644 articles
State governments of India
State governments of India: the governments of India's constituent states in its federal system, each with a Governor, Chief Minister, Council of Ministers, and legislature; legislative powers divided by Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule's Union, State, and Concurrent Lists.
State governments of the United States
State governments of the United States: the 50 autonomous state polities, each with its own constitution, three branches, and Tenth Amendment reserved powers, operating alongside the federal government.
State List
The State List (List II) of India's Seventh Schedule enumerates subjects on which state legislatures have exclusive lawmaking power under Article 246(3), covering police, public order, health, agriculture, land, and local taxation; originally 66 entries, now 61 after amendments.
State of emergency
State of emergency: a government declaration suspending normal political and social operations during a crisis, also called emergency powers or etat de siege. Key features are rights derogation, temporary duration, oversight safeguards, and documented abuse by autocratic governments.
States of emergency in India
States of emergency in India are constitutional regimes under Part XVIII (Articles 352, 356, 360): national emergency, President's Rule, and financial emergency. Proclaimed 1962, 1971, 1975; reshaped by the 44th Amendment and the 1994 Bommai judgment.
States' rights
States' rights: American constitutional and political doctrine that powers not delegated to the federal government belong to the states under the Tenth Amendment, shaping nullification, secession, the New Federalism, and anti-commandeering doctrine.
Status Law
The Status Law is a Hungarian statute of 2001 granting benefits to ethnic Hungarians living in six neighboring states, which provoked disputes with Slovakia and Romania.
Statute
A statute is a law enacted by a legislative body, also called an act. In common law systems, statutes and judicial decisions are the two primary sources of law.
Statute of Westminster 1931
UK statute of 11 December 1931 (22 & 23 Geo. V c. 4) giving the six Dominions legislative autonomy: ending Colonial Laws Validity Act repugnancy, barring UK Acts without Dominion request and consent, and enacting the 1926 Balfour Declaration.
Statutory interpretation
Statutory interpretation is how courts determine the meaning of statutes, principally through purposivism and textualism, using tools such as ordinary meaning, canons, legislative history, and post-Loper Bright independent judicial judgment.
Strict scrutiny
Strict scrutiny is the highest U.S. standard of judicial review, applied to fundamental rights and suspect classifications like race. Government must prove a compelling interest pursued by narrowly tailored, least restrictive means.
Substantive due process
Substantive due process is a US constitutional law doctrine holding that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments' due process clauses protect fundamental rights, such as privacy, marriage, and parenting, from government interference.
Sui generis
Sui generis, Latin for "of its own kind," is a legal term for an independent classification outside existing categories; used for unique IP rights like the EU database right, Aboriginal title, and the EU's legal order.
Sui iuris
Sui iuris, Latin for "of one's own right", is a legal term for a person not subject to another's authority, from Roman patria potestas law to modern canon law's autonomous Churches sui iuris.
Sunset provision
Sunset provision (sunset law): a statutory clause that makes a law, agency, program, or regulation expire automatically on a set date unless the legislature formally renews it; pioneered by Colorado in 1976, spread to 36 states by 1982.
Supremacy Clause
The Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) makes the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties the supreme Law of the Land, binding state judges and grounding federal preemption doctrine.
Supreme Legal Committee in Suwayda
Supreme Legal Committee in Suwayda (اللجنة القانونية العليا في السويداء), a de facto Druze administrative body formed August 2025 under Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri after the July offensive; dissolved 7 April 2026, replaced by the Crisis Management Council.
TAKE IT DOWN Act
The TAKE IT DOWN Act is a U.S. federal law that criminalizes nonconsensual intimate images and digital forgeries, while requiring platforms to remove them within 48 hours.
Targeting of law firms and lawyers under the second Trump administration
Executive orders, memoranda, and clearance actions by the second Trump administration against law firms including Covington & Burling, Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey, retaliating for client choices; four trial courts ruled the orders unconstitutional while several firms settled with pro bono commitments.
Tarnovo Constitution
The Tarnovo Constitution (Търновска конституция) was the first constitution of the Principality of Bulgaria, adopted on 16 April 1879 in Veliko Tarnovo. It established a hereditary constitutional monarchy and remained Bulgaria's fundamental law until 1947.
Teesta Setalvad (તીસ્તા સેટલવાડ)
Teesta Setalvad (તીસ્તા સેટલવાડ), born 1962, is an Indian journalist and civil rights activist, secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace, advocate for 2002 Gujarat riot victims, arrested 2022, on bail since July 2023.
Television content rating system
Television content rating system: age-based labels and content descriptors such as the US TV Parental Guidelines (TV-Y to TV-MA), created after the 1996 Telecommunications Act, paired with V-chip blocking and used by broadcast, cable, and streaming services.
Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Tenth Amendment, the last of the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the States or the people.
Term limits in the United States
Term limits in the United States cap tenure in elected office: the 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two elections, Congress has no limit after U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995), and 16 states limit legislators and 37 limit governors.
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was a UK private members' bill seeking to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales.
Texas Senate
Texas Senate: upper chamber of the Texas Legislature, 31 senators in four-year staggered terms from single-member districts, presided over by the lieutenant governor, meeting in 140-day biennial sessions.
The Emergency (India)
The Emergency (India): 21-month suspension of democracy, 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977, imposed by Indira Gandhi under Article 352 after the Allahabad High Court election verdict; mass detentions, press censorship, forced sterilizations, ended by the 1977 Janata election victory.
The Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are 85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, published as "Publius" in 1787 and 1788 to promote ratification of the United States Constitution.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 (Act 1 of 2014) is India's law creating a central Lokpal ombudsman and state Lokayuktas to inquire into corruption by the Prime Minister, ministers, MPs, and central government officers, in force from 16 January 2014.
Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or Amendment III, bars quartering soldiers in private homes without consent in peacetime. Rooted in the Quartering Acts, it has never been decided by the Supreme Court; Engblom v. Carey is its leading case.