Reservation: a legal way of making a provision less enforceable than it might be otherwise.
Limited Government: a basic principle of our constitutional system. Limits government to powers provided to it by the people.
Separation of Powers: the division of power among branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial)
Statutes: written laws enacted by legislatures.
Criminal Law: the branch of law dealing with crimes and their punishment.
Felony: a serious criminal offense punishable by a prison sentence of more than one year.
Misdemeanor a criminal offence less serious then a felony punishable by a prison sentence of one year or less.
Civil Law: all law that does not involve criminal matters, such as tort and contract law. Civil law usually deals with private rights of individuals, groups, or businesses.
Civil Action: a noncriminal lawsuit, brought to enforce a right or redress a wrong.
Defendant: the person against whom a claim is made. In a civil suit, the defendant is a person being sued; in criminal case, the defendant is a person charged with committing a crime.
Plainiff: in a civil case the injured party who brings the legal action against the alleged wrongdoer.
Checks and Balances: the power of each of the three branches of government (legislative, judicial, executive) to limit the other branches' power, so as to prevent abuse.
Veto: prohibit; in government, the veto is the power of the chief executive to prevent enactment of a bill (i.e., to prevent the bill from becoming a law).
Judicial Review: the process by which courts decide whether the laws passed by congress or state legislatives are constitutional.
Unconstitutional: confliction with some provision of the Constitution
Federalism: the division of powers between the stats and the federal government.
Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which guarantee basic individual rights to all persons in the United States.
Prosecutor: the state or federal government's attorney in a criminal care.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: the level of proof required to convict a person of a crime. It does not mean "Convinced 100%" but does mean there are no doubts as to guilt
Preponderance of the Evidence: usually the standard of proof used in a civil suit; the burden of proof that a party must meet in order to win the lawsuit. To win, a party must provide evidence that is more convincing that the other side's evidence.
