The U.S. Jaycees (Jaycees) was founded as the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1920. It is a national organization, which at the time of the litigation had more than 235,000 members. The national organization set membership requirements for local chapters, one of which limited membership to men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. When the Minneapolis and St. Paul chapters of the Jaycees adm…
In fact, the Robinson-Patman Act has been severely criticized throughout its history, both for its poor drafting and the economic theory behind it. Even the Supreme Court has criticized the act on more than one occasion, stating in 1952 that it is "complicated and vague in itself and even more so in its context. Indeed, the Court of Appeals seems to have thought it almost beyond understandi…
Spottswood W. Robinson III. BETTMANN/CORBIS Robinson was born on July 26, 1916, in Richmond, Virginia. He attended Virginia Union University and received his LL.B. degree from Howard University School of Law in 1939. He joined the Howard Law School faculty immediately after graduation and served as a professor of law until 1948. Robinson was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1943. …
Rochin was tried and convicted of narcotics possession. The conviction was based solely on the morphine capsules, though Rochin unsuccessfully challenged their admission. After the California appellate courts upheld the conviction, Rochin filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The police conduct here did more than offend "private sentimentalism about combating crime too energetically.…
Caesar Augustus Rodney served as U.S. attorney general from 1807 to 1811. His term as attorney general was unusual in that he served in both the Jefferson and Madison administrations. A member of a prominent Delaware family, Rodney held many positions in state government as well as in the federal government. Rodney was born on January 4, 1772, in Dover, Delaware. His father was Thomas Rodney, …
Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe in the abortion case of Roe v. Wade, withdrew her support from pro-choice groups and is now a pro-life activist. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS that a defendant in a pending state criminal case cannot affirmatively challenge in federal court the statutes under which the state is prosecuting him or her (Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S. Ct. 764, 27 L. Ed. 2d 688…
Rogers's career shifted from state to federal government in the late 1940s. In 1947 and 1948, he was chief counsel of the Senate War Investigating Committee, becoming chief counsel of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1949. In November 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Rogers to be attorney general. Rogers continued to enforce civil rights laws and to promo…
Romans divided the law into jus scriptum, written law, and jus non scriptum, unwritten law. The unwritten law was based on custom and usage, while the written law came from legislation and many types of written sources, including edicts and proclamations issued by magistrates, resolutions of the Roman Senate, laws issued by the emperor, and legal disquisitions of prominent lawyers. Roman law conce…
Roosevelt's childhood was lonely; she had an emotionally detached mother and a loving but alcoholic father. Both parents died by the time Eleanor was ten years old. A serious, timid child, Roosevelt was sent by her grandmother in 1899 to Allenswood, a private girls' school near London. There she overcame her shyness and became an active, well-liked student. When Roosevelt returned to…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Roosevelt attended Columbia University Law School but left without receiving a degree when he passed the New York bar exam in 1907. Roosevelt was nominated for vice president on the 1920 Democratic party ticket. He waged Roosevelt's life changed in August 1921, when he was stricken with poliomyelitis while vacationing at Campobello…
Theodore ("Teddy") Roosevelt served as the twenty-sixth president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. A writer, explorer, and soldier, as well as a politician, Roosevelt distinguished himself as president by advocating conservation of natural resources, waging legal battles against Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Roosevelt was born on October…
Morton Sobell (born April 11, 1917), a former employee of the Naval Bureau of Ordnance, was also indicted for conspiracy to commit espionage with the Rosenbergs and was named as a codefendant. During June 1950, Sobell fled to Mexico with his wife under an assumed name. After being apprehended and extradited back to the United States, Sobell was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years in …
As the head of the largest branch of the Cherokee nation from 1828 to 1866, John Ross led the Cherokee through a period of profound cultural change. Under Ross's leadership, the Cherokee nation engaged in a historic and controversial legal battle to preserve their sovereignty and underwent a disastrous forced march from Georgia to Oklahoma. Ross was born near Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, on…
On January 5, 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first female governor in U.S. history. Ross's election in Wyoming occurred less than five Ross's victory came on the same day that Miriam ("Ma") Ferguson was elected governor of Texas. Because Ross was sworn into office two weeks before Ferguson, she is recognized as the first female governor in the United States. e…
In his proposal to Congress, Carter asked for the authority to register both men and women. Congress refused to allocate funds to register women but did fund the registration of males. Carter signed MSSA, and on July 2, 1980, he ordered the registration of specified groups of young men pursuant to the authority conferred by Section 3 of the act. Registration was to commence on July 21, 1980. Rehnq…
Jean Jacques Rousseau achieved prominence as a philosopher and political theorist in eighteenth-century France. A talented musical composer and botanist, Rousseau's ideas on the nature of society made him an influential figure in Western thought. His belief that civilization had corrupted humankind was a central part of his philosophy. His work elevated the importance of the individual and …
Compensation for the use of property, usually copyrighted works, patented inventions, or natural resources, expressed as a percentage of receipts from using the property or as a payment for each unit produced. A royalty agreement is part of the contract that the creator of the work negotiates with the business that seeks to exploit the creation. A royalty can be as simple as a fixed amount of mone…
Rubenstein was born on September 3, 1960, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Yale University in 1982 and earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1986. Rubenstein then served as a law clerk to a federal district court judge. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1986 and the District of Columbia bar in 1988. Rubenstein is a noted legal scholar on sexual-orientation issues. H…
In 1964 a Texas jury convicted Jack Ruby of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS national television as Ruby shot Oswald while the Dallas police were attempting to move Oswald from the police station to another location. Questions about how Ruby was able to gain access to the police station and why he killed Oswald have…
To command or require pursuant to a principle of the court, as to rule the sheriff to serve the summons. To settle or decide a point of law at a trial or hearing. An established standard, guide, or regulation governing conduct, procedure, or action. …
The courts developed the rule during the seventeenth century in order to restrict a person's power to control perpetually the ownership and possession of his or her property after death and to ensure the transferability of property. The rule includes the period of gestation to cover cases of posthumous birth. …
An English common-law doctrine that provided that a conveyance that attempts to give a person a life estate, with a remainder to that person's heirs, will instead give both the life estate and the remainder to the person, thus giving that person the land in fee simple absolute (full ownership without restriction). The effect of the rule was to frustrate the intent of an owner of real proper…
Rule according to law; rule under law; or rule according to a higher law. The rule of law is an ambiguous term that can mean different things in different contexts. In one context the term means rule according to law. No individual can be ordered by the government to pay civil damages or suffer criminal punishment except in strict accordance with well-established and clearly defined laws and proce…
Rush resumed his work as a physician, teacher, and lecturer. In 1783, he helped to found Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and became one of its trustees. In 1786, he founded the Philadelphia Dispensary, a clinic that provided free medical services to poor people. He advocated limitations on the use of alcohol and tobacco, encouraged the use of clinical research and instruction, and adv…
Richard Rush served as U.S. attorney general from 1814 to 1817. Although he was recognized as an able lawyer, Rush's greatest contributions came in the field of diplomacy. He negotiated treaties that demilitarized the Great Lakes and set the northernmost boundaries between the United States and Canada. He also played a part in the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution. …
John Rutledge. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Born in September 1739 to a prominent family in Charleston, South Carolina, Rutledge was groomed for success. His wealthy physician father died when he was eleven, and thereafter his uncle, Andrew Rutledge, guided Rutledge's education. Andrew Rutledge, a lawyer and speaker of the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly, saw to it that his nephew w…
A stalwart defender of civil liberties, Associate Justice Wiley B. Rutledge Jr., sat on the U.S. Wiley B. Rutledge Jr. CORBIS Born in Cloverport, Kentucky, on July 20, 1894, Rutledge was the son of a fundamentalist Baptist minister. His father, Wiley Sr., rode the backwaters of Kentucky preaching hellfire and brimstone, often with his son in tow. By his teens, however, Rutledge had left fo…
In 1868 the defendants appealed to the House of Lords, which decided to affirm the ruling of the Exchequer Chamber, but Lord Cairns sharply limited Justice Blackburn's broad statement. Lord Cairns ruled that the principle applied only to a "nonnatural" use of the defendant's land, as distinguished from "any purpose for which it might in the ordinary course of the…
An S corporation differs from a regular corporation in that it is not a separate taxable entity under the Internal Revenue Code. This means that the S corporation does not pay taxes on its net income. The net profits or losses of the corporation pass through to its owners. A corporation may be granted S status if it does not own any subsidiaries, has only one class of stock, and has no more than s…
The 1921 murder trial of the young Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was one of the most controversial trials in U.S. history. For some observers, the trial was a way to bring two criminals to justice. For others, the two men were innocent of the crime but were found guilty because they were immigrants and political radicals. Defenders of Sacco and Vanzetti waged a fierce leg…
Person who navigates ships or assists in the conduct, maintenance, or service of ships. Sailors have historically received special treatment under the law because of the nature of their work. Sailing a vessel through treacherous waters, often for long distances, is an isolated and dangerous undertaking. Although most countries have developed comprehensive policing methods on land, the internationa…
In 1692 the community of Salem, Massachusetts, was engulfed in a series of witchcraft afflictions, accusations, trials, and executions. During the course of the year, more than a dozen persons claimed to be afflicted by spells of black magic and sorcery that had been allegedly cast by men and women who had enlisted the supernatural powers of the devil. Most of the persons claiming to be afflicted …
The sale of a good, or an item that is moveable at the time of sale, is a transaction designed to benefit both buyer and seller. However, sales transactions can be complex, and they do not always proceed smoothly. Problems can arise at several phases of a sale, and at least one of the parties may suffer a loss. In recognition of these realities and of the basic importance of orderly commerce to so…
A state or local-level tax on the retail sale of specified property or services. It is a percentage of the cost of such. Generally, the purchaser pays the tax but the seller collects it as an agent for the government. Various taxing jurisdictions allow exemptions for purchases of specified items, including certain foods, services, and manufacturing equipment. If the purchaser and seller are in dif…
The portion of goods or property that has been saved or remains after some type of casualty, such as a fire. To establish a valid salvage claim under maritime law, the claimant must prove the following: the salvage was needed because of a marine peril; the claimant's service was rendered voluntarily and not because of an existing duty or contract; and the claimant's service contribut…
Self-appointed law enforcement committees that were organized to maintain order in San Francisco, California, during the mid-nineteenth century. As a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which concluded the Mexican War, the United States acquired a vast territory in the Southwest including California and New Mexico. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, thousands…
Sanction is a broad term with different meanings in different contexts. Sanction can be used to describe tacit or explicit approval. Used in this sense, the term usually is used in assigning liability to a party who was not actively involved in wrongdoing but who did nothing to prevent it. For example, if the upper-level managers of a business knew that their employees were using unfair employment…
Sanford was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 23, 1865, the son of a lumber and construction millionaire. He earned four degrees from the University of Tennessee and Harvard, and studied languages in France and Germany. At Harvard Law School, he distinguished himself as the editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. He began practicing law in Tennessee in the 1890s. He the…
Sanger was born September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York, to Michael Higgins, an Irish stonecutter, and Annie Purcell Higgins, the daughter of an Irish day laborer. Sanger's mother, who had five more children and suffered chronic tuberculosis, died at the age of fifty in 1899. Sanger blamed her death on the strain of bearing eleven children. Following her mother's death, Sanger began…
The Southern Pacific Railroad Company refused to pay a tax assessed by the California Board of Equalization upon its franchise, roadways, roadbeds, fences, and rolling stock. The county brought an action in state court against the railroad to recover the delinquent taxes. The railroad had the action removed to the federal district court. The court agreed with the defendant that the assessment of t…
Section 303 prohibits any officer, director, or person acting at their direction "to fraudulently influence, coerce, manipulate, or mislead" an accountant who is conducting an audit. Under Section 304, if an issuer is required to restate its financial statements as a result of misconduct, the chief executive officer and chief financial officer must reimburse the issuer for any bonus …
After college, Sargent returned to Ludlow, where he married Mary Lorraine Gordon in 1887. Sargent studied law with attorney, and future Vermont governor, William Wallace Stickney. Following Sargent's admission to the Vermont bar in 1890, he joined Stickney in the practice of law. Sargent's first political appointment came in 1898 when he was named state's attorney for Windsor …
A financial institution owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services. The savings and loan association's primary purpose is making loans to its members, usually for the purchase of real estate or homes. The savings and loan industry was first established in the 1830s as a building and loan association. The first savings and loan association was the Oxford Provident Buil…
While attending college, Saxbe was a member of the Ohio National Guard. After college, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, serving from 1940 to 1945. Saxbe was called to serve again during the Korean conflict in the 1950s; he was discharged from the reserve with the rank of colonel in 1963. William B. Saxbe. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS as House majority leader in 1951 and 1952, and as speaker of t…
Scalia was born March 11, 1936, in Trenton, New Jersey. Before he began grade school, Scalia and his family moved to Elmhurst, New York, where he spent much of his boyhood. Scalia is the only child of Eugene Scalia, an Italian immigrant who taught romance languages at Brooklyn College for 30 years, and Catherine Scalia, a first-generation Italian-American who taught elementary school. In 1953, Ant…
The Schechters pleaded not guilty to the charges. At trial, the Schechters were convicted on 18 counts of violating the Live Poultry Code and two counts of conspiring to violate the Live Poultry Code. An appeals court affirmed their convictions, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear their appeal. In support of the Live Poultry Code, the federal government argued that the code was necessary for…
The 1919 Schenck case marked the first time the Court heard a First Amendment challenge to a federal law on free speech grounds. The Court was comprised of the following justices: (standing, l-r) Brandeis, Pitney, McReynolds, Clarke, (seated, l-r) Day, McKenna, White, Holmes, Van Devanter. U.S. SUPREME COURT The Supreme Court's decision in Schenck established two fundamental princip…
The ERA stated, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." After passing Congress, the amendment was sent to the 50 states on March 22, 1972, for ratification. To become law, the amendment needed to be passed by 38 states within seven years. By 1973, 30 states had already ratified the ERA. However, as mom…
Schlesinger died on November 10, 1996, in San Francisco, when he and his wife committed suicide. …
The attempt to end the practice of separating children of different races into distinct public schools. A number of Supreme Court decisions in the decades since Brown have further defined the constitutional claims regarding desegregation first set forth in Brown. In many cases, these decisions have resulted in court-imposed desegregation plans, sometimes involving controversial provisions for busi…
School districts are quasi-municipal corporations created and organized by state legislatures and charged with the administration of public schools within the state. A quasi-municipal corporation is a political body created for the sole purpose of performing one public function. States divide up their school systems into districts because localized administration and policy making are more efficie…
[Latin, Knowingly.] Guilty knowledge that is sufficient to charge a person with the consequences of his or her acts. Scienter denotes a level of intent on the part of the defendant. In Ernst and Ernst v. Hochfelder, 425 U.S. 185, 96 S. Ct. 1375, 47 L. Ed. 2d 668 (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court described scienter as "a mental state embracing intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud." …
Evidence presented in court that is produced from scientific tests or studies. Expert testimony on scientific evidence is different from ordinary testimony from laypersons. A lay witness may testify to inferences and give opinions only if they are rationally based upon the witness's perceptions of the subject of the testimony. Experts, by contrast, may give opinions and testify about possib…
[Latin, Made known.] A judicial writ requiring a defendant to appear in court and prove why an existing judgment should not be executed against him or her. In the law, scire facias is a judicial writ that is brought in a case that has already been before a court. Writ is the old English term for a judicial order. Some states still use the term. A scire facias writ commands the person against whom …
The criminal prosecution of John T. Scopes was an attack by citizens of Dayton, Tennessee, on a Tennessee statute that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools. The Butler Act, passed in early 1925 by the Tennessee General Assembly, punished public school teachers who taught "that man has descended from a lower order of animals" or any theory "that denies the story o…
The Great Seal of King Edward III of England. Often used as a signature or imprimatur, seals once had a practical importance. Today, many government offices have seals, though they are mainly decorative in function. BRITISH MUSEUM COLLECTION To close records by any type of fastening that must be broken before access can be obtained. An impression upon wax, wafer, or some other substance ca…
A court order authorizing the examination of a place for the purpose of discovering contraband, stolen property, or evidence of guilt to be used in the prosecution of a criminal action. The U.S. Supreme Court has not interpreted the Fourth Amendment to mean that police must always obtain a search warrant before conducting a search. Rather, the Supreme Court holds that a search warrant is required …
A restraining device used to secure passengers in motorized vehicles. New Hampshire is the only state that does not have an adult seat-belt requirement (N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 265: 107-a [1995]). Motor vehicle passengers under the age of 12, however, must wear a seat belt. The New Hampshire Department of Safety administers programs that increase public awareness of the importance of seat be…
The act of withdrawing from membership in a group. Secession occurs when persons in a country or state declare their independence from the ruling government. When a dissatisfied group secedes, it creates its own form of government in place of the former ruling government. Secessions are serious maneuvers that lead to, or arise from, military conflict. A secession can affect international relations…
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The subject matter and unusual phrasing of this amendment led to much controversy and analysis, especially in the last half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the meaning and scope of the amendment have long been decided by the Supreme Court. Firearms played an important part in the colonization of America. In the seventeenth and eighteenth…
The second look doctrine has been applied to mitigate the harsh effect of the rule against perpetuities on a power of appointment—authority granted by one person by deed or will to another, the donee, to select a person or persons who are to receive property. For example, B was the life income beneficiary (one who profits from the act of another) of a trust and the donee of a special power …
Sources of information that describe or interpret the law, such as legal treatises, law review articles, and other scholarly legal writings, cited by lawyers to persuade a court to reach a particular decision in a case, but which the court is not obligated to follow. Secondary authority is information cited by lawyers in arguments and used by courts in reaching decisions. Secondary authority is di…
A group's refusal to work for, purchase from, or handle the products of a business with which the group has no dispute. A secondary boycott is an attempt to influence the actions of one business by exerting pressure on another business. For example, assume that a group has a complaint against the Acme Company. Assume further that the Widget Company is the major supplier to the Acme Company.…
A reproduction of, or substitute for, an original document or item of proof that is offered to establish a particular issue in a legal action. Secondary evidence is evidence that has been reproduced from an original document or substituted for an original item. For example, a photocopy of a document or photograph would be considered secondary evidence. Another example would be an exact replica of …
Under trademark law a mark associated with a marketed product generally cannot receive full trademark protection unless it is distinctive. Trademark protection gives the holder of a mark the exclusive right to use that mark in connection with a product. A descriptive or generic mark attains a secondary meaning if the producer so effectively markets the product with the mark that consumers come to …
The Secret Service has established the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), which advises law enforcement agencies and other professionals on how to investigate and prevent targeted violence, including assassination. The NTAC has collaborated with Carnegie Mellon University to develop the Critical Systems Protection Initiative (CSPI). CSPI seeks to develop better cyber security measures, incl…
Colin Powell, as secretary of state, directs relations between the United States and foreign countries. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS …