644 articles
Air gun laws
Air gun laws govern compressed-air weapons. UK: firearms above 1 joule, 12 ft-lb rifle and 6 ft-lb pistol limits, Scottish licensing; US: excluded from federal firearm law; Canada: 500 fps and 5.7 J thresholds.
Ajamu Baraka
Ajamu Baraka (born 1953) is an American human rights activist and writer, founding executive director of the US Human Rights Network and the 2016 Green Party nominee for vice president.
Albie Sachs
Albie Sachs, born Albert Louis Sachs in 1935, is a South African anti-apartheid activist and Constitutional Court judge from 1994 to 2009 who survived a 1988 bombing in Maputo.
Alcohol in Saudi Arabia
Alcohol in Saudi Arabia: total prohibition since the early 1950s under Sharia-based law, per capita consumption of 0.2 litres, and a single Riyadh store opened in 2024 for non-Muslim diplomats, later Premium Residency holders.
Alien (law)
Alien (law): a person who is not a citizen or national of the United States under the INA; also called noncitizen. Covers categories (immigrant, nonimmigrant, refugee), the 1790 and 1870 naturalization acts, the 1798 Alien Acts, alien land laws, and strict scrutiny for state versus deferential review of federal alienage classifications.
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four 1798 Federalist laws signed by John Adams during the Quasi-War with France, raising the citizenship residency requirement to 14 years, authorizing deportation of aliens, and criminalizing criticism of the government.
Aliens Compliance Order
The Aliens Compliance Order was a directive issued by Ghana's government on November 18, 1969, requiring immigrants without valid residence permits to leave within fourteen days.
Amendment of the Constitution of India
Amendment of the Constitution of India, under Article 368, is Parliament's constituent power to change the constitutional text by special majority, with state ratification for federal provisions, subject to the basic structure doctrine; over 100 amendments since 1950.
Amendments to the Constitution of Pakistan
Amendments to the Constitution of Pakistan are formal changes to the 1973 Constitution requiring a two-thirds majority, including the 2010 18th Amendment, which devolved subjects to provinces.
American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), founded January 1920 by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, and Albert DeSilver from the National Civil Liberties Bureau amid the Palmer Raids; nonprofit defender of constitutional rights with a 50-state affiliate network.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA, P.L. 101-336): U.S. federal civil rights law signed July 26, 1990 by George H. W. Bush; five titles cover employment, public services, public accommodations, telecommunications; broadened by the 2008 ADA Amendments Act.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International, founded by Peter Benenson in London in 1961 after 'The Forgotten Prisoners', is a 10-million-member human rights movement known for prisoners of conscience, annual reports, and independence from governments.
Anti-BDS laws
Anti-BDS laws are U.S. state and federal measures, first enacted in 2015, that condition government contracts and public investments on not boycotting Israel or Israeli-controlled territories, in contract-focused and investment-focused forms, and have faced First Amendment challenges with mixed results.
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act is a federal statute signed in 1906 that safeguards historic and natural resources on public lands. It authorizes the President to declare national monuments.
Apartheid legislation
Apartheid legislation: South African statutes from 1948 to the early 1990s, including the Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act, pass laws, and Separate Amenities Act, that enforced racial segregation and were repealed between 1990 and 1994.
Apology Resolution
The Apology Resolution, Public Law 103-150 (S.J. Res. 19), is a 1993 US joint resolution signed by Clinton apologizing to Native Hawaiians for the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, with a disclaimer against claim settlements.
April Constitution of Poland
The April Constitution of Poland (Polish: Konstytucja kwietniowa) was adopted on 23 April 1935, replacing the democratic March Constitution of 1921 with an authoritarian system concentrating power in the president.
Arizona SB 1070
Arizona SB 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (2010), required state police to check immigration status and criminalized unauthorized work; the Supreme Court struck most provisions in 2012.
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, is a 1958 act of the Parliament of India giving the armed forces powers, including lethal force, in disturbed areas.
Arnold Brecht
Arnold Brecht (1884–1977) was a German jurist and Weimar civil servant who became a political scientist in exile at the New School in New York.
Article 13
Article 13 names distinct provisions in many constitutions and rights documents: UDHR movement rights, ECHR effective remedy, Indian voiding of rights-inconsistent laws, Irish presidential functions, and unrelated national articles.
Article 35A of the Constitution of India
Article 35A of the Constitution of India, added by the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954 under Article 370, empowered the J&K legislature to define permanent residents and grant them special rights, shielding such laws from fundamental-rights challenge; it was superseded in 2019.
Article Five of the United States Constitution
Article Five of the United States Constitution, the amendment provision, sets two proposal routes (two-thirds of Congress or a convention on two-thirds of state applications) and ratification by three-fourths of the states; the convention route has never been used.
Article Four of the United States Constitution
Article IV of the U.S. Constitution governs state-to-state and state-federal relations: full faith and credit, privileges and immunities, extradition, the obsolete Fugitive Slave Clause, admission of new states, the Property Clause, and the Guarantee Clause.
Article Six of the United States Constitution
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, the "Supreme Law" article, contains three clauses: the Debts and Engagements Clause honoring Confederation-era obligations, the Supremacy Clause making federal law supreme over state law, and the oath clause barring religious tests for office.
Article Three of the United States Constitution
Article III of the U.S. Constitution establishes the federal judiciary: one supreme Court, optional inferior courts, life-tenured judges with protected salaries, and nine categories of cases and controversies, implemented by the Judiciary Act of 1789.
Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, adopted November 15, 1777 and effective March 1, 1781 after Maryland's ratification; a league of 13 sovereign states with a one-vote-per-state Congress that could not tax or regulate commerce, replaced by the 1787 Constitution.
Australia Act 1986
Australia Act 1986 (Cth), passed with the Australia Act 1986 (UK) and six state Acts, took effect 3 March 1986, ending UK legislative power over Australia, state-court Privy Council appeals, and disallowance of state laws.
Australian nationality law
Australian nationality law centers on the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, governing acquisition by birth, descent, adoption, and conferral, plus renunciation, ministerial revocation, court-ordered cessation for dual citizens only, and High Court limits from the Benbrika case.
B visa
B visa: US nonimmigrant visitor visa, B-1 business and B-2 tourism/medical, usually issued as B-1/B-2. $185 fee, DS-160, interview; $750 expedite pilot and visa bonds up to $20,000 distinguish it.