Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is the 2010 Supreme Court case that held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from limiting independent expenditures on political campaigns by groups such...
statutory interpretation
civil union partners
Civil union partners are partners who are in a marriage-like legal relationship. If a couple is in a civil union they receive inheritance rights, employment benefits, property, parental rights, etc.
The exact level of rights...
codified
To be codified is to be defined or otherwise included in a legislative statute. It is sometimes used in a wider sense to refer to principles that can be found not just in statutes, but also in constitutions, administrative rules, and other...
commerce power
Commerce power refers to Congress’s power to regulate the channels and instrumentalities of interstate commerce.
Channels refers to the highways, waterways, and air traffic of the country. Instrumentalities refers to cars, trucks,...common law
Common law is law that is derived from judicial decisions instead of from statutes. American courts originally fashioned common law rules based on English common law until the American legal system was sufficiently mature to create common law rules...
common law lien
A common law lien is a lien that is created due to common law and does not depend on any statute or contract for its existence. Unless abolished by statute or judicial decision, common law liens generally have the force of law in each U.S....
computer and internet fraud
Computer and internet fraud entails the criminal use of a computer or the Internet and can take many different forms. While some argue that “hacking” is a neutral term (see United States v. Thompson (2022)) illegal hacking is when a...
conspiracy
Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act, along with an intent to achieve the agreement's goal. Most U.S. jurisdictions also require an overt act toward furthering the agreement. An overt act is a...
constitutional avoidance
Constitutional avoidance is the doctrine that, if possible, the Supreme Court should avoid ruling on constitutional issues, and resolve the cases before them on other (usually statutory) grounds.
In practice, this often...
construction
Construction refers to the process of interpreting a law or a legal document, such as a contract or will. Construction is necessary when the plain language of a law or legal document is ambiguous, or the intent of its authors is unclear or...