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abortion
abortion expulsion of the products of conception before the embryo or fetus is viable. Any interruption of human pregnancy prior to the 28th week is known as abortion. The term spontaneous abortion, or miscarriage, is used to signify delivery of a nonviable embryo or fetus due to fetal or maternal ...
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adoption
adoption act by which the legal relation of parent and child is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common law . Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th cent., and today it is allowed in all states of the United States and in Great Britain. Adoption ...
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Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade case decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The decision, written by Justice Harry Blackmun and based on the residual right of privacy, struck down dozens of state antiabortion stat...
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salvage
salvage in maritime law, the compensation that the owner must pay for having his vessel or cargo saved from peril, such as shipwreck, fire, or capture by an enemy. Salvage is awarded only when the party making the rescue was under no legal obligation to do so. A claim for salvage ordinarily is allo...
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United States Supreme Court
United States Supreme Court highest court of the United States, established by Article 3 of the Constitution of the United States.
Scope and Jurisdiction
Section 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution provides for vesting the judicial power of the United States in one supreme court and in suc...
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right of privacy
right of privacy the right to be left alone without unwarranted intrusion by government, media, or other institutions or individuals. While a consensus supporting the right to privacy has emerged (all recently confirmed Justices to the Supreme Court have affirmed their belief in the right to privac...
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Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws in U.S. history, statutes enacted by Southern states and municipalities, beginning in the 1880s, that legalized segregation between blacks and whites. The name is believed to be derived from a character in a popular minstrel song. The Supreme Court ruling in 1896 in Plessy v. Fergu...
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birth control
birth control practice of contraception for the purpose of limiting reproduction.
Methods of Birth Control
Male birth control methods include withdrawal of the male before ejaculation (the oldest contraceptive technique) and use of the condom, a rubber sheath covering the penis. The condo...
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Harry Andrew Blackmun
Harry Andrew Blackmun , 1908-99, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1970-94), b. Nashville, Ill. Educated at Harvard, he practiced law privately, was general counsel to the Mayo Clinic (1950-59), then became a federal circuit court judge. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President ...
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National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women (NOW), group founded (1966) to support "full equality for women in America in a truly equal partnership with men." Its founder and first president was feminist leader Betty Friedan , author of The Feminine Mystique (1963). Through a program of legislative lobb...
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