The Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 US 36, was an 1873 U.S. Supreme Court decision on a series of cases in which the Court expressed its first interpretation of the privileges or immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court interpreted...
constitutional law
slavery
Slavery is the practice of forced labor and restricted liberty. It is also a regime where one class of people - the slave owners - could force another - the slaves - to work and limit their liberty. Throughout history, some forms of slavery...
speedy trial
The right to a speedy trial is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The precise contours of this constitutional right were interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972), where the...
Speedy Trial Act (1974)
The Speedy Trial Act of 1974, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3161 et seq., is a United States federal law that establishes time limits for completing various stages of a federal criminal prosecution. Its main purpose is to ensure that defendants are...
spending power
Spending power is the ability of a government to tax and spend. Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution, Congress is granted the power to lay and collect taxes in order “to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and...
state action requirement
The state action requirement refers to the requirement that in order for a plaintiff to have standing to sue over a law being violated, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the government (local, state, or federal), was responsible for the...
stop and frisk
A stop-and-frisk refers to a brief non-intrusive police stop of an individual. The Fourth Amendment requires that before stopping the suspect, the police must have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be...
substantive due process
Substantive due process is the principle that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution protect fundamental rights from government interference. Specifically, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the government from...
suppression
Suppression occurs when evidence collected in violation of the Constitution becomes inadmissible at trial. Evidence excluded this way is referred to as being “suppressed.” This is known as the Exclusionary Rule.
The process...
Supremacy Clause
The Supremacy Clause refers to the foundational principle that, in general, federal law takes precedence over any conflicting state law. Established under Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the Supremacy Clause enables the...