To help with the costs of this website and ensure its future:

Donations are not
tax deductible

 

Home

 

 

Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
--Frederick Douglass

 

 

To help with the costs of this website and ensure its future:

Donations are not
tax deductible

 

 

 

 

The American Experience:
 
Gone with the Wind
There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.
--MGM (1939) film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel (1936)
 
 
Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit handing from the poplar trees.
 
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
 
Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
--Billie Holiday (1939) from lyrics by Abel Meeropol (1937)

 

 

 

 

 

Constitutional Law & Civil Rights

United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States (National Archives)
The Constitution of the United States (U.S. Senate)
The Constitution of the United States Annotated (U.S. Congress)
The Preamble to the Constitution (Schoolhouse Rock - Youtube)
I'm Just a Bill (Schoolhouse Rock - Youtube)

There are thirty-three amendments to the Constitution. The first ten are known as "the Bill of Rights."
 
First Amendment - Freedom of Speech and Religion
Freedom of Speech: What Does Free Speech Mean? (U.S. Courts)
Communications Decency Act of 1996 (Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University)
Freedom of Religion: First Amendment and Religion (U.S. Courts)
Your Right to Religious Freedom (American Civil Liberties Union - ACLU)
Shurtleff v. Boston, 2022 (U.S. Supreme Court), flying flags decision.
 
Second Amendment - The Right to Bear Arms
District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 US 570, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 171 L. Ed. 2d 637 (2008) (U.S. Supreme Court)
Gun Ownership and the Supreme Court (Library of Congress)
Federal Domestic Violence Laws limiting gun possession. (U.S. Department of Justice)
Removal of firearms - An Overview (New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence)
Federal and New York State Domestic Violence Firearms Laws (Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.)
Hunting Regulations - Possession and Transportation of Firearms and Crossbows (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation)
 
Third Amendment - Prohibits the involuntary quartering of soldiers in private homes
Third Amendment (Encyclopedia Brittanica)
 
Fourth Amendment - Prohibits Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
What does the Fourth Amendment Mean? (U.S. Courts)
NACDL's Fourth Amendment Center (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers)
Reverse Search Warrant Resource Page (NACDL)
Facial Recognition (NACDL)
FourthAmendment.com: Website of criminal defense lawyer John Welsey Hall. Provides descriptions of Fourth Amendment decisions across the nation, and links to articles and blog posts.
 
Fifth Amendment
In criminal cases, the Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to a grand jury, forbids “double jeopardy,” and protects against self-incrimination. It also requires that “due process of law” be part of any proceeding that denies a citizen “life, liberty or property” and requires the government to compensate citizens when it takes private property for public use.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that because different governments have different crime statutes, it’s possible to offend both simultaneously. Thus, it is not "double jeopardy" for a defendant to face charges under different statutes in federal, state and military courts, even though the actions leading to those charges are one and the same.
Don't Talk to the Police (Regent University, video on YouTube)
 
Sixth Amendment
Guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who their accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against them.
 
Seventh Amendment
Distinguishes civil claims which must be tried before a jury (absent waiver by the parties) from claims and issues that may be heard by a judge alone. It only governs federal civil courts and has no application to civil courts set up by the states when those courts are hearing only disputes of state law.
 
Eighth Amendment
Prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments.
Timbs v. Indiana (2019) (U.S. Supreme Court) - The Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is an incorporated protection applicable to the States under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
 
 
Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution says the vice president assumes the powers and duties of a president in the event of an inability to serve. The 25th Amendment goes further to address how to determine when a president is incapacitated. The Presidential Succession Act addresses succession if both the President and the Vice President are unable to serve.
Ten Common Misconceptions About the Constitution (ABA Journal Article by Robert J. McWhirter, September 17, 2015)
Constitution Daily: A blog by the National Constitution Center.

New York State Constitution
New York State Constitution (New York State Department of State)
New York Bill of Rights as passed in 1787. (New York Courts)

United Nations
United Nations Charter

Other Constitutions Around the World
The World's Constitutions to Read, Search and Compare (Constitute Project)
Rule of Law Index 2020 (World Justice Project)

 

Civil Rights
U.S. Civil Rights Trail (travel website)
Four hundred years after enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia, most Americans still don't know the full story of slavery, by Mary Elliott and Jazmine Hughes, the New York Times, August 19, 2019.
Citing Slavery Project - The Legal Profession Must Confront Its Role in Slavery
Where Is My Land, a non-profit that helps Black Americans locate stolen lands.
A Lesson on Critical Race Theory (American Bar Association)

Federal level:
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Collateral Consequences: The Crossroads of Punishment, Redemption, and the Effects on Communities (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights)
State level:
New York State Attorney General's Office, Civil Rights Bureau
New York State Division of Human Rights
Municipal level:
New York City Commission on Human Rights
Managing Major Public Events: A Planning Guide for Municipal Officials, Law Enforcement, Community Leaders, Organizers, and Promoters (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000)
Stop & Frisk Watch (New York City only) (Android - English & Spanish, iPhone, free) (New York Civil Liberties Union): This app is designed to make sure that the NYC police have stopped their stop-and-frisk quota system. It allows a neighborhood bystander to record a questionable stop-and-frisk with just a flick of the finger. One quick shake of the phone, and the recording stops. A survey pops up after the recording is done, which can be used to text additional details about the stop. The entire report is designed to be easily forwarded to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Stop & Frisk Watch can also be used to auto-alert everyone in a community who is monitoring police stops. And there’s a “Know your rights” section for people unsure about what police can and cannot do during a stop-and-frisk.
City of Albany Commission on Human Rights
Suffolk County Human Rights Commission
Additional Resources:
Committee to Protect Journalists (nonprofit)
The Marginalized website: TheMarginalized.com was started in 2009 as a way to connect our daily experiences with those of people we place in margins of our lives.

 


© 2018-2026 - Published by Self-Represent, LLC - accessiblelaw.org