Constitutional law attorneys handle cases involving the construction and interpretation of federal and state constitutions, including individual rights and governmental powers. Constitutional law cases can involve issues like First Amendment rights -- such as freedom of speech, press, and religion -- and the checks and balances on authority among different branches of government. Most of the federal constitutional rights are found in the Bill of Rights, that was created originally as a limitation on the action by the federal government, but many of those rights are also applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Harrisburg is a city and township in Saline County, Illinois, United States. The estimated 2007 population was 9,638, with a township population of 11,658. It is the county seat of Saline County. At the concurrency of U.S. Route 45, Illinois Route 13, Illinois Route 145, and Illinois Route 34, Harrisburg is known as the "Gateway to the Shawnee National Forest", and was made infamous for the Ohio River flood of 1937, the old Crenshaw House (also known as the Old Slave House), and prohibition era gangster Charlie Birger. A Cairo and Vincennes Railroad boomtown, the city was one of the leading bituminous coal mining distribution hubs of the American Midwest between 1900 and 1937. At its peak, Harrisburg had a population that reached 16,000 by the early 1930s, and had one of the largest downtown districts in Southern Illinois, but it has been in severe economic decline due to the decreased demand for high sulfur coal, the removal of the New York Central railroad, and several floods leaving much area around the city unfit for residential, commercial, or industrial use. Harrisburg is included in the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area and is the principal city in the Harrisburg Micropolitan Statistical Area with a combined population of 26,733.