The U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and therefore did not have the right to sue in federal court. In so holding, the Court also ruled that the...
legal history
Durham test
The Durham test refers to a criminal law test used in some jurisdictions to evaluate whether a defendant is entitled to an insanity defense. The Durham test takes its name from the case Durham v. United States.
Under the...
Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882
The Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882 (Edmunds Act) is a U.S. federal statute adopted in 1882 declaring polygamy as a felony in federal territories. The Edmunds Act suppressed different rights for people practicing polygamy and made it...
emergency powers
Emergency powers broadly refers to the authority given to individuals in the executive to act outside the traditional bounds of their authority in order to react to a danger that normal channels for approval could not address. The most...
enumerated powers
Enumerated powers are the powers granted to the Federal government, and specifically Congress, which are mostly listed in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Namely the power “to lay and collect taxes”, duties, impost and excises,...
equal protection
Overview
Equal Protection refers to the idea that a governmental body may not deny people equal protection of its governing laws. The governing body state must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and...
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would require the Federal and state governments to ensure equal rights amongst sexes. The Amendment has been proposed more than once, but Congress passed the...
equitable
Equitable means fair or impartial. In legal context it can relate to “equity” as opposed to “law”. The distinction between equity and law originates from England where courts were divided into two kinds, courts of equity and courts...
equitable relief
The remedy resulting from a claim of estoppel. Equitable relief is distinguished from remedies for legal actions in that, instead of seeking merely monetary damages, the plaintiff is seeking that the court compels the defendant to perform a certain...
equity
In law, the term "equity" refers to a particular set of remedies and associated procedures involved with civil law. These equitable doctrines and procedures are distinguished from "legal" ones. While legal remedies typically involve monetary...