Abortion Laws and the Establishment Clause
A defining principle of the United States is the separation between church and state.
Read the full storyAbortion Protest Cases
In three cases, the Supreme Court has considered the rights of anti-abortion protestors outside abortion clinics.
Read the full storyAbrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919)
Condemning ‘‘the hypocrisy of the United States and her allies’’ and denouncing President Woodrow Wilson as a hypocrite and a coward, Jacob Abrams and four associates—all five Russian-born Jews and avowed anarchists—distributed fliers on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the summer of 1918 directing attention to U.S. efforts to halt the Bolshevik Revolution.
Read the full storyAbsolutism and Free Speech
Absolutism is an approach to interpretation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech that takes literally the text of the amendment when it declares that ‘‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.’’
Read the full storyAbu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib prison was originally built in the 1960s by Western contractors but achieved notoriety during Saddam Hussein’s rule as a repository for up to fifteen thousand of his political enemies.
Read the full storyAcademic Freedom
Academic freedom is a concept that encompasses notions of philosophy and contracts as well as civil liberties. In the United States the concept of academic freedom has developed primarily (although not exclusively) in the context of higher education.
Read the full storyAccess to Government Operations Information
In a democratic society, the informed citizen must have an affirmative right to gain access to information concerning the operations of government.
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Courts generally recognize two independent rights of public access to judicial records, one stemming from the common law and one from the First Amendment. Both are predicated on furthering government accountability.
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In two cases decided on the same day in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court said that state and federal prison regulations barring journalists from interviewing individual inmates did not violate the First Amendment.
Read the full storyAccommodation of Religion
The free exercise clause of the First Amendment is often interpreted as requiring the government to accommodate religion by refraining from applying to religious practitioners general laws that interfere with the edicts of particular religious faiths.
Read the full storyAccomplice Confessions
A defendant in a multidefendant criminal trial who confesses to illegal conduct is making a direct admission regarding his acts.
Read the full storyAct Up
ACT UP—the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power— came together in March 1987 out of the charismatic exhortations of author and playwright Larry Kramer.
Read the full storyLord John Acton (1834–1902)
Lord John Acton, the great liberal academic who dominated the field of history during the latter part of the Victorian Age, was born into a family of the upper echelon of society in Italy and moved to England at the age of three.
Read the full storyActual Malice Standard
In the landmark case of The New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 25 (1964), the Supreme Court developed the actual malice concept.
Read the full storyAdministrative Searches and Seizures
The Fourth Amendment requires all searches and seizures to be reasonable.
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