For many years now our courts have been narrowing, not expanding, their reading of constitutional protections for those accused of crime.

The court later narrowed its ruling to bar only recitation in public school classrooms.

Over the years, courts have narrowed the definition of custody, the situation in which an officer must give the warnings.

Despite the Equal Pay Act's broad language and purpose, courts have narrowed and constrained the law in ways that undermine its fundamental goals.

The court carefully narrowed the per se treatment and began issuing guidelines.

The court has continued to uphold the doctrine but also steadily narrowed the grounds on which fighting words are held to apply.

The courts further narrowed the agency's authority.

Mr. Carey's lawyer, Mark Hulkower, said the courts should narrow the restrictions on socializing.

And many courts have narrowed the scope of private actions, requiring a distinct pattern involving clearly different crimes by closely associated people or companies.

Those rules were established in a 1972 decision by a sharply divided Supreme Court that Mr. George said lower courts have narrowed ever since.