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Griswold v. Connecticut

(Encyclopedia)Griswold v. Connecticut, case decided in 1965 by the U.S. Supreme Court, establishing a right to privacy in striking down a Connecticut ban on the sale of contraceptives. The Court, through Justice Wi...

Taschereau, Sir Henri Elzéar

(Encyclopedia)Taschereau, Sir Henri Elzéar, 1836–1911, Canadian jurist, b. Quebec prov., nephew of Elzéar Alexandre Cardinal Taschereau. He was a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada (1878) and was later chief ...

Navalny, Alexei Anatolyevich

(Encyclopedia)Navalny, Alexei Anatolyevich, 1976–, Russian lawyer and political activist. Navalny joined the Russian United Democratic party...

Mengistu Haile Mariam

(Encyclopedia)Mengistu Haile Mariam mĕnggīsˈto͞o hīˈlē märˈēəm [key], 1937–, military ruler of Ethiopia (1974–91). Mengistu, an army officer, participated prominently in Emperor Haile Selassie's over...

obscenity

(Encyclopedia)obscenity, in law, anything that tends to corrupt public morals by its indecency. The moral concepts that the term connotes vary from time to time and from place to place. In the United States, the wo...

Newberry, Truman Handy

(Encyclopedia)Newberry, Truman Handy, 1864–1945, American naval officer and cabinet official, b. Detroit. He engaged in various financial enterprises and helped organize (1902) the Packard Motor Car Company. A fo...

Wang Ch'ung-hui

(Encyclopedia)Wang Ch'ung-hui wäng cho͞ong-hwē [key], 1881–1958, Chinese jurist. He was educated in China, Japan, Europe, and the United States. He was greatly influenced by Sun Yat-sen. Wang became (1912) the...

legislative apportionment

(Encyclopedia)legislative apportionment, subdivision of a political body (e.g., a state or province) for the purpose of electing legislative representatives. In the United States, the Constitution requires that Con...

confession

(Encyclopedia)confession, in law, the formal admission of criminal guilt, usually obtained in the course of examination by the police or prosecutor or at trial. For a confession to be admissible as evidence against...

Tenure of Office Act

(Encyclopedia)Tenure of Office Act, in U.S. history, measure passed on Mar. 2, 1867, by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson; it forbade the President to remove any federal officeholder appointed by a...