Article IV of the U.S. Constitution is a relatively uncontroversial section that establishes the relationship between states and their disparate laws. It also details the mechanism by which new states are permitted to enter the nation and the federal government's obligation to maintain law and order in the event of an "invasion" or other breakdown of a peaceful union.

Answering the question "What does the U.S. Constitution say about enslavement" is a little tricky because the words "slave" or "slavery" were not used in the original Constitution, and the word "slavery" is very hard to find even in the current Constitution. However, the issues of the rights of enslaved people, its related trade and practice, in general, have been addressed in several places of the Constitution; namely, Article I, Articles IV and V and the 13th Amendment, which was added to the Constitution nearly 80 years after the signing of the original document.

Administrative law is the area of law created by the agencies and departments of the government, which carry out the laws passed by Congress or a state legislature. Administrative law governs the decision-making and rulemaking of executive branch units of government responsible for regulating areas such as trade, labor, manufacturing, civil rights, the environment, taxation, communications, and transportation. Explore this article to learn more.

Birthright citizenship in the United States is the legal principle that any person born on U.S. soil automatically and immediately becomes a U.S. citizen. It contrasts with U.S. citizenship obtained through naturalization or acquisition—citizenship granted by virtue of being born abroad to at least one U.S. citizen parent.

Civil law is both a legal system and a branch of law. In the United States, the term civil law refers to court cases that arise over a dispute between two non-governmental parties. Outside of the U.S., civil law is a legal system built upon Corpus Juris Civilis, the Justinian Code which originated in Rome in the sixth century. Most Western European states have a civil law system. In the U.S., Louisiana is the only state that follows the civil law tradition due to its French heritage.

Constitution Day – also called Citizenship Day is a U.S. federal government observance that honors the creation and adoption of the United States Constitution and all persons who have become U.S. citizens, through birth or naturalization. It is usually observed on September 17, the day in 1787 that the Constitution was signed by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Independence Hall. When Constitution Day falls on a weekend or on another holiday, schools and other institutions typically observe the holiday on an adjacent weekday.

Corporal punishment is a physical punishment which inflicts pain as justice for many different types of offenses. This punishment has been historically used in schools, the home, and the judicial system. While this is a general type of punishment, it is often most associated with children, and the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child defined it as “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort.”

The legal term double jeopardy refers to the constitutional protection against being made to stand trial or face punishment more than once for the same criminal offense. The double jeopardy clause is present in the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which provides that “No person shall ... be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”

Federalism is a hierarchical system of government under which two levels of government exercise a range of control over the same geographic area. This system of exclusive and shared powers is the opposite of "centralized" forms of governments, such as those in England and France, under which the national government maintains exclusive power over all geographic areas.

Originalism is a judicial concept asserting that all statements in the United States Constitution should be interpreted strictly according to how it would have been understood or was intended to be understood at the time it was adopted in 1787.

Prior restraint is a type of censorship in which speech or expression is reviewed and restricted before it occurs. Under prior restraint, a government or authority controls what speech or expression can be publicly released.

Qualified immunity is a judicially created legal principle that protects state and local government officials from being sued for their actions in civil court. First developed by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1960s, the application of qualified immunity has been criticized by those who say it allows for and even encourages the use of excessive force by police.

Sedition is the act of inciting a revolt or coup d'etat against a legally established government with the intent of destroying or overthrowing it. In the United States, sedition is a serious federal felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison. The following provides an overview of this particular crime against the government and how it compares to the act of treason.

An amicus brief is a legal brief filed in appeals cased to aid the court by providing extra relevant information or arguments.

The Commerce Clause is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) that grants Congress the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." This law gives the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce, which it defines as the sale, purchase, or exchange of commodities or the transportation of people, money, or goods between different states.

The "Necessary and Proper Clause," formally drafted as Clause 18 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution and also known as the elastic clause, is one of the most powerful and important clauses in the Constitution. Clauses 1–17 of Article 1 enumerate all of the powers that the government has over the legislation of the country. Clause 18 gives Congress the ability to create structures organizing the government, and to write new legislation to support the explicit powers enumerated in Clauses 1–17.

Embezzlement is defined as the misappropriation of funds or property by someone who lawfully controls such funds/property, without the knowledge of the owner. It is considered a crime under the federal criminal code and state statutes, and is punishable by jail time, fines, and/or restitution.

Robert S. Mueller III is an American attorney, former criminal prosecutor, and former director of the FBI. He spent decades investigating terrorism and white-collar crimes before being tapped by Republican President George W. Bush to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is currently the Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.