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.
Marfa is a city in and the county seat of Presidio County in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. The population was 2,121 at the 2000 census. Marfa was founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop, and grew quickly through the 1920s. Marfa Army Airfield was located east of the town during World War II and trained several thousand pilots before closing in 1945 (the abandoned site is still visible ten miles east of the city). The base was also used as the training ground for many of the U.S. Army's Chemical mortar battalions. Today Marfa is a tourist destination, located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. Attractions include the historical architecture and classic Texas town square, modern art, soaring, and the Marfa lights. Amateur etymologist Barry Popik has shown that Marfa is named after Marfa Strogoff, a character in the Jules Verne novel Michael Strogoff and its theatrical adaptation; the origin was reported in the Galveston Daily News on December 17, 1882, after the Marfa railroad station was established but before Marfa received a post office in 1883. The Handbook of Texas states that the wife of a railroad executive "reportedly" suggested the name "Marfa" after reading the name in the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov.