The practice or custom observed by a political official of filling government positions with qualified employees of his or her own choosing. When the candidate of a political party wins an election, the newly elected official has the right to appoint a certain numbers of persons to jobs in the government. This is the essence of the patronage system, also known as the spoils system ("To the …
Paul was born on January 11, 1885, in Moorestown, New Jersey. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1905 and then went to England to do graduate work. While in England, Paul became involved with the British suffragettes and received three jail sentences for participating in militant actions. She returned to the United States in 1910 and continued her graduate work at the University of Pennsylva…
Peckham was born in Albany, New York, on November 8, 1838, into a family of prominent lawyers and judges. He attended private schools and studied abroad as a young man. He read the law in his father's Albany law office and was admitted to the New York bar in 1859, following the lead of his older brother, Wheeler Hazard Peckham. After almost ten years in private practice, he began his career…
A device that decodes or records electronic impulses, allowing outgoing numbers from a telephone to be identified. The use of pen registers is governed by a 1986 federal statute, Pen Registers and Trap and Trace Devices (18 U.S.C.A. §§ 3121–3127). The statute also governs the use of trap devices, which are used to identify the originating number from which the wire or electron…
The discretionary power of a federal court to permit the assertion of a related state law claim, along with a federal claim between the same parties, properly before the court, provided that the federal claim and the state law claim derive from the same set of facts. Pendent jurisdiction is a rule of judicial convenience and efficiency. If federal courts could not hear state law claims, many plain…
George Hunt Pendleton was a prominent nineteenth-century lawyer, congressman, senator, and ambassador who played the central role in passing the Civil Service Act, also known as the Pendleton Act of 1883 (5 U.S.C.A. § 1101 et seq.). The Pendleton Act established a federal civil service system that was based on merit rather than on political patronage. After the war Pendleton became the…
In 1776 Pennsylvania enacted its first state constitution in direct response to the Declaration of Independence and the instructions of the Second Continental Congress to the colonies to reject British rule. Dedicated to the idea of placing authority in the hands of the people, and specifying a broad range of rights, the constitution proved to be controversial. Over the next fourteen years, critic…
A benefit, usually money, paid regularly to retired employees or their survivors by private businesses and federal, state, and local governments. Employers are not required to establish pension benefits but do so to attract qualified employees. Employers establish pension plans by paying a certain amount of money into a pension fund. The money paid into this fund is not taxed to the employer, and …
The rights guaranteed by implication in a constitution or the implied powers of a rule. Justice Cardozo's use of the penumbra metaphor in opinions written between 1934 and 1941 was similar to Holmes's application, but Justice Douglas took a different approach. Rather than using it to highlight the difficulty of drawing lines or determining the meaning of words or concepts, he used th…
Newkirk became increasingly horrified at the inhumane treatment of animals that she encountered in her work, particularly in socalled "factory farms," which confine hundreds to thousands of animals (usually chickens, pigs, turkeys, or cows) in one facility, and in research laboratories. While other organizations are dedicated to seeing that animals are treated humanely, none is as ra…
[Latin, By roots or stocks; by representation.] A term used to denote a method used in dividing the estate of a person. A person who takes per stirpes, sometimes called by right of representation, does not inherit in an individual capacity but as a member of a group. In a per stirpes distribution, a group represents a deceased ancestor. The group takes the proportional share to which the dece…
The right to challenge a juror without assigning, or being required to assign, a reason for the challenge. During the selection of a jury, both parties to the proceeding may challenge prospective jurors for a lack of impartiality, known as a challenge for cause. A party may challenge an unlimited number of prospective jurors for cause. Parties also may exercise a limited number of peremptory chall…
A crime that occurs when an individual willfully makes a false statement during a judicial proceeding, after he or she has taken an oath to speak the truth. The punishment for perjury in most states, and under federal law, is the imposition of a fine, imprisonment, or both. Federal law also imposes sentencing enhancements when the court determines that a defendant has falsely testified on her own …
Perkins was born April 10, 1880, in Boston, and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. After graduating from Worcester Classical High School, Perkins attended Mount Holyoke College, where she studied physics and chemistry and was class president. As a senior at Mount Holyoke, Perkins was influenced by Jacob A. Riis's 1890 book How the Other Half Lives and by a speech given by Florence Kelley, …
A claim by a defendant opposing the claim of the plaintiff and seeking some relief from the plaintiff for the defendant. The compulsory counterclaim arises from the same transaction or occurrence that forms the basis of the plaintiff's suit. For example, a car accident between two drivers leads to a personal injury lawsuit, but the defendant asserts in a compulsory counterclaim that the pla…
The phrase interested person refers to heirs, devisees, children, spouses, creditors, beneficiaries, and any others having a property right in, or a claim against, a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward, or protected person. It also refers to personal representatives and to fiduciaries. …
The power of a court to hear and determine a lawsuit involving a defendant by virtue of the defendant's having some contact with the place where the court is located. Personal jurisdiction, also known as in personam (against the person) jurisdiction, gives a court the authority to make decisions binding on the persons involved in a civil case. Every state has personal jurisdiction over pers…
Everything that is the subject of ownership that does not come under the denomination of real property; any right or interest that an individual has in movable things. A gift is a voluntary transfer of personalty from one individual to another without compensation or consideration or the exchange of something of value. There are two main categories of gifts: inter vivos gifts, a voluntary, uncondi…
A person who manages the financial affairs of another person who is unable to do so. A personal representative is one kind of fiduciary—an individual whom another has trusted to manage her property and money. When a person dies, a personal representative generally is required to settle the decedent's financial affairs. In some instances, a living person may need a personal representa…
The actual delivery of process to the individual to whom it is directed or to someone authorized to receive it on his or her behalf. Personal service of the complaint and summons is a form of actual notice. Actual notice occurs when the summons and complaint are delivered personally to the respondent. The two other basic forms of process service are substituted service and constructive service. Su…
A written application from a person or persons to some governing body or public official asking that some authority be exercised to grant relief, favors, or privileges. A formal application made to a court in writing that requests action on a certain matter. Petitions are also directed to courts of law and administrative agencies and boards. A petition may be made ex parte (without the presence of…
A presentation of photographs to a victim or witness of a crime. A photo lineup, also known as a photo array and or photo display, is a procedure used by law enforcement personnel to discover or confirm the identity of a criminal suspect. Generally a police officer shows a set of photographs to a victim or witness and asks whether he or she recognizes one of the persons in the photo-graphs as the …
Physicians and surgeons are medical practitioners who treat illness and injury by prescribing medication, performing diagnostic tests and evaluations, performing surgery, and providing other medical services and advice. Physicians and surgeons are highly trained and duly authorized by law to practice medicine. Statutes and regulations carefully regulate who may use the title "doctor."…
Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsboro, New Hampshire. His parents were Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce. Pierce graduated from Bowdoin College in 1824 and returned home to take over his father's duties as postmaster, after his father entered politics. Pierce studied law with a local attorney and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in 1827. In that same year his father was el…
Pierrepont was born on March 4, 1817, in North Haven, Connecticut. When baptized, he was given the name Munson Edwards Pierpont. He legally discarded his given first name and changed the spelling of his family name. He graduated from Yale University in 1837 and Yale Law School in 1840 and then moved to Columbus, Ohio, to open his first law practice. By 1845 he had returned to the East Coast and en…
In maritime law, a person who assumes responsibility for a vessel at a particular place for the purpose of navigating it through a river or channel, or from or into a port. The captain, or master, of a large ship has total command in the high seas. However, when a ship enters or leaves a port, or enters a river or channel, the captain turns over navigation to a local pilot. Because of safety and c…
Pinkerton Agents, hired as strikebreakers, surrendered to armed miners during the 1892 Homestead Strike in Pennsylvania. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Allan Pinkerton established offices throughout the country. A Pinkerton innovation was photographing criminals after arrest. The "mug shot" soon was adopted by police departments. By the 1870s the Pinkerton agency had the largest collec…
Pinkerton was born on August 25, 1819, in Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a police sergeant, but as a young man Pinkerton did not seek a police job. Instead he apprenticed as a cooper and learned to make barrels. In 1842, after he completed his apprenticeship, Pinkerton emigrated to the United States. He settled in Chicago and set up a cooper's shop. In 1843 Pinkerton moved his business t…
In 1787 Pinkney established a law practice in rural Harford County, Maryland. With encouragement from Chase, he also became active in local politics. In 1788 he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, the lower house of the legislative assembly. In the legislature, Pinkney established a reputation as an eloquent speaker and a skillful lawmaker. By 1792 Pinkney had left his seat in the hous…
Piracy is a crime with ancient origins. As long as there have been ships at sea, pirates have sought to steal from them. Internationally, laws against piracy have ancient origins, too, but U.S. law developed chiefly in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The power to criminalize piracy originated in the U.S. Constitution, which was followed by the first federal law in 1790 and crucial revisions…
Mahlon Pitney served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1912 to 1922. A lawyer, legislator, and New Jersey Supreme Court judge before his appointment, Pitney was a judicial conservative who believed in "liberty of contract" and who generally opposed efforts to protect the right of workers to join unions. Pitney was born on February 5, 1858, in Morristown, New Jers…
The act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation. Plagiarism can take a broad range of forms. At its simplest and most extreme, plagiarism involves putting one's own name on someoneelse's work; this is commonly seen in schools when a student submits a paper that so…