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writ
writ in law, written order issued in the name of the sovereign or the state in connection with a judicial or an administrative proceeding. Usually the writ requires the person to whom the command is issued to report at a fixed time (the return day) with proof of compliance or a justification for di...
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habeas corpus
habeas corpus [Lat.,=you should have the body], writ directed by a judge to some person who is detaining another, commanding him to bring the body of the person in his custody at a specified time to a specified place for a specified purpose. The writ's sole function is to release an individual fr...
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James Otis
James Otis 1725-83, American colonial political leader, b. Barnstable co., Mass. A lawyer first in Plymouth and then in Boston, he won great distinction and served (1756-61) as advocate general of the vice admiralty court. He resigned to oppose the issuing of writs of assistance by the superior cou...
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mandamus
mandamus [Lat.,=we order], in law, writ directing the performance of ministerial acts. A ministerial act is one that a person or body is obliged by law to perform under given circumstances; e.g., on receipt of the fee, a license clerk must grant a marriage license to persons legally qualified to ...
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procedure
procedure in law, the rules that govern the obtaining of legal redress. This article deals only with civil procedure in Anglo-American law (for criminal procedure, see criminal law ). Except for evidence , procedure conventionally embraces all matters concerning legal actions that come to trial; ...
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ex parte Merryman
ex parte Merryman case decided in 1861 by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney sitting as a federal circuit judge in Baltimore, Md. John Merryman, a citizen of Maryland, was imprisoned by the U.S. army on suspicion of favoring the Confederacy. He obtained a writ of habeas corpus . The commanding general r...
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equity
equity principles of justice originally developed by the English chancellor. In Anglo-American jurisprudence equitable principles and remedies are distinguished from the older system that the common law courts evolved. One of the earliest functions of the king's chaplain (the chancellor) and of t...
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Roger Brooke Taney
Roger Brooke Taney , 1777-1864, American jurist, fifth Chief Justice of the United States (1836-64), b. Calvert co., Md., grad. Dickinson College, 1795.
Early Life
Taney was born of a wealthy slave-owning family of tobacco farmers. He was admitted to the bar in 1799 and as a Federalist ser...
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Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Alexander Hamilton Stephens 1812-83, American political leader, Confederate vice president (1861-65), b. Taliaferro co. (then part of Wilkes co.), Ga. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, served six terms in the Georgia legislature, and was a Whig (later a Democratic) Representative in Congress from...
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Confederacy
Confederacy name commonly given to the Confederate States of America (1861-65), the government established by the Southern states of the United States after their secession from the Union. (For the events leading up to secession and for the military operations of the Confederacy in the confli...
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