Free Legal Encyclopedia: Filiation Proceeding to Freedom from encumbrance
Millard Fillmore
Fillmore was born January 7, 1800, in Locke, New York. His father, Nathaniel Fillmore, was a farmer who wanted Fillmore to escape a life of poverty. Fillmore left school at an early age to become apprenticed, but a judge recognized his talents and ambition and persuaded him to study law. He was admitted to the bar at the age of 24 and soon became a leading lawyer in the state of New York. Presiden…
Finding Lost Goods
The fact that an owner has involuntarily parted with the property and that he or she is ignorant of its location sufficiently establishes that the property is lost. Mislaid property is property that an owner intentionally places somewhere so that it can eventually be found again, but he or she subsequently forgets where it was placed. The right to possess the property rests in the issue of whether…
Fines - Further Readings
Monetary charges imposed upon individuals who have been convicted of a crime or a lesser offense. A fine is a criminal sanction. A civil sanction, by contrast, is called a penalty. The term fine is sometimes used to describe a penalty, but the terms fine and penalty should be kept separate because the consequences are different: nonpayment of a criminal fine can result in incarceration, whereas no…
Fingerprints - Further Readings
Impressions or reproductions of the distinctive pattern of lines and grooves on the skin of human fingertips. Fingerprints are reproduced by pressing a person's fingertips into ink and then onto a piece of paper. Fingerprints left on surfaces can be obtained and examined through a dusting process and other processes conducted by forensics experts. The lines and grooves in fingertips are uni…
Fire
The primary result of combustion. The juridical meaning does not differ from the vernacular meaning. The act of willfully and maliciously setting fire to property belonging to another person—such as stacks of hay or grain, grasses, fences, or wood—is ordinarily punishable as a misdemeanor. Some jurisdictions grade the offense as a felony. Statutes relating to fires ordinarily define …
First Amendment - Freedom Of Speech, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Religion, Further Readings
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: At first glance, the First Amendment appears to be written in clear, unequivocal, and facile terms: "Congress shall make no law" (emphasis added) in contravention of certain religious and political principles. After a closer reading, and upon further reflection, the amendment's underlying complexities rise to the surface in t…
Fiscal
Relating to finance or financial matters, such as money, taxes, or public or private revenues. A fiscal agent is a bank engaged in the business of collecting and disbursing money. Such a bank also serves as a place for the deposit of private and public funds on behalf of others. A fiscal year is a period of twelve months that does not necessarily correspond with the traditional calendar year. Duri…
Fish and Fishing - The Evolution Of U.s. Wildlife Law, The Federal Government's Role In The Conservation Of Fish And Wildlife
From earliest times, fish and fishing have played a crucial role in the life of the people of North America. Native Americans of all tribes depended heavily on fish to eat and to trade, and fishing also held an important place in native cultural practices and religious rites. Beginning in the sixteenth century, and possibly even earlier, European adventurers were drawn to the rich fishing grounds …
Fixture - Types, Requirements, Agreement Of The Parties, Time Of Removal
A thing is deemed to be affixed to real property when it is attached to it by roots, imbedded in it, permanently resting upon it, or permanently attached to what is thus permanent, as by means of cement, plaster, nails, bolts, or screws. Goods are fixtures when they become so related to particular real estate that an interest in Fixtures, such as ovens, stoves, and cabinets, are considered par…
Flag - What Is The Appropriate Use Of The Confederate Flag?, Further Readings
The official banner of a state or nation, often decorated with emblems or images that symbolize that state or nation. On the U.S. flag, 13 horizontal stripes (in red and white) represent the original 13 colonies. The union is represented by 50 white stars, for the 50 states, arrayed on a field of blue. The U.S. flag is sometimes called the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, or the Red, White, and Blue.…
Flag Salute Cases
In this case, the school district's interest in creating national unity was more important than the rights of the students to refuse to salute the flag. Justice Frankfurter noted that national unity is the basis of national security. To allow children not to salute the flag or to recite the Pledge of Allegiance would weaken the effect of the collective patriotic exercise and thereby injure …
Fletcher v. Peck
An 1810 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 3 L. Ed. 162, held that public grants were contractual obligations that could not be abrogated without fair compensation, even though the state legislature that made the grant had been corrupted and a subsequent legislature had passed an act nullifying the original grant. The property in question had passed throug…
Clara Shortridge Foltz - Further Readings
Foltz was born July 16, 1849, in New Lisbon, Henry County, Indiana, the second of five children, and the only girl, to Elias Willets Shortridge and Telitha Cumi Harwood Shortridge, both of Indiana. Her father was at times a druggist, a lawyer, and a preacher in the Campbellite Church. The Foltzes lived on a farm in Iowa, where they had the first three of their five children. In 1871, Foltz'…
Food and Drug Administration - History, How The Fda Approves New Drugs, Organization, Azt: An Agent Of Change For The Fda
To ensure compliance with its regulations, the FDA employs over 1,000 investigators and inspectors who visit over 15,000 food-processing, drug-manufacturing, and other facilities each year. If it finds violations of law, the FDA first encourages an offending company to voluntarily correct the problem or to recall a faulty product from the market. If the firm does not voluntarily comply with the la…
Footnote 4 - Further Readings
In upholding the constitutionality of the Filled Milk Act, the Supreme Court drew a distinction between legislation that regulates ordinary economic activities and legislation that curtails important personal liberties. The constitutional authority of state and federal legislatures over economic matters is plenary, the Court said, and laws passed to regulate such matters are entitled to a presumpt…
Force
Power, violence, compulsion, or constraint exerted upon or against a person or thing. Power dynamically considered, that is, in motion or in action; constraining power, compulsion; strength directed to an end. Commonly the word occurs in such connections as to show that unlawful or wrongful action is meant, e.g., forcible entry. Power statically considered, that is, at rest, or latent, but capable…
Forcible Entry and Detainer
A summary proceeding to recover possession of land that is instituted by one who has been wrongfully ousted from, or deprived of, possession. The forcible intrusion into another person's peaceable possession constitutes one type of infraction. Even if it is unlawful, peaceable possession cannot be terminated by violence. In many jurisdictions, even the rightful owner is held liable for dama…
Gerald Rudolph Ford - Further Readings
Named Leslie Lynch King Jr., when born July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, Ford spent most of his childhood in Grand Rapids, where his mother settled in 1914 after divorcing his father. When Ford was three years old, his mother remarried, and the future president was adopted by and renamed after his stepfather, Gerald Ford Sr. Ford was a gifted athlete in high school and a college all-star on champ…
Foreclosure
A procedure by which the holder of a mortgage—an interest in land providing security for the performance of a duty or the payment of a debt—sells the property upon the failure of the debtor to pay the mortgage debt and, thereby, terminates his or her rights in the property. Statutory foreclosure is foreclosure by performance of a power of sale clause in the mortgage without need for …
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review - Further Readings
In 1978, Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 50 U.S.C.A. §§ 1800–1829 (West 2003) to prescribe separate procedures for federal agents to follow when conducting foreign surveillance. FISA created two courts with special jurisdiction: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR…
Forensic Accounting
Forensic accountants typically become involved in financial investigations after fraud auditors have discovered evidence of deceptive financial transactions. After conducting an investigation, they write and submit a report of their findings. When a case goes to trial, they are likely to testify as expert witnesses. …
Forensic Science - Forensic Medicine And Psychology, Forensic Science In The Federal Bureau Of Investigation, Other Areas Of Forensic Science
The application of scientific knowledge and methodology to legal problems and criminal investigations. Sometimes called simply forensics, forensic science encompasses many different fields of science, including anthropology, biology, chemistry, engineering, genetics, medicine, pathology, phonetics, psychiatry, and toxicology. Modern forensic science originated in the late nineteenth century, when …
Forfeiture - Further Readings
Forfeiture is a broad term that can be used to describe any loss of property without compensation. A forfeiture may be privately arranged. For example, in a contractual relationship, one party may be required to forfeit specified property if the party fails to fulfill its contractual obligations. Courts are often called upon to resolve disputes regarding a forfeiture of property pursuant to a priv…
Forgery - Further Readings
The creation of a false written document or alteration of a genuine one, with the intent to defraud. Forgery consists of filling in blanks on a document containing a genuine signature, or materially altering or erasing an existing instrument. An underlying intent to defraud, based on knowledge of the false nature of the instrument, must accompany the act. Instruments of forgery may include bills o…
Form
A matter of form, as distinguished from a matter of substance—with respect to pleadings, affidavits, indictments, and other legal instruments—entails the method, style, or form of relating the applicable facts; the selection or arrangement of terms; and other such matters without influencing the essential sufficiency or validity of the instrument, or without reaching the merits. …
Fornication
Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to each other. Today, statutes in a number of states declare that fornication is an offense, but such statutes are rarely enforced. On the theory that fornication is a victimless crime, many states do not prosecute persons accused of the offense. Under modern-day legislation, if one of the two persons who engage in sexual intercourse…
Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS lobbyist and interpreter of government regulations in post-World War II Washington, D.C. Despite Fortas's ultimate return of the money, his initial acceptance of it troubled many senators. It was alleged that Fortas had done more than foundation work, giving Wolfson legal advice. The Life article noted that Wolfson had used Fortas's name …
Forum
A court of justice where disputes are heard and decided; a judicial tribune that hears and decides disputes; a place of jurisdiction where remedies afforded by the law are pursued. The appropriate forum for a lawsuit depends upon which court has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of the case, a matter governed mostly by statutes and court rules. For example, rules of procedure pr…
Forwarding Fee
A payment of money made by one attorney who receives a client to another attorney who referred the client. The Code of Professional Responsibility has been adopted by many state bar associations. If an attorney accepts a forwarding fee without providing any services, or undertaking any responsibility, the bar association may institute disciplinary proceedings against the individual for his or her …
Fourteenth Amendment - Further Readings
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution reads: The Supreme Court has explained that each of these incorporated rights is "deeply rooted in the nation's history" and "fundamental" to the concept of "ordered liberty" represented by the Due Process Clause (Palko v. Connecticut, 302U.S. 319, 58 S. Ct. 149, 82 L. Ed. 288 [1937]). Any state tha…
Fourth Amendment - Further Readings
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The Framers drafted the Fourth Amendment in response to their colonial experience with British officials, whose discretion in collecting revenues for the Crown often went unchecked. Upon a mere suspicion held by British tax collectors or their informants, colonial magistrates were compelled to issue general warrants, which permitted blanket door…
Franchise - Government Franchises, Private Franchises
The right of suffrage; the right or privilege of voting in public elections. Such right is guaranteed by the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. As granted by a professional sports association, franchise is a privilege to field a team in a given geographic area under the auspices of the league that issues it. It is merely an incorporeal right. …
Jerome New Frank
Jerome New Frank had a distinguished career as a judge but won perhaps even more renown as a legal philosopher and author. Frank was born September 10, 1889, in New York City. He received a Ph.B. from the University of Chicago in 1909 and a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1912. His next twenty years were spent in private practice where he specialized in the reorganization o…
Felix Frankfurter - Further Readings
Frankfurter was born November 15, 1882, in Vienna. At the age of twelve, he emigrated from Vienna to the United States with his parents and four siblings. The Frankfurters, like many other Jews in Vienna, had lived in Leopoldstadt, the center of the Jewish Ghetto, where they faced an undercurrent of hostility and a future of economic uncertainty. Along with 18 million other Europeans who immigrate…
Benjamin Franklin - Further Readings
Franklin's varied career had a lasting effect on U.S. law and politics. As a leading local figure, he established and shaped many of the fundamental institutions of Philadelphia and colonial Pennsylvania. Before the Revolutionary War (1775–83), Franklin served as envoy to Great Britain for several colonies. Though he first advocated reconciliation with Britain, he eventually supporte…
Fraud
A false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury. Fraud is commonly understood as dishonesty calculated for advantage. A person who is dishonest may be cal…
Fraudulent Conveyance - Fraudulent Intent, Family Relationships, Preferences, Remedies, Further Readings - Bankruptcy
A transfer of property that is made to swindle, hinder, or delay a creditor, or to put such property beyond his or her reach. For example, a man transfers his bank account to a relative by putting the account in the relative's name. He informs the relative that he has not relinquished ownership of the funds, but merely wants to isolate the money from the reach of his creditors. This is a fr…
Free Agency
A legal status that allows a professional athlete to negotiate an employment contract with the team of his or her choosing instead of being confined to one team. Athletes may become free agents after they have served a specific amount of time under contract with a team. Star athletes can benefit significantly from free agency. When their contract is up, they may get lucrative offers from rival tea…
Free Soil Party
Democrats and Whigs wanted to avoid party division in the election of 1848, so they virtually ignored the slavery question. The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass, who was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders. In defiance, anti-slavery Martin Van Buren and C. F. Adams were the Free Soil Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1848 election. Van Buren received 291,616 vote…
Freedom of Association and Assembly - Further Readings
The right to associate with others for the purpose of engaging in constitutionally protected activities. General types of association unrelated to First Amendment rights are not protected by the Constitution. For instance, in City of Dallas v. Stanglin, 490 U.S. 19, 109 S. Ct. 1591, 104 L. Ed. 2d 18 (1989), the Court held that a city ordinance limiting adult entrance into teenage dance halls did n…
Freedom of Information Act
Since FOIA was enacted in 1966, over a half million requests for information have been filed with government agencies. Although initially envisioned as a means to make the federal government more accessible to citizens, FOIA has been used extensively by reporters and newsgathering agencies, corporations, and even foreign governments. When the act was first passed, most government data were stored …
Freedom of the Press - Cross-references
Freedom of the press, like freedom of speech, is not absolute. Notwithstanding the limitations placed on it, the press exercises enormous power and influence, and is burdened with commensurate responsibility. Because journalists generally have access to more information than does the average individual, they serve as the eyes, ears, and voice of the public. Some legal scholars even argue that the …
Freedom of Speech - Public Forum Regulation, Inciting, Provocative, Or Offensive Speech, Prior Restraint, Expressive Conduct
Democracies have long grappled with the issue of the limits, if any, to place on the expression of ideas and beliefs. The dilemma dates back at least to ancient Greece, when the Athenians, who cherished individual freedom, nevertheless prosecuted Socrates for his teachings, claiming that he had corrupted young people and insulted the gods. During the two centuries since the adoption of the First A…