General (not jurisdiction-specific)

The doctrine that the Due Process Clauses protect certain fundamental rights from government interference regardless of the procedures used, such as rights relating to marriage and raising children. Procedural due process, by contrast, concerns the notice and hearing the government must give before taking life, liberty or property.

Holding securities in the name of a broker or a nominee, such as Cede & Co., rather than in the investor’s own name. The investor is the beneficial owner and keeps the economic and voting rights through the broker.

The rights an investor has in a security held through a broker or bank, defined in UCC Article 8. Under UCC § 8-503, assets a securities intermediary holds for entitlement holders “are not property of the securities intermediary, and are not subject to claims of creditors of the securities intermediary.”

The federal law (28 U.S.C. § 2072) that authorizes the Supreme Court to prescribe rules of practice, procedure and evidence for the federal courts, subject to the limit that “Such rules shall not abridge, enlarge or modify any substantive right.”

Money deposited with a court in a particular case, such as disputed funds in an interpleader action or a deposit under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 67. Federal courts deposit these funds with the Treasury (28 U.S.C. § 2041), may invest them through the Court Registry Investment System (28 U.S.C. § 2045), and release them only by court order to the person entitled (§ 2042).

Latin maxim: “He who is silent appears to consent.” It expresses a general idea, not a binding rule. In contract law, silence counts as acceptance only in narrow situations, such as when a person keeps offered benefits or past dealings make silence a reasonable sign of assent (Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 69).

The money the federal government owes on Treasury bills, notes, bonds and other securities it issues to borrow. Chapter 31 of Title 31 governs it, and 31 U.S.C. § 3123 pledges the faith of the United States to pay principal and interest on those obligations.

A demand to pay or accept a negotiable instrument, made by or for the person entitled to enforce it, to the party obliged to pay (UCC § 3-501). Presentment applies to instruments such as checks, drafts and notes; a letter, bill or court document is not presented in this sense.

Compulsory service to pay off a debt. Federal law abolishes it and makes it a crime (42 U.S.C. § 1994; 18 U.S.C. § 1581). The Supreme Court held in Clyatt v. United States, 197 U.S. 207, 215 (1905), that peonage is prohibited whether it began voluntarily or involuntarily, because the difference is only “in the mode of origin, but none in the character of the servitude.”

The fundamental law that creates and organizes a government, such as a constitution or charter. The front matter of the United States Code prints “The Organic Laws of the United States of America”: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Constitution. Congress also uses “organic act” for a statute that organizes a territory or the District of Columbia.