The United States and Brazil have histories of colonization, slavery, and racial inequalities. In addition, both countries have adjudicated cases centered on the use of affirmative action admissions policies in higher education but with differing results. The constitutional court of Brazil, the Supremo Tribunal Federal, ruled universities could…

Reading U.S. Supreme Court opinions can be intimidating. Yet, in the digital age, it has never been easier to access them. The average opinion is about 4,750 words, and is one of approximately 75 issued by the Court each year. It might be reassuring to know that opinions contain similar parts and tend to follow a similar format. There are also…

In lawsuits pending in federal courts in Boston and Chicago, Americans harmed by terrorist attacks linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran are asserting claim to artifacts they believe belong to that nation, in their quest to win more than $4-billion in damages. The institutions that hold the artifacts, which include Harvard University and the…

The author reports on the ruling of a divided appellate court that held that the state law unconstitutionally made it harder for minorities to seek preferences than for other groups. The court struck down a voter-passed ban on the use of race-conscious admissions by Michigan's public colleges, holding that the measure had unconstitutionally put…

On December 21, 1911, Fremont Weeks, an employee of the Adams Express Company, was arrested while on the job at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. Police suspected that Weeks was selling and "transmitting chances" in a lottery, which at the time was considered gambling, an illegal action in Missouri. While Weeks was being held at…

In June 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that video games enjoy full free speech protections and that the regulation of violent game sales to minors is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also referred to psychological research on violent video games as "unpersuasive" and noted that such research contains many methodological flaws.…

Despite the precedent established in the "University of California Board of Regents v. Bakke," that race may be used as a factor in admissions policies at state institutions of higher education, state and federal court decisions were divided over whether the use of race in admissions decisions was a violation of the Equal Protection…

The extent to which educational institutions and their teachers in the USA, England, and Australia should bear legal responsibility in damages for ineffective classroom teaching is the subject of this article. At the heart of the controversy regarding educational malpractice is the issue of remedies. Federal and state courts in the USA have…

This article is adapted from "Chew Heong v. United States: Chinese Exclusion and the Federal Courts", written by Lucy Salyer, associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, for inclusion in the Federal Judicial Center's project, "Federal Trials and Great Debates in United States History." In 1882, Congress…

This guide identifies those 307 United States Supreme Court opinions between 1799 and 2001 that cited one or more federally recognized American Indian treaty. In total, there are 1,325 citation entries to 209 of these 375 recognized instruments. Two tables present these data: one ordered by ratified treaty number and one by Court case title.

As the most unionized segment of the public sector workforce in the USA, teachers and their bargaining representatives wield significant power in the world of educational labour relations and beyond. Yet, just as the First Amendment's freedom of association clause affords unions the right to exist, its concomitant recognition that employees are…

The Department of Education (Department) issued these final regulations to adjust the Department's civil monetary penalties (CMPs) for inflation. A CMP is defined in the statute as any penalty, fine, or other sanction that is: (1) for a specific monetary amount as provided by Federal law, or has a maximum amount provided for by Federal law; (2)…

The agency responsible for development and implementation of the Spanish/English interpreters' certification exam used in federal courts has begun creation of certification exams in Haitian Creole and Navajo. Although these are only 2 of the more than 50 languages used in the courts, long-range plans for further test development have been…

The major decisions of pre-and post-Brown and the history of African American student achievement are discussed through an analysis of select federal court decisions. One can conclude that the struggle for equal educational opportunity for African Americans in the United States is vying for the attention of more conservative Federal Court judges.

The United States Court Interpreters Act (US Congress, 1978) requires that interpreters in US federal courts be certified through a criterion-referenced performance test. The Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE) is a two-phase certification battery for federal court interpreters. Phase I is a multiple-choice Written…