1221 ABA Journal Legal History articles.
The contender for the distinction is John Rastell (circa 1475–1536), who is commonly credited with having written the first English law dictionary. Yet he might just deserve credit for producing the first dictionary in the English language. Though early editions are undated, the first printing is thought to have appeared in 1523.
Apr 1, 2023 2:30 AM CDT
By the time he was sworn in on May 20, 1863, after having been nominated by President Abraham Lincoln to a 10th seat on the U.S. Supreme Court two months earlier, 46-year-old Stephen Johnson Field presented a curious choice. Not only was he a Democrat who would need confirmation by a Republican-controlled Senate, but he also was a briefly disbarred jurist known as much for his hot-headed temperament as for his keen legal mind.
Apr 1, 2023 12:10 AM CDT
Mar 29, 2023 8:52 AM CDT
Mar 14, 2023 3:22 PM CDT
Legal sector adds 1,500 jobs
The legal services sector continues to add jobs, despite reports of layoffs at some BigLaw firms. The sector gained 1,500 jobs in February, according to…
Mar 10, 2023 11:57 AM CST
Mar 8, 2023 9:07 AM CST
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson hasn’t yet written an opinion in an argued case before the U.S. Supreme Court, but she has written two dissents…
Feb 24, 2023 3:40 PM CST
Feb 22, 2023 8:48 AM CST
The Florida St. Thomas University College of Law recently announced that it would be adding Benjamin L. Crump to its title in recognition of the Black civil rights lawyer.
Feb 9, 2023 12:43 PM CST
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers in the 1930s fashioned race laws that were designed to degrade and deprive Jewish people of all rights. At the same time, American laws often enshrined white supremacy and discriminated against non-whites, and Black Americans in particular were treated as second-class citizens.
Feb 7, 2023 8:42 AM CST
Confederate memorabilia “and other symbols of racial and ethnic bias” should be removed from facilities where court proceedings are held, according to a resolution passed Monday by the ABA House of Delegates.
Feb 6, 2023 5:40 PM CST
Feb 6, 2023 9:40 AM CST
A federal appeals court has struck down a ban on gun possession by people subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, citing the historical approach required by the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest Second Amendment precedent.
Feb 3, 2023 1:31 PM CST
“Most Americans believe that access to an attorney during criminal proceedings is a foundational right in our country. But the right to have an attorney provided by the government has not always existed. Until 60 years ago, indigent defendants who could not afford an attorney had to defend themselves in court. But on March 18, 1963, that all changed. The U.S. Supreme Court rendered one of its most famous decisions in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright.”
Feb 1, 2023 3:00 AM CST
On Feb. 2, 1980, news outlets revealed that a U.S. senator and at least seven congressmen were among dozens of targets under investigation for soliciting and accepting bribes. In a far-flung and sometimes ludicrous sting operation, lawmakers had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from undercover FBI agents posing as oil-rich Arabs and their minions in exchange for loans and investments in the U.S.
Feb 1, 2023 12:10 AM CST