When my sister was in high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, her Government teacher once asked the class to name the State Senators from our area. My sister answered (correctly) that my father was currently one of those State Senators. The teacher said she was wrong.

My sister was shocked – she said that my parents were sure spending a lot of time in Indianapolis unnecessarily, with my father going off to the Legislature each day, if he wasn’t in the State Senate. The teacher’s response was that my father’s name wasn’t on the list (obviously outdated) he was using to teach Government.

Maybe you’ve had similar instances where you were right and the “official� answer was wrong. Without a lot of self-confidence, or direct information like my sister had, it’s easy to get confused and misled.

Fast-forward to October 2008. Then, the newest applicants for United States citizenship will see the Redesigned Naturalization Test [pdf document], given by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). After test-takers read Question 51, new immigrants could be asking, “Who picks these answers?�

Question 51, as well as the acceptable answers provided by the USCIS, are reproduced here verbatim:

51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?

• freedom of expression
• freedom of speech
• freedom of assembly
• freedom to petition the government
• freedom of worship
• the right to bear arms

Now, while the USCIS does indicate that it “is aware that the 100 items [on the new test] sometimes have answers that are not listed,� it also suggests that “applicants … learn all the content … from the list.�

No doubt you have already observed at least three problems with the answers provided. First, the USCIS mentions only one “right� in this list along with five “freedoms.� Have mercy on the student who contemplates the difference between civil rights and civil liberties and wonders if this is a trick question.

Next, the USCIS neglects eight out of the ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights, including: the right to be secure in our “persons, houses, papers and effects� (Fourth); the right against self-incrimination (Fifth); the right to a speedy and public trial (Sixth); and the right to a trial by jury (Seventh). With so many rights to choose from, it’s as if the USCIS got tired of reading the whole Constitution.

Finally, the “right to bear arms� is, in fact, not available to “everyone living in the United States.� While the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to revisit this matter in the DC vs. Heller case, the vast majority of the courts have previously ruled that the right of the people to keep and bear arms must be related to service in a well-regulated militia. In addition, well-established and unchallenged Federal law prohibits “many living in the United States,� including juveniles, felons and the dangerously mentally ill (among other categories) from legally possessing guns.

The answers picked by the USCIS appear to predict an uncertain U.S. Supreme Court outcome and also misrepresent the Gun Control Act of 1968.

If we are going to test citizens – whether natural born or naturalized – on the U.S. Constitution, perhaps the test makers should do their homework first. On Question 51, at least, the USCIS gets an ‘F’.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)