What is the rule of law?

Which answers are accepted?

What does the answer mean?

The rule of law is an idea about fairness. The same laws apply to the people who make them and to the people who live under them.

A company owner and a worker must both follow the same safety law. When someone in power breaks a law, a court can hear the case and decide it openly, using the written law.

You do not need a long definition. The list gives four short answers.

Each says the same thing in a different way. The law applies to everyone, and that includes people in power.

Why does USCIS ask it?

This question sits with the ones about principles of government. It checks that you understand a basic promise of American government: leaders are bound by the same laws as everyone else.

Other parts of the civics test show how the promise is kept. The questions about the three branches of government and about checks and balances explain who writes the laws. They also explain who carries them out, and who judges disputes about them.

How the officer asks it

The list gives four ways to say this answer. Pick the one you can say most clearly and learn only that one. Each is a short sentence that is easy to say in one breath, so say it out loud before you choose an answer here.

What are the common wrong answers?

These answers are tempting, but each one describes something else.

• The majority always decides. That is majority rule. Under the rule of law, even a majority has to work inside the law.
• Leaders make the rules for everyone else. That is close to the opposite idea. Leaders follow the law too.
• Only citizens must follow the law. The idea covers everyone, not one group.

How can I remember it?

Think of a game where the referee follows the same rules as the players. Six words say it all: no one is above the law.

Which questions are related?

• What is the supreme law of the land?The one document that outranks every federal, state and local law.
• What does the judicial branch do?The courts: explaining laws, reviewing them, settling disputes and checking them against the Constitution.

See all civics questions