Free Legal Encyclopedia: Secretary to SHAs
Section (1983) - Jurisdiction, Elements Of A Section 1983 Claim, Absolute And Qualified Immunities, Remedies, Bars To Relief
Section 1983 provides: During the first 90 years of the act, few causes of action were brought due to the narrow and restrictive way that the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the act. For example, the phrase "person … [acting] under color of any statute" was not interpreted to include those wrongdoers who happened to be state or municipal officials acting within the scope of the…
Secured Transactions - Common Forms Of Secured Transactions, Common Forms Of Collateral, The Formalities, Satisfaction Of The Secured Debt
Business dealings that grant a creditor a right in property owned or held by a debtor to assure the payment of a debt or the performance of some obligation. A secured transaction is a transaction that is founded on a security agreement. A security agreement is a provision in a business transaction in which the obligor, or debtor, in the agreement gives to the creditor the right to own property own…
Securities - Securities Act Of 1933, Securities Exchange Act Of 1934, Regulation Of The Securities Business, Securities Investor Protection Corporation
Evidence of a corporation's debts or property. Securities are documents that merely represent an interest or a right in something else; they are not consumed or used in the same way as traditional consumer goods. Government regulation of consumer goods attempts to protect consumers from dangerous articles, misleading advertising, or illegal pricing practices. Securities laws, on the other h…
Sedition - Further Readings
The crime of seditious conspiracy is committed when two or more persons in any state or U.S. territory conspire to levy war against the U.S. government. A person commits the crime of advocating the violent overthrow of the federal government when she willfully advocates or teaches the overthrow of the government by force, publishes material that advocates the overthrow of the government by force, …
Seditious Libel
Written or spoken words, pictures, signs, or other forms of communication that tend to defame, discredit, criticize, impugn, embarrass, challenge, or question the government, its policies, or its officials; speech that advocates the overthrow of the government by force or violence or that incites people to change the government by unlawful means. …
Segregation - Yonkers, New York, Battles Segregation
The act or process of separating a race, class, or ethnic group from a society's general population. Segregation in the United States has been practiced, for the most part, on African Americans. Segregation by law, or de jure segregation, of African Americans was developed by state legislatures and local lawmaking bodies in southern states shortly after the Civil War. De facto segregation, …
Seizure
Forcible possession; a grasping, snatching, or putting in possession. …
John Selden - Further Readings
John Selden was a brilliant lawyer, author, politician, legal analyst, and historian in seventeenth-century England. John Milton, the famed poet and a contemporary of Selden, called Selden "the chief of learned men reputed in this Land." Selden was born in Salvington, Sussex, England, in 1584. His baptismal record says only, "John, the sonne of John Selden, ye ministrell, was …
Selden Society
The principal activity of the Selden Society is the publication of an annual series on the history of English law. This series is of considerable value to courts in countries with legal systems that have borrowed heavily from the English legal system. The Selden Society also publishes books about various legal topics and holds lectures and symposiums about historical topics of legal significance. …
Selective Prosecution
Selective prosecution cases are notoriously difficult to prove. Courts presume that prosecutors have not violated equal protection requirements, and claimants bear the burden of proving otherwise. A person claiming selective prosecution must show that the prosecutorial policy had a discriminatory effect and that it was motivated by a discriminatory purpose. To demonstrate a discriminatory effect, …
Self-Dealing
The conduct of a trustee, an attorney, or other fiduciary that consists of taking advantage of his or her position in a transaction and acting for his or her own interests rather than for the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust or the interests of his or her clients. One important duty of a fiduciary is to act in the best interests of the benefited party. When a fiduciary engages in self-d…
Self-Defense - Self-defense Or Unjustified Shooting?, Further Readings
The protection of one's person or property against some injury attempted by another. In some cases, before using force that is likely to cause death or serious bodily harm to the aggressor, a person who is under attack should attempt to retreat or escape, but only if an exit is reasonably possible. Courts have held, however, that a person is not required to flee from his own home, the fence…
Self-Executing
Anything (e.g., a document or legislation) that is effective immediately without the need of intervening court action, ancillary legislation, or other type of implementing action. A constitutional provision is self-executing when it can be given effect without the aid of legislation, and there is nothing to indicate that legislation is intended to make it operative. For example, a constitutional p…
Self-Help - Further Readings
Self-help is permissible where it is allowed by law and can be accomplished without committing a breach of the peace. A breach of the peace refers to violence or threats of violence. For example, if a person buys a ship financed by a mortgage, the mortgage company may repossess the ship if the buyer fails to make the mortgage payments. If the buyer is present when the ship is being taken away and …
Self-Incrimination - Further Readings
Giving testimony in a trial or other legal proceeding that could subject one to criminal prosecution. The right against self-incrimination forbids the government from compelling any person to give testimonial evidence that would likely incriminate him during a subsequent criminal case. This right enables a defendant to refuse to testify at a criminal trial and "privileges him not to answer …
Senate - Members, Committees, Officers, A Day In The Life Of The Senate, Further Readings
The upper chamber, or smaller branch, of the U.S. Congress. The upper chamber of the legislature of most of the states. The Senate, with terms of six years for its members—as opposed to two years for members of the House of Representatives—and a tradition of unlimited debate, has long prided itself as the more deliberate of the two branches of Congress. Under its rules a senator may …
Senate Judiciary Committee - Further Readings
The nomination process of federal judges traditionally has caused a significant amount of controversy regarding the criteria that are used by committee members in determining whether to approve or disapprove a judicial nominee. Some commentators suggest that the nomination process should only involve considerations of ethics and professional competence, while others argue that the real considerati…
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention, which took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848, was the first national women's rights convention and a pivotal event in the continuing story of U.S. and women's rights. In 1848, Stanton and Mott met with Mott's sister, Martha Coffin Wright, along with Jane Hunt and Mary Ann McClintock to organize the long-awaited women's rights con…
Senior Citizens - How To Avoid Being Defrauded, Further Readings
Elderly persons, usually more than sixty or sixty-five years of age. People in the United States who are more than sixty years of age are commonly referred to as senior citizens or seniors. These terms refer to people whose stage in life is generally called old age, though there is no precise way to identify the final stage of a normal life span. People are said to be senior citizens when they rea…
Seniority - Scamming The Elderly
Precedence or preference in position over others similarly situated. As used, for example, with reference to job seniority, the worker with the most years of service is first promoted within a range of jobs subject to seniority, and is the last laid off, proceeding so on down the line to the youngest in point of service. The term may also refer to the priority of a lien or encumbrance. A person wh…
Sentencing - Sentencing Guidelines: Fair Or Unfair, Further Readings
The post-conviction stage of the criminal justice process, in which the defendant is brought before the court for the imposition of a penalty. If a defendant is convicted in a criminal prosecution, the event that follows the verdict is called sentencing. A sentence is the penalty ordered by the court. Generally, the primary goals of sentencing are punishment, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabi…
Separation of Powers
The division of state and federal government into three independent branches. The first three articles of the U.S. Constitution call for the powers of the federal government to be divided among three separate branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary branch. Under the separation of powers, each branch is independent, has a separate function, and may not usurp the functions of ano…
September h Attacks (11t) - Further Readings
As the Pentagon was attacked, another hijacked flight, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania, killing everyone aboard. Later, it was discovered that the passengers attempted to overcome the four hijackers. Passengers had learned their likely fates from cell phone calls informing them about the World Trade Center crashes. Government authorities later speculated that the plane's …
Sequestration
In the context of trials, the isolation of a jury from the public, or the separation of witnesses to ensure the integrity of testimony. In other legal contexts the seizure of property or the freezing of assets by court order. In jury trials, judges sometimes choose to sequester the jurors, or place them beyond public reach. Usually the jurors are moved into a hotel, kept under close supervision tw…
Serjeant at Law
The serjeants at law originated in the Court of Common Pleas, one of the four superior courts at Westminster, in the fourteenth century. They had an antecedent in the thirteenth-century legal practitioners known as countors, a term from the French meaning storytellers. Countors helped formulate the plaintiff's counts, or causes of action, and the preparatory work called counting. In the fou…
Service
Any duty or labor performed for another person. The delivery of a legal document that notifies the recipient of the commencement of a legal action or proceeding in which he or she is involved. The term service has various meanings, depending upon the context of the word. Under feudal law, tenants had a duty to render service to their lords in exchange for use of the land. The service required coul…
Service Mark
Businesses use service marks to identify their services and distinguish them from other services provided in the same field. Service marks consist of letters, words, symbols, and other devices that help inform consumers about the origin or source of a particular service. Roto-Rooter is an example of a service mark used by a familiar plumbing company. Trademarks, by contrast, are used to distinguis…
Service of Process - Methods Of Service, Where Process May Be Served, Who Must Be Served, Process Servers - When Papers Can Be Served
Delivery of a writ, summons, or other legal papers to the person required to respond to them. Process is the general term for the legal document by which a lawsuit is started and the court asserts its jurisdiction over the parties and the controversy. In modern U.S. law, process is usually a summons. A summons is a paper that tells a defendant that he is being sued in a specific court that the pla…
Servitude
The state of a person who is subjected, voluntarily or involuntarily, to another person as a servant. A charge or burden resting upon one estate for the benefit or advantage of another. All servitudes affecting lands are classified as either personal or real. Personal servitudes are established for the benefit of a particular person and terminate upon the death of that individual. A common example…
Set-Off
A demand made by the defendant against the plaintiff that is based on some transaction or occurrence other than the one that gave the plaintiff grounds to sue. The set-off is available to defendants in civil lawsuits. Generally, civil actions are brought by plaintiffs seeking an award of damages for injuries caused by the defendant. In customary practice the plaintiff files the suit and the defend…
Setback
A distance from a curb, property line, or structure within which building is prohibited. …
Settlement - Further Readings
The act of adjusting or determining the dealings or disputes between persons without pursuing the matter through a trial. Like litigation itself, settlement is a process. Generally, the easiest time to settle a dispute is before litigation begins, but many opportunities for settlement present themselves. As litigation advances toward trial, attorneys for both sides communicate with each other and …
Settlement Statement
A breakdown of costs involved in a real estate sale. Historically, the secondary costs in real estate transactions have been expensive. These costs include broker's fees and appraiser's fees, some of which are required by lenders in real estate deals. Buyers and sellers have not always known the full extent of these costs in advance. Responding to the maze of hidden costs during the …
Seven Bishops' Trial
The trial took place against a backdrop of anti-Catholicism. The English Parliament had restricted the rights of Catholics to hold public office and engage in other activities. James II was a devout Catholic, however, and believed that it was his duty to protect the rights of English Catholics. Accordingly, on April 4, 1687, he issued the First Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended the restri…
Seventeenth Amendment - Further Readings
The Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The Seventeenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1913, provided for the direct election of U.S. senators by citizens. Until 1913 state legislatures had elected U.S. senators. Ratification of the amendment followed decades of insistence that the power to elect senators should be placed in the hands of ordinary voters. This successful struggl…
Seventh Amendment - Further Readings
The Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial in most civil suits that are heard in federal court. However, before the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial attaches, a lawsuit must satisfy four threshold requirements. First, it must assert a claim that would have triggered the right to a jury trial under…
Severable
That which is capable of being separated from other things to which it is joined and maintaining nonetheless a complete and independent existence. The term severable is used to describe a contract that can be divided and apportioned into two or more parts that are not necessarily dependent upon each other. For example, a seller accepted a buyer's order for sixty dozen hats and caps of diffe…
Severance
The act of dividing, or the state of being divided. …
Sex Discrimination - Historical Background, Sex Discrimination And Title Vii: An Unusual Political Alliance, Sex Discrimination Laws
Discrimination on the basis of gender. Women have historically been subjected to legal discrimination based on their gender. Some of this discrimination has been based on cultural stereotypes that cast women primarily in the roles of wives and mothers. In the patriarchal (male-dominated) U.S. society, women have been viewed as the "weaker sex," who needed protection from the rough-an…
Sexual Abuse - Child Testimony In Day Care Center Sexual Abuse Cases, Further Readings
Illegal sex acts performed against a minor by a parent, guardian, relative, or acquaintance. During the 1980s a rash of sexual abuse cases involving day care centers drew national attention. The McMartin preschool case in Manhattan Beach, California, which began in 1984, accused a group of day care employees of sexual abuse and bizarre rituals of animal sacrifice. Though none of the defendants was…
Sexual Harassment - Same-sex Sexual Harassment, Clarence Thomas And Anita Hill Hearings, Further Readings
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that tends to create a hostile or offensive work environment. A key part of the definition is the use of the word unwelcome. Unwelcome or uninvited conduct or communication of a sexual nature is prohibited; welcome or invited actions or words are not unlawful. Sexual or romantic interacti…
Robert Leslie Shapiro
Robert Leslie Shapiro is a prominent West Coast defense lawyer. He entered private practice in 1972 after a brief stint as a prosecutor. Within a decade, he was representing film stars, producers, professional athletes, and other celebrities. Shapiro is known for his calm, tactful manner in negotiations and for building relationships with law enforcement agencies and the press. In 1994, he turned …