legal education and practice

See year and a day and year and a day rule.

See, e.g. Rogers v. Tennessee, 532 U.S. 451 (2001).

[Last reviewed in July of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]

Yeas and nays are the tallies of affirmative and negative votes on a proposal. "Yea" signifies agreement or approval, while “nay” indicates disagreement or a negative vote. They are often used to describe vote results in a legislature or other deliberative body. The "yeas and nays" are utilized to maintain a public record of how House or Senate members voted.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer 343 U.S. 579 (1952) was a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided on the applicability of the President's national security powers to seize private property. President Truman had ordered the Secretary of Commerce to take possession of and operate the mills in order to maintain steel production during the Korean War.

Your Honor is the traditional way to address a judge. It is used as a sign of respect. The honorific typically appears in court proceedings. The term is sometimes controversial, as some see it as a title of “nobility” that places them above the general public.  

A youthful offender is a legal term used to describe an adolescent who has committed a crime but is granted special status to avoid the full consequences of a criminal conviction.

Zambrano v.

A zealous witness is someone whose testimony is clearly biased in favor of the party which called them to testify.

Zero tape (also called a zero report) is a file produced by electronic voter machines showing that the machine has no votes tallied at the beginning of an election. Many states require poll workers to retrieve a zero tape prior to counting votes, ensuring the machines are starting the counts at zero.

The zone of interests is a legal concept used to determine whether a particular plaintiff has standing to bring a lawsuit. It refers to the range of interests or concerns that a law or regulation, whether a constitutional provision or legislative statute, is intended to protect.