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…
Blatchford was born in New York City on March 9, 1820, the son of Richard Blatchford, a lawyer, and Julia Ann Mumford. He attended Columbia College (renamed Columbia University), and graduated with honors at age seventeen in 1837. Blatchford served as a trustee of Columbia from 1867 to 1893. After graduation Blatchford became the private secretary of Governor William H. Seward of New York, a famil…
Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe in the abortion case of Roe v. Wade, withdrew her support from pro-choice groups and is now a pro-life activist. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS that a defendant in a pending state criminal case cannot affirmatively challenge in federal court the statutes under which the state is prosecuting him or her (Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S. Ct. 764, 27 L. Ed. 2d 688 …
The Founding Fathers intended the Speedy Trial Clause to serve two purposes. First, they sought to prevent defendants from languishing in jail for an indefinite period before trial. Pre-trial incarceration is a deprivation of liberty no less serious than post-conviction imprisonment. In some cases pretrial incarceration may be more serious because public scrutiny is often heightened, employment is…
A commission from one judge to another judge requesting the latter to examine a witness in his or her court, with the testimony to be provided to the first judge. Rogatory letters can be sent to a court in a sister state or to a court or judge in a foreign country (usually they are sent through diplomatic channels). Granting the request is a matter of comity—courtesy and respect—betw…
Dworkin expands on his philosophy in what some consider to be his legal epic, Law's Empire. He discounts the conventionalist notion that law is based strictly on tradition and established authority, arguing that judges must interpret past legal decisions rather than mechanically apply the law based on precedence. Dworkin's integrity-based approach to law has drawn strong support from…
The power of legislatures to tax and spend. Federal spending increased dramatically in the 1930s. Congress created new federal agencies and spending programs to manage the economic effects of the Great Depression, and the U.S. Supreme Court was forced to decide a spate of challenges to federal spending programs. In 1936, the Court construed the Spending Power Clause as giving Congress broad power …
Ronald Reagan. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Dixon, Illinois. He attended nearby Eureka College and graduated in 1932. He worked as a radio and sports announcer at several stations in Iowa before he was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout. He signed an acting contract with the Warner Brothers…
One who spends money profusely and improvidently, thereby wasting his or her estate. Under various statutes, a spendthrift is a person who wastes or reduces her estate through excessive drinking, gambling, idleness, or debauchery in a manner that exposes that individual or her family to indigence or suffering or who exposes the government to expense for the support of that person or her family. Wh…
In some states, a judgment roll is required to be filed by the clerk of the court when he or she enters judgment. It normally contains the summons, pleadings, admissions, and each judgment and order involving the merits of the case or affecting the final judgment. In the federal courts and most state courts, judgments are recorded in the civil docket or criminal docket. In old English practice, a …
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…
An arrangement whereby one person sets aside property for the benefit of another in which, either because of a direction of the settlor (one who creates a trust) or because of statute, the beneficiary (one who profits from the act of another) is unable to transfer his or her right to future payments of income or capital, and his or her creditors are unable to subject the beneficiary's inter…
In 1829 she moved to New York City and worked as a domestic servant. Since childhood she had experienced visions and heard voices, which she attributed to God. Her mystic bent led her to become associated with Elijah Person, a New York religious missionary. She worked and preached with Person in the streets of the city, and in 1843 she had a religious experience in which she believed that God comm…
Romans divided the law into jus scriptum, written law, and jus non scriptum, unwritten law. The unwritten law was based on custom and usage, while the written law came from legislation and many types of written sources, including edicts and proclamations issued by magistrates, resolutions of the Roman Senate, laws issued by the emperor, and legal disquisitions of prominent lawyers. Roman law conce…
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…
The situation that arises when a parent corporation organizes a subsidiary corporation, to which it transfers a portion of its assets in exchange for all of the subsidiary's capital stock, which is subsequently transferred to the parent corporation's shareholders. When a spin-off occurs, the shareholders of the parent corporation are not required to surrender any of their parent corp…
Sir Roger David Casement pursued an illustrious career in the British Foreign Service. His achievements were overshadowed by his campaign for Irish nationalism, which eventually led to his trial and execution. Sir Roger Casement. Casement was born September 1, 1864, in Dublin, Ireland. From 1892 to 1904 and from 1906 to 1911, Casement made several noteworthy contributions to the field of Br…
The sitting of a court, legislature, council, or commission for the transaction of its proper business. A session can be the period of time within any one day during which the body is assembled and engaged in business. In a more extended sense, the session can be the whole space of time from the first assembling of the body to its adjournment. A joint session is the convening of the two houses of …
A decision by an appellate court that is not unanimous. When the members of an appellate court cannot reach full agreement, a split decision occurs. A split decision is distinct from a unanimous decision in which all the judges join in agreement. In a split decision, the will of the majority of the judges is binding, and one member of the majority delivers the opinion of the court itself. One or m…
To cancel, annul, or revoke a judgment or order.…
The process whereby a parent corporation organizes a subsidiary corporation to which it transfers part of its assets in exchange for all of the subsidiary's capital stock, which is subsequently transferred to the shareholders of the parent corporation in exchange for a portion of their parent stock. A split-off differs from a spin-off in that the shareholders in a split-off must relinquish …
Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981, becoming the first female justice on the high court. O'Connor has established herself as a moderate conservative who prefers narrow, limited holdings. After law school, Day married John O'Connor, an attorney. She had hoped to join a law firm in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but none was willing to hire a woma…
To list a case in a court calendar or docket for trial or hearing during a particular term. …
An arrangement whereby a parent corporation transfers all of its assets to two or more corporations and then winds up its affairs. When a split-up occurs, the shareholders of the parent corporation surrender the total amount of their stock in exchange for stock in the transferee corporation. …
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…
A spoliator of evidence in a legal action is an individual who neglects to produce evidence that is in her possession or control. In such a situation, any inferences that might be drawn against the party are permitted, and the withholding of the evidence is attributed to the person's presumed knowledge that it would have served to operate against her. …
A distance from a curb, property line, or structure within which building is prohibited. …
Sporkin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He earned his law degree from Yale University in 1957, and worked in private practice before joining the SEC as a staff attorney in 1960. In a surprising move, both the Justice Department and Microsoft filed separate appeals. Not only did both parties win, but Sporkin was removed from the case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Distri…
To agree, to approve, to arrange, to ascertain, to liquidate, or to reach an agreement. Parties are said to settle an account when they examine its items and ascertain and agree upon the balance due from one to the other. When the person who owes money pays the balance, he or she is also said to settle it. A trust is settled when its terms are established and it goes into effect. The term settle u…
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 …
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 …
One who establishes a trust—a right of property, real or personal—held and administered by a trustee for the benefit of another. …
Conkling was born October 30, 1829, in Albany, New York. After attending Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, in New York City, he moved to Utica, New York, where he studied law with a local firm. He was admitted to the bar in 1850 and was immediately appointed district attorney of Albany. In subsequent years, and while still in his twenties, Conkling made a reputation for himself as an orator a…
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…
Morton Sobell (born April 11, 1917), a former employee of the Naval Bureau of Ordnance, was also indicted for conspiracy to commit espionage with the Rosenbergs and was named as a codefendant. During June 1950, Sobell fled to Mexico with his wife under an assumed name. After being apprehended and extradited back to the United States, Sobell was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years in …
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…
Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn was an eminent British jurist. He was born December 24, 1802. He graduated in 1829 from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, England. In 1847, Cockburn began his career in Parliament as a liberal. He served in the British government as attorney general from 1851 to February 1852; he resumed these duties in December of 1852 and continued until 1856. In that same year, he pre…
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…
The laws, regulations, and judicial decisions that govern sports and athletes. …
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…
The granting to a particular parcel of land a classification concerning its use that differs from the classification of other land in the immediate area. …
In his proposal to Congress, Carter asked for the authority to register both men and women. Congress refused to allocate funds to register women but did fund the registration of males. Carter signed MSSA, and on July 2, 1980, he ordered the registration of specified groups of young men pursuant to the authority conferred by Section 3 of the act. Registration was to commence on July 21, 1980. Rehnq…
Separate; individual; independent. In this sense, the word several is distinguished from joint. When applied to a number of persons, the expression severally liable usually implies that each person is liable alone. …
An individual who settles on the land of another person without any legal authority to do so, or without acquiring a legal title. In the past, the term squatter specifically applied to an individual who settled on public land. Currently it is used interchangeably with intruder and trespasser. …
Sole proprietorship of property; individual dominion. …
The abbreviation is read as "to wit" and is intended to be a contraction of the Latin term scilicet. …
The act of dividing, or the state of being divided. …
A document that is a promise to pay money that is held for too long a period of time before being presented for payment. A check is considered to be stale when it is outstanding for a period of six months or more. A bank is not obligated to pay a stale check. …
Compensation for the use of property, usually copyrighted works, patented inventions, or natural resources, expressed as a percentage of receipts from using the property or as a payment for each unit produced. A royalty agreement is part of the contract that the creator of the work negotiates with the business that seeks to exploit the creation. A royalty can be as simple as a fixed amount of mone…
The federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) system was developed pursuant to the federal Social Security Act of 1935 (42 U.S.C.A. § 301 et seq. [1935]) to provide government benefits to eligible retirees, disabled individuals, and surviving spouses and their dependents. The OASDI program is funded by payroll taxes levied on employees, their employers, and the self-emplo…
The title of a statute indicating the objective of the legislation and providing a means of interpreting the body of the act. …
Criminal activity consisting of the repeated following and harassing of another person. Stalking is a distinctive form of criminal activity composed of a series of actions that taken individually might constitute legal behavior. For example, sending flowers, writing love notes, and waiting for someone outside her place of work are actions that, on their own, are not criminal. When these actions ar…
Robert Heron Bork, conservative legal scholar, author, and former federal appellate judge, was one of President Ronald Reagan's most controversial nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court. Robert Bork. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS In the summer of 1987 the United States witnessed the most contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle in the 200-year history of the Constitution. The battle over Bo…
The Stamp Act was the English act of 1765 requiring that revenue stamps be affixed to all official documents in the American colonies. In 1765 the British Parliament, under the leadership of Prime Minister George Grenville, passed the Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the American colonies. The revenue measure was intended to help pay the debt incurred by the British in fighting the French and In…
To command or require pursuant to a principle of the court, as to rule the sheriff to serve the summons. To settle or decide a point of law at a trial or hearing. An established standard, guide, or regulation governing conduct, procedure, or action. …
A pecuniary charge imposed upon certain transactions. A stamp tax is, for example, levied when ownership of real property is transferred. The tax is paid either by purchasing stamps that are then glued to the deed or by the use of metering machines that imprint the stamps on the deed. …
Samuel Ames was born September 6, 1806. He graduated from Brown University in 1823 and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1826. Samuel Ames. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Beginning in 1856 Ames served as chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. In 1861, he was the representative from Rhode Island during a series of unsuccessful negotiations to effect a peace between the North and So…
The location in a courtroom where the parties and witnesses offer their testimony. To appear in court; to submit to the jurisdiction of the court. To stand trial, for example, means to try, or be tried on, a particular issue in a particular court. …
The state of affairs that arises when a defendant in a criminal action refuses to plead either guilty or not guilty. When a defendant stands mute, the court will generally order a not guilty plea to be entered. …
The courts developed the rule during the seventeenth century in order to restrict a person's power to control perpetually the ownership and possession of his or her property after death and to ensure the transferability of property. The rule includes the period of gestation to cover cases of posthumous birth. …
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…
The legally protectible stake or interest that an individual has in a dispute that entitles him to bring the controversy before the court to obtain judicial relief. Standing, sometimes referred to as standing to sue, is the name of the federal law doctrine that focuses on whether a prospective plaintiff can show that some personal legal interest has been invaded by the defendant. It is not enough …
Stephen J. Field. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Field contended that the regulations violated due process and that under the U.S. system of government the legislature lacked the power "to fix the price which anyone shall receive for his property of any kind." By 1890 he had convinced the majority of the Court that his view of the Due Process Clause was correct and had extended its reach…
An English common-law doctrine that provided that a conveyance that attempts to give a person a life estate, with a remainder to that person's heirs, will instead give both the life estate and the remainder to the person, thus giving that person the land in fee simple absolute (full ownership without restriction). The effect of the rule was to frustrate the intent of an owner of real proper…
A method of computing refunds of unearned finance charges on early payment of a loan so that the refund is proportional to the monthly unpaid balance. The figure 78 is the sum of the digits of one to twelve—that is, the number of months in a one-year installment contract. …
An ancient high court of England, controlled by the monarch, which was abolished in 1641 by Parliament for abuses of power. The English court of Star Chamber was created by King Henry VII in 1487 and was named for a room with stars painted on the ceiling in the royal palace of Westminster where the court sat. The Star Chamber was an instrument of the monarch and consisted of royal councillors and …
Mueller was born in New York City on August 7, 1944. He graduated from Princeton University in 1966. He also received a master's degree in International Studies from New York University. In 1973, he received his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he also served on the Law Review. Mueller served for three years as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. He spent o…
[Latin, Let the decision stand.] The policy of courts to abide by or adhere to principles established by decisions in earlier cases. The principle of stare decisis was not always applied with uniform strictness. In medieval England, common-law courts looked to earlier cases for guidance, but they could reject those they considered bad law. Courts also placed less than complete reliance on prior de…
In private practice in New York, Cohn flourished. Although many intellectuals excoriated him for his role in the McCarthy witch hunts, he gained prominent clients from across the political spectrum. He represented everyone from alleged mafia bosses to pop stars, and he was largely successful, often without having to appear in court. Cohn had developed the right Roy Marcus Cohn. AP/WIDE WORLD P…
Rule according to law; rule under law; or rule according to a higher law. The rule of law is an ambiguous term that can mean different things in different contexts. In one context the term means rule according to law. No individual can be ordered by the government to pay civil damages or suffer criminal punishment except in strict accordance with well-established and clearly defined laws and proce…
The Rules of Decision Act, (28 U.S.C.A. § 1652 [1948]) provides that where the Constitution, treaties, or acts of Congress are inapplicable, the law of the state in which the federal court is sitting should apply to civil actions. …
In 1582, Coke married Bridget Paston. The union brought him a considerable fortune in money and land, as well as seven children. With his later political power, he was able to add greatly to his wealth over the course of his life. His first wife died in 1598. His subsequent marriage a few months later to Lady Elizabeth Hatton, twenty-six years his junior and granddaughter of Burghley, was a troubl…
The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) Treaties, START I (1991) and START II (1993), provided for large cuts in the nuclear arms possessed by the United States and the Soviet Union (later the Russian Federation). START I was the first arms-control treaty to reduce, rather than merely limit, the strategic offensive nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States an…
As a noun, a people permanently occupying a fixed territory bound together by common habits and custom into one body politic exercising, through the medium of an organized government, independent sovereignty and control over all persons and things within its boundaries, capable of making war and peace and of entering into international relations with other states. The section of territory occupied…
The Supreme Court struck down the 1875 act in the Civil Rights cases, 109 U.S. 3, 3 S. Ct. 18, 27 L. Ed. 835 (1883). It held that under the Fourteenth Amendment, "it is state action of a particular character that is prohibited. Individual invasion of individual rights is not the subject-matter of the amendment." The Court relied on language of the amendment that provides that "…
A class of sexual conduct prohibited by the law.…
Judicial tribunals established by each of the fifty states. Each of the fifty state court systems in the United States operates independently under the constitution and the laws of the particular state. The character and names of the courts vary from state to state, but they have common structural elements. State governments create state courts through the enactment of statutes or by constitutiona…
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…
Reed was born on December 31, 1884, in Macon County, Kentucky. Educated at private schools, he graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1902. He earned a second bachelor's degree at Yale University. Reed attended law Stanley F. Reed. CORBIS school at both the University of Virginia and Columbia University but never completed his law degree. In 1908 he went to Paris and studied for…
The Department of State, the senior executive department of the U.S. government, was established by an act of July 27, 1789, as the Department of Foreign Affairs and was renamed Department of State by an act of September 15, 1789. …
A body of customs, practices, usages, conventions, protocols, treaties, laws, and other norms that govern the commencement, conduct, and termination of hostilities between belligerent states or parties. Frequently violated and sometimes ridiculed, the rules of war have evolved over centuries. They distinguish nations whose armed forces respect some minimal standard of human decency from terrorists…
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…
A broad term for any matter of public concern that is addressed by a government in law or policy. State legislatures pass laws to address matters of public interest and concern. A law that sets speed limits on public highways expresses an interest in protecting public safety. A statute that requires high school students to pass competency examinations before being allowed to graduate advances the …
A judicial or administrative interpretation of a provision of a statute, order, regulation, or ordinance. The judicial determination of matters before the court such as the admissibility of evidence or the granting of a motion, which is an application for an order. …
False; without substance.…
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 …
A covenant, a written promise or restriction on the use of land, is said to run with the land when either the obligation to perform it or the right to take advantage of it passes to the one to whom the land is transferred. …
A portion or part of something that may be divided into components, such as a sum of money. A unit of stock that represents ownership in a corporation. …
A game of chance operated by a state government. Generally a lottery offers a person the chance to win a prize in exchange for something of lesser value. Most lotteries offer a large cash prize, and the chance to win the cash prize is typically available for one dollar. Because the number of people playing the game usually exceeds the number of dollars paid out, the lottery ensures a profit for th…
The term statement of affairs is also used to describe a type of balance sheet that shows immediate liquidation amounts, as opposed to acquisition or original costs, and is generally prepared when insolvency or bankruptcy is about to take effect. …
State's evidence is slang for testimony given by criminal defendants to prosecutors about other alleged criminals. A criminal defendant may agree to provide assistance to prosecutors in exchange for an agreement from the prosecutor that he will not be prosecuted. This agreement is commonly called turning state's evidence. A criminal defendant who turns state's evidence may be …
Ginsburg was born March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, daughter of Nathan Bader, a furrier and haberdasher, and Celia (Amster) Bader. Ginsburg attended New York public schools and then Cornell University. She married Martin Ginsburg after graduating from Cornell in 1954, and gave birth to a daughter, Jane Ginsburg, before entering Harvard Law School in 1956. Ginsburg was an outstanding student and was ele…
In 1868 the defendants appealed to the House of Lords, which decided to affirm the ruling of the Exchequer Chamber, but Lord Cairns sharply limited Justice Blackburn's broad statement. Lord Cairns ruled that the principle applied only to a "nonnatural" use of the defendant's land, as distinguished from "any purpose for which it might in the ordinary course of the…
A doctrine and strategy in which the rights of the individual states are protected by the U.S. Constitution from interference by the federal government. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates represented state governments that had become autonomous centers of power. The Constitution avoided a precise definition of the locus of sovereignty, leaving people to infer that the new charter …
Sidney Breese was born July 15, 1800, in Whitesboro, New York. He graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1818. Breese was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1820 and concentrated his career efforts in that state. In 1821, Breese was appointed postmaster of Kaskasia, Illinois. From 1822 to 1826, he served as prosecuting attorney for the Illinois Circuit Court, and from 1827 to 1829,…
An S corporation differs from a regular corporation in that it is not a separate taxable entity under the Internal Revenue Code. This means that the S corporation does not pay taxes on its net income. The net profits or losses of the corporation pass through to its owners. A corporation may be granted S status if it does not own any subsidiaries, has only one class of stock, and has no more than s…
Three years after peace with Great Britain, the states were buffeted by inflation, devalued currency, and mounting debt. Among the hardest hit was Massachusetts. Stagnant trade and rampant unemployment had devastated farmers who, unable to sell their produce, had their property seized by courts in order to pay off debts and overdue taxes. Hundreds of farmers were dispossessed; dozens of them were …
Strom Thurmond, then governor of South Carolina, was nominated as the presidential candidate by delegates to the States' Rights Party Convention held in July 1948. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS The States' Rights Party sought to take votes from both the Democratic and Republican parties by emphasizing the sovereignty of the states and by denouncing Truman and the Democratic Party…
Weddington was born on February 5, 1945 in Abilene, Texas. She earned a bachelor's Sarah R. Weddington. ARCHIVE PHOTOS, INC. degree from McMurray College in 1965 and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1967. She was admitted to the Texas bar in 1967. Weddington continued to be an ardent defender of abortion rights in the 1990s, and often debated those who atte…
The willful destruction or impairment of, or defective production of, war material or national defense material, or harm to war premises or war utilities. During a labor dispute, the willful and malicious destruction of an employer's property or interference with his normal operations. The objective of sabotage is to halt all production, rather than to destroy or imperil human life. The ori…
A general term used in statutes that relates to the provision of food, clothing, and housing for specified individuals; a home with a proper environment that affords protection from the weather. …
The standing, state, or condition of an individual; the rights, obligations, capacities, and incapacities that assign an individual to a given class. For example, the term status is used in reference to the legal state of being an infant, a ward, or a prisoner, as well as in reference to a person's social standing in the community. …
The 1921 murder trial of the young Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was one of the most controversial trials in U.S. history. For some observers, the trial was a way to bring two criminals to justice. For others, the two men were innocent of the crime but were found guilty because they were immigrants and political radicals. Defenders of Sacco and Vanzetti waged a fierce leg…
A term used in the legal profession to describe the process of using a citator to discover the history of a case or statute to determine whether it is still good law. The expression is derived from the act of using Shepard's Citations. An individual checking a citation by shepardizing a case will be able to find out various information, such as how often the opinion has been followed in lat…
A type of crime that is not based upon prohibited action or inaction but rests on the fact that the offender has a certain personal condition or is of a specified character. Vagrancy—the act of traveling from place to place with no visible means of support—is an example of a status offense. …
Mentioned earlier. Frequently used in contracts and other legal documents, with the same force as aforesaid. …
A set of volumes published primarily for use by judges when they are in the process of writing judicial decisions and by lawyers when they are preparing briefs, or memoranda of law, that contain a record of the status of cases or statutes. Shepard's Citations provide a judicial history of cases and statutes, make note of new cases, and indicate whether the law in a particular case has been …
[Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. …
An act of a legislature that declares, proscribes, or commands something; a specific law, expressed in writing. A statute is a written law passed by a legislature on the state or federal level. Statutes set forth general propositions of law that courts apply to specific situations. A statute may forbid a certain act, direct a certain act, make a declaration, or set forth governmental mechanisms to…
Person who navigates ships or assists in the conduct, maintenance, or service of ships. Sailors have historically received special treatment under the law because of the nature of their work. Sailing a vessel through treacherous waters, often for long distances, is an isolated and dangerous undertaking. Although most countries have developed comprehensive policing methods on land, the internationa…
On July 4, 1954, 31-year-old Marilyn Sheppard who was four months pregnant, was bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of the couple's impressive Lake Erie, Pennsylvania home. According to Sheppard, he had been sleeping on a downstairs couch when he heard noises and moans coming from the bedroom where his wife was sleeping. He ran to help her but was knocked unconscious by a bushy-haired man. H…
Usually the chief peace officer of a county. The modern office of sheriff in the United States descends from a one-thousand-year-old English tradition: a "shire-reeve" (shire-keeper) is the oldest appointment of the English crown. Because county governments were typically the first established units of government in newly settled American territories, sheriffs were among the first el…
The statute of frauds is invoked by a defendant in a breach of contract action. If the defendant can establish that the contract he has failed to perform is legally unenforceable because it has not satisfied the requirement of the statute, then the defendant cannot be liable for its breach. For example, suppose that a plaintiff claims that a defendant agreed to pay her a commission for selling his…
Stephen G. Breyer. REUTERS/ARCHIVE PHOTOS …
Anthony was born in 1820, during an era when most women got married, produced children, and deferred completely to their husbands. Daniel Anthony, her father, belonged to the Society of Friends (better known as Quakers), a religious group that recognized the equality of men and women. Daniel encouraged his daughter to think independently and to speak her mind. He supported her educational pursuits…
Sir Francis Bacon was an English lawyer and statesman whose philosophical theories and writings influenced the development of scientific Sir Francis Bacon. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS and legal thought in Great Britain and the United States. In 1584, at the age of twenty-three, Bacon was elected to the House of Commons, representing Taunton, Liverpool, the county of Middlesex, Southampton, Ipswich,…
In 1692 the community of Salem, Massachusetts, was engulfed in a series of witchcraft afflictions, accusations, trials, and executions. During the course of the year, more than a dozen persons claimed to be afflicted by spells of black magic and sorcery that had been allegedly cast by men and women who had enlisted the supernatural powers of the devil. Most of the persons claiming to be afflicted …
and believed in secession from the Union prior to the onset of the Civil War. In 1873, Brickell served as associate justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. He was selected to act as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 1874, an appointment he again accepted in 1880. He held this office until 1884. Brickell resumed his law practice in Alabama in 1884 but in 1894 returned to the bench…
A type of federal or state law that restricts the time within which legal proceedings may be brought. The statute of limitations is a defense that is ordinarily asserted by the defendant to defeat an action brought against him after the appropriate time has elapsed. Therefore, the defendant must plead the defense before the court upon answering the plaintiff's complaint. If the defendant do…
The sale of a good, or an item that is moveable at the time of sale, is a transaction designed to benefit both buyer and seller. However, sales transactions can be complex, and they do not always proceed smoothly. Problems can arise at several phases of a sale, and at least one of the parties may suffer a loss. In recognition of these realities and of the basic importance of orderly commerce to so…
The prevailing economic theory supporting antitrust laws in the United States is that the public is best served by free competition in trade and industry. When businesses fairly compete for the consumer's dollar, the quality of products and services increases while the prices decrease. However, many businesses would rather dictate the price, quantity, and quality of the goods that they prod…
The Statute of Uses was a radical statute forced through a recalcitrant English Parliament in 1535 by a willful King Henry VIII. Essentially, the statute eliminated a sleight of hand that had been fashioned by landholders to avoid paying royal fees associated with land. These royal fees, called feudal incidents, had been slipping away from the Crown for a century or so before the statute was passe…
The son of Dutch immigrants, Gompers was born in London on January 26, 1850. He attended school briefly but began working at age 10. Initially apprenticed to a shoemaker, he chose instead to become a cigarmaker like his father. The family moved to New York in 1863, and within a year Gompers had joined the Cigar Makers' National Union. At around this time many trades were beginning to form u…
Representatives from twelve of the thirteen states attended the meeting; Rhode Island feared changes in the existing monetary system and refused to send delegates. One of the most pressing issues was the formation of a legislative body that would fairly represent the interests of the states. …
Some of the procedures created by the Statute of Wills remain effective in modern law. The statute required that wills be in writing, that they be signed by the person making the will, or testator, and that they be properly witnessed by other persons. If any of these requirements was not met, the will could not be enforced in court. These requirements exist today in state law and are intended to e…
A state or local-level tax on the retail sale of specified property or services. It is a percentage of the cost of such. Generally, the purchaser pays the tax but the seller collects it as an agent for the government. Various taxing jurisdictions allow exemptions for purchases of specified items, including certain foods, services, and manufacturing equipment. If the purchaser and seller are in dif…
The Statute of York was an important step toward the development of a constitutional monarchy in England. The law was enacted in the city of York in 1318, at a time when King Edward II was attempting to reassert his control over the kingdom. Historians generally regard Edward II as an unqualified failure as king. Seven years before the Statute of York, the nobility had forced him to accept the Ord…
Roger Sherman was a colonial and U.S. politician and judge who played a critical role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, devising a plan for legislative representation that was accepted by large and small states. His actions at the convention in Philadelphia came near the end of a distinguished life in public service. After America won its independence, Sherman devoted himself to Connecticu…
An official compilation of the acts and resolutions of each session of Congress published by the Office of the Federal Register in the National Archives and Record Service. The Statutes at Large are divided into two parts: the first is composed of public acts and joint resolutions; the second includes private acts and joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions, treaties, proposed and ratified amend…
The portion of goods or property that has been saved or remains after some type of casualty, such as a fire. To establish a valid salvage claim under maritime law, the claimant must prove the following: the salvage was needed because of a marine peril; the claimant's service was rendered voluntarily and not because of an existing duty or contract; and the claimant's service contribut…
Created, defined, or relating to a statute; required by statute; conforming to a statute. A statutory penalty, for example, is punishment in the form of a fine, prison sentence, or both, that is imposed against an offender for committing some statutory violation. …
Sexual intercourse by an adult with a person below a statutorily designated age. The criminal offense of statutory rape is committed when an adult sexually penetrates a person who, under the law, is incapable of consenting to sex. Minors and physically and mentally incapacitated persons are deemed incapable of consenting to sex under rape statutes in all states. These persons are considered deserv…
Self-appointed law enforcement committees that were organized to maintain order in San Francisco, California, during the mid-nineteenth century. As a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which concluded the Mexican War, the United States acquired a vast territory in the Southwest including California and New Mexico. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, thousands…
Sanction is a broad term with different meanings in different contexts. Sanction can be used to describe tacit or explicit approval. Used in this sense, the term usually is used in assigning liability to a party who was not actively involved in wrongdoing but who did nothing to prevent it. For example, if the upper-level managers of a business knew that their employees were using unfair employment…
Statutes affording a privilege to journalists not to disclose in legal proceedings confidential information or sources of information obtained in their professional capacities. They restrict or prohibit the use of certain evidence in sexual offense cases, such as evidence regarding the lack of chastity of the victim. …
The right granted by legislation to a mortgagor, one who pledges property as security for a debt, as well as to certain others, to recover the mortgaged property after a foreclosure sale. Statutory redemption is the right of a mortgagor to regain ownership of property after foreclosure. A mortgagor is a person or party who borrows money from a mortgagee to purchase property. The arrangement betwee…
The process of transferring the obligation to affirmatively prove a fact in controversy or an issue brought during a lawsuit from one party in a legal controversy to the other party. …
The act of temporarily stopping a judicial proceeding through the order of a court. A stay is a suspension of a case or a suspension of a particular proceeding within a case. A judge may grant a stay on the motion of a party to the case or issue a stay sua sponte, without the request of a party. Courts will grant a stay in a case when it is necessary to secure the rights of a party. The term stay …
The process whereby builders, brokers, and rental property managers induce purchasers or lessees of real property to buy land or rent premises in neighborhoods composed of persons of the same race. …
In 1285 King Edward I summoned the great lords and councillors of England to a parliament in Westminster to consider changes in how land could be conveyed. The result was the enactment of the Second Statute of Westminster, which is sometimes referred to as the Statute de Donis Conditionalibus (Latin, "concerning conditional gifts"). It converted estates in fee simple conditional into…
Reasonable understanding; sound mind; possessing mental faculties that are capable of distinguishing right from wrong so as to bear legal responsibility for one's actions. …
Thompson was elected to the New York legislature in 1800 and then used Livingston's political connections to obtain an appointment to Smith Thompson (etching by Albert Rosenthal). CORBIS the state supreme court in 1802. He was promoted to chief justice in 1814, in which position he presided until 1818. President Monroe appointed Thompson secretary of the navy in 1819. As head of the …
The Southern Pacific Railroad Company refused to pay a tax assessed by the California Board of Equalization upon its franchise, roadways, roadbeds, fences, and rolling stock. The county brought an action in state court against the railroad to recover the delinquent taxes. The railroad had the action removed to the federal district court. The court agreed with the defendant that the assessment of t…
An individual who records court proceedings either in shorthand or through the use of a paper-punching device. A court stenographer is an officer of the court and is generally considered to be a state or public official. Appointment of a court stenographer is largely governed by statute. A stenographer is ordinarily appointed by the court as an official act, which is a matter of public record. She…
Section 303 prohibits any officer, director, or person acting at their direction "to fraudulently influence, coerce, manipulate, or mislead" an accountant who is conducting an audit. Under Section 304, if an issuer is required to restate its financial statements as a result of misconduct, the chief executive officer and chief financial officer must reimburse the issuer for any bonus …
A medical procedure where the reproductive organs are removed or rendered ineffective. Legally mandated sterilization of criminals, or other members of society deemed "socially undesirable," has for some time been considered a stain on the history of U.S. law. The practice, also known as eugenics, originated early in the twentieth century. In 1914, a Model Eugenical Sterilization Law…
The discharge of an obligation by paying a party what is due—as on a mortgage, lien, or contract—or by paying what is awarded to a person by the judgment of a court or otherwise. An entry made on the record, by which a party in whose favor a judgment was rendered declares that she has been satisfied and paid. …
In a statute, an exception of a special item out of the general things mentioned in the statute. A restriction in a repealing act, which is intended to save rights, while proceedings are pending, from the obliteration that would result from an unrestricted repeal. The provision in a statute, sometimes referred to as the severability clause, that rescues the balance of the statute from a declaratio…
The area of maritime law that is concerned with ships and the individuals employed in or around them, as well as the shipment of goods by merchant vessels. …
A financial institution owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services. The savings and loan association's primary purpose is making loans to its members, usually for the purchase of real estate or homes. The savings and loan industry was first established in the 1830s as a building and loan association. The first savings and loan association was the Oxford Provident Buil…
A determination of whether a state agent's actions fall outside the standards of civilized decency. In Rochin three state law enforcement officers, acting on information that Antonio Rochin was selling narcotics, illegally entered Rochin's room. When the officers noticed two capsules on a bedside table, Rochin grabbed the capsules and put them in his mouth. The three officers then wr…
Samuel Jones Tilden was a New York lawyer, political reformer, governor, and Democratic candidate for president in the famous disputed election of 1876. Tilden's acceptance of his defeat in the election may have prevented civil unrest. Tilden was born on February 9, 1814, in New Lebanon, New York. He attended Yale University and studied law at New York University before being admitted to th…
A doctrine that allows the admission into evidence of books that consist of original entries made in the normal course of a business, which are introduced to the court from proper custody upon general authentication. …
An agreement between attorneys that concerns business before a court and is designed to simplify or shorten litigation and save costs. Examples of stipulations stated by counsel in open court During the course of a civil lawsuit, criminal proceeding, or any other type of litigation, the opposing attorneys may come to an agreement about certain facts and issues. Such an agreement is called a…
Chase was born January 13, 1808, in Cornish, New Hampshire, the eighth of 11 children in a family that had lived in New England since the 1600s. His father operated a tavern as well as a glass factory and distillery near Keene, New Hampshire, and died when Chase was nine years old. Chase had two prominent uncles who aided him in his father's absence: Dudley Chase, who served two terms as U.…
A pejorative term used colloquially in reference to a nonunion worker who takes the place of a union employee on strike or who works for wages and other conditions that are inferior to those guaranteed to a union member by virtue of the union contract. …
A security issued by a corporation that represents an ownership right in the assets of the corporation and a right to a proportionate share of profits after payment of corporate liabilities and obligations. The value of a share of stock depends upon the issuing corporation's value, profitability, and future prospects. The market price reflects what purchasers are willing to pay based on the…
Theft of merchandise from a store or business establishment. …
A corporate distribution to shareholders declared out of profits, at the discretion of the directors of the corporation, which is paid in the form of shares of stock, as opposed to money, and increases the number of shares. When a corporation declares a stock dividend, it adds undivided profits, which cannot be used to pay dividends, to the capital invested in the corporation, to reflect the addit…
Baldwin was born January 21, 1884, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, into a comfortably well-to-do Boston Brahmin family. His ancestral roots reached back to what he once referred to as "the inescapable Mayflower." His father, Frank Fenno Baldwin, was a conservative businessman. His mother, Lucy Cushing Nash, instilled in her children a love of art, literature, and music. Baldwin's…
Samuel Chase. INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK COLLECTION favored a strong government ruled by an elite and he opposed the radical ideas of the French Revolution. Chase was born April 17, 1741, in Somerset County, Maryland. His father, Thomas Chase, was a British-born clergyman of the Church of England. His mother, Matilda Walker Chase, died at Chase's birth. In 1744 the family …
A legal matter that will not take up a significant amount of the time of the court and may be entered on the list of short causes upon application of one of the parties, where it will be dealt with more expediently than it would be in its regular order. The time permitted for a short cause, which is also known as a short calendar, varies from one court to another. …
Simeon Eben Baldwin was born February 5,1840. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Yale in 1861, received a master of arts degree in 1864, and then pursued legal studies at Yale and Harvard. Four honorary doctor of laws degrees were bestowed upon him: by Harvard in 1891; Columbia, in 1911; Wesleyan, in 1912; and Yale, in 1916. Baldwin was admitted to the bar in 1863. In 1869 he returned to Yal…
Ron Brown. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS The give-and-take of politics suited Brown. "What I love most," he said, "is changing minds." In 1979 Brown's association with the Democratic party got a boost when Senator Kennedy named Brown his deputy campaign manager in an unsuccessful run at the presidency. The job marked the beginning of a stellar ascent through party p…
A method of gaining profit from an anticipated decline in the price of a stock. …
The various organized stock exchanges and over-the-counter markets. The trading of stocks on the stock market involves millions of shares per day and has a direct effect on the U.S. economy. As a result, the stock market is closely regulated by the federal government. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Stock exchanges are private organizations with a limited number of members. Stock brokerage houses gene…
The Schechters pleaded not guilty to the charges. At trial, the Schechters were convicted on 18 counts of violating the Live Poultry Code and two counts of conspiring to violate the Live Poultry Code. An appeals court affirmed their convictions, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear their appeal. In support of the Live Poultry Code, the federal government argued that the code was necessary for…
A certificate issued by a corporation that entitles the person holding it to buy a certain amount of stock in the corporation, usually at a specified time and price. A stock warrant differs from a stock option only in that an option is offered to employees and a warrant to the general public. A warrant gives the person holding it a right to subscribe to capital stock. …
The 1919 Schenck case marked the first time the Court heard a First Amendment challenge to a federal law on free speech grounds. The Court was comprised of the following justices: (standing, l-r) Brandeis, Pitney, McReynolds, Clarke, (seated, l-r) Day, McKenna, White, Holmes, Van Devanter. U.S. SUPREME COURT The Supreme Court's decision in Schenck established two fundamental principl…
A show cause order can be viewed as an accelerated motion. A motion is an application to the court for an order that seeks answers to questions that are collateral to the main object of the action. For example, in a civil lawsuit the plaintiff generally requests from the defendant A sample show cause order documents pertinent to the case. If the defendant refuses to provide the documents or…
A legal action in which a shareholder of a corporation sues in the name of the corporation to enforce or defend a legal right because the corporation itself refuses to sue. A derivative suit is different from a direct suit brought by a shareholder to enforce a claim based on the shareholder's ownership of shares. These direct suits involve contractual or statutory rights of the shareholders…
Matthews was born July 21, 1824, in Cincinnati. He preferred his middle name and dropped his first name, Thomas, in his adult life. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1840 and then studied law in Cincinnati. He was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1842 and began a law practice in Columbia, Tennessee. Matthews also devoted himself to journalism, editing the Tennessee Democrat newspaper. He returne…
The live presentation of a criminal suspect to a victim or witness of a crime. A show-up usually occurs immediately or shortly after a crime has occurred. If law enforcement personnel see a person who they suspect is the perpetrator of a very recent crime, the officers may apprehend the suspect and bring him back to the scene of the crime and show him to witnesses, or the officers may take the sus…
Kelly was born January 30, 1944, in Washington, D.C. She was the first child of Mildred Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly. MARVIN JONES Petticord Pratt, who died of cancer when Kelly was just four years old, and Carlisle E. Pratt, who was a lawyer and superior court judge. Family expectations were high for Kelly, whose father gave her a copy of Black's Law Dictionary as a birthday gift when s…
Robert Treat Paine was born March 11, 1731, in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1749 and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1757. After a brief career in the ministry, he became an eminent lawyer, politician, and judge. Subsequently Paine served two terms as a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly, from 1773 to 1775 and from 1777 to 1778, acting as spe…
Schlesinger died on November 10, 1996, in San Francisco, when he and his wife committed suicide. …
Latin, In such manner; so; thus. A misspelled or incorrect word in a quotation followed by "[sic]" indicates that the error appeared in the original source. …
The Sierra Club is a nonprofit, member-supported public interest organization that promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions. In addition, the Sierra Club organizes participation in wilderness activities for its members, including mountain climbing, backpacking, and camping. It is the oldest and largest nonprofit, grassroots environmental organization …
When a draft or bill of exchange is payable at sight, money may be immediately collected upon presentment to the drawee named in the instrument. …
The situation in which a police officer who is suspicious of an individual detains the person and runs his hands lightly over the suspect's outer garments to determine if the person is carrying a concealed weapon. One of the most controversial police procedures is the stop and frisk search. This type of limited search occurs when police confront a suspicious person in an effort to prevent a…
Revocation of a check; a notice made by a depositor to his or her bank directing the bank to refuse payment on a specific check drawn by the depositor. An individual who writes a check can revoke it unless it has been certified, accepted, or paid. If a bank pays a check after a timely stop payment order by the depositor, the bank is usually liable to the depositor for the amount paid. A sample…
The attempt to end the practice of separating children of different races into distinct public schools. A number of Supreme Court decisions in the decades since Brown have further defined the constitutional claims regarding desegregation first set forth in Brown. In many cases, these decisions have resulted in court-imposed desegregation plans, sometimes involving controversial provisions for busi…
The right of a seller to prevent the delivery of goods to a buyer after such goods have been delivered to a common carrier for shipment. …
Born into one of the United States' most powerful political dynasties, on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy was the third son of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Great things were expected of the Kennedy sons, and the means were provided: $1-million trust funds, entrance to the Ivy League, and later, leverage to see that they held government positions. Ke…
A mark or sign made by an individual on an instrument or document to signify knowledge, approval, acceptance, or obligation. The term signature is generally understood to mean the signing of a written document with one's own hand. However, it is not critical that a signature actually be written by hand for it to be legally valid. It may, for example, be typewritten, engraved, or stamped. Th…
Unmixed; not aggravated or compounded. A simple assault, for example, is one that is not accompanied by any circumstances of aggravation, such as assault with a deadly weapon. Simple interest is a fixed amount paid in exchange for a sum of money lent. The interest generated on the amount borrowed does not itself earn interest, unlike interest earned where parties agree to compound interest. …
In the stock and commodity markets, a strategy in options contracts consisting of an equal number of put options and call options on the same underlying share, index, or commodity future. In the stock and commodity markets, options come in two primary forms, known as "calls" and "puts." A call gives the holder the option to buy stock or a commodities futures contract at…
School districts are quasi-municipal corporations created and organized by state legislatures and charged with the administration of public schools within the state. A quasi-municipal corporation is a political body created for the sole purpose of performing one public function. States divide up their school systems into districts because localized administration and policy making are more efficie…
A method employed to calculate the decline in the value of income-producing property for the purposes of federal taxation. Under this method, the annual depreciation deduction that is used to offset the annual income generated by the property is determined by dividing the cost of the property minus its expected salvage value by the number of years of anticipated useful life. …
A third person; anyone who is not a party to a particular legal action or agreement. For example, all those who are not parties to a particular contract are considered strangers to the contract. …
[Latin, Knowingly.] Guilty knowledge that is sufficient to charge a person with the consequences of his or her acts. Scienter denotes a level of intent on the part of the defendant. In Ernst and Ernst v. Hochfelder, 425 U.S. 185, 96 S. Ct. 1375, 47 L. Ed. 2d 668 (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court described scienter as "a mental state embracing intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud." …
Loss of life by two or more individuals concurrently or pursuant to circumstances that render it impossible to ascertain who predeceased whom. Because those state statutes that created presumptions proved inadequate, a majority of the states enacted the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act. Although some slight variations exist from one state to another, the law essentially provides that property will b…
Retaliatory lawsuits intended to silence, intimidate, or punish those who have used public forums to speak, petition, or otherwise move for government action on an issue. For example, a Colorado environmental protection group opposed a commercial development and was eventually sued by the developer for $40 million. The lawsuit claimed that the environmental group was guilty of "conspiracy&#…
An individual who acts as a front for others who actually incur the expense and obtain the profit of a transaction. In the terminology employed by real estate dealers, a straw man is an individual who acts as a conduit for convenience in holding and transferring title to the property involved. For example, such a person might act as an agent for another in order to take title to real property and …
Evidence presented in court that is produced from scientific tests or studies. Expert testimony on scientific evidence is different from ordinary testimony from laypersons. A lay witness may testify to inferences and give opinions only if they are rationally based upon the witness's perceptions of the subject of the testimony. Experts, by contrast, may give opinions and testify about possib…
[Latin, Without day.] Without day; without assigning a day for a further meeting or hearing. A legislative body adjourns sine die when it adjourns without appointing a day on which to appear or assemble again. …
A railway that is constructed upon a thoroughfare or highway to aid in the transportation of people or property along the roadway. Street railroads run at moderate rates of speed and make frequent stops at particular points within a town or city. Subways and elevated railroads that are built above the surface of the roadway are two common examples of street railroads. Municipal corporations have t…
Roy Ottoway Wilkins was born August 30, 1901, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was abandoned by his father shortly after his mother died and was taken in by an uncle who lived in Duluth, Minnesota. Wilkins later moved to St. Paul and graduated from the University of Minnesota. In 1923, he went to work as a journalist for the Kansas City Call, a newspaper published by and for the African-American communi…
A glimmer; a spark; the slightest particle or trace. "Scintilla of evidence" is a metaphorical expression describing a very insignificant or trifling item of evidence. The common-law rule provides that if there is any evidence at all in a case, even a mere scintilla, that tends to support a material issue, the case cannot be taken from the jury but must be left to its decision. …
[Latin, Without which not.] A description of a requisite or condition that is indispensable. …
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…
[Latin, Made known.] A judicial writ requiring a defendant to appear in court and prove why an existing judgment should not be executed against him or her. In the law, scire facias is a judicial writ that is brought in a case that has already been before a court. Writ is the old English term for a judicial order. Some states still use the term. A scire facias writ commands the person against whom …
A single name paper is distinguishable from a suretyship where, for a certain sum, one individual cosigns to support another individual's debt. …
A decree that orders the payment of a mortgage of real property. A strict foreclosure decree sets out the amount due under the mortgage, orders it to be paid within a particular time limit, and provides that if payment is not made, the mortgagor's right and equity of redemption are forever barred and foreclosed. If the mortgagor does not pay within the time designated, then title to the pro…
Activities of an employee that are in furtherance of duties that are owed to an employer and where the employer is, or could be, exercising some control, directly or indirectly, over the activities of the employee. The scope of employment includes all acts reasonably necessary or incident to the performance of work, including matters of personal convenience and comfort that do not conflict with sp…
A business arrangement whereby two or more individuals, the partners, unite their skill, capital, A sample form for a single (or fictitious) name partnership or business and work in exchange for a proportional allocation of the profits and losses incurred but who engage in business under one name rather than the names of all the partners. Although technically not a legal term, the phra…
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 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…
The criminal prosecution of John T. Scopes was an attack by citizens of Dayton, Tennessee, on a Tennessee statute that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools. The Butler Act, passed in early 1925 by the Tennessee General Assembly, punished public school teachers who taught "that man has descended from a lower order of animals" or any theory "that denies the story o…
[Latin, Situation; location.] The place where a particular event occurs. For example, the situs of a crime is the place where it was committed; the situs of a trust is the location where the trustee performs his or her duties of managing the trust. …
Grier was born March 5, 1794, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1812 and was admitted to the bar in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1817. A year later, he relocated to Danville, Pennsylvania, and established a successful law practice. In 1833, he was appointed judge of the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, district court, where he remained until 1846. Dred Scott…
A slang expression for a defensive tactic used by an unwilling corporate takeover target to make itself less attractive to a buyer. Scorched-earth tactics include selling off assets or entering into long-term contractual commitments. A difficulty with such maneuvers is that they tend to be irreversible and may permanently harm the company. As a result, they tend to be used as a last resort in a ta…
The Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The language of the Sixteenth Amendment addressed the issue in Pollock concerning apportionment, repealing the limitation imposed by article I. Soon after the amendment was ratified, Congress established a new personal income tax with rates ranging from 1 to 7 percent on income in excess of $3,000 for a single individual. …
The Great Seal of King Edward III of England. Often used as a signature or imprimatur, seals once had a practical importance. Today, many government offices have seals, though they are mainly decorative in function. BRITISH MUSEUM COLLECTION To close records by any type of fastening that must be broken before access can be obtained. An impression upon wax, wafer, or some other substance cap…
The official die or signet, which has a raised emblem and is used by federal officials on documents of importance. Each state also has an official seal, which is carefully described by law and serves functions on the state level of government that are similar to those of the seal of the United States on the federal level. …
A decision reached by the jury when the court is not in session, which is placed in a closed envelope by the jurors, who then separate. A sealed verdict is opened and read when the court reconvenes, and it has the same effect as if it had been returned in open court before the jury separated. However, the court holds that a sealed verdict is merely an agreement reached by the jurors and does not b…
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 …
The 1991 beating of Rodney G. King by Los Angeles, California, police led to state and federal criminal prosecution of the law enforcement officers involved in the assault, a civil jury award of $3.8 million to King for his injuries, and major reforms in the Los Angeles police department. In addition, the April 1992 acquittal of the white police officers for the beating of King, an African America…
A series of references to cases that establish legal precedents and to other authorities that appear one after another and are printed following a legal assertion or conclusion as supportive authority. For example, in preparing a brief, an attorney might set forth a particular assertion based upon the facts of the case and applicable law and immediately thereafter make a list of all the cases that…
A special jury chosen in a manner whereby an appropriate official prepares a panel containing the names of forty-eight potential jurors and the parties strike off names until the number of jurors is reduced to twelve. …
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: …
An abbreviation for doctor of judicial science, a degree awarded to highly qualified individuals who have successfully completed a prescribed course of legal doctorate study after having earned J.D. and LL.M. degrees. S.J.D. is more commonly abbreviated J.S.D. …
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…
Samuel Williston was a noted law professor and the primary authority on contract law in the United States during the early twentieth century. A professor of law at Harvard Law School from 1890 to 1938, his works The Law Governing Sales of Goods at Common Law and Under the Uniform Sales Act (1909) and The Law on Contracts (1920) are recognized as leading treatises. Williston was born on September 2…
The procedure by which law enforcement officials record on the blotter information about an individual's arrest and charges, together with identification and facts about his or her background. The term slating is used synonymously with booking. …
[Latin, Of his or her or its own will; voluntarily.] For example, when a court takes action on its own motion, rather than at the request of one of the parties, it is acting sua sponte. …
The three companies filed suit, claiming that the law violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They argued that this clause protected the right to labor freely. The Louisiana law restricted their freedom to butcher meat. Their challenge was unsuccessful in state court, after which they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. …
[Latin, Under the name; in the name of; under the title of.] …
[Latin, Under silence; without any notice being taken.] Passing a thing sub silentio may be evidence of consent. …
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 …
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…
A hunt by law enforcement officials for property or communications believed to be evidence of crime, and the act of taking possession of this property. …
The leasing of part or all of the property held by a tenant, as opposed to a landlord, during a portion of his or her unexpired balance of the term of occupancy. A landlord may prohibit a tenant from subletting the leased premises without the land-lord's permission by including such a term in the lease. When subletting is permitted, the original tenant becomes, in effect, the landlord of th…
Parks was born February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended a one-room school in Pine Level, Alabama. There, one teacher taught 50 to 60 students, who were separated into rows by age. The students were responsible for cutting wood to heat the school, and occasionally a parent would deliver a load of wood to the school by wagon. Whereas the black community had to heat and even build its own…
Soil lying beneath water or on the oceanside of the tideland. Minerals found in the soil of tidal and submerged lands belong to the state in its sovereign right. The federal government, however, has full control over all the natural resources discovered in the soil under the ocean floor beyond the three-mile belt extending from the ordinary low-water mark along the coast. …
A court order authorizing the examination of a place for the purpose of discovering contraband, stolen property, or evidence of guilt to be used in the prosecution of a criminal action. The U.S. Supreme Court has not interpreted the Fourth Amendment to mean that police must always obtain a search warrant before conducting a search. Rather, the Supreme Court holds that a search warrant is required …
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…
Within a reasonable time; timely. The term seasonable is usually used in connection with the performance of contractual obligations that must be completed "seasonably." The facts and circumstances of each case define a reasonable period of time. …
A civil relationship in which one person has absolute power over the life, fortune, and liberty of another. …
To offer for determination; commit to the judgment or discretion of another individual or authority. To submit evidence means to present or introduce it. Similarly a political issue might be submitted to the voters' judgment. …
A copy of a judgment by the U.S. Supreme Court or other tribunal that is printed and distributed almost immediately subsequent to the time that it is handed down by the court. …
To put in an inferior class or order; to make subject to, or subservient. A legal status that refers to the establishment of priority between various existing liens or encumbrances on the same parcel of property. A subordination agreement is a contract whereby a creditor agrees that the claims of specified senior creditors must be paid in full before any payment on a subordinate debt can be paid t…
A restraining device used to secure passengers in motorized vehicles. New Hampshire is the only state that does not have an adult seat-belt requirement (N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 265: 107-a [1995]). Motor vehicle passengers under the age of 12, however, must wear a seat belt. The New Hampshire Department of Safety administers programs that increase public awareness of the importance of seat be…
A copy of a bill that is passed by a state legislature and endorsed by the governor, or passed by Congress and signed by the president, and is printed and distributed almost immediately. …
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…
A type of enterprise that is independently owned and operated, has few employees, does a small amount of business, and is not predominant in its area of operation. …
[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…
The act of withdrawing from membership in a group. Secession occurs when persons in a country or state declare their independence from the ruling government. When a dissatisfied group secedes, it creates its own form of government in place of the former ruling government. Secessions are serious maneuvers that lead to, or arise from, military conflict. A secession can affect international relations…
[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, …
A distinguished congresswoman, scholar, and African American spokeswoman, Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. A dynamic public speaker who boldly challenged traditional politics, "Fighting Shirley Chisholm," as she called herself during her first congressional campaign, championed liberal legislation from her seat in the House begi…
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 …
To write underneath; to put a signature at the end of a printed or written instrument. A subscribing witness is an individual who either sees the execution of a writing or hears its acknowledgment and signs his or her name as a witness upon the request of the executor of the agreement. In relation to the law of corporations, a subscriber is one who has made an agreement to take a portion of the or…
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The subject matter and unusual phrasing of this amendment led to much controversy and analysis, especially in the last half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the meaning and scope of the amendment have long been decided by the Supreme Court. Firearms played an important part in the colonization of America. In the seventeenth and eighteenth…
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…
Robert Marion La Follette was an important U.S. political leader during the first part of the twentieth century. He served as governor of and senator from Wisconsin, and was at the fore-front of the political reform movement that has been labeled Progressivism. La Follette was born in Primrose, Wisconsin, on June 14, 1855. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1879 and then s…
The second look doctrine has been applied to mitigate the harsh effect of the rule against perpetuities on a power of appointment—authority granted by one person by deed or will to another, the donee, to select a person or persons who are to receive property. For example, B was the life income beneficiary (one who profits from the act of another) of a trust and the donee of a special power …
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…
Sources of information that describe or interpret the law, such as legal treatises, law review articles, and other scholarly legal writings, cited by lawyers to persuade a court to reach a particular decision in a case, but which the court is not obligated to follow. Secondary authority is information cited by lawyers in arguments and used by courts in reaching decisions. Secondary authority is di…
Essence; the material or necessary component of something. A matter of substance, as distinguished from a matter of form, with respect to pleadings, affidavits, indictments, and other legal instruments, entails the essential sufficiency, validity, or merits of the instrument, as opposed to its method or style. …
Soia Mentschikoff was a distinguished legal scholar and educator whose career encompassed several "firsts"for women in the legal profession. Mentschikoff was born April 2, 1915, in Russia where her father, a resident of New York City, was working. In 1918 her family returned to New York where Mentschikoff graduated from Hunter College in 1934 and from Columbia Law School in 1937. Aft…
Rufus Choate was born October 1, 1799, in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1819 and was admitted to the bar in 1823. Choate died July 13, 1859, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. …
Samuel Nelson served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1845 to 1872. He brought with him experience as a politician, Samuel Nelson. U.S. SUPREME COURT Court, during the last four years of which he served as its chief justice. (Since 1847, New York's highest court has been called the New York Court of Appeals.) There, Nelson developed a reputation for common …
A group's refusal to work for, purchase from, or handle the products of a business with which the group has no dispute. A secondary boycott is an attempt to influence the actions of one business by exerting pressure on another business. For example, assume that a group has a complaint against the Acme Company. Assume further that the Widget Company is the major supplier to the Acme Company.…
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…
A reproduction of, or substitute for, an original document or item of proof that is offered to establish a particular issue in a legal action. Secondary evidence is evidence that has been reproduced from an original document or substituted for an original item. For example, a photocopy of a document or photograph would be considered secondary evidence. Another example would be an exact replica of …
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a federal agency that seeks to aid, counsel, assist, and protect the interests of small business. The SBA ensures that small business concerns receive a fair portion of federal government purchases, contracts, and subcontracts, as well as of the sales of government property. The agency is best known for its loans to small business concerns, state and loca…
Of real worth and importance; of considerable value; valuable. Belonging to substance; actually existing; real; not seeming or imaginary; not illusive; solid; true; veritable. …
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor achieved prominence as a jurist, a Baptist preacher, and a law professor. He was instrumental in the founding of the first Baptist college in Texas, which was named Baylor University in his honor. Baylor was born May 10, 1793, in Lincoln County, Kentucky. He began his political career in 1819 with service in the Kentucky legislature, moving to the Alabama legislature i…
Roscoe Pound was one of the leading figures in twentieth-century legal thought. As a scholar, teacher, reformer, and dean of Harvard Law School, Pound strove to link law and society through his "sociological jurisprudence" and to improve the administration of the judicial system. In the early decades of the century, Pound was viewed as a radical thinker for arguing that the law is no…
Under trademark law a mark associated with a marketed product generally cannot receive full trademark protection unless it is distinctive. Trademark protection gives the holder of a mark the exclusive right to use that mark in connection with a product. A descriptive or generic mark attains a secondary meaning if the producer so effectively markets the product with the mark that consumers come to …
To establish the existence or truth of a particular fact through the use of competent evidence; to verify. …
Roy Bean achieved prominence for his unconventional law enforcement procedures. His methods for enforcing the law were questionable and unorthodox. Bean was born circa 1825, in Mason County, Kentucky. His career included many undertakings, not always legal. In 1847, he was in charge of a trading post in Mexico. Accused of cattle rustling in 1849, he was forced back to the United States. He was a m…
A special court, sometimes called conciliation court, that provides expeditious, informal, and inexpensive adjudication of small claims. Every state has established a small claims or conciliation court to resolve legal disputes involving an amount of money that is less than a set dollar amount. At one time, $1,000 was the limit. However, many courts have raised the limit to $3,000, and a few will …
The Secret Service has established the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), which advises law enforcement agencies and other professionals on how to investigate and prevent targeted violence, including assassination. The NTAC has collaborated with Carnegie Mellon University to develop the Critical Systems Protection Initiative (CSPI). CSPI seeks to develop better cyber security measures, incl…
Vindictive, punitive, or exemplary damages given by way of punishment and example, in cases of gross misconduct of a defendant. …
Colin Powell, as secretary of state, directs relations between the United States and foreign countries. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS …
Under a 1956 amendment to the Smith Act, if two or more persons conspire to commit any offense described in the statute, each is subject to a maximum fine of $20,000 or a maximum term of imprisonment of twenty years, or both, and is ineligible for employment by the United States or its agencies for five years after conviction. The Smith Act, as enacted in 1940, contained a conspiracy provision, bu…
The distinct and numbered subdivisions in legal codes, statutes, and textbooks. In the law of real property, a parcel of land equal in area to one square mile, or 640 acres. …
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 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. …
In the same year, Theobald appointed Becket archdeacon of Canterbury. Less than three months later, on Theobald's recommendation and in gratitude for Becket's role in helping him to gain the throne, Henry II named Becket chancellor of England. Becket became the king's most trusted adviser and a constant and devoted companion. He was an effective chancellor, leading troops into…
Smith's father, John Smith, a native of Strabane, Ireland, immigrated to the American colonies in the 1740s. By 1759, he was living in Baltimore and had established himself as a merchant and shipping agent. In 1766, he financed the building of Baltimore's first market house and the development of the city's first residential neighborhood. He was an advocate of independence for…
The 25-year-old survivor was transformed. With new earnestness, he finished his under-graduate studies at the University of Arizona and earned a law degree with honors from Washburn University of Topeka. Law quickly led to politics. Dole served one term in the Kansas Legislature in 1951, and for the remainder of the decade worked as a prosecutor in his local county. He entered national politics in…
Sanford Ballard Dole was a prominent figure in the creation of Hawaii as a republic and its annexation to the United States. Dole was born Sanford B. Dole. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS in 1844. His parents were American missionaries assigned to Hawaii, and Dole was raised and educated there. After attending Williams College and his admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1868, he settled in Hawai…
The criminal offense of bringing into, or removing from, a country those items that are prohibited or upon which customs or excise duties have not been paid. Federal law prohibits the importation of a number of items that are injurious to public health or welfare, including diseased plants or animals, obscene films and magazines, and illegal narcotics. Importation of certain items is prohibited fo…
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…
To initiate a lawsuit or continue a legal proceeding for the recovery of a right; to prosecute, assert a legal claim, or bring action against a particular party. …
To admit, allow, or permit.…
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…
The right to vote at public elections.…
To assure the payment of a debt or the performance of an obligation; to provide security. A debtor "secures" a creditor by giving him or her a lien, mortgage, or other security to be used in case the debtor fails to make payment. …
[Latin, Of its own kind or class.] That which is the only one of its kind. …
One who holds some special monetary assurance of payment of a debt owed to him or her, such as a mortgage, collateral, or lien. …
[Latin, Of his or her own right.]…
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…
Robert Todd Lincoln. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Lincoln was born August 1, 1843, in Springfield, Illinois. At the age of 13, he began attending classes at Illinois State University. Lincoln subsequently enrolled in the Phillips Exeter Academy, a prominent preparatory school, and then attended Harvard. His years there were concurrent with his father's presidency, between 1861 and 1865. Linco…
A federal program designed to provide benefits to employees and their dependants through income for retirement, disability, and other purposes. The social security program is funded through a federal tax levied on employers and employees equally. …
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. …
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…
An alternative form of litigation for the prompt disposition of legal actions. Legal proceedings are regarded as summary when they are shorter and simpler than the ordinary steps in a suit. Summary proceedings are ordinarily available for cases that require prompt action and generally involve a small number of clearcut issues. …
An economic and social theory that seeks to maximize wealth and opportunity for all people through public ownership and control of industries and social services. Under capitalism—defined as a global system based on technology transcending national boundaries—society was divided into two components: the bourgeoisie, who owned the methods of production, and the proletariat, the labore…
A legal procedure used for enforcing a right that takes effect faster and more efficiently than ordinary methods. The legal papers—a court order, for example—used to achieve an expeditious resolution of the controversy. Because summary process deprives a defendant of all the time and legal defenses usually available, a plaintiff may invoke it only when specifically permitted by law. …
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…
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…
The Socialist Party of the United States of America (SP-USA) is one of several parties claiming to be the heir to the country's original organized Socialist movement, the Socialist Labor Party (SLP). Support for the party has fluctuated over the years, but it remains a vigorous advocate of radical change of economic and social policy in the United States. Originally called the Workingmen&#x…
Rules made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance. Sumptuary laws are designed to regulate habits, especially on moral or religious grounds. They are particularly directed against inordinate expenditures on apparel, drink, food, and luxury items. These laws existed in Rome and were enacted in a variety of forms in England during the Middle Ages to regulate the ornateness of dress an…
Anal or oral intercourse between human beings, or any sexual relations between a human being and an animal, the act of which may be punishable as a criminal offense. Because homosexual activity involves anal and oral sex, gay men were the primary target of sodomy laws. Culturally and historically, homosexual activity was seen as unnatural or perverse. The term sodomy refers to the homosexual activ…
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…
Statutes that mandate that meetings of governmental agencies and departments be open to the public at large. …
Harrison was born in 1745, in Charles County, Maryland. Though little has been written about his upbringing and education, it is known that he established a successful law practice in Alexandria, Virginia, where Washington became a client and close friend. Harrison later served as Washington's personal secretary throughout much of the Revolutionary War. He resigned from this post in March 1…
Software instructs a computer what to do. (The computer's physical components are called hardware.) Computer software is the general term for a variety of procedures and routines that harness the computational power of a computer to produce, for example, a general operating system that coordinates the basic workings of the computer or specific applications that produce a database, a financi…
One who has a right to give orders; belonging to a higher grade. A superior is someone or something entitled to command, influence, or control. In the judicial system, a superior court has general or extensive jurisdiction, as opposed to an inferior court. A superior court bears a different meaning in different states. In some states, it is a tribunal of intermediate jurisdiction between the trial…
To obliterate, replace, make void, or useless. Supersede means to take the place of, as by reason of superior worth or right. A recently enacted statute that repeals an older law is said to supersede the prior legislation. A superseding cause is an act of a third person or some intervening force that prevents a tortfeasor from being held liable for harm to another. A supervening act is one that in…
The act provides service members with three types of relief from judicial proceedings. They may request a stay of proceedings, a reopening of a default judgment, or a stay of execution against a judgment. To obtain any relief, a court first must find that the service members' ability to defend their cases was affected by their service. Service members may postpone proceedings during service…
The name given to a writ, a court order, from a higher court commanding a lower court to suspend a particular proceeding. A supersedeas is a writ that suspends the authority of a trial court to issue an execution on a judgment that has been appealed. It is a process designed to stop enforcement of a trial court judgment brought up for review. The term is often used interchangeably with a stay of p…
A form of business in which one person owns all the assets of the business, in contrast to a partnership or a corporation. A person who does business for himself is engaged in the operation of a sole proprietorship. Anyone who does business without formally creating a business organization is a sole proprietor. Many small businesses operate as sole proprietorships. Professionals, consultants, and …
Unforeseen, intervening, an additional event or cause. A supervening cause is an event that operates independently of anything else and becomes the proximate cause of an accident. …
Urgent request, plea, or entreaty; enticing, asking. The criminal offense of urging someone to commit an unlawful act. The term solicitation is used in a variety of legal contexts. A person who asks someone to commit an illegal act has committed the criminal act of solicitation. An employee who agrees in an employment contract not to solicit business after leaving her employer and then mails a let…
A supplementary proceeding provides the creditor with a chance to discover whether the debtor has any money or property that can be used to satisfy the judgment. If the debtor is found to have money or property, the court can order the debtor to use it to satisfy the judgment. …
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…
A type of practicing lawyer in England who handles primarily office work. England has two types of practicing lawyers: solicitors and barristers. Unlike the United States, where a lawyer is allowed to handle office and trial work, England has developed a division of labor for lawyers. Solicitors generally handle office work, whereas barristers plead cases in court. However, there is some overlap. …
As a verb, furnishing funds or means for maintenance; to maintain; to provide for; to enable to continue; to carry on. To provide a means of livelihood. To vindicate, to maintain, to defend, to uphold with aid or countenance. As a noun, that which furnishes a livelihood; a source or means of living; subsistence, sustenance, maintenance, or living. Support includes all sources of living that enable…
To stop something or someone; to prevent, prohibit, or subdue. To suppress evidence is to keep it from being admitted at trial by showing either that it was illegally obtained or that it is irrelevant. …
In 1940 Governor Culbert Olson appointed Traynor to the California Supreme Court, making him the first law school professor to be appointed directly to the court. Although he had little experience in private practice, Traynor had earned renown as one of the nation's leading tax scholars. Over the next three decades, he wrote more than 950 opinions and continued his scholarly work, writing m…
Congress established the office of solicitor general in 1870 as part of the legislation creating the Department of Justice. Although early solicitors occasionally handled federal trials, for the most part the solicitor general has concentrated on appeals to the Supreme Court. In this role the solicitor has come to serve the interests of both the executive branch and the Supreme Court. The federal …
[Latin, Above; beyond.] A term used in legal research to indicate that the matter under current consideration has appeared in the preceding pages of the text in which the reference is made. …
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the commission itself is comprised of five members appointed by the president; one position expires each year. No more than three members may be from one political party. With more than 900 employees, the agency has five regional and six district offices throughout the country and enjoys a generally favorable reputation. …
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…
Jackson's straightforward style as a lawyer and a justice stemmed from his rural upbringing. The first Jacksons immigrated to the United States from England in 1819. They settled in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, where Jackson was born on February 13, 1892. His father, William Eldred Jackson, provided for the family through farming and lumbering. In September 1911 Jackson entered Albany Law Sc…
Protection; assurance; indemnification. The term security is usually applied to a deposit, lien, or mortgage voluntarily given by a debtor to a creditor to guarantee payment of a debt. Security furnishes the creditor with a resource to be sold or possessed in case of the debtor's failure to meet his or her financial obligation. In addition, a person who becomes a surety for another is somet…
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…
Money aside from the payment of rent that a landlord requires a tenant to pay to be kept separately in a fund for use should the tenant cause damage to the premises or otherwise violate terms of the lease. …
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…
Stephen Arnold Douglas achieved prominence as a U.S. senator and as the originator of the policy known as Popular Sovereignty. He was born on April 23, 1813, in Brandon, Vermont. He pursued legal studies and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1834. In 1843 Douglas entered the legislative branch of the federal government as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Four years later, he was el…
Rutherford B. Hayes. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Hayes was born October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio. His father, Rutherford Hayes, died before Hayes was born and Hayes was raised by his mother, Sophia Birchard Hayes, with the help of his uncle, Sardis Birchard, a bachelor. Hayes was enrolled at Norwalk Academy, a Methodist school in Ohio, in the spring of 1836. The next year he joined Isaac Webb�…
Miller was born on April 5, 1816, in Richmond, Kentucky, and grew up on a farm. He attended Transylvania University, where he earned a medical degree in 1838. Miller practiced medicine for ten years, and during that time he taught himself law. In 1847, he was admitted to the Kentucky bar, and soon afterward he abandoned his medical practice for a law practice in Knox County, Kentucky. Samuel F…
The Solomon Amendment, 50 U.S.C.A. App. § 462(f), is federal legislation that denies male college students between the ages of 18 and 26 who fail to register for the military draft (under the Selective Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A. App. § 451 et seq.) eligibility to receive financial aid provided by the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant Program. Registration for the draft, which had bee…
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, …
The ability of an individual to pay his or her debts as they mature in the normal and ordinary course of business, or the financial condition of owning property of sufficient value to discharge all of one's debts. …
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. …
The act by which a man entices a woman to have unlawful sexual relations with him by means of persuasions, solicitations, promises, or bribes without the use of physical force or violence. Seduction suits are rarely brought in modern times and have been eliminated by some states, primarily because they publicize the victim's humiliation. …
Laws that enable a state to use the proceeds a criminal earns from recounting his or her crime in a book, movie, television show, or other depiction. The laws are named after David Berkowitz, a New York serial killer who left a note signed "Son of Sam" at the scene of one of his crimes. The New York legislature enacted the first Son of Sam law (N.Y. Exec. Law § 632-a) in 1977 …
Littleton's On Tenures is regarded as a model of legal scholarship, a clear and concise classification of English land law. Its significance rests in Littleton's attempt to impose a rational and orderly arrangement on legal rights in land. At the time the work was written, English land law had become extremely complicated. Littleton followed a consistent method of analysis. He first …
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, …
Forcible possession; a grasping, snatching, or putting in possession. …
In Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417, 104 S. Ct. 774, 78 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1984), also known as the Betamax case, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that Sony, a manufacturer of videocassette recorders (VCRs) did not infringe on copyrights owned by Universal City Studios and Walt Disney Productions by manufacturing and marketing Betamax VCRs. (The Court's opinion use…
An overcharge or additional cost. A surcharge is an added liability imposed on something that is already due, such as a tax on tax. It also refers to the penalty a court can impose on a fiduciary for breaching a duty. …
An individual who undertakes an obligation to pay a sum of money or to perform some duty or promise for another in the event that person fails to act. …
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 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, …
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…
Extraneous matter; impertinent, superfluous, or unnecessary. …
A municipal officer elected by a town in the New England states. A selectman possesses executive authority and is usually empowered to transact the general public business of the town. The "first selectman" usually holds a position equivalent to the position held by a mayor. …
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an alliance organized pursuant to the Southeast Asia Defense Treaty to oppose the growing communist influence in Southeast Asia. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, and Pakistan signed the treaty and accompanying Pacific Charter in Manila on September 8, 1954. The treaty became operativ…
An unexpected action, sudden confusion, or an unanticipated event. As a ground for a new trial, surprise means the condition in which a party to a lawsuit is unexpectedly placed and that is detrimental to that party's case. The situation must be one that the party could not reasonably have anticipated and that could not be guarded against or prevented. When a party is taken by surprise by t…
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…
Livingston was born November 27, 1746, in New York City. His great-grandfather came to America in the 1670s with little, but through hard work and a fortuitous marriage soon began building a vast empire. Livingston's father, Judge Robert R. Livingston. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Robert R. Livingston, was called the richest landowner in New York, and real estate holdings of the influential a…
The SCLC emerged in the wake of a successful boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama, by the city's black citizens in 1955, which had led to a December 1956 Supreme Court ruling upholding the desegregation of those buses (Gayle v. Browder, 352 U.S. 903, 77 S. Ct. 145, 1 L. Ed. 2d 114). Prodded by African American social activist Bayard Rustin, who hoped to carry the Montgomery victory to th…
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…
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…
In 1976 the center challenged the inhumane conditions of Alabama prisons. Since prevailing in that case, the center has worked with state officials to reform the prison system. In 1995 the state reestablished a practice whereby prison inmates were shackled together as they worked along the state highways. The center sued the state and eventually obtained an agreement prohibiting the use of "…
The political right of the majority to the exercise of power within the boundaries of a generally accepted political unit, area, or territory. The principle of self-determination is mentioned in the United Nations Charter and has often been stressed in resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly. The concept is most often used in connection with the right of colonies to independence. It does not…
Sherman Minton. U.S. SUPREME COURT Minton suffered serious health problems for several years and resigned from the Court for health reasons in 1956. He died on April 9, 1965, in New Albany, Indiana. …
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…
A compact between two nations that is effective immediately without the need for ancillary legislation. A treaty is ordinarily considered self-executing if it provides adequate rules by which given rights may be enjoyed or imposed duties may be enforced. Conversely it is generally not self-executing when it merely indicates principles without providing rules giving them the force of law. …
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…
The legal protection that prevents a sovereign state or person from being sued without consent. Sovereign immunity is a judicial doctrine that prevents the government or its political subdivisions, departments, and agencies from being sued without its consent. The doctrine stems from the ancient English principle that the monarch can do no wrong. …
An additional charge on an item that is already taxed. A surtax is a tax on a tax. For example, if a person pays one hundred dollars of tax on one thousand dollars of income, a 5 percent surtax would amount to an additional five dollars. …
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 …
The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed and from which all specific political powers are derived; the intentional independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign interference. Sovereignty is the power of a state to do everything necessary to govern itself, such as making, executing, and …
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…
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…
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 …
The conflict had its origins in Spain's determined effort in the 1890s to destroy the Cuban independence movement. As the brutality of the Spanish authorities was graphically reported in U.S. newspapers, especially Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, the U.S. public began to support an independent Cuba. In 1897 Spain proposed to res…
The apprehension of something without proof to verify the belief. Suspicion implies a belief or opinion based upon facts or circumstances that do not constitute proof. …
The act of presenting oneself in a court and thereby submitting to the court's jurisdiction, but only for a specific purpose and not for all the purposes for which a lawsuit is brought. Some states have followed the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and have eliminated for state court matters the distinction between general and special appearances. Many states still acknowledge the distincti…
To carry on; to maintain. To affirm, uphold or approve, as when an appellate court sustains the decision of a lower court. To grant, as when a judge sustains an objection to testimony or evidence, he or she agrees with the objection and gives it effect. …
A real property tax proportionately levied on homeowners and landowners to cover the costs of improvements that will be for the benefit of all upon whom it is imposed. For example, a special assessment might be made to pay for sidewalks or sewer connections. …
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…
he went to Harvard Law School where he received an LL.B. in 1922. After law school, Ervin returned to North Carolina where for the next thirty years he practiced law, ventured into politics, and served as a county and state judge. Ervin's political career began in 1923 when he was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly; he served two more terms in the legislature in 1925 and 19…
Following graduation, Bird served a one-year term as a law clerk for the chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court. In 1966 she joined the Santa Clara County, California, public defenders office. Bird remained in the public defenders office until 1974, serving successively as deputy public defender, senior trial deputy, and chief Rose Bird. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS public defender of the appell…
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…
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 …
Bodies within the judicial branch of government that generally address only one area of law or have specifically defined powers. The best-known courts are courts of general jurisdiction, which have unlimited trial jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, within their jurisdictional area. At the federal level, these are called district courts. At the state level, these courts have many different titl…
Pecuniary compensation for injuries that follow the initial injury for which compensation is sought. The terminology and classification of types of damages is varied, at times contradictory, and often confusing. The term "special damages" is one such term that can produce uncertainty, depending on the jurisdiction and context in which it is invoked. However, the definitions of specia…
Carmichael was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on June 29, 1941. Two years later, he was placed in a private school, as his father, mother, and two sisters immigrated to the United States. At school he earned the nickname Little Man for his quick intelligence and precocious awareness, traits that had him urging his aunt to vote when he was turned away from polling booths at the age of seven. He r…
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…
A headnote; a short note preceding the text of a reported case that briefly summarizes the rulings of the court on the points decided in the case. The syllabus appears before the text of the opinion. The syllabus generally is not part of the opinion of the court but is prepared by a legal editor employed by a private law book company that publishes court decisions to serve as a quick reference for…
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…
A representative of the court appointed to hear a case involving difficult or specialized issues. Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) provides the authority for the appointment of special masters by U.S. District Courts. Because state civil procedure rules are modeled on the FRCP, similar authority is granted to state trial courts. Rule 53 defines the word master to include refe…
The constructive conveyance of the subject matter of a gift or sale, when it is either inaccessible or cumbersome, through the offering of some substitute article that indicates the donative intent of the donor or seller and is accepted as the representative of the original item. …
In court practice in some jurisdictions, a branch of the court system held by a single judge for hearing and deciding motions and equitable actions in the first instance. This type of term is called special to distinguish it from a general term, which is ordinarily held by three judges sitting en banc to hear appeals or to hear and determine cases brought during the regular session of the court. …
A written instrument that conveys real property in which the grantor (original owner) only covenants to warrant and defend the title against claims and demands by him or her and all persons claiming by, through, and under him or her. In the special warranty deed, the grantor warrants that neither he nor anyone claiming under him has encumbered the property and that he will defend the title against…
Trimble was born on November 17, 1776, in Augusta County, Virginia. His family moved to central Kentucky when Trimble was a young boy. He was educated at the Kentucky Academy in Woodford County, Kentucky, before reading the law with two prominent attorneys in the area. He was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1800 and established a lucrative law practice in Paris, Kentucky. commission that settled a…
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…
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 …
A right that takes effect prior to others or has preference over others. For example, a first mortgage is an interest that is senior to a second mortgage and all subsequent mortgages. …
A career option pursued by some attorneys that entails the acquisition of detailed knowledge of, and proficiency in, a particular area of law. As the law in the United States becomes increasingly complex and covers a greater number of subjects, more and more attorneys are narrowing their practice to a limited field or fields. Even small-town general practitioners limit the range of matters they ha…
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…
She was also the first ABA president with a technological bent, proselytizing for decades about the need for modern management techniques and computerization in running law firms. Ramo, the daughter of a Western clothing retailer, was born August 8, 1942, in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from the University of Colorado magna cum laude in 1964. She then entered the University of Chicago Law Schoo…
A contract under seal. A specialty is a written document that has been sealed and delivered and is given as security for the payment of a specifically indicated debt. The term specialty debt is used in reference to a debt that is acknowledged to be due by an instrument under seal. …
A summary; a brief statement, less than the whole. A synopsis is a condensation of something—for example, a synopsis of a trial record. …
The mandate contained in Article III of the Constitution that requires an appellate court to consider whether a case has matured into a controversy worthy of adjudication before it can hear the case. An actual, current controversy worthy of adjudication must exist before a federal court may hear a case. The court determines if a controversy between parties with adverse legal interests is of suffic…
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…
The potential danger that threatens to harm or destroy an object, event, or person. A risk that is specified in an insurance policy is a contingency which might or might not occur. The policy promises to reimburse the person who suffers a loss resulting from the risk for the amount of damage done up to the financial limits of the policy. …
The mental purpose, aim, or design to accomplish a specific harm or result by acting in a manner prohibited by law. Courts have defined specific intent as the subjective desire or knowledge that the prohibited result will occur (People v. Owens, 131 Mich. App. 76, 345 N.W.2d 904 [1983]). Intent and motive are commonly confused, but they are distinct principles and differentiated in the law. Motive…
Implied, inferred, understood without being expressly stated. Tacit refers to something done or made in silence, as in a tacit agreement. A tacit understanding is manifested by the fact that no contradiction or objection is made and is thus inferred from the situation and the circumstances. …
The purchase of stock in a corporation that appears to be the target of an imminent takeover in the hope of making large profits if the takeover occurs. To obtain information, arbitrageurs often develop relationships with investment banking firms and corporations, as well as with other sources of information and financial backing. These activities alone do not constitute a violation of the Securit…
A specific legacy is revoked if the testator—the maker of the will—no longer owned the property at the time of his or her death or the property no longer existed. In some jurisdictions, a court will continue a provision for a specific legacy as one for a demonstrative legacy if it is clear that the testator intended the heir to receive the gift in any event. …
In order for title to property to vest in an adverse possessor, occupancy must be continuous, regular, and uninterrupted for the full statutory period. If privity exists between the parties, such that one possessor gives possession of the land to the next, the time periods that the successive occupants have had possession of the property may be added or tacked together to meet the continuity requi…
Rantoul was born on August 13, 1805, in Beverly, Massachusetts. He attended private schools before enrolling at Harvard University. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and practiced law in Salem. Rantoul served in the Massachusetts legislature for several terms before becoming U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts. He was briefly a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representati…
The taking of money or goods in the possession of another, from his or her person or immediate presence, by force or intimidation. Robbery requires a taking of property from the person or presence of the victim, which means that the taking must be from the victim's possession, whether actual or constructive. Property is on the victim's person if it is in his hand, in the pocket of th…
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…
From 1863 to 1866 Cleveland performed the duties of assistant district attorney of Erie County, New York, and, four years later, served as sheriff for three years. He entered politics in 1881 with his election as mayor of Buffalo and gained public attention with his forceful policy against corruption in the Buffalo government. In 1882 he became governor of New York and, for the next two years…
Peckham was born in Albany, New York, on November 8, 1838, into a family of prominent lawyers and judges. He attended private schools and studied abroad as a young man. He read the law in his father's Albany law office and was admitted to the New York bar in 1859, following the lead of his older brother, Wheeler Hazard Peckham. After almost ten years in private practice, he began his career…
The U.S. Jaycees (Jaycees) was founded as the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1920. It is a national organization, which at the time of the litigation had more than 235,000 members. The national organization set membership requirements for local chapters, one of which limited membership to men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. When the Minneapolis and St. Paul chapters of the Jaycees adm…
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…
A sample separation agreement …
Wagner was born on June 8, 1877, in Nastätten, Germany. With his family he immigrated to the United States in 1885, settling in a New York City tenement neighborhood. He graduated from City College in New York in 1898 and studied law at New York Law School, where he earned his degree in 1900. Wagner's political fortunes changed dramatically with the Great Depression of the 1930s …
In fact, the Robinson-Patman Act has been severely criticized throughout its history, both for its poor drafting and the economic theory behind it. Even the Supreme Court has criticized the act on more than one occasion, stating in 1952 that it is "complicated and vague in itself and even more so in its context. Indeed, the Court of Appeals seems to have thought it almost beyond understandi…
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…
Limited, abridged, reduced, or curtailed. An estate in tail is a legally recognizable interest of inheritance that goes to the heirs of the donee's body instead of descending to the donee's heirs generally. The heirs of the donee's body are his or her lawful issue (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, in a direct line for as long as the descendants endure i…
To assume control or management of a corporation without necessarily obtaining actual title to it. A takeover bid or tender offer is a proposal made by one company to purchase shares of stock of another company, in order to acquire control thereof. …
Born July 10, 1723, Blackstone was the son of Mary Blackstone and Charles Blackstone, of London. Blackstone's father, a silk merchant, died before Blackstone was born; his mother died while he was a young boy. Raised by an older brother and tutored by an uncle, Blackstone attended Charterhouse and Pembroke College, at Oxford University, where his education included a thorough exposure to ma…
Spottswood W. Robinson III. BETTMANN/CORBIS Robinson was born on July 26, 1916, in Richmond, Virginia. He attended Virginia Union University and received his LL.B. degree from Howard University School of Law in 1939. He joined the Howard Law School faculty immediately after graduation and served as a professor of law until 1948. Robinson was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1943. …
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 …
An extraordinary equitable remedy that compels a party to execute a contract according to the precise terms agreed upon or to execute it substantially so that, under the circumstances, justice will be done between the parties. Specific performance grants the plaintiff what he actually bargained for in the contract rather than damages (pecuniary compensation for loss or injury incurred through the …
An individual called to act as a juror from among the bystanders in a court. A talesman refers to a person who is summoned as an additional juror to make up for a deficiency in a jury panel. …
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…
An individual cannot be compensated for mere speculative probability of future loss unless he can prove that such negative consequences can reasonably be expected to occur. The amount of damages sought in a lawsuit need not be established with absolute certainty provided they are anticipated with reasonable certainty. Where the plaintiff cannot establish with reasonable certainty that any injury r…
Rochin was tried and convicted of narcotics possession. The conviction was based solely on the morphine capsules, though Rochin unsuccessfully challenged their admission. After the California appellate courts upheld the conviction, Rochin filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The police conduct here did more than offend "private sentimentalism about combating crime too energetically.…
[Latin, Severally; separately; individually; one by one.] …
Political machines have traditionally wielded influence in U.S. society, and one of the most The members of Tammany Hall had a corrupt stonghold on New York City politics from the early 1800s until the 1930s. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Founded by William Mooney in 1789, Tammany Hall was originally a fraternal and patriotic organization first called the Society of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Ord…
Carter was born March 11, 1917, in Careyville, Florida. As a child he moved to New Jersey, where he attended public schools in Newark and East Orange. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, in 1937, then went on to earn a bachelor of laws degree from Howard University Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1940. He also earned a master of laws degree f…
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…
Article I, Section 6, Clause 1, of the U.S. Constitution states in part, The purpose of the clause is to prevent the arrest and prosecution of unpopular legislators based on their political views. The U.S. Supreme Court has gradually defined and redefined the Speech or Debate Clause in several cases over the years. The first case concerning the Speech and Debate Clause was Kilbourn v. Thompson, 10…
A fictitious surname used for an unknown or anonymous person or for a hypothetical person in an illustration. …
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…
A form of expression in which behavior is used by itself or in coordination with written or spoken words to convey an idea or message. …
Taney was born on March 17, 1777, in Calvert County, Maryland. A descendant of an aristocratic tobacco-growing family, Taney graduated from Dickinson College in 1795, studied law, and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1799. That same year he was elected to a one-year term in the Maryland House of Delegates. Taney practiced briefly in Annapolis before settling in Frederick, where he soon was reco…
