Civil Rights Cases

Glossary

• beneficent kind, producing good
• Black Code any state or local law or set of laws intended to limit the rights or liberties of African Americans
• brutum fulmen Latin for “inert thunder,” meaning an empty threat or display of force
• concomitants things that accompany or are related to something else
• ex directo a Latin expression meaning literally “from the direct”; directly, immediately
• ex parte Latin for “by (or for) one party,” used in the law to refer to a legal proceeding brought by one party without the presence of the other being required
• feudal vassalage the state of being a serf, owing allegiance to a lord, under the medieval feudal system
• forborne refrained
• incidents accompaniments
• nugatory of no value, trifling, ineffective
• posse comitatus Latin for “power of the county” and referring to a municipality’s power to form a temporary police force, commonly called a posse
• previous condition of servitude slavery; used to refer to the status of former slaves
• privileges and immunities a legal term referring to Article IV of the Constitution, which requires that a citizen in one state be considered equal to a citizen in any other state with regard to U.S. citizenship rights
• self-executing a law that takes effect immediately under given conditions, without the need for any intervening court action
• Territories the western lands that would later become U.S. states
• writ of error a judicial writ from an appellate court ordering the court of record to produce the records of trial; an appeal