Legal History

Oyez website finds sponsors to take over its Supreme Court audio archives

The future of Oyez, the website devoted to audio recordings of U.S. Supreme Court proceedings, was up in the air earlier this year as founder Jerry Goldman approached retirement. At stake was a vault filled with Supreme Court history accessible free to the public.

Jul 1, 2016 2:40 AM CDT

July 28, 1868: The 14th Amendment is ratified

After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the burden of rehabilitating a war-ravaged nation fell on Andrew Johnson. Though a Southern Democrat, Johnson had been tapped as Lincoln's running mate in the critical election of 1864 because of his allegiance to the Union; now, as president, Johnson found himself caught between a retributive-leaning Republican Congress and his own desire to ease the former Confederate states quickly back into the Union.

Jul 1, 2016 12:40 AM CDT

Chemerinsky: The year the law did not change

The Supreme Court’s October Term 2015 was the year that the law did not change. It is hard to remember a Supreme Court term where the decisions did less to change the law. That, of course, does not make the decisions unimportant. But their significance is in preserving the status…

Jun 30, 2016 8:30 AM CDT

Retirement ends 54-year career of longest-serving US court clerk

When Michael Kunz started working as a deputy federal district court clerk in Philadelphia in 1962, the president of the United States was John F. Kennedy. The IBM Selectric typewriter, with its innovative “golf ball” of typeface characters, was a marvel of modern technology—cellphones and the Internet were unheard of,…

Jun 6, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

June 8, 1968: James Earl Ray is captured

Shortly before noon on June 8, 1968, a British policeman stood at the passport desk at London's Heathrow Airport. Before him was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man in horn-rimmed glasses and a beige topcoat. His passport, issued by the Canadian embassy in Lisbon, said his name was Ramon George Sneyd.

Jun 1, 2016 12:30 AM CDT

How well do people actually know their Miranda rights? (podcast with transcript)

"You have the right to remain silent.” Because of TV shows and movies, most people probably know at least this part of the Miranda warning. But do people actually understand all of their Miranda rights? Fifty years after the landmark decision in Miranda v. Arizona, the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward speak to Russell Covey of Georgia State University State’s College of Law to find out what people know and don’t know about their rights.

May 23, 2016 8:00 AM CDT

‘Vagrant Nation’ explores the rise and fall of vagrancy laws (podcast)

From the 18th century through the beginning of the 1970s, American officials had an incredibly versatile weapon to use against anyone seen as dangerous to society or as flouting societal norms: vagrancy laws. To be charged with vagrancy did not require an illegal action; vagrancy was a status crime, says…

May 11, 2016 8:15 AM CDT

On 50th anniversary of landmark Miranda decision, is it more than mere words?

All of us have heard these words, even if we have never been arrested. The Miranda warning is ingrained in our consciousness through decades of popular culture references. From Dragnet to Law & Order to How to Get Away with Murder, it has been repeated so often that most Americans…

May 1, 2016 3:40 AM CDT

May 8, 1973: American Indian Movement surrenders at Wounded Knee after 71-day standoff

By February 1973, unrest among Lakota residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota was coming to a boil. Though in office barely a year, the tribe's elected chief, Dick Wilson, was already facing impeachment. The charges against him alleged widespread nepotism and corruption, but the sources of tribal division ran far deeper than simple politics.

May 1, 2016 12:30 AM CDT

Did litigation kill the Beatles?

As the most successful band in history, the Beatles generated not only a record number of music hits but probably more legal disputes than any other music group before or since. As the first international rock band brand in a still nascent music business – and guided by a neophyte personal manager – the Beatles became entangled in a distracting series of legal problems nearly from the start of their career.

May 1, 2016 12:10 AM CDT

Board OKs parole for ex-Manson Family member convicted in ‘Helter Skelter’ slayings

After 19 denials, a review board in California on Thursday recommended parole for convicted murderer Leslie Van Houten, 66, a former member of the so-called Charles Manson family. Although she was not responsible for the slaying of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others, probably the most notorious of the…

Apr 15, 2016 3:50 PM CDT

Lawyer’s screenplay about Thurgood Marshall’s early life begins filming next month

A film about Justice Thurgood Marshall’s early life and his work defending a black man accused of rape will begin filming in Buffalo, New York, in May. Chadwick Boseman will star as Marshall in the film directed by Django Unchained producer Reginald Hudlin, report Buffalo.com, WGRZ and Syracuse.com. Bridgeport, Connecticut,…

Apr 15, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Retired lawyer, 95, worked at ‘Tokyo Trials’ as legal secretary after WWII, knew Japanese leaders

Elaine Fischel practiced law for nearly six decades before retiring last year in her mid-90s. But it was her work in Japan as a legal secretary, before she went to law school, that provided some of the most indelible memories in her career. Then a staff secretary for the Los…

Apr 5, 2016 1:50 PM CDT

As its stock hovers near a record low, Slater & Gordon GC resigns after two months

Moana Weir started work on Jan. 29 as in-house legal chief and company secretary for Slater & Gordon, the Australia-based personal injury Goliath that made history by becoming the world’s first law firm to go public. But last month, after less than 60 days on the job and after law…

Apr 5, 2016 12:05 PM CDT

After Scalia: The Supreme Court goes back to work amid uncertainty

Antonin Scalia was a force on the Supreme Court for nearly 30 years, both for his conservative judicial outlook and his sheer strength of personality. His unexpected death on Feb. 13 at a ranch resort in Texas has plunged the court into a period of uncertainty—one that could last well into the next term.

Apr 1, 2016 3:10 AM CDT