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Strict Scrutiny
In U.S. constitutional law, when a law infringes upon a fundamental constitutional right, the court may apply the strict scrutiny standard. Strict scrutiny holds the challenged law as presumptively invalid unless the government can demonstrate that the law or regulation is necessary to achieve a " compelling state interest". The government must also demonstrate that the law is "narrowly tailored" to achieve that compelling purpose, and that it uses the "least restrictive means" to achieve that purpose. Failure to meet this standard will result in striking the law as unconstitutional. Strict scrutiny is the highest and most stringent standard of judicial review in the United States and is part of the levels of judicial scrutiny that US courts use to determine whether a constitutional right or principle should give way to the government's interest against observance of the principle. The lesser standards are rational basis review and exacting or intermediate scrutiny. These ...
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United States Constitutional Law
The constitutional law of the United States is the body of law governing the interpretation and implementation of the United States Constitution. The subject concerns the scope of power of the United States federal government compared to the individual states and the fundamental rights of individuals. The ultimate authority upon the interpretation of the Constitution and the constitutionality of statutes, state and federal, lies with the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court Judicial review Early in its history, in ''Marbury v. Madison'' (1803) and ''Fletcher v. Peck'' (1810), the Supreme Court of the United States declared that the judicial power granted to it by Article III of the United States Constitution included the power of judicial review, to consider challenges to the constitutionality of a State or Federal law. The holding in these cases empowered the Supreme Court to strike down enacted laws that were contrary to the Constitution. In this role, for ...
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Burden Of Proof (law)
In a legal dispute, one party has the burden of proof to show that they are correct, while the other party has no such burden and is presumed to be correct. The burden of proof requires a party to produce evidence to establish the truth of facts needed to satisfy all the required legal elements of the dispute. It is also known as the onus of proof. The burden of proof is usually on the person who brings a claim in a dispute. It is often associated with the Latin maxim ''semper necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit'', a translation of which is: "the necessity of proof always lies with the person who lays charges." In civil suits, for example, the plaintiff bears the burden of proof that the defendant's action or inaction caused injury to the plaintiff, and the defendant bears the burden of proving an affirmative defense. The burden of proof is on the prosecutor for criminal cases, and the defendant is presumed innocent. If the claimant fails to discharge the burden of proof to ...
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Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United States. Each class in the three-year Juris Doctor, JD program has approximately 560 students, which is among the largest of the top 150 ranked law schools in the United States. The first-year class is broken into seven sections of approximately 80 students, who take most first-year classes together. Aside from the JD program, Harvard also awards both Master of Laws, LLM and Doctor of Juridical Science, SJD degrees. HLS is home to the world's largest academic law library. The school has an estimated 115 full-time faculty members. According to Harvard Law's 2020 American Bar Association, ABA-required disclosures, 99% of 2019 graduates passed the bar exam.Rubino, Kathryn"Bar Passage Rates For First-time Test Takers Soars!" February 19, 2020. ...
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Freedom Of Religion
Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the right not to profess any religion or belief or "not to practice a religion" (often called freedom ''from'' religion). The concept of religious liberty includes, and some say requires, secular liberalism, and excludes authoritarian versions of secularism. Freedom of religion is considered by many people and most nations to be a fundamental rights, fundamental human right. Freedom of religion is protected in all the most important international human rights treaty, conventions, such as the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Na ...
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Overbreadth Doctrine
In American jurisprudence, the overbreadth doctrine is primarily concerned with facial challenges to laws under the First Amendment. Definition The overbreadth doctrine is used to find statutes that address a first amendment freedom unconstitutional when, by its plain language, the statute hinders expression.16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law ยง 169 Overbreadth challenges allow a third party, who was not directly harmed by the broad sweep of the statute, to challenge its constitutionality even when his or her own rights are not violated. Thus, a statute that has regulated an individual's expression as allowed by the constitution's protections (i.e. an individual's ''un''protected speech is appropriately found to have violated a statute) can nonetheless be challenged by that individual on a claim that it also applies to substantial instances of protected expression. This serves to check statutes that would cause individuals to censor their own expressions for risk of breaking the law ...
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Narrow Tailoring
Narrow tailoring (also known as narrow framing) is the legal principle that a law be written to specifically fulfill only its intended goals. It is usually connoted to the judicial test of strict scrutiny. This phrase is most commonly invoked in constitutional law cases in the United States, such as First Amendment cases, or Equal Protection cases involving racial discrimination by creating racial distinctions. In the case '' Grutter v. Bollinger'' (2003), the United States Supreme Court held that: Even in the limited circumstance when drawing racial distinctions is permissible to further a compelling state interest, government is still constrained under equal protection clause in how it may pursue that end: the means chosen to accomplish the government's asserted purpose must be specifically and narrowly framed to accomplish that purpose.'' Grutter v. Bollinger'', Prior to Students for '' Fair Admissions v. Harvard'', affirmative action programs in higher education were only con ...
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Government Interest
Government or state interest is a concept in law that allows the state to regulate a given matter. The concept may apply differently in different countries, and the limitations of what should and should not be of government interest vary, and have varied over time. United States In the United States, the concept of government interest arises especially when certain constitutional issues are before a court of law. Under US constitutional jurisprudence, arising from US Supreme Court decisions, the courts weigh the government's interest in a particular subject matter against the impact of restrictions being imposed on the individuals' rights and interests. A compelling governmental interest may override fundamental constitutional rights, if it satisfies the strict scrutiny test. A government interest is compelling if it is essential or necessary rather than a matter of choice, preference, or discretion. When government action infringes an individual's fundamental rights, the govern ...
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National Origin
National origin is the nation where a person was born, or where that person's ancestors came from. It also includes the diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while being made up of several component ethnic groups. National origin can be the same, different from, or a combination of a person's national identity, which is the nation with which a person subjectively identifies with; in some cases, such as children born to expatriates, temporary residents or diplomatic and consular staff, a person may not identify with the nation in which they were born. National origin and national identity which can be tied to each other should also be distinguished from a person's nationality or citizenship which is a legal status in which a sovereign state recognizes someone as belonging to their country. Discrimination In Europe, discrimination against a person on the basis of national origin is considered a ty ...
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Race (classification Of Human Beings)
Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations. By the 17th century, the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits, and then later to national affiliations. Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning. The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. Social conceptions and groupings of races have varied over time, often involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits. Modern scientist ...
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Suspect Classification
In United States constitutional law, a suspect classification is a class or group of persons meeting a series of criteria suggesting they are likely the subject of discrimination. These classes receive closer scrutiny by courts when an Equal Protection claim alleging unconstitutional discrimination is asserted against a law, regulation, or other government action, or sometimes private action. When a law or government action affects a group that falls under a "suspect classification," courts apply the strict scrutiny standard in reviewing the constitutional validity of a law or action. Criteria The United States Supreme Court has mentioned a variety of criteria that, in some combination, may qualify a group as a suspect class, but the Court has not declared that any particular set of criteria are either necessary or sufficient to qualify.Wintemute, Robert, Sexual Orientation and Human Rights' (1995) Some of the criteria that have been cited include: * The group has historically b ...
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Fourteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Considered one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses Citizenship of the United States, citizenship rights and equal protection under the law at all levels of government. The Fourteenth Amendment was a response to issues affecting Freedman#United States, freed slaves following the American Civil War, and its passage was bitterly contested. States of the defeated Confederate States of America, Confederacy were required to ratify it to regain representation in United States Congress, Congress. The amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution, forming the basis for landmark Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court decisions, such as ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954; prohibiting Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation in State school#United St ...
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