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Legal History

1324 ABA Journal Legal History articles.

July 7, 1981

O’Connor Nominated to High Court

Jul 1, 2008 1:00 PM CDT

Manson Family Killer to Be Released? Longest-Serving Female Calif. Inmate

Susan Atkins, a member of the notorious so-called Charles Manson family group that killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in a two-day spree in 1969, is dying and may soon be released from prison. After 37 years, she is the longest-serving female inmate in the California prison system.…

Jun 13, 2008 6:32 PM CDT

Making Crime Pay

Americans have always had a peculiar relationship with crime and criminals. Each generation seems to fret about unprecedented lawlessness, while bestowing on its most outrageous criminals the kind of celebrity reserved for folk heroes and movie stars.

Jun 1, 2008 1:15 PM CDT

June 14, 1943

Flag Day Reversal

Jun 1, 2008 1:00 PM CDT

Prof. Names ‘100 Most Creative Moments in American Law’

Calling on as many legal history teachers as he could, a Valparaiso University law school professor has come up with an intriguing list of the “100 Most Creative Moments in American Law.” In 2005, Robert F. Blomquist sent letters to some 426 American professors who noted that they teach legal…

May 23, 2008 6:58 PM CDT

Dig at Charles Manson Site Ends; No Human Remains Found

Putting an end to long-standing rumors of buried bodies, authorities have finished a several-day search of a remote ranch that spree killer Charles Manson and followers used as a hideout after the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others. Investigators from the Inyo County sheriff’s department found…

May 22, 2008 8:21 PM CDT

Last Brown v. Board of Ed Plaintiff, Zelma Henderson, Dies

Zelma Henderson, the sole surviving plaintiff in the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, died of pancreatic cancer Tuesday. She was 88. In a news obituary featuring Henderson, the New York Times notes that the lifelong Topeka, Kan., resident was one of the “et al.” named…

May 22, 2008 3:08 PM CDT

Under UK Judges’ Robes: Suits, Shorts, Jeans

As civil court judges in the U.K. prepare to abandon a nearly 350-year-old tradition of wearing white wigs and winged collars and step into new all-weather robes designed by Betty Jackson, interest has focused not only on their public attire but what they wear in court underneath their robes. While…

May 21, 2008 4:10 PM CDT

Shoot a Gun, Drive a Cruiser, Appear in a Lineup at New D.C. Museum

A new National Museum of Crime & Punishment is set to open this week in Washington, D.C., and according to the Washington Post, it aspires to be “a blend of theme park and TV show.” A release (PDF) promoting the opening notes that “the museum invites you to emerge from…

May 20, 2008 8:09 PM CDT

New Watergate Book Praises John Mitchell, Blames John Dean

A much-awaited revisionist book about Watergate is being released. But, while it shifts the blame a bit between some of President Richard M. Nixon’s men concerning their responsibility for the 1972 political break-in that eventually forced Nixon from office in 1974 and put top aides in prison, the bottom line…

May 19, 2008 7:13 PM CDT

New Tests in 1908 Murder Mystery: Did ‘Lady Bluebeard’ Kill Children, Too?

It looks like Belle Gunness, in addition to luring lonely men to her hillltop Indiana farm in the early 1900s and murdering and dismembering them, may have killed children there, too, according to an attorney-turned-forensic anthropologist. Although DNA test results are still awaited, attorney Andrea Simmons, who is leading a…

May 15, 2008 12:42 AM CDT

Rehnquist Parody of Vinson Court Found in Another Justice’s Papers

A researcher has discovered a parody that pokes fun at Chief Justice Fred Vinson’s leadership of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was written by a court clerk who later became chief justice of the same institution. The author is the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Legal Times reports. The…

May 14, 2008 12:59 PM CDT

May 18, 1896

Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson

May 1, 2008 8:07 PM CDT

Printing a New Chapter

ABA Publishing finds that legal best-sellers no longer need ‘how to’ in their titles

May 1, 2008 1:03 PM CDT

Charlie Rhyne’s Big Idea

After 50 years, Law Day is still vital to building support for justice principles

May 1, 2008 1:02 PM CDT

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