Latin for Lawyers

L ATIN FOR L AWYERS

SUSPECT [L. suspicio , suspicere / to look up from below; to look critically, to suspect; to mistrust] To regard with distrust. To attribute guilt or culpability in a crime. To have doubts about. Also, a person who is thought or believed to have committed a crime. A person under custody for a crime before charge or indictment. SUSPECT CLASS OR CLASSIFICATION A class or classification of persons who have been subjected to discrimina tion in the past on the basis of race, national origin, etc. Any statute which gives distinct treatment to a suspect class is given strict scrutiny by the fed eral courts to ensure that the statute does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Under the doctrine requiring strict scrutiny in cases involving suspect classifications, whenever a statute gives distinct treatment to such a group, the group becomes a suspect class and the treatment involves suspect classification . Thus far, only race and national origin have been categorized as suspect classifications, although the courts have also considered and discussed as potentially suspect, classifi cation based upon sex and illegitimacy. See STRICT SCRUTINY SUSPEND [L. sub + pendo , pendere / to weigh on; to consider or judge] To bar someone for a period of time from attendance upon a function or from performance of a duty or privilege. Examples: the action of a disciplinary committee in suspending an attorney from practice or of a police tribunal in suspending a police officer or of a school principal in suspending a student from school attendance or of an employer in suspending an employee. To cause to stop temporarily. To defer to a later time, as to suspend a trial or a session of court. To defer the effect of, as to suspend application of a rule. A suspended sentence in a criminal matter is a sentence the execution of which has been deferred by the court to avoid immediate imprisonment of the defen dant. A statute of limitations is said to be suspended under circumstances such as the disability of the plaintiff, the continued absence of the defendant from the state, or the fraud of the defendant in concealing facts which would reveal a cause of action to the plaintiff. SUSPICION [L. suspicere / to suspect; to mistrust] Doubt. A state of mind causing distrust or disbelief. The notion that some thing is wrong or that a supposed fact may not exist. Also, a belief which is based upon little or no evidence. A reasonable suspicion , on the other hand, is a suspicion based on specific facts or circumstances within the knowledge or view of the person who suspects. Examples: a police officer who stops a person running from a store with a bag loaded with merchandise and with a store clerk in hot pursuit.

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