Category: A
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Amendment
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which in either Case, shall be valid to all Inten…
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Amending Power
When Article V was before the Constitutional Convention, a motion to insert a provision that "no State shall without its consent be affected in its internal policy" was made and rejected.1 A further attempt to impose a substantive limitation on the amending power was made in 1861, when Con…
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Alimony
Decrees Awarding Alimony, Custody of ChildrenA byproduct of divorce litigation are decrees for the payment of alimony, judgments for accrued and unpaid installments of alimony, and judicial awards of the custody of children, all of which necessitate application of the Full Faith and Credit Clause wh…
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Adoption Decrees
Adoption DecreesThat a statute legitimizing children born out of wedlock does not entitle them by the aid of the Full Faith and Credit Clause to share in the property located in another state is not surprising, in view of the general principle (to which there are exceptions) that statutes do not hav…
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Actions Upon Contract
Actions Upon ContractIn Chicago & Alton R.R. v. Wiggins Ferry Co.,113 the Court indicated that it was the law under which the contract was made, not the law of the forum state, that should govern. Its utterance on the point was, however, not merely dictum, but was based on an error, namely, the fals…
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Access to Courts
Access to CourtsThe right to sue and defend in the courts is one of the highest and most essential privileges of citizenship and must be allowed by each state to the citizens of all other states to the same extent that it is allowed to its own citizens.207 The constitutional requirement is satisfied…
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Admission of New States
Clause 1. Admission of New States to UnionNew States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of…
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Ad Valorem Taxes
Property owned by a federally chartered corporation engaged in private business is subject to state and local ad valorem taxes. This was conceded in Mc- Culloch v. Maryland 1 and confirmed a half century later with respect to railroads incorporated b…
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Abstention
AbstentionPerhaps the fullest expression of the concept of comity may be found in the abstention doctrine. The abstention doctrine instructs federal courts to abstain from exercising jurisdiction if applicable state law, which would be dispositive of the controversy, is unclear and a state court int…
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Anti-Injunction Statute
Anti-Injunction StatuteFor reasons unknown,1 Congress in 1793 enacted a statute to prohibit the issuance of injunctions by federal courts to stay state court proceedings.2 Over time, a long list of ex…
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Ambassadors
Suits Affecting Ambassadors, Other Public Ministers, and ConsulsThe earliest interpretation of the grant of original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court came in the Judiciary Act of 1789, which conferred on the federal district courts jurisdiction of suits to which a consul might be a party. This legi…
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Admiralty Cases
Cases of Admiralty and Maritime JurisdictionThe admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the federal courts had its origins in the jurisdiction vested in the courts of the Admiral of the English Navy. Prior to independence, vice-admiralty courts were created in the Colonies by commissions from the Eng…
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Admiralty
Admiralty and Maritime CasesAdmiralty and maritime jurisdiction comprises two types of cases: (1) those involving acts committed on the high seas or other navigable waters, and (2) those involving contracts and transactions connected with shipping employed on the seas or navigable waters. In the fir…
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Admiralty Proceedings
Admiralty ProceedingsProcedure in admiralty jurisdiction differs in few respects from procedure in actions at law, but the differences that do exist are significant.1 Suits in admiralty traditionally took the form of a proceeding in rem against the v…
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Admiralty and Federalism
Admiralty and FederalismExtension of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction to navigable waters within a state does not, however, of its own force include general or political powers of government. Thus, in the absence of legislation by Congress, the states through their courts may punish offenses upon…