Access to Prisons
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.
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 storyAffirmative Action
Affirmative action has emerged as a controversial issue in American political and constitutional discourse.
Read the full storyAgostini 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)...
Read the full storyAguilar 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.
Read the full storyAirport 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.
Read the full storyAkron 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.
Read the full storyAlcorta 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.
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.
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