Law & Politics in the News — Set 2: In Context flashcards
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Fill the blank: 25 of the Set 2 words, each in a new sentence from court reports, legislatures, campaigns and diplomacy, whose clues point to exactly one word of the pack.
Learn deck · part of Law & Politics in the News · written against: 150 words of courts, lawmaking, elections and world affairs; US usage; nonpartisan; not legal advice. Updated 2026-10-10.
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The ______, a piano teacher, sued the moving company for breaking his piano and is asking for eight thousand dollars.plaintiffCourts & Trials
He brought the suit and asks for money, so he is the plaintiff. The defendant is the side being sued, here the moving company. -
The trial ended with an ______ that permanently bars the kayak maker from using a logo nearly identical to its rival's.injunctionCourts & Trials
A court order that ends a case by forbidding an action for good is an injunction. A restraining order keeps one person away from another, or freezes matters as a stopgap before a full hearing, so it does not end a trial for good. -
The cousin who kept watch at the corner and phoned a warning when a patrol car appeared was charged as an ______ in the burglary.accompliceCrime & Punishment
Knowingly helping a crime, here by keeping watch, makes the cousin an accomplice. They helped hide the crime, so they were no whistleblower, who reports wrongdoing. -
Military police at the base gate may ______ a visitor whose pass looks forged, holding him at the guardhouse until investigators arrive.detainCrime & Punishment
Holding someone in official custody briefly, before any charge, is to detain them. To incarcerate is to confine someone in jail or prison, usually as punishment, and this visitor is only held at the gate until investigators come. -
Opponents could not defeat the bill outright, so they mounted a ______, refusing to let debate end until its supporters gave up and pulled it.filibusterLawmaking
Endless debate to keep a bill from coming to a vote is a filibuster. Gridlock is a general standstill between parties, not a tactic one side uses on one bill. -
The library board voted to ______ the whole bequest for children's books, so none of it can go toward staff salaries.earmarkLawmaking
Tagging money so it can be spent on one thing only is to earmark it. To mandate is to require by law or rule; the board is only reserving a gift. -
No candidate for mayor won more than half the vote, so the top two finishers, Ilse Marchetti and Bram Achterberg, meet again in a ______ next month.runoffElections & Campaigns
A second election between the top finishers, held because no one won a majority, is a runoff. A midterm falls halfway through a president's term, whatever the first result. -
The festival named a retired astronaut its honorary director, a ______ who cuts the ribbon each year but has no say in what happens.figureheadGovernment & Power
Someone who holds a leading title while others make the real decisions is a figurehead. A head of state formally represents a country, and a festival is not one. -
The water district can take the Brannigans' hay farm for a new reservoir under ______, though it owes them a fair price.eminent domainRights & Citizenship
A government that takes over private property a public project needs, paying the owner a fair price whether or not they agree to sell, is using eminent domain. An ordinance is only a local law and gives no power to take land. -
The dockworkers' union set a midnight-Friday deadline for the port authority to reopen talks and warned that otherwise the strike would spread to every harbor on the coast; reporters called the letter an ______.ultimatumWorld Affairs & Trade
A final demand with a deadline and a threat is an ultimatum. A mandate is an official order or voters' grant of authority, and a union can issue neither.
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Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Senses, parts of speech and pronunciations checked against Merriam-Webster.com, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Learner's, Longman and Cambridge learner's dictionaries; all definitions, notes and example sentences are original.
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