unconstitutional-conditions doctrine. Constitutional law. 1. The rule that the government cannot condition a person’s receipt of a governmental benefit on the waiver of a constitutionally protected right (esp. a right under the First Amendment). • For example, a television station that receives public funds cannot be forced to refrain from endorsing political candidates. [Cases: Constitutional […]
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feme (fem), n. [Law French] Archaic. 1. A woman. 2. A wife. — Also spelled femme. feme covert (fem k[schwa]v-[schwa]rt). [Law French “covered woman”] Archaic. A married woman. • The notion, as Blackstone put it, was that the husband was the one “under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing.” 1 William Blackstone,
A life-insurance policy that gives protection for a specified period, but that does not have a cash value or reserve value.
defensor (di-fen-s[schwa]r or -sor), n. [fr. Latin defendere “to forbid”] 1. Roman law. A defender of another’s interests in court; an advocate, esp. for a corporation. Cf. PROCURATOR LITIS. 2. Roman law. DEFENSOR CIVITATIS. 3. Hist. Eccles. law. An advocate or patron of a church; a church warden. 4. Hist. A guardian; a protector; a
Fourteenth Amendment 美国宪法第十四条修正案 1868年批准。该修正案旨在把美国宪法第十三条修正案扩展为联邦民权〔civil rights〕权威〔authority〕的基础，同时，目的还在于强制南方州遵从为黑人新确立的政治权利。修正案共分五款，其中第一款乃是其核心。修正案创立或首次确认了区别于各州公民身份的美国公民身份；禁止各州制定或实施剥夺美国公民特权及豁免权的法律；各州未经正当法律程序不得剥夺任何人的生命、自由或财产；不得剥夺任何人应获得平等的法律保护。修正案还包含关于国会中代表名额分配的规定。第十四条修正案提出了在保护民权方面的联邦地位。但对该修正案的早期解释仍保留了在这一政策领域中州的主导作用。只是到近期，主要通过对正当法律程序和平等保护条款的扩大解释才使其产生了重大变化。第十四条修正案现在已成为美国民权政策的奠基石和《权利法案》〔Bill of Rights〕保障一直扩展到各州的主要方式，它在保障美国人基本权利方面的重要性与此事实相关：与美国奠基人的看法相反，对人民自由的主要威胁一直是来自州和地方政府而不是联邦政府。 (→due process of law; equal protection clause)
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A lawsuit in which the court authorizes a single person or a small group of people to represent the interests of a larger group; specif., a lawsuit in which the convenience either of the public or of the interested parties requires that the case be settled through litigation by or against only a part of
tax-increment financing. A technique used by a municipality to finance commercial developments usu. involving issuing bonds to finance land acquisition and other up-front costs, and then using the additional property taxes generated from the new development to service the debt. — Abbr. TIF. [Cases: Municipal Corporations 953.]
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accounting. 1. The act or a system of establishing or settling financial accounts; esp., the process of recording transactions in the financial records of a business and periodically extracting, sorting, and summarizing the rec-orded transactions to produce a set of financial records. — Also termed financial accounting. 2. A rendition of an account, either voluntarily
conservator (k[schwa]n-s[schwa]r-v[schwa]-t[schwa]r orkon-s[schwa]r-vay-t[schwa]r), n. A guardian, protector, or preserver. • Conservator is the modern equivalent of the common-law guardian. Judicial appointment and supervision are still required, but a conservator has far more flexible authority than a guardian, including the same investment powers that a trustee enjoys. The Uniform Probate Code uses the term conservator, and
pornography, n. Material (such as writings, photographs, or movies) depicting sexual activity or erotic behavior in a way that is designed to arouse sexual excitement. • Pornography is protected speech under the First Amendment unless it is determined to be legally obscene. See OBSCENITY. [Cases: Obscenity 5. C.J.S. Obscenity §§ 5–13.] — pornographic, adj. child