Also known as: abstracts · abstracted · abstracting · abstraction · abstractions · abstractor · abstractors · abstract of title · title abstract
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An advocacy of ideas or a policy dispute that remains theoretical and lacks any call to imminent unlawful action or concrete effect on the parties. Such abstract advocacy receives First Amendment protection. Courts decline to adjudicate abstract disputes until they are formalized and cause particularized hardship.
An advocacy of ideas or a policy dispute that remains theoretical and lacks any call to imminent unlawful action or concrete effect on the parties. Such abstract advocacy receives First Amendment protection. Courts decline to adjudicate abstract disputes until they are formalized and cause particularized hardship.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A concise summary of a legal document or a party's business records prepared for disclosure or examination. The summary allows a responding party to satisfy discovery obligations by directing the requesting party to the underlying materials when the burden of review is equal.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A concise summary of a legal document or a party's business records prepared for disclosure or examination. The summary allows a responding party to satisfy discovery obligations by directing the requesting party to the underlying materials when the burden of review is equal.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Aisha Ahmed delivers a campus lecture praising revolutionary violence in general terms without naming targets or urging immediate action. Police arrest her under a state statute banning advocacy of force. The court dismisses the charge because the speech never crossed into a call for imminent lawless conduct.
Arcadia Retail sues to block a state bulletin that defers approval of new insurance products pending a study. The bulletin has not yet been applied to any of the company's filings. The court dismisses the claim because the policy remains too abstract and has not created particularized hardship.
Aaron Adams challenges a statute on the ground that it invades an abstract right of privacy. The court holds that the claim fails because the asserted interest is too generalized and lacks the concrete particularity required for adjudication.
Atlas Ventures owns a landmark building subject to preservation rules. It claims the restrictions cause an abstract decrease in value. The court rejects the takings claim because any abstract diminution is offset by reciprocal benefits to neighboring properties under the same restrictions.
Adam Anderson argues that a state marriage law violates due process under an abstract formula of liberty. The court refuses the claim because an approach grounded in history and tradition supplies more meaningful limits than any abstract formula.
Abstract advocacy loses protection only when it is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to do so. Mere theoretical support for violence or illegality remains protected speech.
Supporting sources
A dispute is too abstract when the issues are not fit for judicial decision and the parties face no concrete hardship from delayed review. Courts require the policy to be sufficiently formalized and to affect the parties in a particularized way.
Supporting sources
Alpine Mining receives an interrogatory about transaction details. It responds by producing an abstract of its business records and offers the requesting party a reasonable opportunity to examine the underlying files. The court accepts the response because the burden of review is substantially the same for both sides.
A party may answer by producing an abstract or summary of its business records when the burden of deriving the answer is substantially the same for both sides and the requesting party receives a reasonable opportunity to examine the underlying materials.
Supporting sources
…U.S., at 125, “an approach grounded in history imposes limits on the judiciary that are more meaningful than any based on [an] abstract formula,” Moore , 431 U.S., at 504, n. 12 (plurality opinion). Expanding a right suddenly and dramatically is likely to require tearing it up from its roots. Even a sincere profession of…