also the only amendment repealing an earlier one.

Which amendment let voters, not state legislatures, choose US senators?

The 17th Amendment, ratified on April 8, 1913, replaced election by state legislatures with direct popular election; Hearst's 1906 'Treason of the Senate' series had stoked the demand.

Which amendment moved presidential inaugurations from March 4 to January 20?

The 20th Amendment, ratified in January 1933, set January 20 for the presidency and January 3 for Congress; the first inauguration on the new date came in 1937.

In which New York City building did the first US Congress meet in 1789?

Federal Hall on Wall Street, the city's remodelled old City Hall, where the First Congress convened on March 4, 1789 and Washington took the presidential oath on its balcony eight weeks later.

Which law, part of a deal over state war debts, put the US capital on the Potomac River?

The Residence Act of July 1790, the fruit of the Jefferson–Hamilton dinner bargain: a Potomac capital in exchange for federal assumption of state war debts, with Philadelphia as interim capital.

Which state took back the land it had given to the District of Columbia, in 1846?

Virginia: Congress returned Alexandria County, some 31 square miles south of the Potomac, in 1846, leaving the District entirely on land ceded by Maryland.

By Supreme Court custom, how many justices must agree to take up a case?

Four, under the 'rule of four', a custom the justices described to Congress while seeking the 1925 Judiciary Act that let the Court choose its cases.

A Supreme Court term traditionally begins on the first Monday of which month?

October: federal law has opened each term on the first Monday of October since 1917, and the term runs until the last opinions of late June or early July.

Which justice sat on the Supreme Court from 1939 to 1975, more than 36 years?

William O. Douglas, appointed in April 1939 at the age of 40, retired in November 1975, some months after a debilitating stroke.

Who is the only person to have served as both US president and chief justice?

William Howard Taft, president from 1909 to 1913 and chief justice from 1921 to 1930; he dedicated the Lincoln Memorial in May 1922.

Who holds the record for the longest service in the US Senate, at over 51 years?

Robert Byrd sat in the Senate from January 1959 until his death on June 28, 2010, more than 51 years, and cast over 18,000 roll-call votes.

Which Cabinet department, created after the September 11 attacks, began operating in 2003?

Homeland Security, created by the Homeland Security Act of November 2002 and operating from January 2003, merged 22 agencies including the Coast Guard and the Secret Service.

The Secret Service was founded in 1865 to fight what?

Counterfeiting: by 1865 a third or more of US currency in circulation was fake, so the Treasury set up the Secret Service on July 5, 1865; presidential protection came only after 1901.

By what vote did the Supreme Court order Nixon to hand over the Watergate tapes in 1974?

8–0: the ruling in United States v. Nixon on July 24, 1974 was unanimous, William Rehnquist having recused himself; Nixon resigned 16 days later.

What annual salary did Congress set for the US president, effective from 2001?

$400,000, set by Congress in 1999 and effective from January 2001, when it doubled from $200,000; a $50,000 expense allowance comes on top.

Camp David is named after the father and grandson of which president?

Dwight Eisenhower renamed the Maryland retreat in 1953 for his father David and grandson David; it had been called Shangri-La, and Winston Churchill visited in May 1943.

What does the House Sergeant at Arms lift and present to bring an unruly member to order?

The mace: 13 ebony rods bound in silver, 46 inches tall and topped by a silver globe and eagle; it stands on a tall pedestal when the chamber is in session.

The word 'veto' is Latin for what?

'I forbid': the first-person form of Latin vetare; tribunes of the plebs spoke it to block any magistrate's act or Senate decree, shielding commoners from the patricians.

For how long was a citizen banished from ancient Athens by ostracism?

Ten years: the assembly first voted whether to hold an ostracism, and a quorum of 6,000 potsherds (ostraka) was required; the exile kept his property.

How long did a Roman consul normally hold office?

One year: a pair of consuls took office together, from 153 BC on January 1, and Romans named the year after them; each could veto the other.

San Marino's two Captains Regent serve a term of what length?

Six months: the pair are installed twice a year, in spring and autumn, a practice recorded since 1243, making them the world's shortest-serving heads of state.

Alongside the president of France, who is co-prince of Andorra?

The bishop of Urgell, in Catalonia; the 1278 Paréage shared Andorra between the bishop and the count of Foix, whose rights passed via Navarre to the French crown and then its presidents.

Which country was the first to let all women vote in national elections, in 1893?

New Zealand: the Electoral Act of September 19, 1893 enfranchised all women, including Māori, after Kate Sheppard's petition of nearly 32,000 signatures.

Which city is South Africa's judicial capital?

Bloemfontein, seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal; the 1910 Union compromise gave Pretoria the executive and Cape Town the parliament, though the Constitutional Court sits in Johannesburg.

Which city is Bolivia's constitutional capital, even though the government sits in La Paz?

Sucre, renamed in 1839 for the independence hero Antonio José de Sucre; the 2009 constitution names it the capital, and the Supreme Court of Justice sits there.

Who in 1980 became the world's first democratically elected female head of state?

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a former theatre director, won the Icelandic presidency on June 29, 1980 with about a third of the vote and served until 1996.

Which country elected the world's first female prime minister, in 1960?

Sri Lanka, then Ceylon: Sirimavo Bandaranaike became prime minister on July 21, 1960, a year after her husband Solomon was assassinated; she later served twice more.

Who has the Commons door slammed in their face at the State Opening of Parliament?

Black Rod, the Lords' official who summons the Commons; the slam recalls Charles I's 1642 intrusion, and the ebony rod is knocked thrice on the door before MPs walk to the Lords.

British MPs who want to quit are 'appointed' to which nominal Crown office?

Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, a nominal 'office of profit under the Crown' first used for this purpose in 1751; holding it disqualifies an MP, and the Manor of Northstead serves the same role.

Which Australian prime minister was dismissed by the governor-general in 1975?

Gough Whitlam, sacked by Sir John Kerr on November 11, 1975 after the Senate blocked supply; on the steps of Parliament House he declared, 'Well may we say God Save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor-General.'

Who is Canada's longest-serving prime minister, with over 21 years in office?

William Lyon Mackenzie King, Liberal prime minister in several stretches between 1921 and 1948, over 21 years in all; he led Canada through the Second World War and privately consulted mediums.

A Mexican president serves a single term of how many years?

Six years, the sexenio, fixed by a 1928 amendment; the no-re-election rule came out of the 1910 revolution against Porfirio Díaz, who had dominated Mexico for 35 years.

Which city is the official seat of the European Parliament?

Strasbourg: the Treaty of Amsterdam's protocol (1997) fixes the monthly plenary sessions there, though committees and most staff work in Brussels, with the secretariat in Luxembourg.

The office of parliamentary ombudsman was created in 1809 in which country?

Sweden: the 1809 Instrument of Government created the Justitieombudsman to watch over officials on parliament's behalf; Charles XII had set up a royal forerunner in 1713 from exile in Ottoman Bender.

Which country's constitution names a leader who died in 1994 as its 'eternal president'?

North Korea: the 1998 constitution's preamble made Kim Il Sung 'eternal president', abolishing the office, and the Juche calendar counts years from his 1912 birth.

Which was the last country in Europe to give women the vote, in 1984?

Liechtenstein: the men-only referendum of July 1, 1984 passed by 51.3 per cent after failed attempts in 1971 and 1973; Switzerland had acted federally in 1971.

The world's heaviest building houses the parliament of which country?

Romania: Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament, begun in 1984 on Nicolae Ceaușescu's orders after the 1977 earthquake cleared the way, weighs an estimated 4 million tonnes.

Who chose Ottawa as Canada's capital in 1857?

Queen Victoria, on December 31, 1857, acting on Governor General Edmund Head's advice; the small lumber town beat Montreal, Toronto, Quebec and Kingston, and the legislature first sat there in 1866.

Which river, a tributary of the Mississippi, is the longest in the United States at 2,341 miles?

The Missouri is slightly longer than the Mississippi it feeds, rising in the Rockies of southwestern Montana and flowing east and south to meet it just north of St. Louis.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 declared enslaved people free only in which territory?

The states in rebellion were the only ones covered, so slavery stayed legal in Kentucky and Delaware until the 13th Amendment took effect in December 1865.

Since an 1845 law, US presidential elections fall on the Tuesday after the first Monday of which month?

November was picked because the harvest was in but heavy winter weather had not yet arrived, and Tuesday let rural voters travel on Monday after Sunday church.

Which text, written by minister Francis Bellamy for an 1892 magazine promotion, gained the words 'under God' in 1954?

The Pledge of Allegiance got 'under God' on Flag Day 1954, signed into law by Eisenhower at the height of the Cold War, 62 years after schoolchildren first recited it.

Which federal holiday, created in 2021, marks the day in 1865 when Union troops announced emancipation at Galveston?

Juneteenth was the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983, and its name is simply a blend of June and nineteenth.

Which song, set to the tune of a London gentlemen's club, only became the official national anthem in 1931?

The Star-Spangled Banner was signed into law as anthem by Herbert Hoover on March 4, 1931, 117 years after Francis Scott Key wrote the words watching Fort McHenry's bombardment.

Which suffragist was arrested in Rochester, New York, for voting in the 1872 presidential election and fined $100?

Susan B. Anthony vowed never to pay a dollar of the fine and never did; in 1979 she became the first female citizen to appear on US coinage.

Which federal holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honors US military personnel who died while serving?

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day in 1868, when Civil War graves were decorated with flowers; Veterans Day instead honors everyone who has served.

Which power does the civics test assign to the federal government, not the states, alongside making treaties?

Only Washington can print money, because the Constitution forbids any state to coin money or issue paper bills of credit.

Which territory did the United States buy from Napoleon in 1803 for about $15 million, nearly doubling its size?

Louisiana cost less than three cents an acre; Napoleon sold because war with Britain loomed and his army had failed to crush the revolt in Saint-Domingue.

Which 1898 war, sparked by the sinking of the USS Maine, left the US holding Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines?

The Spanish–American War ended with Spain losing Cuba too, as a US protectorate, and ambassador John Hay boasting it had been 'a splendid little war'.

Which state's stretch of the Mexican border, following the Rio Grande, is the longest of the four border states?

Texas has the longest stretch and California the shortest of a frontier that ranks as the 10th-longest border between any two countries.

The Residence Act of 1790 placed the new national capital on the banks of which river?

The Potomac capital took a decade to build; the government sat in Philadelphia from 1790 to 1800 while Washington, D.C. rose from the marshland.

Which duty does the civics test reserve for citizens alone, along with voting in federal elections?

Serve on a jury is reserved for citizens, as are voting in federal elections and running for federal office; taxes, the draft and obeying the law bind everyone living in the US.

Within 30 days of which birthday must men living in the United States register with the Selective Service?

The 18th birthday starts the clock even though the military is now an all-volunteer force; the registration lists exist for contingency planning.

How often does the Constitution require a national census, used to divide House seats among the states?

Every ten years since 1790, when the first count found 3,929,214 inhabitants, the census has reset which states gain and lose seats.

How long must most green-card holders have been permanent residents before applying for naturalization?

Five years is the normal wait, cut to three years for applicants married to and living with a US citizen.

Which Latin motto, suggested in 1776 and clenched in the eagle's beak on the Great Seal, means 'out of many, one'?

E pluribus unum lost its standing as the de facto national motto in 1956, when Congress adopted 'In God We Trust' instead, yet it still appears on every US coin minted today.

Which amendment, the only one ever to repeal another, ended nationwide Prohibition of alcohol in 1933?

The Twenty-first Amendment is also the only one ratified by specially elected state conventions rather than by the usual route.

Which tribe's reservation, spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, is the largest in the United States?

The Navajo Nation covers about 17.5 million acres, bigger than ten US states, and in 2020 it passed the Cherokee as the largest tribe by enrollment.

Which chamber of Congress tries impeachments, needing a two-thirds vote to convict and remove an official from office?

The Senate can also bar a convicted official from ever holding federal office again, by a simple majority in a second vote taken after conviction.

Which Cabinet member, the top federal law enforcement officer, is the only department head not titled 'Secretary'?

The Attorney General's office dates to the Judiciary Act of 1789, eight decades before the department it now heads was created in 1870 to support it.

Which maneuver lets a president kill a bill simply by leaving it unsigned while Congress has adjourned?

A pocket veto needs no message to Congress; normally a bill the president leaves unsigned becomes law anyway after ten days, Sundays excepted.

Which state, after a 1934 vote pushed by Senator George Norris, runs the only one-chamber state legislature?

Nebraska's Unicameral is also nonpartisan: candidates run without party labels, and the chamber recognizes no official party leadership.

Which part of Article VI makes federal law and treaties override state laws, binding judges in every state?

The Supremacy Clause sits in Article VI beside the ban on any religious test for public office, and it ranks treaties and federal statutes as equals.

Which legal writ, suspended by Lincoln in 1861, requires that a detained person be brought before a court?

Habeas corpus may be suspended only when an invasion or uprising endangers public safety, and Congress pointedly declined to approve Lincoln's unilateral move when it met in July 1861.

Which officer, by custom the majority party's most senior senator, stands third in the presidential line of succession?

The President pro tempore is one of the few members of Congress with a full-time security detail, and since 1945 the post has by custom gone to the majority party's most senior senator, though not without exception.

Which is the only permanently inhabited US territory where people born there are nationals but not citizens?

American Samoa's own legislature voted unanimously in 2021 against birthright citizenship, and the territory also runs its own immigration system.

Which animal became the Democratic Party's mascot through Thomas Nast's cartoons in Harper's Weekly from 1870?

The donkey stuck because other cartoonists copied Nast, whose same pen made the elephant stand for the Republicans.

On which date have federal income tax returns normally been due since a 1955 change of the filing deadline?

April 15 replaced March 15, which had itself replaced the original March 1 deadline set when the federal income tax began in 1913.