Monster-At-Law: The Halloween Quiz

By Chris Mincher

It’s Halloween — have you picked out a costume of the most frightening, evil, wicked thing you can think of? If that means you’re dressing up this year as Justice McReynolds, we’ve got the perfect holiday distraction for you. Before co-mingling with them this evening, check out the quiz below and test your knowledge of the various supernatural creatures that have previously lurked through Maryland’s appellate jurisprudence.

(Editor-in-Chief’s note: We’re too cheap to buy a quiz plug-in for WordPress, so the answer key is on page 2.)

QUESTION 1

Which of the following is not a reason for why an appellate party has been said to seem or feel like a zombie?

A. Voodoo
B. Social difficulties
C. Depression
D. Weariness and hunger
E. Intoxication

QUESTION 2

According to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, what can survive “the grim reaper’s harvest”?

A. Student loans
B. Contracts
C. Handgun permits
D. Home insurance policies
E. An application for a pardon

QUESTION 3

Can you get a fair trial if news outlets call you a werewolf?

A. Yes
B. No

QUESTION 4

The Maryland Court of Appeals recounted the plot of the vampire-themed Twilight novels in a 2013 opinion in order to:

A. Cite the series as an alleged abstinence allegory in modern teen literature
B. Counter a plaintiff’s claim in a libel case that being called a “vampire” was defamation per se
C. Explain why a reference to the books in a letter from an adult to a child was evidence of sexual abuse
D. Uphold the trial court’s finding that author Stephenie Meyer had not plagiarized the story from an obscure Japanese manga
E. Correct a party that had confused them with fellow young-adult literary franchise The Hunger Games

QUESTION 5

Appellate courts have compared which of the following to Frankenstein’s monster?

A. A time schedule in a contract
B. Wiretaps
C. State corporations laws
D. The crime of conspiracy
E. All of the above

QUESTION 6

In 1996, the Maryland Court of Appeals rejected a petition to exhume this assassin’s grave at a Baltimore cemetery in order to determine if his corpse was actually buried there or had, instead, spent years being displayed as a mummy at carnival sideshows:

A. Lee Harvey Oswald
B. John Wilkes Booth
C. James Earl Ray
D. Jack Ruby
E. Charles Guiteau

QUESTION 7

Various parties in appellate cases have alleged that Satan controlled or influenced all of the following, except:

A. A shadow world government and trafficking conspiracy to provide children for human sacrifices
B. The entire judicial system
C. All organized religions
D. The Baltimore Orioles
E. School requirements that children salute the flag

QUESTION 8

In Abrams v. City of Rockville, 88 Md. App. 588 (1991), the Maryland Court of Special Appeals held that the City of Rockville was not liable for showing which horror film to children in an after-school program?

A. Friday the 13th
B. A Nightmare On Elm Street
C. Poltergeist
D. Halloween
E. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

QUESTION 9

Who of the following has been accused of practicing or promoting witchcraft in an appellate case?

A. A party’s mother-in-law
B. A murder victim
C. Organizers of a company’s union
D. Palm readers
E. All of the above.

QUESTION 10

What has been described by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals as a “wraith-like” concept?

A. Innocence until proven guilty
B. Preponderance of the evidence
C. Due process
D. Reasonable doubt
E. Presumption of patent validity

Answers on the next page….