Roy Bean achieved prominence for his unconventional law enforcement procedures. His methods for enforcing the law were questionable and unorthodox. Bean was born circa 1825, in Mason County, Kentucky. His career included many undertakings, not always legal. In 1847, he was in charge of a trading post in Mexico. Accused of cattle rustling in 1849, he was forced back to the United States. He was a m…
Few academicians achieve the public recognition and professional respect accorded to historian Charles Austin Beard. His polemic An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States stirred debate among fellow scholars and the U.S. public by contradicting the popular understanding of how and why the United States was founded. A brilliant, original thinker, Beard achieved a unique pr…
One who is the holder or possessor of an instrument that is negotiable—for example, a check, a draft, or a note—and upon which a specific payee is not designated. A negotiable instrument that is payable to "bearer" or to "cash" or to "the order of cash," that is, not naming a payee, is a bearer instrument, and is called "bearer"…
Mercer Beasley was an eminent New Jersey jurist. He was born March 27, 1815, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Frederick and Maria Beasley. He studied at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) but only for a year, after which he studied the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1838 and established a successful legal practice in Trenton, New Jersey. He became active in local politics, first as a W…
Cesare Bonesano Beccaria was an expert in law and economics and put forth new principles in both fields which were widely accepted throughout Europe. Beccaria's ideas were published in 1764 in his Essay on Crimes and Punishments. The book was well received throughout Europe and greatly influenced changes in European economic and legal systems. He died November 8, 1794, in Milan. …
In the same year, Theobald appointed Becket archdeacon of Canterbury. Less than three months later, on Theobald's recommendation and in gratitude for Becket's role in helping him to gain the throne, Henry II named Becket chancellor of England. Becket became the king's most trusted adviser and a constant and devoted companion. He was an effective chancellor, leading troops into…
Henry Ward Beecher was one of the most prominent U.S. ministers of the nineteenth century as well as an active participant in various reform movements. Beecher excelled as a speaker and in 1863 he went on a lecture tour throughout England and spoke in support of the Union position in the Civil War. In 1875, Beecher, regarded as one of the United States' foremost preachers, was involved in a…
Mental reliance on or acceptance of a particular concept, which is arrived at by weighing external evidence, facts, and personal observation and experience. Belief is essentially a subjective feeling about the validity of an idea or set of facts. It is more than a mere suspicion and less than concrete knowledge. Unlike suspicion, which is based primarily on inner personal conviction, belief is fou…
Bell was born November 6, 1930, in Pittsburgh. The seeds of his views on racial injustice—and his response to racial bigotry and prejudice—were sown in the Great Depression. When he was five years old, he watched his mother, Ada Elizabeth Bell, demand that the family's landlord fix the rotted stairs behind their apartment. His mother finally told the landlord, who had ignored …
Bell practiced law in Savannah, Georgia, and Rome, Georgia, from 1947 to 1953, after which he moved to Atlanta to work in the prestigious firm of King and Spalding, where he eventually earned the position of managing partner. Bell also became involved in politics, serving from 1959 to 1961 as chief of staff to Governor S. Ernest Vandiver, of Georgia. Bell also served as cochairman of the Atlanta C…
John Bell was born February 15, 1797, near Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from Cumberland College in Nashville in 1817 and was admitted to the bar in the same year. He practiced John Bell. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS law in Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, before entering politics. Bell was secretary of war in 1841 and then U.S. senator for Tennessee for twelve years beginning in 1847. Bell d…
In an inferior, subordinate, or lower place in regard to any entity. A court below is a lower court through which a case has passed. A case is removed for review from the court below to the court above, or a higher court. The forum where a lawsuit is initially brought is called an inferior court, or the court below. …
A forum of justice comprised of the judge or judges of a court. The seat of the court occupied by the judges. The bench is used to refer to a group of judges as a collective whole. It is a tribunal or place where justice is administered. To appear before the full bench means to appear before the entire group of judges of the court. …
A trial conducted before a judge presiding without a jury. …
A process that is initiated by the court pro se in order to attach or arrest a person. An order that a judge, or group of judges, issues directly to the police with the purpose of directing a person's arrest. …
An incorporated or voluntary nonprofit organization that has been created primarily to protect and aid its members and their dependents. Beneficial association is an all-inclusive term that refers to an organization that exists for the mutual assistance of its members or its members' families, relatives, or designated beneficiaries, during times of hardship, such as illness or financial nee…
Profits or advantages from property derived from the terms of a trust agreement. A beneficiary of a trust has a beneficial interest in the trust property, the legal title of which is held by the trustee. The beneficiary receives the advantages of ownership of the property which the trustee holds and distributes according to the terms of the trust agreement. …
A beneficiary of a trust has beneficial use of the trust property, the legal title to which is held by the trustee. …
An organization or a person for whom a trust is created and who thereby receives the benefits of the trust. One who inherits under a will. A person entitled to a beneficial interest or a right to profits, benefit, or advantage from a contract. …
In old England, the privilege of clergy that allowed them to avoid trial by all courts of the civil government. Benefit of clergy existed to alleviate the severity of criminal laws as applied to the clergy. It was, however, found to promote such extensive abuses that it was ultimately eliminated. Benefit of clergy does not exist in the United States today. The phrase "without the benefit of…
Judah Philip Benjamin was attorney general of the Confederate States of America under President Jefferson Davis. Though described by many as a brilliant, self-made man, he was also characterized as the "dark prince of the Confederacy" in Robert W. Service's poem "John Brown's Body." Benjamin was born August 6, 1811, on St. Croix Island, in the British West…
Park Benjamin was an eminent patent lawyer and author. Benjamin was born May 11, 1849. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1867, he left the Navy in 1869 and earned a bachelor of laws degree from Albany Law School in 1870. From 1872 to 1878, Benjamin was associate editor of the Scientific American and became editor-in-chief of Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Applied Mechanics in 1893. Benjami…
Bentham was born February 15, 1748, in Houndsditch, near London, into a family of attorneys. He was educated at Oxford and admitted to the bar, but decided not to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Instead of practicing law, Bentham chose to pursue a career in legal, political, and social reform, applying principles of ethical philosophy to these endeavors. He was greatly influ…
The term bequeath applies only to personal property. A testator, to give real property to someone in a testamentary provision, devises it. Bequeath is sometimes used as a synonym for devise. …
A bequest is not the same as a devise (a testamentary gift of real property) although the terms are often used interchangeably. When this occurs, a bequest can be a gift of real property if the testator's intention to dispose of real property is clearly demonstrated in the will. There are different types of bequests. A charitable bequest is a gift intended to serve a religious, educational,…
These actions outraged the Canadian and British governments, who disputed the U.S. claim that it controlled not just the three-miles of sea bordering the Pribilof Islands but the entire Bering Sea. After several years of tensions and additional vessel seizures, the three countries agreed to arbitration by an international tribunal in Paris. The tribunal issued its decision in 1893. It rejected the…
Adolph Augustus Berle Jr. was a diplomat, teacher, and writer. He was born January 29, 1895, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was educated at Harvard, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in 1913, a master of arts degree in 1914, and a bachelor of laws degree in 1916, in which year he was also admitted to the bar. One of Berle's several publications was The Modern Corporation and Private Pr…
Berrien was born August 23, 1781, in New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton in 1796 and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1799. He began his judicial career in Georgia as a circuit court judge in 1810 and remained on the bench until 1821. …
An original document or object offered as proof of a fact in a lawsuit as opposed to a photocopy of, or other substitute for, the item or the testimony of a witness describing it. Best evidence, also known as primary evidence, usually denotes an original writing, which is considered the most reliable proof of its existence and its contents. If it is available to, and obtainable by, a party, it mus…
Sexual relations between a human being and an animal. …
The standard that must be met by the prosecution's evidence in a criminal prosecution: that no other logical explanation can be derived from the facts except that the defendant committed the crime, thereby overcoming the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty. If the jurors or judge have no doubt as to the defendant's guilt, or if their only doubts are unreasonable…
A predisposition or a preconceived opinion that prevents a person from impartially evaluating facts that have been presented for determination; a prejudice. …
The division of a legislative or judicial body into two components or chambers. …
Bickel was born December 17, 1924, in Bucharest, Romania, and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1939. He attended the City College of New York, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1947, and Harvard Law School, where he served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated summa cum laude in 1949. After completing his clerkship with Justice Frankfurter, Bickel joined the faculty of Ya…
Francis Beverly Biddle achieved prominence as a jurist. In 1912, Biddle was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar and from 1915 to 1939, practiced with Francis Beverly Biddle. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS two successful Philadelphia law firms—Biddle, Paul and Jayne, and Barnes, Biddle and Myers—specializing in corporation law. He died October 4, 1968, in Hyannis, Massachusetts. …
One judicial proceeding that is divided into two stages in which different issues are addressed separately by the court. A common example of a bifurcated trial is one in which the question of liability in a personal injury case is tried separately from and prior to a trial on the amount of damages to be awarded if liability is found. A bifurcated trial in such a case is advantageous because if the…
Melville Madison Bigelow achieved prominence as an author, legal historian, and a founder of Boston University Law School. Bigelow was born August 2, 1846, in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. He was educated at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1866, a bachelor of laws degree in 1868, and a master of arts degree in 1871. He also received a master of arts degree and a …
An agreement formed by an exchange of a promise in which the promise of one party is consideration supporting the promise of the other party. A bilateral contract is distinguishable from a unilateral contract, a promise made by one party in exchange for the performance of some act by the other party. The party to a unilateral contract whose performance is sought is not obligated to act, but if he …
Many states require that laws must be passed by their state legislatures in the form of a bill. For example, the Texas Constitution requires that "no law shall be passed, except by bill, and no bill shall be so amended in its passage through either House, as to violent change its original purpose." Tex. Const. art. III, § 30. Likewise, the California Constitution may not make …
A bill of attainder is prohibited by Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution because it deprives the person or persons singled out for punishment of the safeguards of a trial by jury. …
A three-party negotiable instrument in which the first party, the drawer, presents an order for the payment of a sum certain on a second party, the drawee, for payment to a third party, the payee, on demand or at a fixed future date. A bill of exchange is distinguishable from a promissory note, since it does not contain a promise and the drawer does not expressly pledge to pay it. It is similar to…
A document signed by a carrier (a transporter of goods) or the carrier's representative and issued to a consignor (the shipper of goods) that evidences the receipt of goods for shipment to a specified designation and person. Carriers using all modes of transportation issue bills of lading when they undertake the transportation of cargo. A bill of lading is, in addition to a receipt for the …
A written statement used in both civil and criminal actions that is submitted by a plaintiff or a prosecutor at the request of a defendant, giving the defendant detailed information concerning the claims or charges made against him or her. …
A declaration of individual rights and freedoms, usually issued by a national government. A list of fundamental rights included in each state constitution. A sample motion for bill of particulars The concept of a bill of rights as a statement of basic individual freedoms derives in part from the English Bill of Rights, passed in 1689 (see appendix volume for primary document). This doc…
A sample bill of sale …
Non-interest-bearing promissory notes issued by the government and backed by its faith and credit to be paid when presented by their holders, which are in the form of currency and are intended to be circulated and exchanged in the community as money. …
A written document that records the essential provisions of a contract of insurance and temporarily protects the insured until an insurance company has investigated the risks to be covered, or until a formal policy is issued. A receipt for cash or for a check that is deposited by a prospective buyer with the seller to secure the right to purchase real estate at terms that have been agreed upon by …
Source of law that a judge must evaluate when making a decision in a case. For example, statutes from the same state where a case is being brought, or higher court decisions, are binding authority for a judge. According to Article VI of the Constitution—the Supremacy Clause—all laws made pursuant to the Constitution are considered the supreme law of the land. They are entitled to leg…
John Armor Bingham was born January 21, 1815, at Mercer, Pennsylvania. He attended John Armor Bingham. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Franklin College and pursued legal studies before establishing a successful legal practice in Cadiz in 1840. Bingham gained fame for his participation in three significant historical events. He presided as special judge advocate at the proceedings Bingham died Marc…
Horace Binney was born January 4, 1780. He graduated from Harvard in 1797 and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1800. As a counselor, Binney displayed his legal expertise in cases concerning land titles. He won a famous victory in the Girard Trust Case of 1844, which involved the legality of a charitable legacy left to Philadelphia by philanthropist Stephen Girard. Binney defended the validi…
Following graduation, Bird served a one-year term as a law clerk for the chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court. In 1966 she joined the Santa Clara County, California, public defenders office. Bird remained in the public defenders office until 1974, serving successively as deputy public defender, senior trial deputy, and chief Rose Bird. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS public defender of the appell…
A measure or measures undertaken to prevent conception. The birth control pill is one of the most widely used forms of birth control. In the 1950s, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger raised 150,000 dollars to pay for research into the development of the birth control pill by Dr. Gregory Pincus. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS obscene materials or articles addressing or for use in the prevention of…
In 1888 Bissell acted as a presidential elector and in 1890, served on a commission to amend the judicial articles of the New York Constitution. Grover Cleveland, as president of the United States in 1893, selected his former law partner to serve as U.S. postmaster general, which post Bissell held until 1895. Extending his career to the field of education, Bissell became chancellor of the Uni…
A body of laws, statutes, and rules enacted by southern states immediately after the Civil War to regain control over the freed slaves, maintain white supremacy, and ensure the continued supply of cheap labor. For the next several months, southern states sought a way to restore for the white majority what the Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment had tried to deny them, supremacy, control, and ec…
Hugo LaFayette Black was an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly thirty-four years, serving one of the longest and most influential terms in the history of the Court. Hugo L. Black. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Healthy and vigorous well into his later life, Black was an avid tennis player who often shared the court with his law clerks. On September 17, 1971, Black resigned fro…
Jeremiah Sullivan Black was a prominent lawyer, judge, and U.S. attorney general, and also an unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Black was born January 10, 1810, in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania. He was raised in rural Pennsylvania and was largely self-educated through his own reading and study of Shakespeare, the Bible, and other works of literature. He originally planned a career in me…
A term used to describe basic principles of law that are accepted by a majority of judges in most states. The term probably derives from the practice of publishers of encyclopedias and legal treatises to highlight principles of law by printing them in boldface type. …
On May 2, 1967, armed members of the Black Panther Party enter the California state capital to protest a bill restricting the carrying of arms in public. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS the building. TV cameras followed the group's progress to the legislative chambers, where they were stopped by police officers, Seale shouting, "Is this the way the racist government works—[you] wo…
Also, because the Black Power movement was never a formally organized movement, it had no central leadership, which meant that different organizations with divergent agendas often could not agree on the best course of action. The more radical groups accused the more mainstream groups of capitulating to whites, and the more mainstream accused the more radical of becoming too ready to use violence. …
A fictitious designation that legal writers use to describe a piece of land. The term Blackacre is often used in comparison with Whiteacre in order to distinguish one parcel of land from another. …
Isaac Newton Blackford achieved prominence as a jurist. He was born November 6, 1786, in Bound Brook, New Jersey. A graduate of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), Blackford served as clerk and recorder of Washington County, Indiana, in 1813. The following year he became a territorial court judge. Blackford served as a member of the Indiana state house of representatives from 1…
A list of individuals or organizations designated for special discrimination or boycott; also to put a person or organization on such a list. Many types of blacklists are legal. For example, a store may maintain a list of individuals who have not paid their bills and deny them credit privileges. Similarly, credit reports can effectively function as blacklists by identifying individuals who are poo…
The crime involving a threat for purposes of compelling a person to do an act against his or her will, or for purposes of taking the person's money or property. The term blackmail originally denoted a payment made by English persons residing along the border of Scotland to influential Scottish chieftains in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders. In blackmail the threat might co…
An unassuming and highly intelligent man, Blackmun seemed an unlikely symbol for an explosive social and political issue. Born November 12, 1908, in Nashville, Illinois, he spent his childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his father ran a hardware and grocery store. Blackmun was an outstanding student and received a scholarship to Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a math…
Born July 10, 1723, Blackstone was the son of Mary Blackstone and Charles Blackstone, of London. Blackstone's father, a silk merchant, died before Blackstone was born; his mother died while he was a young boy. Raised by an older brother and tutored by an uncle, Blackstone attended Charterhouse and Pembroke College, at Oxford University, where his education included a thorough exposure to ma…
Although the Commentaries might seem antiquated by current standards, Blackstone's work represented a tremendous advance in the study of law and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. …
Blair was born in 1732 into a wealthy, well-established Virginia family. His parents were John Blair Sr., a public official with important political connections, and Mary Munro (or Monro) Blair, whose father was a rector in Virginia's St. John's Parish. In 1754, Blair graduated from the College of William and Mary (founded by his great-uncle), and he then studied law at Oxford'…
Lacking something essential to fulfillment or completeness; unrestricted or open. A space left empty for the insertion of one or more words or marks in a written document that will effectuate its meaning or make it legally operative. A printed legal form in which the standard or necessary words are printed in their proper order with spaces left open, to be filled with names, dates, figures, and ad…
The writing of the name of a person who holds a negotiable instrument on the back of the document without specifically designating to whom the paper is to be paid, which transfers the rights that the signer had in the instrument to the person who presents it for payment. When a person endorses a paycheck, for example, with just a signature, such as "John Jones," then the bank is auth…
Blasphemy is a common-law offense and also an offense by statute in certain jurisdictions. It must be uttered in the presence of another person or persons or published in order to be an offense. Mere use of profanity is not considered blasphemy. Blasphemy statutes are rarely, if ever, enforced today. …
Blatchford was born in New York City on March 9, 1820, the son of Richard Blatchford, a lawyer, and Julia Ann Mumford. He attended Columbia College (renamed Columbia University), and graduated with honors at age seventeen in 1837. Blatchford served as a trustee of Columbia from 1867 to 1893. After graduation Blatchford became the private secretary of Governor William H. Seward of New York, a famil…
A segment of a town or city surrounded by streets and avenues on at least three sides and usually occupied by buildings, though it may be composed solely of vacant lots. The section of a city enclosed by streets that is described by a map which indicates how a portion of land will be subdivided. …
The practice of illegally frightening homeowners by telling them that people who are members of a particular race, religion, or national origin are moving into their neighborhood and that they should expect a decline in the value of their property. The purpose of this scheme is to get the homeowners to sell out at a deflated price. An unscrupulous real estate agent will subsequently sell the vacat…
There is dispute over whether the blood feud was legal under Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon law. "Devil Anse" Hatfield, pictured with members of his family. The Hatfield-McCoy feud, which lasted almost 30 years, is perhaps the most infamous example of a blood feud. BETTMANN/CORBIS During the ninth-century reign of Alfred, a feud could lawfully commence only after an attempt was made …
A written record of arrests and other occurrences maintained by the police. The report kept by the police when a suspect is booked, which involves the written recording of facts about the person's arrest and the charges against him or her. …
A publication that establishes the correct form of case citations or of references to a legal authority showing where information can be found. A volume that explains the organization of a state government and provides the names of state officials. The proper title is "The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation." In a generic sense, this term also refers to a report issued by the Joi…
A state or local law that prohibits commercial activities on Sunday. In 1781, the Reverend Samuel Peters published A General History of Connecticut, in which he used the term blue laws to refer to a set of laws that the Puritans had enacted in the 1600s to control morality. He claimed that the laws were printed on blue paper, hence the terminology. Historians, however, have concluded that this cla…
A group of highly qualified persons selected by a court on the request of either party to a lawsuit to decide complex and specialized disputes. …
Almost all states have adopted blue sky laws, regulating the sale of securities—investments in bonds, mutual funds, limited partnerships, and so forth. These laws acquired their name as early as 1917, when the Supreme Court issued a decision on "speculative schemes which have no more basis than so many feet of 'blue sky'" (Hall v. Geiger-Jones Co., 242 U.S. 539, …
A group of people comprising the governing body of a corporation. The shareholders of a corporation hold an election to choose people who have been nominated to direct or manage the corporation as a board. In the past nearly all states required that at least three directors run a corporation. The laws have changed, however, since many corporations have only one or two shareholders and therefore re…
Part of the executive branch of state government authorized to grant pardons, and restore civil and political rights, to individuals convicted of crimes. A pardon, in the legal sense, releases an individual from punishment or penalty, but does not necessarily exonerate them of guilt. Unlike the federal government, where the president possesses the power to pardon persons convicted of felonies, man…
All 50 states have governing bodies that oversee the administration of public education. A number of states call the body that administers the state college and university system the board of regents. The word regent is an English term that originally meant ruler. In the British university system, a regent presided over academic debates; this association with higher education increased over time. …
The principal part of anything as distinguished from its subordinate parts, as in the main part of an instrument. An individual, an organization, or an entity given legal recognition, such as a corporation or "body corporate." A compilation of laws known as a "body of laws." …
An arrest; a seizure of a defendant. A sheriff or other public officer can be ordered by a court to arrest a defendant and the officer executes the order by taking the body of the defendant into custody. The order itself may be called a capias, or capias ad satisfaciendum (Latin for "that you take him in order to satisfy it"). …
Corinne Claiborne ("Lindy") Boggs was a Democratic representative from New Orleans, the first woman from Louisiana elected to the U.S. Congress. During her 17 years in Congress her political acumen and experience made her a popular and effective politician. Boggs was born March 13, 1916, on Brunswick Plantation, in Louisiana. Her father owned a successful sugar plantation. She receiv…
A description of uniform language used normally in legal documents that has a definite, unvarying meaning in the same context that denotes that the words have not been individually fashioned to address the legal issue presented. …
Jane Matilda Bolin was the first black woman judge in the United States. Bolin was born April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Gaius C. Bolin and Matilda Emery Bolin. Her father, who was born to a Native American mother and a black father, was the first African American graduate of Williams College. He went on to become a lawyer and practiced law in Poughkeepsie for more than 50 years. Boli…
[Latin, In good faith.] Honest; genuine; actual; authentic; acting without the intention of defrauding. …
A grandson of Jerome Bonaparte, who was Napoleon's youngest brother, Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 9, 1851. After graduating from Harvard College in 1871, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1874. Bonaparte returned to Baltimore and established a private practice. At the time, public corruption of elected officials was widespread in the United S…
Born on January 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tennessee, Bond was the son of black educators. His Julian Bond. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Bond's success led to his name being placed in nomination for vice president at the 1968 Democratic Convention, a first for a black man. The nomination was symbolic; he was too young to serve and so withdrew his name. In Georgia, he served as a state represent…
Written documents by which a government, corporation, or individual—the obligor—promises to perform a certain act, usually the payment of a definite sum of money, to another—the obligee—on a certain date. The most common type of bond is the simple bond. This bond is sold with a fixed interest rate and is then redeemed at a set time. Several varieties of simple bonds exi…
The current value of an asset. The book value of an asset at any time is its cost minus its accumulated depreciation. (Depreciation reflects the decrease in the useful life of an asset due to use of the asset.) Companies use book value to determine the point at which they have recovered the cost of an asset. The calculation of book value is important in determining the value of a company that is b…
The procedure by which law enforcement officials record facts about the arrest of and charges against a suspect such as the crime for which the arrest was made, together with information concerning the identification of the suspect and other pertinent facts. This information is written down on the police blotter in the police station. The process of booking may also include photographing and finge…
The process of systematically and methodically recording the financial accounts and transactions of an entity. Double-entry bookkeeping is an accounting system that requires that for every financial transaction there must be a debit and a credit. When merchandise is sold for cost, there is a debit to cash and a credit to sales. …
The trial of Lizzie Borden shows the effect that public opinion can have on the life of an accused person, regardless of the outcome of a fair trial. Lizzie Borden was born July 19, 1860. She was a plain, outspoken woman who lived with her father, stepmother, and sister in a house on Second Street in Fall River, a small industrial city located in southeastern Massachusetts. According to local rumo…
Robert Heron Bork, conservative legal scholar, author, and former federal appellate judge, was one of President Ronald Reagan's most controversial nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court. Robert Bork. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS In the summer of 1987 the United States witnessed the most contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle in the 200-year history of the Constitution. The battle over Bo…
Reva Beck Bosone was Utah's first woman judge and the first woman elected to the House of Representatives from that state. Bosone was born April 2, 1895, in American Fork, Utah, the only daughter among the four children of Christian M. Beck and Zilpha Chipman Beck. Her father was of Danish extraction, and her mother was a descendant of the 1847 Mormon pioneers and of the Mayflower pilgrims.…
The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, was an event that exemplified the growing tension between the American colonies and England which would subsequently result in the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. In 1767 the English Parliament had levied an import tax on tea, glass, paper, and lead. The duties were labeled the Townshend Acts—part of a series of unpopular taxes directed at the colonist…
A contract, in maritime law, by which money is borrowed for a specified term by the owner of a ship for its use, equipment, or repair for which the ship is pledged as collateral. If the ship is lost in the specified voyage or during the limited time, the lender will lose his or her money according to the provisions of the contract. A contract by which a ship or its freight is pledged as security f…
Boudinot was a representative to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1784. He was president of the Congress from 1782 to 1784 and was named secretary of foreign affairs. He became commissary general of prisoners in 1777 and donated a large sum of his own money to help improve prison conditions. In 1787 Boudinot played a key role in obtaining New Jersey's ratification of the new U.S. …
Natural or artificial separations or divisions between adjoining properties that show their limits. Boundaries are used to establish private and public ownership by determining the exact location of the points at which one piece of land is distinguishable from another. They are also used to mark the functional and jurisdictional limits of political subdivisions. For example, in the United States, …
Name for a category of persons who are offered a promised gratuity in return for "hunting" down and capturing or killing a designated target, usually a person or animal. Bounty hunters can be defined broadly as a category of persons who track down someone or something for money. A bounty is a subsidy that is paid to a category of persons who have performed a public service. Bounty is…
James Dale joined the Cub Scouts in 1978 at the age of eight. Three years later he became a Boy Scout and remained one until he turned 18. By all accounts, Dale was an exemplary scout, eventually achieving the status of Eagle Scout, the highest rank to which a scout can aspire. In 1989 Dale applied for adult membership and was approved. He then served as an assistant troop scoutmaster in Matawan, …
A classic example of this is a consumer boycott whereby a group of customers refuses to purchase a particular product in order to indicate their dissatisfaction with excessive prices or the offensive actions of a particular manufacturer or producer. …
John Boyle was born October 28, 1774, near Tazewell in Botetourt County, Virginia. He was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1797 and established a legal practice in Lancaster, Kentucky, before entering government service. Boyle presided over the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1809 to 1810, acting as chief justice from 1810 to 1826. In that same year he became U.S. district judge for Kentucky an…
Henry Marie Brackenridge was an eminent lawyer, statesman, and author. As an author, Brackenridge wrote many publications, including Views of Louisiana (1814); History of the Late War (1816); Voyage to South America (1819); Letters to the Public, (1832); and History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania (1859). Brackenridge died January 18, 1871, in Pittsburgh. …
Bracton's exact date of birth early in the thirteenth century is unknown. His family, whose name sometimes appears as Bratton or Bretton, owned land near Devon, England. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the brother of King Henry III, and William de Raleigh, a prominent common-law judge, were important benefactors who helped advance Bracton's legal career. By 1240 Bracton had the job of civ…
William Bradford, born November 4, 1729, in Plympton, Massachusetts, was a student of both law and medicine. After practicing medicine in Warren, Rhode Island, Bradford was admitted to the bar in 1767 and established his legal practice in Bristol, Rhode Island. From 1764 to 1765 Bradford was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and served as speaker. He continued his career …
William Bradford was born September 14, 1755, in Philadelphia. He graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1772 and a master of arts degree in 1775. Before beginning his legal career Bradford served in the Revolutionary War from 1776 to 1779, fought in numerous battles, including Valley Forge, and emerged with the rank of colonel in the Continental army. After his tour…
Bradley's appointment to the Supreme Court on February 7, 1870 came shortly after the Court ruled that the Legal Tender Act was unconstitutional. In 1862, Congress had used the act to issue treasury notes as a substitute for gold in its efforts to pay off Civil War debts. Upon reviewing the legislation, the Supreme Court invalidated the issuance of the paper money, in Hepburn v. Griswold, 7…
Bradwell was born February 12, 1831, in Manchester, Vermont. After an early childhood in Portage, New York, she moved with her family to Illinois and attended the ladies seminary in Elgin, where she subsequently became a teacher. In 1852 she married James B. Bradwell, an Englishman who had immigrated to the United States and studied law in Memphis, Tennessee. The Bradwells established a private sc…
The legal arm of the Brady Center is the Legal Action Project (LAP). Its goal is to "represent gun violence victims and the public interest in the courts." For example, LAP provides free legal assistance to victims in lawsuits against gun manufacturers, dealers, and owners. And it pushes for legislation that will force the gun industry to improve the safety in gun design and to chang…
On April 19, 1995, following a 51-day standoff, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. A fire, later determined to have been set by the Davidians, destroyed the compound and killed 57 of its residents. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS search and arrest warrants on members of the Branch Davidian religious cult at the apocalyptic sect's compound near Waco, Texas. Four…
Louis Dembitz Brandeis's lifelong commitment to public service and social reform earned him the epithet the People's Lawyer. His twenty-three years on the Supreme Court were characterized by a deep respect for civil liberties and by an abiding distrust of centralized power in the hands of business and government. Brandeis was famous for his prodigious intellect and his well-crafted, …
A common-law right of action for breaking a commitment to enter into matrimony. The right of action for breach of a marriage promise has been abolished in a majority of states. Unless there is a legally justifiable reason, an unwillingness to perform one's promise to marry creates a breach of promise to marry. Mere postponement of the wedding does not constitute a breach unless it is done a…
A comprehensive term encompassing acts or conduct that seriously endanger or disturb public peace and order. Statutes commonly require that conduct constituting a breach of the peace must be clearly a type of misbehavior resulting in public unrest or disturbance. As an example, a prostitute who solicited men walking by on a public street from her window was found guilty of breaching the peace, but…
To use physical force to separate or damage a solid object. The slightest physical force—for example, lifting a latch, releasing a bolt, or opening an unlocked door or window—is enough to constitute breaking. …
At age 19, the ambitious Breckenridge was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1780 but was not permitted to take the position because of his youth. Breckenridge served in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War. Afterwards he studied law under the tutelage of a Virginia lawyer, and he was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1785. Breckenridge established a law practice in Charlotte…
Sidney Breese was born July 15, 1800, in Whitesboro, New York. He graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1818. Breese was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1820 and concentrated his career efforts in that state. In 1821, Breese was appointed postmaster of Kaskasia, Illinois. From 1822 to 1826, he served as prosecuting attorney for the Illinois Circuit Court, and from 1827 to 1829,…
William Joseph Brennan Jr. was the first Roman Catholic appointed to the Supreme Court; he served as associate justice of the Court from 1956 to 1990. His unshakable belief in the Constitution as the guardian of individual rights and liberties garnered both respect and criticism. Brennan was born April 25, 1906, in Newark, New Jersey. He was the second of eight children of William Joseph Brennan a…
David J. Brewer. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Brewer was an unusually outgoing justice who lectured frequently and wrote several books, including The Pew to the Pulpit, The Twentieth Century from Another Viewpoint, American Citizenship, and The United States: A Christian Nation. He felt strongly that judges have a moral obligation to use their lofty position to lead rather than simply observe. �…
Brewster was born in Salem County, New Jersey, on October 13, 1816. In 1834 he graduated from Princeton College. Like many other aspiring lawyers of the period, Brewster did not attend law school. Instead these aspirants "read law" by performing various clerical and administrative duties for a lawyer who had already been admitted to the bar. Brewster studied under a Philadelphia atto…
Stephen G. Breyer. REUTERS/ARCHIVE PHOTOS …
The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties. No written agreement is necessary to prove the crime of bribery, but usually a prosecutor must show corrupt intent. Bribery charges may involve public officials or private individuals. In the world of professional sport…
and believed in secession from the Union prior to the onset of the Civil War. In 1873, Brickell served as associate justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. He was selected to act as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 1874, an appointment he again accepted in 1880. He held this office until 1884. Brickell resumed his law practice in Alabama in 1884 but in 1894 returned to the bench…
Structures constructed over obstructions to highways or waterways, such as canals or rivers, in order to provide continuous and convenient passages for purposes of transportation. A bridge includes the necessary abutments and approaches that make it accessible. A public bridge that spans obstructions to a public highway is built on land owned by the state government for public use, while a private…
A brief may also contain a synopsis of the evidence and name the witnesses to be presented during the trial. Copies of briefs must be submitted to the court where the case will be heard and to the opposing party. An appellate brief is a writing that must be filed with an appellate court so that the court may evaluate whether the decision of the lower court should be reversed because of some error …
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1900, Briggs was one of a small group of American international lawyers in the twentieth century who did not hold a law degree. He received an A.B. from West Virginia University in Morgan-town, West Virginia, in 1921 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1925. Over the next four years, he studied international law in Brussels, Belgium…
The bright line rule exists to bring clarity to a law or regulation that could be read in two (or more) ways. Often a bright line is established when the need for a simple decision outweighs the need to weigh both sides of a particular issue. The court arrived at this figure because it realized that to do otherwise could leave employers open to lawsuits if they replaced a worker with someone who w…
To initiate legal proceedings; to start an action for judicial relief. …
As a verb, to transmit programs or signals intended to be received by the public through radio, television, or similar means. As a noun, the radio, television, or other program received by the public through the transmission. …
James Overton Broadhead was born May 29, 1819, in Charlottesville, Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1836, studied law in St. Louis, Missouri, and received his license and established his law practice in Bowling Green, Missouri, in 1842. In 1845, Broadhead began his political career as a member of the Missouri Constitutional Convention. In the following year he particip…
An individual or firm employed by others to plan and organize sales or negotiate contracts for a commission. In order to determine whether or not an individual is acting as a broker in a transaction, the type of services that are performed must be examined. …
Founded in 1927, the Brookings Institution is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to research, education, and publication in the fields of economics, foreign policy, and government. It states as its principal purposes: "to aid in the development of sound public policies and to promote public understanding of issues of national importance." Brookings maintains a 55,000-volume library…
Henry Peter Brougham, also known as Baron Brougham and Vaux, achieved prominence as a lawyer and statesman. Brougham gained fame in 1820 as chief attorney for Queen Caroline, also known as Caroline of Brunswick. Caroline had married George, Prince of Wales, in 1795, and after giving Henry Peter Brougham. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS A leader in the field of educational reform, Brougham particip…
Addison Brown gained prominence as a jurist, botanist, and author. He was born February 21, 1830, in West Newbury, Massachusetts. In 1855, Brown was admitted to the New York bar. From 1881 to 1901, he performed the duties of district judge for the Southern District of New York. A respected name in the field of botany, Brown acted as one of the founders of the New York Botanical Garden in 1891. Fro…
Henry Billings Brown was an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1890 to 1906. Born to a wealthy family on March 2, 1836, at South Lee, Massachusetts, Brown attended private schools as a child. His father, a prosperous merchant and manufacturer, saw to it that Brown attended Yale University, where he graduated in 1856. After graduation, Brown traveled in Europe for a year, then returned to …
Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, on May 9, 1800, to Owen and Ruth Brown. His father, a strict Calvinist, despised slavery. When Brown was five years old, the family moved to Hudson, Ohio, a locale that was steeped in anti-slavery sentiment. Brown's fervor for the anti-slavery movement never waned and grew more vehement as he got older. In 1820, Brown married Dianthe Lusk and six y…
Joseph Emerson Brown was born April 15, 1821, in Pickens District, South Carolina. He was a graduate of the Yale Law School class of 1846, and was admitted to the Georgia bar. In 1849 Brown entered politics and served in the Georgia Senate. In 1852 he was a presidential elector and in 1855 he served as a circuit judge. From 1868 to 1870 Brown again served in the judiciary, presiding as chief justi…
Ron Brown. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS The give-and-take of politics suited Brown. "What I love most," he said, "is changing minds." In 1979 Brown's association with the Democratic party got a boost when Senator Kennedy named Brown his deputy campaign manager in an unsuccessful run at the presidency. The job marked the beginning of a stellar ascent through party p…
By 1939, Marshall had become head of the NAACP legal branch, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and by the early 1950s, he and his organization had argued and secured significant legal victories before the Supreme Court that helped set the stage for Brown. In Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 70 S. Ct. 848, 94 L. Ed. 1114 (1950), the Court sided with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund when it ruled that a sep…
Walter Folger Brown was born May 31, 1869, in Massillon, Ohio. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard University in 1892 and attended Harvard Law School from 1893 to 1894. Brown practiced law from 1894 to 1927 and entered politics in 1921, serving for three years as chairman of the Congressional Joint Committee on Reorganization. In 1927 he became assistant secretary of commerce, …
Brownell was born in Peru, Nebraska, on February 20, 1904. In 1924, he graduated from the University of Nebraska and then attended Yale Law School. After receiving his law degree in 1927, Brownell was admitted to the New York State bar and worked for the noted law firm of Root, Clark, Buckner, Howland & Ballentine for two years. In 1929, he joined the law firm of Lord, Day & Lord. …
In the mid-1970s, there was no guarantee of speedy disposition of litigation in the federal courts. The courts of appeals, in particular, faced widespread crises because the volume of appeals far exceeded the capacity of the courts to decide them. The Ninth Circuit court was no exception, and, because of its enormous backlog of cases, was the subject of much discussion among scholars, Congress, an…
Orville Hickman Browning was born February 10, 1806, in Harrison County, Kentucky. He was educated at Augusta College and admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1831. In that same year, he relocated to Illinois and established his legal practice. Orville Hickman Browning. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS From 1866 to 1869 Browning served as U.S. secretary of the interior and also acted as attorney general…
Bryan was born March 19, 1860, in Salem, Illinois. His was a devoutly religious family that prayed together three times a day and stressed strict adherence to a literal interpretation of the Bible. His parents, Silas Lilliard Bryan and Mariah Elizabeth Jennings Bryan, were firm believers in education. His mother schooled Bryan and his siblings in their home until they were old enough to be sent aw…
William Benson Bryant is a federal judge whose decisions influenced the outcomes of several famous legal battles of the 1970s. Bryant was born September 18, 1911, in Wetumpka, Alabama. He moved to Washington, D.C., with his family when he was a child and attended District of Columbia public schools. He graduated from Howard University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1932, and went on to earn his…
James Bryce, also known as the Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, was born May 10, 1838, in Belfast, Ireland. He attended Glasgow and Heidelberg Universities and received a bachelor of arts degree from Oxford University in 1862. Bryce entered Parliament in 1880 and remained a member until 1907. During this time, he also performed diplomatic duties—serving as undersecretary of foreign affairs in 18…
James Buchanan achieved prominence as a statesman and as the fifteenth president of the United States. Buchanan became unpopular in 1854 with his involvement in the creation of the Ostend Manifesto, which provided for the purchase by the United States of Cuba from Spain; if Spain refused to sell, the manifesto gave the United States the right to seize the country forcibly. Cuba would then become a…
Born November 2, 1938, in the nation's capital, Buchanan was the third of nine children of William Baldwin Buchanan and Catherine E. Crum Buchanan. He grew up under the resolute influences of Catholicism and conservatism, both the hallmarks of his father, a certified public accountant. Buchanan's brilliance at the Jesuit Gonzaga College High School earned him the honor of class valed…
In 1924 the state of Virginia passed a law that provided for the sterilization of "mental defectives" and "feeble-minded" persons who were confined to certain state institutions, when, in the judgment of the superintendents of those institutions, "the best interests of the patients and of society" would be served by their being made incapable of producing …
The criminal offense of anal or oral copulation by penetration of the male organ into the anus or mouth of another person of either sex or copulation between members of either sex with an animal. …
An organization that exists to accumulate a fund, composed of subscriptions and savings of its members, to help facilitate the purchase or construction of real estate by such members by lending them the necessary funds. …
A series of ordinances enacted by a state or local governmental entity, establishing minimum requirements that must be met in the construction and maintenance of buildings. Building codes have been used by governmental units for centuries to ensure that buildings remain safe and sanitary. Early settlements in the United States drafted codes for such purposes as restrictions on the use of wooden ch…
A building line is also known as the "set back" requirement. …
The organization was established in 1915 by building officials from nine states and Canada. Their purpose was to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas about building safety and construction regulation. In 1950, BOCA published the BOCA Basic Building Code. This was the organization's first model code. Within one year, the BOCA code had been adopted by fifty cities. BOCA cur…
A sale of all or most of the materials, supplies, merchandise, or other inventory of a business at one time that is not normally done in the ordinary course of the seller's business. A bulk transfer is not the same as a secured transaction. …
A printing of public notices and announcements that discloses the progress of matters affecting the general public and which usually includes provisions for public comment. A summarized report of a newsworthy item for immediate release to the public. The official publication of an association, business, or institution. …
The onus on a party to refute or to explain evidence presented in a case. The burden of going forward, also called the burden of producing evidence, burden of production, or the burden of proceeding, requires a party in a lawsuit to refute or explain each item of evidence introduced that damages or discredits his or her position in the action, as a trial progresses. Suppose a person is charged wit…
The duty of a party to plead a matter to be heard in a lawsuit. The onus on the defendant to introduce or raise the defense for consideration in the lawsuit. This concept is also referred to as burden of allegation. …
A duty placed upon a civil or criminal defendant to prove or disprove a disputed fact. Burden of proof can define the duty placed upon a party to prove or disprove a disputed fact, or it can define which party bears this burden. In criminal cases, the burden of proof is placed on the prosecution, who must demonstrate that the defendant is guilty before a jury may convict him or her. But in some ju…
A system of administration wherein there is a specialization of functions, objective qualifications for office, action according to the adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority and delegated power. Organizations such as the armed forces or administrative agencies are common examples of bureaucracies. …
Warren Earl Burger was a self-made man who rose from modest origins to become the fifteenth chief justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. Burger was admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1931, then entered private practice in St. Paul with Boyesen, Otis, and Faricy. He became a partner in 1935, and the firm was renamed Faricy, Burger, Moore, and Costello. Burger concentrated his practice in corporate law, …
The criminal offense of breaking and entering a building illegally for the purpose of committing a crime. …
Edmund Burke was an orator, philosophical writer, political theorist, and member of Parliament who helped shape political thought in England and the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Burke was born January 12, 1729, in Dublin, Ireland, to a Protestant father and a Roman Catholic mother. His father, a prosperous Dublin attorney, was cold and authoritarian, and…
Jean Jacques Burlamaqui achieved prominence as a Swiss jurist and legal author. Burlamaqui died April 3, 1748, in Geneva, Switzerland. …
David Gouverneur Burnet centered his career efforts in Texas. Burnet was born April 4, 1788, in Newark, New Jersey. Before entering politics, Burnet served under Francisco de Miranda in 1806 in an endeavor to liberate Venezuela from Spain. He also studied law and pursued careers in business and speculation. Burnet relocated to Texas and presided as a Texas district judge in 1834. In 1836 he partic…
Aaron Burr was a soldier, lawyer, and politician and the third vice president of the United States. Burr was born February 6, 1756, in Newark, New Jersey. His family traced its ancestry to the Pilgrims and through hundreds of years of English gentry with many members who were prominent in government and politics. Both his parents died when he was young and he and his sister were raised in comforta…
Burton was born June 22, 1888, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He attended Bowdoin College, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated summa cum laude in 1909. He then entered Harvard Law School where he received his bachelor of laws degree in 1912. He married Selma Florence Smith and the couple set out to take advantage of opportunity in the burgeoning Midwest. They settled in Cleveland …
Born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush was the son of Prescott Sheldon Bush, an international banker and U.S. senator from Connecticut, and Dorothy Walker Bush, the daughter of a wealthy St. Louis businessman. Both parents had a tremendous influence on Bush, who was unpretentious and hardworking despite his privileged background. As a young boy, Bush attended Greenwich Country Day Scho…
Bush's biggest oil venture, however, proved controversial. During the late 1970s, he built a small, thriving company called Bush Exploration. When the energy market turned soft in the early 1980s, Bush Exploration, like many oil enterprises, floundered. In 1983, Bush merged his outfit with Spectrum 7; three years later Spectrum 7 was bought by Harken Energy. Bush's supporters said th…
A commercial venture or an occupation that has become subject to governmental regulation by virtue of its offering essential services or products to the community at large. A business affected with a public interest remains the property of its owner, but the community is considered to have such a stake in its operation that it becomes subject to public regulation to the extent of that interest. …
The law requires employers with one hundred or more employees to provide their workers with sixty days' layoff notice when fifty or more workers at a single site will lose their jobs and when affected workers will constitute at least one-third of that site's work force. If 500 or more employees are laid off, however, such notice is required regardless of the percentage of site worker…
The directors and officers of a corporation are responsible for managing and directing the business and affairs of the corporation. They often face difficult questions concerning whether to acquire other businesses, sell assets, expand into other areas of business, or issue stocks and dividends. They may also face potential hostile takeovers by other businesses. To help directors and officers meet…
A rule of evidence that allows routine entries made customarily in financial records, or business logs or files kept in the regular course of business, to be introduced as proof in a lawsuit when the person who made such notations is not available to testify. …
The Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers (CEOs) representing the top corporations in the United States, joined together to examine and advocate for public policy that will "foster vigorous economic growth and a dynamic global economy." Established in 1972 by 200 leading executives from major U.S. corporations, the Roundtable was founded upon the idea that…
An unincorporated business organization created by a legal document, a declaration of trust, and used in place of a corporation or partnership for the transaction of various kinds of business with limited liability. A business trust is similar to a traditional trust in that its trustees are given legal title to the trust property to administer it for the advantage of its beneficiaries who hold equ…
In order to be liable in negligence, the defendant's conduct must constitute the proximate cause, or direct cause, of the plaintiff's injury. The concept of proximate cause encompasses both legal cause and factual cause, and the "but for" rule pertains to the latter. It is also referred to as the sine qua non rule, which means "without which not," or an in…
Butler entered politics in 1827, serving in the New York State Legislature for six years. He subsequently acted as U.S. attorney general from 1833 to 1838; during this time he also fulfilled the duties of secretary of war from 1836 to 1837. In 1838, Butler returned to New York and served as U.S. district attorney from 1838 to 1841 and from 1845 to 1848. Butler died November 8, 1858, in Paris,…
Benjamin Franklin Butler achieved prominence as a politician and military officer. Butler was born November 5, 1818, in Deer-field, New Hampshire. After graduating in 1838 from Waterbury College, now known as Colby College, Butler was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840. Elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853 and the Massachusetts Senate in 1859, he also served a tour …
Charles Henry Butler served as the Supreme Court reporter of decisions from 1902 to 1916. While reporter, Butler edited and published volumes 187 to 241 of the United States Reports, the official publication of the opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court. During his tenure with the Court, he also was a delegate to the Hague Peace Conference in 1907. He later authored A Century at the Bar of the Supreme…
Many of Butler's later views were shaped by his frontier childhood. Butler was born on St. Pierce Butler. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Patrick's Day, March 17, 1866, in a log cabin in Dakota County, Minnesota. His parents had emigrated from County Wicklow, Ireland, to escape the potato famine of 1848, and eventually established their farm only a few miles from Carleton College, in Nort…
The rules and regulations enacted by an association or a corporation to provide a framework for its operation and management. Bylaws may specify the qualifications, rights, and liabilities of membership, and the powers, duties, and grounds for the dissolution of an organization. …
An example of bylaws Despite these significant contributions, Byrnes was not happy on the Court. He wanted to be more actively involved in the country's war effort. In October 1942, after only sixteen months on the Court, Byrnes resigned his seat. He left the Court at the request of President Roosevelt to become director of the newly created Office of Economi…
The counsel or group of advisers of a king or other chief executive of a government. A group of individuals who advise the president of the United States. …
The cable TV industry exploded from modest beginnings in the 1950s into a service that by 2003 reached 69 percent of all U.S. households that had television. Cable was initially a response to a need for improved transmission in areas where signals were weak or nonexistent. By the 1960s, consumers began to demand not only better reception but also more signals. This demand fueled the exponential gr…
Edmond Nathaniel Cahn was the author of numerous publications including The Sense of Injustice (1949), The Moral Decision (1955), and The Edmond Cahn Reader (1966). After his admission to the Louisiana bar in 1927 and the New York bar in 1928, Cahn established a law firm in New York City where he practiced law from 1927 to 1950. He extended his career interests to the field of education and taught…
A list of cases that are awaiting trial or other settlement, often called a trial list or docket. A special calendar is an all-inclusive listing of cases awaiting trial; it contains dates for trial, names of counsel, and the estimated time required for trial. It is maintained by a trial judge in some states and by a court clerk in others. Calendar call is a court session during which the cases tha…
In 1808, Calhoun entered politics, beginning as a member of the South Carolina legislature. Three years later, he began his career in federal government, representing South Carolina in the House of Representatives until 1817. During his tenure, he performed the duties of acting chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and in 1811 was a member of the War Hawks, a group that advocated war with E…
To convoke or summon by public announcement; to request the appearance and participation of several people—such as a call of a jury to serve, a roll call, a call of public election, or a call of names of the members of a legislative body. In contract law, the demand for the payment of money according to the contract terms, usually by formal notice. In securities, a contract that gives a per…
A provision in an agreement between a private individual and a foreign state that says, in effect, that "aliens are not entitled to rights and privileges not accorded to nationals, and that, therefore, they may seek redress for grievances only before local authorities." Under the Calvo Clause, a claimant waives the right to apply to his or her government or to another forum for prote…
To be in camera is to be in private or in chambers. …
Developments in the 1970s changed the picture. Technology had improved, making TV cameras far less disruptive, and the electronic media was demanding the same access to trials enjoyed by the print media. The ABA became much more tentative about its hard-line position. Its Committee on Fair Trial-Free Press recommended that the ABA revise its standards. Encouraged to experiment, a number of states …
In 1992, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a rancher, teacher, judo champion, and jewelry designer became the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate in more than 60 years. Campbell was born April 13, 1933, in Auburn, California, the son of Albert Valdez Campbell, who was part Northern Cheyenne Indian, and Mary Vierra, a Portuguese immigrant. His mother was a patient and occasional employee at a …
John Campbell, also known as First Baron Campbell, was born September 15, 1779, in Scotland. He was admitted to the bar in 1806 and pursued a career in British law and politics. As an author, Campbell is famous for Lives of the Lord Chancellors, published from 1845 to 1847, and for Lives of the Chief Justices, published from 1849 to 1857. Campbell died June 23, 1861, in London, England. …
John Archibald Campbell was a politician, a statesman, and an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court during the turbulent years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War. Born June 24, 1811, in Washington, Georgia, the son of a prominent landowner and lawyer, Campbell was a child of exceptional intellectual ability. He entered Franklin College (now the University of Georgia) at the age of eleve…
When he was named to the federal bench at age thirty-five in 1940, William J. Campbell was the youngest judge ever appointed; at the time of his death, he was the longest-tenured federal judge in the United States, with almost fifty years of service to his credit. Shortly after passing the bar in 1927, Campbell partnered with a longtime friend to open the law firm of Campbell and Burns. The new fi…
On the administrative level it created a temporary body for resolving disputes, the binational Extraordinary Challenge Committee, which was given a seven-year commission to hear appeals. Not surprisingly, this issue had been the most troublesome during the negotiations preceding the FTA; it proved slightly problematic in practice, too, with the United States generally losing its complaints. Noneth…
Artificial channels for the conveyance of water, used for navigation, transportation, drainage, or irrigation of land. As a general rule, states supervise the construction and operation of canals by private canal companies. The site of the canal is selected by the state. State law determines the manner of acquiring property used for construction or maintenance of canals. Condemnation or appropriat…
A plaintiff is entitled to have an instrument canceled only if he or she has acted equitably in dealings with the defendant. The principles of equity apply to any case in which this equitable remedy is sought. …
Any church's or religion's laws, rules, and regulations; more commonly, the written policies that guide the administration and religious ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the fourth century, the Roman Catholic Church has been developing regulations that have had some influence on secular (non-church-related) legal procedures. These regulations are called canons and are c…
Canon law is the set of rules a church or religion establishes for itself in order to make administrative and ecclesiastical (religious) decisions. The Roman Catholic Church has an elaborate body of canon law that has been evolving since the fourth century and which has played a historical role in the development of public law. The society's written opinions are advisory only and carry no a…
The system of basic rules and maxims applied by a court to aid in its interpretation of a written document, such as a statute or contract. In the case of a statute, certain canons of construction can help a court ascertain what the drafters of the statute—usually Congress or a state legislature—meant by the language used in the law. When a dispute involves a contract, a court will ap…
The canons of ethics have been replaced by the code of Professional Responsibility which sets forth the standards of professional conduct prescribed for lawyers in their professional dealings. …
The ability, capability, or fitness to do something; a legal right, power, or competency to perform some act. An ability to comprehend both the nature and consequences of one's acts. Capacity relates to soundness of mind and to an intelligent understanding and perception of one's actions. It is the power either to create or to enter into a legal relation under the same conditions or …
[Latin, That you take.] The name for several different kinds of writs, or court orders, all of which require an officer to take the defendant into custody. For example, a capias ad audiendum judicium is a writ that orders the defendant brought back before the court after an appearance in which the person has been found guilty of a misdemeanor. A capias ad satisfaciendum orders the sheriff to take …
Property held by a taxpayer, such as houses, cars, stocks, bonds, and jewelry, or a building owned by a corporation to furnish facilities for its employees. The determination of what constitutes a capital asset is essential to the tax treatment of the profits from the sale of property as capital gains, which are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. …
The lawful infliction of death as a punishment; the death penalty. Capital punishment continues to be used in the United States despite controversy over its merits and over its effectiveness as a deterrent to serious crime. A sentence of death may be carried out by one of five lawful means: electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, gas chamber, and firing squad. As of 2003, 38 states employed capi…
All shares constituting ownership of a business, including common stock and preferred stock. The amount of shares that a corporate charter requires to be subscribed and paid, or secured to be paid, by shareholders. The amount of stock that a corporation may issue; the amount actually contributed, subscribed, or secured to be paid on. The liability of the corporation to its shareholders after credi…
The owner of a business may capitalize the expense of renovating a factory to maximize his or her after-tax profits, since such expenses may be used to decrease the pretax profits, thereby reducing the amount of profits subject to taxation. An individual may compute the net worth of shares of stock, in order to treat them as capital assets for income tax purposes. Such treatment often results in m…
An assessment levied by the government upon a person at a fixed rate regardless of income or worth. Since it is a tax upon the individual, and not upon merchandise, a capitation tax is frequently labeled a head tax. A poll tax is a capitation tax. …
Capone was born January 17, 1899, in Naples, Italy. His family emigrated from Naples, Italy, to New York and Capone was raised in the Brooklyn slums. During his early years in New York he made strong gangland contacts and in 1920, he became a member of the John Torrio gang. Torrio, originally from New York, relocated his operation to Chicago, with Capone at his side. An appeal was pursued and Capo…
The standardized heading of a legal instrument, such as a motion or a complaint, which sets forth the names of the parties in controversy, the name of the court, the docket number, and the name of the action. …
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was a New York state court judge, an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, and an influential legal scholar. In 1913, after twenty-three years in private practice, Cardozo was nominated and elected as a judge on the New York Supreme Court, the state's trial-level bench. Only six weeks later, he was designated to serve temporarily as an associate judge on the C…
In the law of negligence, the standard of reasonable conduct determines the amount of care to be exercised in a situation. The care taken must be proportional to the apparent risk. As danger increases, commensurate caution must be observed. Slight care is the care persons of ordinary prudence generally exercise in regard to their personal affairs of minimal importance. Reasonable care, also known …
The criminal taking of a motor vehicle from its driver by force, violence, or intimidation. Carjackers are often thought by the public to target older persons, women, and tourists—groups of conspicuous vulnerability. However, statistics from 1992 to 1996 show that individuals between the ages of 25 and 49 were more likely to be the victims of such a crime (3.6 out of every 10,000 persons) t…
Carmichael was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on June 29, 1941. Two years later, he was placed in a private school, as his father, mother, and two sisters immigrated to the United States. At school he earned the nickname Little Man for his quick intelligence and precocious awareness, traits that had him urging his aunt to vote when he was turned away from polling booths at the age of seven. He r…
Copulation; the act of a man having sexual relations with a woman. Penetration is an essential element of sexual intercourse, and there is carnal knowledge if even the slightest penetration of the female by the male organ takes place. It is not required that the hymen be ruptured or the vagina entered. …
Matthew Hale Carpenter was born December 22, 1824, in Moretown, Vermont. He attended the U.S. Military Academy from 1843 to 1845 and was admitted to the Vermont bar in 1847. His real name was Decatur Merritt Hammond Carpenter and although he was educated in Vermont, he established his public career in Wisconsin. Carpenter died February 24, 1881, in Washington, D.C. …
Colloquial term used to describe northern judges during the post-Civil War era who traveled to the South to serve on southern courts, typically for personal gain. "Carpetbag" refers to the judges's practice of carrying their possessions with them in carpetbags. Threatened with impeachment, many of these judges left the bench. Not all the charges against the carpetbag judges we…
Individuals or businesses that are employed to deliver people or property to an agreed destination. The two main types of carriers are common carriers and private carriers. A common carrier, such as a railroad, airline, or business that offers public transportation, customarily transports property and individuals from one location to another, thus offering its services for the hire of the general …
The right of an individual or organization that publicly advertises itself for hire for the transportation of goods to keep possession of the cargo it has delivered to a destination until the person who is liable to pay the freight charges plus any other expenses incurred by its shipment has done so. Not all carriers are automatically entitled to have a lien for nonpayment of freight charges. A pr…
Edward Codrington Carrington was born April 10, 1872, in Washington, D.C. He was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1894 and established his legal practice in Baltimore, specializing in corporation law. Carrington initiated proceedings in Maryland to combine the Progressives once again with the Republicans, and in 1914 he was nominated by the Republicans for a seat in the U.S. Senate, but was defeate…
The Carrington Report represented the combined efforts of a committee of legal scholars, but Professor Carrington, due to his role as chairperson, was instrumental in compiling the report. It aroused some controversy among legal educators and commentators at the time of its publication because of the extensiveness of its proposed changes in legal education, particularly in terms of revisions of la…
The designation of the process by which net operating loss for one year may be applied, as provided by federal tax law, to each of several taxable years following the taxable year of such loss. …
Payments made to satisfy expenses incurred as a result of ownership of property, such as land taxes and mortgage payments. Disbursements paid to creditors, in addition to interest, for extending credit. …
Carswell also suffered a reputation as a legal lightweight. His opponents noted that a dismal 58 percent of Carswell's judicial decisions had been overruled by higher courts. In a vote of no confidence, the Ripon Society, a Republican group, rated Carswell's performance as a federal judge well below the average level of competence. A slim majority of senators refused to support a jur…
In war, an agreement between two hostile powers for the delivery of prisoners or deserters, or authorizing certain nonhostile intercourse between each other that would otherwise be prevented by the state of war, for example, agreements between enemies for intercommunication by post, telegraph, telephone, or railway. Although illegal in the United States, foreign cartels influence prices within the…
James Coolidge Carter was a lawyer and leading legal scholar and philosopher of the late nineteenth century. Born into a poor family on October 14, 1827, in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Carter attended Derby Academy in Hingham, Massachusetts. In 1846 he entered Harvard College. An outstanding student, he graduated fourth in his class in 1850. He then moved to New York City to work as a private tutor …
Carter's ambition was naval service. Preparing to enter the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, he studied mathematics at Georgia Southwestern College and then the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1943, he Jimmy Carter. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS entered Annapolis; he graduated in the top tenth of his class with a bachelor of sciences degree. Soon he married a long-time acquaintan…
Carter was born March 11, 1917, in Careyville, Florida. As a child he moved to New Jersey, where he attended public schools in Newark and East Orange. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, in 1937, then went on to earn a bachelor of laws degree from Howard University Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1940. He also earned a master of laws degree f…
Thomas Henry Carter, born October 30, 1854, in Scioto County, Ohio, concentrated his career efforts in Montana. He pursued legal studies and relocated to Helena in 1882 where he established a successful law practice. Carter entered a new phase of his career in 1895 when he became a U.S. senator. He represented Montana until 1901 and again from 1905 to 1911. During his tenure he supported various p…
An action in which the parties submit a formal written enumeration of facts that they both accept as correct and complete so that a judge can render a decision based upon conclusions of law that can be drawn from the stated facts. A case agreed on is also known as an amicable action, a case stated, or a friendly suit. …
Legal principles enunciated and embodied in judicial decisions that are derived from the application of particular areas of law to the facts of individual cases. As opposed to statutes—legislative acts that proscribe certain conduct by demanding or prohibiting something or that declare the legality of particular acts—case law is a dynamic and constantly developing body of law. Each c…
A system of instruction or study of law focused upon the analysis of court opinions rather than lectures and textbooks; the predominant method of teaching in U.S. law schools today. Langdell viewed the law as a science and believed that it should be studied as a science. Law, he said, Each doctrine, Langdell said, arrived at its present state by slow degrees, growing and extending through centurie…
A term used in Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution to describe the structure by which actual, conflicting claims of individuals must be brought before a federal court for resolution if the court is to exercise its jurisdiction to consider the questions and provide relief. …
A case stated is also called an amicable action, a case agreed on, or a friendly suit. …
Sir Roger David Casement pursued an illustrious career in the British Foreign Service. His achievements were overshadowed by his campaign for Irish nationalism, which eventually led to his trial and execution. Sir Roger Casement. Casement was born September 1, 1864, in Dublin, Ireland. From 1892 to 1904 and from 1906 to 1911, Casement made several noteworthy contributions to the field of Br…
Known for his hard-driving and sometimes confrontational management style, Casey won early praise for improving the CIA's analytical work. But he also drew heavy criticism for the agency's political activity outside the United States when the CIA stepped up its support for anti-Communist organizations in developing countries. Under Casey the agency engaged in intelligence operations …
A method of accounting that considers only money actually received as income and only money actually paid out as expense. …
The amount of money that an insurance company pays the insured upon cancellation of a life insurance policy before death and which is a specific figure assigned to the policy at that particular time, reduced by a charge for administrative expenses. The cash surrender value of an insurance policy is not based upon its actual value, but upon its reserve value—the face amount of the contract d…
Irregular, occasional, or accidental; happening without being planned or foreseen. The term is used to describe an event that is unanticipated or unusual. A casual sale is one that is not customary, or done in the usual course of business—such as a jeweler occasionally selling vacuum cleaners. …
A serious or fatal accident. A person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed. A disastrous occurrence due to sudden, unexpected, or unusual cause. Accident; misfortune or mishap; that which comes by chance or without design. A loss from such an event or cause, as by fire, shipwreck, lightning, etc. An inevitable casualty is one that occurs through no fault of anyone. It happens totally without desig…
That which is unqualified or unconditional. A categorical imperative is a rule, command, or moral obligation that is absolutely and universally binding. …
John Dean Caton was born March 19, 1812, in Monroe, New York. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1835. He achieved success in various fields of public service and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Hamilton College in 1866. In 1834 the first political convention was held in Illinois and Caton participated as its secretary as well as a member. He served on the Illinois Supreme Cour…
Catron was the descendant of poor, German immigrants. He was probably born in Pennsylvania around 1786—some sources cite his birth as early as 1779, however. His father, Peter Catron, worked with horses in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and moved to Kentucky in 1804, hoping to establish his own horse farm. Catron grew up with little formal education. He supported himself and his family by herdi…
[Latin, In contemplation of approaching death.] A phrase sometimes used in reference to a deathbed gift, or a gift causa mortis, since the giving of the gift is made in expectation of approaching death. A gift causa mortis is distinguishable from a gift inter vivos, which is a gift made during the donor's (the giver's) lifetime. For example, an elderly man is suffering from pneumonia…
Each separate antecedent of an event. Something that precedes and brings about an effect or a result. A reason for an action or condition. A ground of a legal action. An agent that brings something about. That which in some manner is accountable for a condition that brings about an effect or that produces a cause for the resultant action or state. A suit, litigation, or action. Any question, civil…
[French, famous case.] A trial or lawsuit in which the subject matter or a participant is particularly newsworthy, unusual, or sensational and that typically attracts a great deal of media attention. For example, the case of Scott Peterson, accused of the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, was a cause célèbre in 2003. …
The fact or combination of facts that gives a person the right to seek judicial redress or relief against another. Also, the legal theory forming the basis of a lawsuit. …
[Latin, Let him beware.] A warning; admonition. A formal notice or warning given by an interested party to a court, judge, or ministerial officer in opposition to certain acts within his or her power and jurisdiction. Originally, a caveat was a document that could be served on either a judge or a public official to give him or her notice that he or she should discontinue a certain proceeding until…
[Latin, Let the buyer beware.] A warning that notifies a buyer that the goods he or she is buying are "as is," or subject to all defects. When a sale