Robert Heron Bork (1927–)

Noted jurist, author, and scholar, Robert Heron Bork was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1948 and a J.D. in 1953.

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Boston Massacre Trial (1770)

Troops had been stationed in Boston and other cities in the colonies as a result of growing resistance by the colonists against imperial laws, especially the hated Townshend Acts.

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Bowen v. American Hospital Association, 476 U.S. 610 (1986)

Important rights and policies can be in tension when a governmental agency seeks to act on a child’s behalf and parental consent has not been obtained.

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Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U.S. 589 (1988)

In Bowen v. Kendrick, the Court upheld the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA) against an establishment clause challenge.

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Bowen v. Roy, 476 U.S. 693 (1986)

Pursuant to federal regulations requiring social security numbers for all dependent children, Pennsylvania authorities had stopped Aid to Dependent Families and Children benefits to Stephen Roy and Karen Miller and were also taking steps to reduce food stamps.

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Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986)

When a police officer came to serve an arrest warrant upon Michael Hardwick for a citation that Hardwick had already paid, the officer found Hardwick in his bedroom engaged in consensual oral sex with another man.

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Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000)

The First Amendment right to free speech includes a right to associate for expressive purposes.

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Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 (1886)

An agent of the customs department, referred to as a collector, seized thirty-five cases of plate glass in pursuance of customs law.

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Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242 (1969)

The central issue in the Boykin case was the responsibility of a criminal court to safeguard the rights of the accused.

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Bradfield v. Roberts, 175 U.S. 291 (1899)

Bradfield v. Roberts is the first of only two Supreme Court cases that have addressed whether government funding of faith-based human services programs is constitutional.

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Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)

In Brady, the Supreme Court for the first time squarely recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause guarantees criminal defendants the right to be given favorable information in the possession of the prosecution or the police.

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Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856–1941)

An extremely effective lawyer and reformer in the Progressive era before Woodrow Wilson named him to the Supreme Court in 1916, Brandeis had very little if any contact with issues that would be identified as civil liberties.

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Brandenburg Incitement Test

Even though the U.S. Constitution provides strong protections for speech, in a number of early decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court gave government broad authority to prosecute those who engage in speech advocating violence or illegal activity.

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Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)

This case originated in the state of Ohio where Clarence Brandenburg, a Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted, fined. . .

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Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507 (1980)

When a newly appointed Democratic public defender discharged two assistant public defenders because they were Republicans, the discharged lawyers claimed that their First Amendment freedoms of belief and association were violated.

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