My Country – Buck v. Bell, 274 US 200 (1927) On March 20, 1924, Virgina enacted a statute providing for the sexual sterilization of inmates found to have hereditary forms of insanity or “imbecility.” Carrie Buck The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded opened in 1910. Although the Virginia Colony began sterilization procedures before the law “for the relief …
Month: March 2017
My Country – Workers’ Compensation On March 19, 1910, personal injury lawyers got a new tort to litigate in New York. The Wainwright Commission reported to the New York legislature about work-related industrial accidents. The commission sought to explain that the common law remedies for workplace injuries were insufficient. First, the commission rejected the theory that …
My Country – Annie Less Moss and the McCarthy Hearings Much of March has focused on the McCarthy hearings, which Edward R. Murrow shined a bright light on as Douglas most likely wrote this book. On March 16, 1954, Murrow turned his program See It Now to the Annie Lee Moss hearings. Who Was Annie Lee …
My Country – Portable Grand Jury Under the Fifth Amendment, no person shall be held for a criminal trial without presentation or indictment by a grand jury. Grand juries were designed to protect citizens from prosecutors. Justice Douglas lays out the three functions of the law: investigations, prosecution, and adjudication. He notes that grand juries …
My Country – Loyalty Oaths On March 21, 1947, President Truman issued executive order 9835. The program checked the loyalty of loyal federal employees. The Federal Employee Loyalty Program allowed the FBI to research whether the name of any of the 2 million federal employees raised questions about their associations and beliefs. If the investigation found …
My Country – Erwin Griswold At the time of his death, Erwin Griswold had argued over 100 cases in front of the Supreme Court. As the U.S. solicitor general and dean of the Harvard Law School, Griswold left a huge imprint on the jurisprduence of the United States. One of his shining moments came …
My Country – Speech and Debate Clause After the imprisonments of Sir John Elliot and Peter Wentworth in the Tower of London, our Founding Fathers took Congressional immunity into account. The Constitution states that “for any Speech or Debate in either House, [senators and representatives] shall not be questioned in any other place.” The phrase has …
My Country – Sir John Elliot and Sedition Like Peter Wentworth, Sir John Elliot ended up in the Tower of London because of speaking out on the floor of Parliament. In 1629, after King Charles I ordered the House of Commons to adjourn, several MPs held the Speaker in his chair. They insisted to give …
My Country – Peter Wentworth and Free Speech Queen Elizabeth I believed that freedom of speech meant that anything that she wanted said could be said. Otherwise, keep it to yourself. Additionally, she noted that the House of Commons should not consider any bill concerning religion unless clergy approved the bill. Cannot imagine where the …
My Country – A Religious Test for Public Office The Constitution provides that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the United States.” But Justice Douglas notes that in 1776, many states had religious tests. Pre-Constitution Religious Test The Pennsylvania Constitution required each legislator to …