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Adversial System

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A two-sided court structure in which lawyers on both sides of a case attempt to prove their argument over their opponent's version of the case.

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Amicus Curiae

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Latin for "friend of the court," referring to an interested group or person who shares relevant information about a case to help the court reach a decision.

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Appellate Jurisdiction

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The authority of a court to hear appeals from lower courts and change or uphold the decision.

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Attitudinalist Approach

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A way of understanding decisions of the Supreme Court based on the political ideologies of the justices.

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Cert Pool

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A system initiated in the Supreme Court in the 1970s in which law clerks screen cases that come to the Supreme Court and recommend to the justices which cases should be heard.

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Class Action Lawsuit

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A case brought by a group of individuals on behalf of themselves and others in the general public who are in similar circumstances.

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Collusion

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Agreement between litigants on the desired outcome of a case, causing a federal court to decline to hear the case. More generally, collusion can refer to any kind of conspiracy or complicity.

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Common Law

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Law based on the precedent of previous court rulings rather than on legislation. It is used in all federal courts and forty-nine of the fifty state courts.

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Defendant

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The person or party against whom a case is brought.

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Docket

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The official schedule of cases in a court of law.

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Judicial Activism

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The idea that the Supreme Court should assert its interpretation of the law even if it overrules the elected executive and legislative branches of government.

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Judicial Restraint

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The idea that the Supreme Court should defer to the democratically elected executive and legislative branches of government rather than contradicting existing laws.

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Judicial Review

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The Supreme Court's power to strike down a law or executive branch action that it finds unconstitutional.

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Briefs

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Written documents prepared by both parties in a case, and sometimes by outside groups, presenting their arguments in court.

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Judiciary Act of 1789

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The law in which Congress laid out the organization of the federal judiciary. the law refined and clarified federal court jurisdiction and set the original number of justices at six. It also created the Office of the Attorney General and established the lower federal courts.

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Mootness

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The irrelevance of a case by the time it is received by a federal court, causing the court to decline to hear the case.

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Oral Arguments

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Spoken presentations made in person by the lawyers of each party to a judge or appellate court outlining the legal reasons why their side should prevail.

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Original intent

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The theory that justices should surmise the intentions of the Founders when the language of the Constitution is unclear.

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Original jurisdiction

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The authority of a court to handle a case first, as in the Supreme Court's authority to initially hear disputes between two states. However, original jurisdiction for the Supreme Court is not exclusive; it may assign such a case to a lower court.

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Plaintiff

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The person or party who brings a case to court.

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Stare Decisis

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The policy of courts to abide by/adhere to principles established by decisions in earlier cases.

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Ripeness

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A criterion that federal courts use to decide whether a case is ready to be heard. A case's ripeness is based on whether its central issue or controversy has actually taken place.

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Senatorial Courtesy

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A norm in the nomination of district court judges in which the President consults with his party's senator from the relevant state in choosing the nominee.

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Solicitor General

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A presidential appointee in the Department of Justic who conducts all litigation on behalf of the federal government before the Supreme Court and supervises litigation in the federal appellate courts.

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Standing

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Legitimate justification for bringing a civil case to court.

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Strict construction

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A way of interpreting the Constitution based on its language alone.

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Writ of Certiorari

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The most common way for a case to reach the Supreme Court, in which at least four of the nine justices agree to hear a case that has reached them via an appeal from the losing party in a lower court's ruling.

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Writ of Mandamus

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Orders issued by a higher court to a lower court, government official, or government agency to perfom acts required by law.

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Civil Liberties

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Basic political freedoms that protect citizens from governmental abuses of power.

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Civil War Amendments

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The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and granted civil liberties and voting rights to freed slaves after the Civil War.

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Clear and Present Danger Test

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Established in Schenk vs. United States, this test allows the government to restrict certain types of speech deemed dangerous.

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Commercial Speech

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Public expression with the aim of making a profit. It has recevied greater protection under the 1st Amendment in recent years but remains less protected than political speech.

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Direct Incitement Test

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Established in Brandenberg vs. Ohio, this test protects threatening speech under the 1st Amendment unless that speech aims to and is likely to cause imminent "lawless action."

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Double Jeopardy

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Being tried twice for the same crime. This is prevented by the 5th Amendment.

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Due Process Clause

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Part of the 14th Amendment that forbids states from denying "life, liberty, or property" to any person without due process of law. (A nearly identical clause in the 5th Amendment applies only to the national government).

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Due Process rights

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The idea that laws and legal proceedings must be fair. The Constitution guarantees that the government cannot take away a person's "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Other specific due process rights are found in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments, such as protection from self-incrimination and freedom from illegal searches.

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Establishment Clause

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Part of the 1st Amendment that states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religions," which has been interpreted to mean that Congress cannot sponser or favor any religion.

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Exclusionary Rule

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The principle that illegally or unconstitutionally acquired evidence cannot be used in a criminal trial.

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Fighting words

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Forms of expression that "by their very utterance" can incite violence. These can be regulated by the government but are often difficult to define.

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Free Exercise Clause

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Part of the 1st Amendment that states Congress cannot prohibit or interfere with the practice of religion.

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Gag order

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An aspect of prior restraint that allows the government to prohibit the media from publishing anything related to an ongoing trial.

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Hate speech

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Expression that is offensive or abusive, particularly in terms or race, gender, or sexual orientation. It is currently protected under the 1st Amendment.

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Lemon Test

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Established in Lemon vs. Kurtzman, the Supreme Court uses this test to determine whether a practice violates the 1st Amendment's establishment clause.

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Libel

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Written false statements that damage a person's reputation. Such statements can be regulated by the government but are often difficult to distinguish from permissible speech.

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Miller Test

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Established in Miller vs. California, the Supreme Court uses this three-part test to determine whether speech meets the criteria for obscenity. If so, it can be restricted by the government.

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Miranda Rights

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The list of civil liberties described in the 5th Amendment that must be read to a suspect before anything the suspect says can be used in a trial.

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Prior Restraint

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A limit on freedom of the press that allows the government to prohibit the media from publishing certain materials.

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Selective incorporation

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The process through which the civil liberties granted in the Bill of Rights were applied to the states on a case-by-case basis through the 14th Amendment.

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Slander

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Spoken false statements that damage a person's reputation. Such statements can be regulated by the government but are often difficult to distinguish from permissible speech.

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Symbolic Speech

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Nonverbal expression, such as the use of signs or symbols. It benefits from many of the same constitutional protections of verbal speech.

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Civil Rights

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Rights that guarantee individuals freedom from discrimination. These rights are generally grounded in the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and more specifically laid out in laws passed by Congress, such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

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De facto

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Relating to actions or circumstances that occur outside the law or "by fact," such as the segregation of schools that resulted from housing patterns and other factors rather than from laws.

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De jure

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Relating to actions or circumstances that occur "by law," such as the legally enforced segregation of schools in the American South before the 1960s.

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Disenfranchised

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To have been denied the ability to exercise a right, such as the right to vote.

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Intermediate Scrutiny Test

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The middle level of scrutiny the courts use when determining whether unequal treatment is justified by the effect of a law; this is the standard used for gender-based discrimination cases and for many cases based on sexual orientation.

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Protectionism

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The idea under which some people have tried to rationalize discriminatory policies by claiming that some groups, like women or African Americans, should be denied certain rights for their own safety or well-being.

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Reasonable basis test

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The use of evidence to suggest that differences in the behavior of two groups can rationalize unequal treatment of these groups, such as charging sixteen- to twenty-one-year-olds higher prices for auto insurance than people over twenty-one because younger people have higher accident rates.

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Separate but equal

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The idea that racial sergregation was acceptable as long as the separate facilities were of equal quality, supported by Plessy vs. Ferguson and struck down by Brown vs. Board of Education.

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Strict Scrutiny Test

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The highest level of scrutiny the courts use when determining whether unequal treatment is justified by the effect of a law. It is applied in all cases involving race. Laws rarely pass the strict scrutiny standard; a law that discriminates based on race must be shown to serve some "compelling state interest" in order to be upheld.

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Substantive Due Process "Doctrine"

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One interpretation of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment; in this view the Supreme Court has the power to overturn laws that infringe on individual liberties.

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