Abortion Laws and the Establishment Clause
A defining principle of the United States is the separation between church and state.
Read the full storyAdolescent Family Life Act
In 1981, Congress enacted the Adolescent Family Life Demonstration Grants Act (AFLA) in response to the severe social and economic consequences that often follow pregnancy and childbirth among unmarried adolescents.
Read the full storyAlien and Sedition Acts (1798)
Sedition may be defined as any illegal action tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government.
Read the full storyAmerican Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978
Congress announced that the policy of the United States was to ‘‘protect and preserve’’ the rights of American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians ‘‘to believe, express, and exercise’’ their ‘‘traditional religions’’ in a joint resolution adopted in 1978, now known as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA).
Read the full storyAnti-Anarchy and Anti-Syndicalism Statutes
From the ‘‘Salem witch trials’’ to the criminal prosecutions that constitute part of the government’s ‘‘war on terror,’’ American criminal law has been used to stamp out threats, perceived or actual, to federal and state governments.
Read the full storyAntipolygamy Laws
In the United States antipolygamy laws were exclusively aimed at the polygamous practices of the nineteenth- century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) which began to publicly practice and advocate polygamy in 1852.
Read the full storyBecker Amendment
The Becker amendment was one of the more significant congressional attempts to overturn an unpopular holding of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read the full storyBills of Rights in Early State Constitutions
State constitution making began during the Revolution. By 1787, when delegates from twelve of the original thirteen states (Rhode Island never sent any delegates) met in Philadelphia to write the national constitution, eleven of the first thirteen states had written constitutions.
Read the full storyStructure Bill of Rights
The structure of the American Bill of Rights reflects its eighteenth-century origins. The framers of the Constitution did not include a bill of rights because they honestly believed that one was unnecessary.
Read the full storyBlaine Amendment
The Blaine amendment was a proposed 1876 amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Read the full storyBroadcast Regulation
The history of broadcast regulation affords a unique civil liberties perspective because it is the sole example of a government agency created to supervise the press.
Read the full storyCable Television Regulation
Cable television regulation began in the late 1940s and 1950s primarily as a local matter. The first cable systems needed easements to construct facilities on public and private land.
Read the full storyCampaign Finance Reform, No. 1021
A California politician once famously observed: ‘‘Money is the Mother’s Milk of Politics.’’ For at least a century, the Congress has tried to legislate against this dictum.
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Voting Rights Act of 1965