| act of God |
in law, a sudden unforeseen event, esp. a natural disaster such as an earthquake, flood, or tornado, that is caused entirely by forces of nature and could not have been prevented. |
| act up |
to behave in a bad or mischievous way; misbehave. [3 definitions] |
| Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 |
an act signed into law in 1882 that barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. for a period of ten years and, in addition, prohibited all Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens. Immigrants from China were not permitted naturalized citizenship until 1943. |
| Civil Rights Act |
in the U.S., any of several laws intended to protect civil rights, esp. the landmark law passed by Congress in 1964 that aimed to protect the constitutional right of all citizens to vote and to prevent racial discrimination in places of employment, public facilities, public accommodations, and the like. |
| clean up one's act |
(informal) to improve one's performance or behavior. |
| Espionage Act |
a U.S. law passed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917, shortly after the U.S. entered World War I. The Espionage Act made it a crime to convey information with the intent to interfere with the operation of the U.S. military or its recruitment of troops, to disclose information relating to national defense, or to promote the success of the country's enemies. |
| Fair Labor Standards Act |
law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1938 and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor to establish work standards, such as national minimum wage, overtime compensation for certain jobs, and restriction on the use of child labor. |
| Federal Insurance Contributions Act |
a federal tax law requiring employers to withhold a certain amount from employees' paychecks or wages for deposit in governmental accounts that fund Social Security. (abbr.: FICA) |
| get one's act together |
(informal) to behave more responsibly. |
| Immigration Act of 1917 |
an exclusionary law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1917 that barred certain classes of people such as "idiots," "alcoholics," "epileptics," and "illiterates" from immigrating to the U.S. and also barred all immigrants coming from the so-called "Asiatic Barred Zone," which included much of Asia; also referred to as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act. |
| re-act |
to act, perform, or do again. |
| Sedition Act of 1918 |
a short-lived amendment to the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917 that listed offenses deemed criminal when the country is at war, including to willfully obstruct military recruitment and to print, write, or publish any disloyal or abusive language about the form of the U.S. federal government. |
| Tenure of Office Act |
a law forbidding the U.S. President to remove a federal officeholder from office without the approval of the Senate. The act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1867, overriding the veto of President Andrew Johnson. |
| Volstead Act |
an act of Congress passed in 1919 and repealed in 1933, enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages. |
| Voting Rights Act |
law enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1965 designed to protect the right to vote for all citizens regardless of race or color. |