Adolescent 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.

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Affirmative Action

Affirmative action has emerged as a controversial issue in American political and constitutional discourse.

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Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203 (1997)

In Agostini v. Felton, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its 1985 decision in Aguilar v. Felton, 473 U.S. 402 (1985) (and portions of its companion decision in School District of Grand Rapids v. Ball, 473 U.S. 373, 1985)...

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Aguilar v. Felton, 473 U.S. 402 (1985)

In its 1985 decision in Aguilar v. Felton, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a government program that provided remedial instruction to low-income children attending parochial schools—a decision that reflected the strong separationist jurisprudence adhered to by a narrow majority of the Court’s justices during that era.

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Airport Searches

Airplane piracy increased in occurrence and success in the 1960s, leading to the creation of a 1968 task force that developed a hijacker detection and deterrence system.

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Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 462 U.S. 416 (1983)

After the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), a myriad of legislative responses to Roe held that the right of privacy encompasses a woman’s right to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy.

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Alcorta v. Texas, 355 U.S. 28 (1957)

In Alcorta, the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause bars prosecutors from knowingly presenting perjured testimony in a criminal case.

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Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

Sedition may be defined as any illegal action tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government.

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Civil Liberties of Aliens

The extent to which the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and other political freedoms are enjoyed by noncitizens is a question that has existed since the founding of the United States.

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County of Allegheny v. ACLU, 492 U.S. 573 (1989)

In the mid-1980s, the Supreme Court first considered the constitutionality of religious holiday displays in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), involving a city’s display of a nativity scene among other symbols of the Christmas holiday.

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Allen v. Illinois, 478 U.S. 364 (1986)

The Allen Court decided the issue of whether proceedings under the Illinois Sexually Dangerous Persons Act are ‘‘criminal,’’ such that they open the door to the Fifth Amendment’s protection against selfincrimination.

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Amalgamated Food Employees Union Local 590 v. Logan Valley Plaza, 391 U.S. 308 (1968)

The conflict between the First Amendment rights of persons to speak and the rights of private property owners to exclude individuals from their property raises thorny questions at the intersection of state action doctrine and the First Amendment.

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Ambach v. Norwick, 441 U.S. 68 (1979)

Interpreting the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court has generally subjected all state and local laws that discriminate on the basis of alienage to the strictest scrutiny, noting that, unlike the federal government, state entities do not have the power to regulate the admission or expulsion of noncitizens.

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America Online

America Online (AOL), founded in 1985 as Quantum Computer Services and since 2000 part of Time Warner, is one of the world’s largest Internet service providers (ISPs).

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American Anti-Slavery Society

At its inaugural meeting on December 4, 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) declared an unconditional commitment to the immediate abolition of slavery and equal rights for free black men.

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