Law Dictionary Definitions

fourth-sentence remand.See REMAND.[Blacks Law 8th]

fourth estate.The journalistic profession; the news media. • The term comes from the British Parliament’s reporters’ gallery, whose influence was said to equal Parliament’s three traditional estates: the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons. (In France, the three estates were the clergy, the nobility, and the commons.)[Blacks Law 8th]

Fourth Amendment.The constitutional amendment, ratified with the Bill of Rights in 1791, prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures and the issuance of warrants without probable cause. See PROBABLE CAUSE. [Cases: Searches and Seizures 23. C.J.S. Searches and Seizures §§ 3, 5, 9–12, 14–15, 24, 29–30, 32, 34, 47–48, 102.][Blacks Law 8th]

four-folding.Hist. The quadrupling of a property’s taxable value for purposes of penalizing a person who falsely underreported the property’s true taxable value. “In the State of Connecticut a number of men are chosen annually by each town, to receive from each inhabitant a list of the taxable property in his possession. This list is required…

Fourteenth Amendment.The constitutional amendment, ratified in 1868, whose primary provisions effectively apply the Bill of Rights to the states by prohibiting states from denying due process and equal protection and from abridging the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizenship. The amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce these provisions, leading to legislation such as…

four-corners rule. 1. The principle that a document’s meaning is to be gathered from the entire document and not from its isolated parts. [Cases: Contracts 143.5; Evidence 448. C.J.S. Contracts § 314.] 2. The principle that no extraneous evidence should be used to interpret an unambiguous document. Cf. PAROL-EVIDENCE RULE. [Cases: Evidence 448.C.J.S. Evidence §…

four corners.The face of a written instrument. • The phrase derives from the ancient custom of putting all instruments (such as contracts) on a single sheet of parchment, as opposed to multiple pages, no matter how long the sheet might be. At common law, this custom prevented people from fraudulently inserting materials into a fully…

four, rule of.See RULE OF FOUR.[Blacks Law 8th]

foundling. A deserted or abandoned infant.[Blacks Law 8th]

founding father.A prominent figure in the founding of an institution or esp. a country; specif., one who played a leading role in founding the United States of America, and esp. in the Revolutionary War and the making of the U.S. Constitution.[Blacks Law 8th]