Constitution of the United States

Glossary

• adjourn to postpone to another time
• Appropriation money set aside from a budget to be used for a specific purpose
• Arsenals buildings used for manufacturing or storing weapons
• Bill of Attainder a legislative statement of guilt or conviction without a trial
• certificates formal documents attesting to the truthfulness of information
• citizens persons entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman under a government
• Compact an agreement between two or more entities
• Concurrence agreement
• counterfeiting making an imitation of something else with intent to deceive, such as making a fake monetary note
• Duties governmental taxes placed on goods, typically exports or imports
• Emoluments compensations arising from office or employment
• enumeration a listing
• equity justice; a system of law developed to enlarge, supplement, or override a narrow, rigid system of law
• Excises taxes on the manufacture, sale, or use of goods within a country
• expedient suitable for achieving a particular end in a given circumstance
• ex post facto retroactively; applying to previous events
• Forfeiture the loss of property or money as a penalty for breaking a legal obligation
• immunities protections or exemptions from arrest
• indictment the process of charging someone with a crime
• Naturalization admission to citizenship
• piracies robberies on the high seas
• Posterity descendants; future generations
• Pursuance carrying out or putting into effect
• quorum the minimum number of members needed to be present for a group to conduct valid business
• Receipts written acknowledgments of the receiving of goods or money
• Recess a period of time during which work is not done or business is not conducted
• religious Test oath acknowledging a deity
• Reprieves postponements in punishing
• Republican based upon representation
• Securities evidences of debt or of ownership
• Tribunals courts
• Writ of Habeas Corpus an order to bring a person before a court or judge, usually as a protection against illegal imprisonment