Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000)
This case was designed to protect the Sixth Amendment right to a ‘‘speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury’’ and the right inherent in the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to have every element of a criminal offense proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Read the full storyAppropriation of Name or Likeness
Appropriation of name or likeness, the oldest and most widely recognized branch of the invasion of privacy tort, imposes liability for unauthorized use of another’s name, likeness, or other identifying characteristics.
Read the full storyAptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500 (1964)
Aptheker is an important civil liberties case involving the right to travel. In Aptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500, 84 S.Ct. 1659 (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal law that the Court believed unconstitutionally interfered with the freedom of American citizens to travel abroad.
Read the full storyArizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279 (1991)
Arizona v. Fulminante considered whether a state court properly found a defendant’s confession was coerced in violation of the Fifth Amendment and whether admission of a coerced confession is properly evaluated using harmless error analysis.
Read the full storyArizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321 (1987)
In Hicks, the Supreme Court announced that probable cause is required to justify the search or seizure of items discovered in ‘‘plain view’’ during an unrelated search. Police entered an apartment after shots were fired through its floor, injuring a man in the apartment below.
Read the full storyArizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51 (1988)
In Youngblood, a divided Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause does not require the government to preserve evidence that could conclusively prove the defendant innocent.
Read the full storyArraignment and Probable Cause Hearing
Depending on whether the crime charged is brought federally or within a state jurisdiction, an individual accused of a crime could be faced with a few different pretrial proceedings.
Read the full storyArrest
The fact of an arrest and the definition of an arrest are of fundamental importance.
Read the full storyArrest Warrants
Law enforcement officials in America and in England in the period preceding the American Revolution did not have broad inherent authority to search and seize; such actions required authorization, and the warrant system was the primary means to confer that authority.
Read the full storyArrest without a Warrant
An arrest constitutes a seizure and must therefore satisfy the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that all searches and seizures be reasonable.
Read the full storyAshcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002)
Congress passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 that, among other things, dealt with ‘‘virtual’’ pornographic images of minors.
Read the full storyJohn Ashcroft (1942–)
John Ashcroft served as attorney general during the first term of the administration of George W. Bush, and in his last year in office analysts were terming him the worst attorney general in the nation’s history.
Read the full storyAssisted Suicide
It was not until the last decade of the twentieth century that the U.S. Supreme Court decided three cases in which the Court began what remains a tentative exploration of whether (if at all) the U.S. Constitution guarantees a choice concerning the time and manner of one’s death.
Read the full storyAsylum, Refugees and the Convention against Torture
The United States provides several forms of relief to refugees, or individuals fleeing persecution in their home country. The legal framework governing refugees derives principally from international law and has been implemented in statutes and regulations.
Read the full storyAtheism
Although the first two clauses of the First Amendment concern the establishment and free exercise of ‘‘religion,’’ the amendment long has been understood to protect the liberty and equality of nonbelievers.
Read the full story