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.
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, the United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany. The name derives from a Native American word (roughly U-puku-ipi-sing), meaning "the reed covered lodge by the little-water place," referring to a spring or stream feeding into the Hudson River, south of the present downtown area. Poughkeepsie is known as "The Queen City of the Hudson. " During the late 1980s through the late 1990s, Poughkeepsie suffered from severe socioeconomic turmoil, serving as a symbol for urban decay in the Hudson Valley. Recent efforts at waterfront and Main Street revitalization poise Poughkeepsie for a potential upswing. Poughkeepsie is the largest principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The two-county MSA had a population of 621,517 at the 2000 census. A July 1, 2007 estimate placed the population at 669,915. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown is also a component of the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY–NJ–CT–PA Combined Statistical Area.