Free Legal Encyclopedia: Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) to Taking a conveyance without consent (TWOC)
Strict Construction
A close or narrow reading and interpretation of a statute or written document. Judges are often called upon to make a construction, or interpretation, of an unclear term in cases that involve a dispute over the term's legal significance. The common-law tradition has produced various precepts, maxims, and rules that guide judges in construing statutes or private written agreements such as co…
Strict Liability
Absolute legal responsibility for an injury that can be imposed on the wrongdoer without proof of carelessness or fault. An injured party must prove that the item was defective, that the defect proximately caused the injury, and that the defect rendered the product unreasonably dangerous. A plaintiff may recover damages even if the seller has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale…
Strict Scrutiny
Strict scrutiny is the most rigorous form of judicial review. The Supreme Court has identified the right to vote, the right to travel, and the right to privacy as fundamental rights worthy of protection by strict scrutiny. In addition, laws and policies that discriminate on the basis of race are categorized as suspect classifications that are presumptively impermissible and subject to strict scrut…
Strike - Federal Labor Law, Status, A Lexicon Of Labor Strikes, Unlawful Tactics, Settlement - Union Members
A work stoppage; the concerted refusal of employees to perform work that their employer has assigned to them in order to force the employer to grant certain demanded concessions, such as increased wages or improved employment conditions. A work stoppage is generally the last step in a labor-management dispute over wages and working conditions. Because employees are not paid when they go on strike …
William Strong
William Strong served as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1870 to 1880. He is best remembered for his majority opinion in the controversial case of Knox v. Lee (argued concurrently with Parker v. Davis), 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 457, 20 L. Ed. 287 (1871), commonly known as one of the Legal Tender Cases. Strong was born on May 6, 1808, in Somers, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale Univer…
Nadine M. Strossen
Born August 18, 1950, in Jersey City, New Jersey, Strossen moved with her family to Hopkins, Minnesota, at the age of eight. When she was growing up, she expected to pursue a traditional career, perhaps as a teacher. As an outstanding member of her high school debate team, she was impressed with her teammates' analytical skills and encouraged the boys among them to pursue a legal career. Sh…
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee - Further Readings
In its statement of purpose, dated April 1960, SNCC embraced a philosophy of nonviolence: One method of non-violent protest adopted by SNCC was the sit-in. Used to integrate businesses in northern and border states as early as 1943, this tactic was a risky undertaking in the segregated South of 1960. What SNCC met at lunch counter sit-ins was far from a spirit of reconciliation: whites taunted the…
Subcontractor
One who takes a portion of a contract from the principal contractor or from another subcontractor. When an individual or a company is involved in a large-scale project, a contractor is often hired to see that the work is done. The contractor, however, rarely does all the work. The work that remains is performed by subcontractors, who are under contract to the contractor, who is usually designated …
Subject Matter Jurisdiction
The power of a court to hear and determine cases of the general class to which the proceedings in question belong. The Constitution also allows federal district courts to hear cases involving any rights or obligations that arise from the Constitution or other federal law. This is called federal question jurisdiction. Federal courts also have diversity jurisdiction, which gives the courts authority…
Submission of Controversy
A procedure by which the parties to a particular dispute place any matter of real controversy existing between them before a court for a final determination. Some states have enacted laws that authorize parties in a legal dispute to bypass the normal procedures for resolving a civil lawsuit and use a process called submission of controversy. For a court to hear a case under a submission of controv…
Subornation of Perjury
The criminal offense of procuring another to commit perjury, which is the crime of lying, in a material matter, while under oath. It is a criminal offense to induce someone to commit perjury. In a majority of states, the offense is defined by statute. A sample subordination agreement material. The prosecutor must also provide evidence that the perjurer made such statements willfully with kn…
Subpoena
[Latin, Under penalty.] A formal document that orders a named individual to appear before a duly authorized body at a fixed time to give testimony. A subpoena must be served on the individual ordered to appear. In some states a law enforcement officer or process server must personally serve it, whereas other states allow service by mail or with a telephone call. It is most often used to compel wit…
Subpoena Duces Tecum
[Latin, Under penalty to bring with you.] The judicial process used to command the production before a court of papers, documents, or other tangible items of evidence. A subpoena duces tecum is used to compel the production of documents that might be admissible before the court. It cannot be used to require oral testimony and ordinarily cannot be used to compel a witness to reiterate, paraphrase, …
Subrogation
There are two types of subrogation: legal and conventional. Legal subrogation arises by operation of law, whereas conventional subrogation is a result of a contract. Legal subrogation takes place as a matter of equity, with or without an agreement. The right of legal subrogation can be either modified or extinguished through a contractual agreement. It cannot be used to displace a contract agreed …
Subscription
The act of writing one's name under a written instrument; the affixing of one's signature to any document, whether for the purpose of authenticating or attesting it, of adopting its terms as one's own expressions, or of binding one's self by an engagement which it contains. A written contract by which one engages to take and pay for capital stock of a corporation, or to…
Subsidiary
Auxiliary; aiding or supporting in an inferior capacity or position. In the law of corporations, a corporation or company owned by another corporation that controls at least a majority of the shares. A subsidiary corporation or company is one in which another, generally larger, corporation, known as the parent corporation, owns all or at least a majority of the shares. As the owner of the subsidia…
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - Further Readings
Within SAMHSA are several major centers designated to carry out its purposes. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) develops and implements federal policy for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse, and analyzes the effect of other federal, state, and local programs also designed to prevent such abuse. CSAP administers and operates grant programs for the prevention of alcohol and drug…
Substantive Due Process - Historical Development, Modern Analysis, Further Readings
The substantive limitations placed on the content or subject matter of state and federal laws by the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In general, substantive due process prohibits the government from infringing on fundamental constitutional liberties. By contrast, procedural due process refers to the procedural limitations placed on the manner in…
Substantive Law
Substantive law and procedural law are the two main categories within the law. Substantive law refers to the body of rules that determine the rights and obligations of individuals and collective bodies. Procedural law is the body of legal rules that govern the process for determining the rights of parties. …
Succession of States
Succession occurs when one state ceases to exist or loses control over part of its territory, and another state comes into existence or assumes control over the territory lost by the first state. A central concern in this instance is whether the international obligations of the former state are taken over by the succeeding state. Changes in the form of government of one state, such as the replacem…
Suicide
The deliberate taking of one's own life. More problematic is the situation in which someone helps another to commit suicide. Aiding or abetting a suicide or an attempted suicide is a crime in all states, but prosecutions are rare. Since the 1980s the question of whether physician-assisted suicide should be permitted for persons with terminal illnesses has been the subject of much debat…
Summary
As a noun, an abridgment; brief; compendium; digest; also a short application to a court or judge, without the formality of a full proceeding. As an adjective, short; concise; immediate; peremptory; off-hand; without a jury; provisional; statutory. The term as used in connection with legal proceedings means a short, concise, and immediate proceeding. …
Summary Judgment
The purpose of summary judgment is to avoid unnecessary trials. It may also simplify a trial, as when partial summary judgment dispenses with certain issues or claims. For example, a court might grant partial summary judgment in a personal injury case on the issue of liability. A trial would still be necessary to determine the amount of damages. Jurisdictions vary in their requirements for opposin…
Summons
The paper that tells a defendant that he or she is being sued and asserts the power of the court to hear and determine the case. A form of legal process that commands the defendant to appear before the court on a specific day and to answer the complaint made by the plaintiff. The summons is the document that officially starts a lawsuit. It must be in a form prescribed by the law governing procedur…
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner served as U.S. senator from Massachusetts for 23 years starting in 1851. His career in the Senate was a turbulent one, marked by much controversy. Sumner was born January 6, 1811, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sumner graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1830 and a bachelor of laws degree in 1833. Charles Sumner. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTR…
Sunset Provision
A statutory provision providing that a particular agency, benefit, or law will expire on a particular date, unless it is reauthorized by the legislature. Sunset laws state that a given agency will cease to exist after a fixed period of time unless the legislature reenacts its statutory charter. Sunset provisions differ greatly in their details, but they share the common belief that it is useful to…
Supremacy Clause - Further Readings
Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause because it provides that the "Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … shall be the supreme Law of the Land." It means that the federal government, in exercising any of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, must prevail over any conflicting or inconsistent state exercise of power. In…
Supreme Court
An appellate tribunal with high powers and broad authority within its jurisdiction. The U.S. government and each state government has a supreme court, though some states have given their highest court a different name. A supreme court is the highest court in its jurisdiction. It decides the most important issues of constitutional and statutory law and is intended to provide legal clarity and consi…
Supreme Court Historical Society
Semi-annually, the Society publishes the Journal of Supreme Court History, which features articles by the justices, noted academicians, solicitors general, and other noted contributors. Special topic publications by the Society include The Supreme Court in the Civil War, The Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court Revisited: Brandeis to Fortas, and The Supreme Court in World War II. The Society…
Surgeon General - The Surgeon General And A Smoke-free Future
The U.S. Surgeon General is charged with the protection and advancement of health in the United States. Since the 1960s the surgeon general has become a highly visible federal public health official, speaking out against known health risks such as tobacco use, and promoting disease prevention measures such as exercise and community water fluoridation. The surgeon general oversees research on publi…
Surrender
To give up, return, or yield. The word surrender presupposes the possession or ownership of the thing that is to be returned or given up. It indicates a transfer of title as well as possession, but it does not express or in any way suggest the transaction of a sale and delivery. Instead, it involves yielding or delivering in response to a demand. A surrender may be compelled or it may be voluntary…
Surrogate Motherhood - Does Surrogacy Involve Making Families Or Selling Babies?, Further Readings
A relationship in which one woman bears and gives birth to a child for a person or a couple who then adopts or takes legal custody of the child; also called mothering by proxy. In surrogate motherhood, one woman acts as a surrogate, or replacement, mother for another woman, sometimes called the intended mother, who either cannot produce fertile eggs or cannot carry a pregnancy through to birth, or…
Suspect Classification
A presumptively unconstitutional distinction made between individuals on the basis of race, national origin, alienage, or religious affiliation, in a statute, ordinance, regulation, or policy. Though it is now widely recognized that no compelling justification existed for the relocation order and that racial prejudice rather than national security led to the forced removal of Japanese Americans, K…
Suspended Sentence
A sentence given after the formal conviction of a crime that the convicted person is not required to serve. In criminal cases a trial judge has the ability to suspend the sentence of a convicted person. The judge must first pronounce a penalty of a fine or imprisonment, or both, and then suspend the implementation of the sentence. There are two types of suspended sentences. A judge may uncondition…
George Sutherland
Sutherland was born on March 25, 1862, in Buckinghamshire, England. When Sutherland was a young child, his parents emigrated to the United States, settling in Provo, Utah. Sutherland graduated from Brigham Young University in 1881 and attended the University of Michigan Law School in 1882 and 1883. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1883 but returned that same year to Utah, where he establishe…
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
The district court conducted many hearings on the issues and found that the school district had drawn school attendance zones in such a way as to result in segregated education. The key issue, however, was how to remedy this situation. The school board proposed closing seven schools and restructuring attendance zones. The court found little merit in this proposal, finding that more than half the b…
Swat Teams - Further Readings
SWAT teams began during the turbulent 1960s. In August 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman climbed a tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin and shot 47 people, killing 15. The incident took place during a 90-minute span, and police officers were ill-equipped to handle the situation. Officers eventually climbed the tower and reached Whitman's position, killing him after he tried t…
Noah Haynes Swayne
Noah H. Swayne. ARCHIVE PHOTOS, INC. Swayne retired from the Court in 1881. He died on June 8, 1884, in New York City. …
Symbolic Speech - Flag Burning: Desecration Or Free Expression?, Further Readings
Nonverbal gestures and actions that are meant to communicate a message. In United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 88 S. Ct. 1673, 20 L. Ed. 2d 672 (1968), the Court reviewed the conviction of David Paul O'Brien for violating a 1965 amendment to the Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C.A. App. §§ 451 et seq.) that prohibited any draft registrant from knowingly destroying or …
Syndicate
Newspaper or press syndicates came into existence after the Civil War. A press syndicate sells the exclusive rights to entertainment features, such as gossip and advice columns, comic strips, and serialized books, to a subscribing newspaper in each territory. These "syndicated" features, which appear simultaneously around the United States, can generate large sums for the creators of…
Alphonso Taft - Further Readings
Taft was born November 5, 1810, in Townsend, Vermont, to pioneers Peter Rawson Taft and Sylvia Howard Taft. He was well aware of his family's long history and tradition of public service in the American colonies. His father was a descendant of Edward Rawson, a 1636 settler who had served as secretary of the Massachusetts Province. Other Taft family members held positions of responsibility a…
Taft-Hartley Act
The act also makes collective bargaining agreements enforceable in federal district court, and it provides a civil remedy for damages to private parties injured by secondary boycotts. The statute thereby marks a shift away from a federal policy encouraging unionization, which has been embodied in the Wagner Act, to a more neutral stance, which maintains the right of employees to be free from emplo…
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft is the only person to serve as both president and Supreme Court chief justice of the United States. A gifted judge and administrator, Taft helped modernize the way the U.S. Supreme Court conducted its business and was the driving force behind the construction of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. William Howard Taft. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Taft's politic…