Conspiracy is the act of working in secret to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations. In
United States v. Shabani (
1994) the
US Supreme Court ruled: "...
Congress intended to adopt the
common law definition of conspiracy, which does not make the doing of any act other than the act of conspiring a condition of liability..." This ruling indicates that conspiracy, without any further action, can be
criminal. Note that a "conspiracy", as a
legal term in the
US, doesn't require more than one person.
See also: conspiracy theory
Etymology
It is generally accepted that conspire comes from the Latin roots con, with, and spirare, to breathe - so to conspire literally means 'to breathe together'.
Conspiracy is an album by a heavy metal group called King Diamond.
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