Capital Punishment: Proportionality

Proportionality in principle justifies, limits, or condemns capital punishment. That deeply held common value—that punishment must not be grossly disproportionate to the crime—dominates U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence.

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Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753 (1995)

Capitol Square is a 10-acre, state-owned plaza surrounding the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.

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Captive Audiences and Free Speech

The idea that speech may be curbed to protect the sensibilities of an audience held captive by the speaker is rooted in the notion that governmental power. . .

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Benjamin Cardozo (1870–1938)

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was born into a Sephardic Jewish family in New York City in 1870.

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Carey v. Population Services International, 431 U.S. 678 (1977)

Whether, and to what extent, minors should enjoy the same constitutional rights as adults is one of the most vexing and unsettled questions of constitutional law.

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Carolene Products v. U.S., 304 U.S. 144 (1938)

This relatively minor case is remembered not for the issue supposedly before the Court, but for a footnote that in the eyes of many scholars launched a constitutional revolution.

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Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925)

The Supreme Court has held that, under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, police officers must obtain a warrant to engage in a search or a seizure. . .

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Categorical Approach to Free Speech

The ‘‘categorical approach’’ is a method of judging where decisions are reached through use of a preestablished system of classifications or categories.

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Catholics and Religious Liberty

The twentieth century witnessed a remarkable realignment of the Roman Catholic Church with the cause of religious liberty.

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Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)

In 1859, Carrie Chapman Catt was born Carrie Clinton Lane in Wisconsin. She and her family soon moved to Iowa where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State Agricultural College in 1880.

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Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York, 447 U.S. 557 (1980)

In 1973, when an oil embargo caused fuel shortages, the New York Public Service Commission issued a regulation prohibiting electric companies from advertising to promote electricity use.

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Central Intelligence Agency

As a result of the need for intelligence on the Axis Powers during World War II, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was created. After the war, policy makers realized the need for foreign intelligence.

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Ceremonial Deism

One of the difficult church–state issues is determining when the use of religious language by the government violates the Establishment Clause.

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Chae Chan Ping v. U.S., 130 U.S. 581 (1889) and Chinese Exclusion Act

Chinese first emigrated to the United States in large numbers in 1849, when they joined thousands of Americans and other foreign fortune-seekers in the ‘‘gold rush’’ to the American West.

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Zechariah Chafee Jr. (1885–1957)

Zechariah Chafee Jr., attorney, professor, legal scholar and well-known champion of civil liberties, was born on December 7, 1885, in Providence, Rhode Island.

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