Minimum Competence

This Day in Legal History: Homestead Act On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law, creating one of the most consequential land distribution systems in American history. The statute allowed eligible settlers to claim 160 acres of federal land, so long as they lived on it, improved it, and cultivated it for a required period of time. At a basic level, the law trea...

This Day in Legal History: 27th Amendment On May 19, 1992, the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution was officially published in the Federal Register , ending one of the longest and oddest ratification stories in American legal history. The amendment provides that any law changing the compensation of members of Congress cannot take effect until after an election for the House of Represe...

This Day in Legal History: Plessy v. Ferguson On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Plessy v. Ferguson , a case that became one of the most infamous constitutional decisions in American history. The dispute arose from a Louisiana law requiring separate railroad cars for Black and white passengers. Homer Plessy, who was of mixed race, deliberately sat in a whites-only rail car to challeng...

This Day in Legal History: Abe Fortas Resigns SCOTUS On May 15, 1969, Justice Abe Fortas resigned from the United States Supreme Court, becoming the first justice to leave the Court under the threat of impeachment. Fortas had been appointed to the Court in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a close friend and political ally. His reputation had already been damaged in 1968, when Johnson tried to...

This Day in Legal History: Frontiero v. Richardson On May 14, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Frontiero v. Richardson , a major case in the development of constitutional protections against sex discrimination. The case began when Sharron Frontiero, a lieutenant in the United States Air Force, sought dependent benefits for her husband. Under federal law at the time, a male service member could...

This Day in Legal History: Mexican-American War On May 13, 1846, Congress approved President James K. Polk’s request for a declaration of war against Mexico, formally beginning the Mexican-American War. Polk had told Congress that Mexico had “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil,” after a clash between Mexican forces and American troops near the Rio Grande. The problem wa...

This Day in Legal History: Anti-Spitting Laws On May 12, 1896, New York City adopted one of the country’s best-known early anti-spitting laws, aimed at stopping the spread of tuberculosis. At the time, tuberculosis was one of the deadliest diseases in American cities, and public health officials were increasingly focused on sputum as a source of infection. The new rule made it illegal to spit in p...

This Day in Legal History: Christmas is Canceled in Massachusetts On May 11, 1659, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law making it illegal to celebrate Christmas. The law imposed a fine of five shillings on anyone who observed the holiday by feasting, taking the day off from work, or engaging in other forms of celebration. To modern readers, this can sound like a strange kind of anti-holiday l...

This Day in Legal History: V-E Day On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, after Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender brought the European theater of World War II to an end. The surrender did more than end a military campaign; it opened the door to one of the most important legal reckonings in modern history. In the months that followed, the Allied powers created...

This Day in Legal History: Salmon P. Chase Dies On May 7, 1873, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase died, ending one of the most unusual legal and political careers in American history. Chase had been an antislavery lawyer, a U.S. senator, governor of Ohio, Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the Treasury, and then Chief Justice of the United States. He was also one of the many talented and ambitious men aro...

This Day in Legal History: Chinese Exclusion Act On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law. The law imposed a 10-year ban on the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. It also made Chinese immigrants already in the country ineligible for naturalized citizenship, marking a major turn toward federal immigration restriction. The National Arch...

This Day in Legal History: Prayer in … Local Government Meetings? On this day in legal history, May 5, 2014, the Supreme Court decided Town of Greece v. Galloway , a major Establishment Clause case about prayer at local government meetings. The town of Greece, New York, opened its monthly board meetings with prayers delivered by invited clergy. For years, nearly all of those clergy were Christian,...

This Day in Legal History: Freedom Riders On May 4, 1961, the first Freedom Riders left Washington, D.C., by bus for New Orleans, beginning a direct challenge to segregation in interstate travel. The riders were an interracial group organized by the Congress of Racial Equality, and they set out to test whether Southern states and private carriers would follow federal law. The Supreme Court had alr...

This Day in Legal History: May Day vs. Law Day On May 1, 1958, the United States marked the first Law Day, a civic observance created after President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated the date as a national occasion to honor the rule of law. Eisenhower’s proclamation called on lawyers, journalists, broadcasters, schools, and civic groups to help the public better understand the American legal system...

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This Day in Legal History: Rodney King On April 29, 1992, a California jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King, a Black motorist whose assault had been captured on videotape the year before. The beating took place on March 3, 1991, after a police chase, when officers repeatedly struck King while a bystander recorded the incident from nearby. The footag...

This Day in Legal History: Maryland Ratifies the Constitution On April 28, 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution. The state’s ratifying convention met in Annapolis from April 21 to April 28, ending with Maryland’s formal approval of the new federal charter. This was a major legal step because Article VII of the Constitution required ratification by nine s...

This Day in Legal History: Lincoln Suspends Habeas Corpus On April 27, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln authorized military officials to suspend the writ of habeas corpus along the rail lines between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The order came in the opening weeks of the Civil War, when Washington was vulnerable, Union troops were moving through hostile territory, and federal officials feared...

This Day in Legal History: Nix v. Hedden On April 24, 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court received submissions in Nix v. Hedden , the famous case asking whether a tomato should be treated as a fruit or a vegetable. The question sounds like the setup to a joke, but the legal issue was practical and financial: under the Tariff Act of 1883, imported vegetables were taxed, while fruits were not. That meant t...

This Day in Legal History: Sirhan Sirhan Sentenced On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was formally sentenced to death for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a crime that had shaken the United States the previous year. The sentencing came after a highly publicized trial in Los Angeles, where prosecutors argued that the killing was deliberate and politically motivated. Evidence presented at trial...

This Day in Legal History: Richard Nixon Dies On April 22, 1994, Richard Nixon died at the age of 81, marking the end of a presidency that left a lasting imprint on American legal history. Nixon’s legacy is inseparable from the Watergate scandal, a constitutional crisis that tested the limits of presidential power. The scandal began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters...

This Day in Legal History: John Adams Sworn in as VP On April 21, 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first Vice President of the United States, becoming one of the earliest officials to assume office under the newly ratified U.S. Constitution. His inauguration followed the formation of the new federal government and helped signal that the Constitution was not merely theoretical but fully operati...

This Day in Legal History: Columbine Shooting On April 20, 1999, a mass shooting at Columbine High School became one of the most consequential events in modern American legal history. Two students carried out a planned attack that resulted in the deaths of 13 people and injured many others, shocking the nation and prompting immediate legal scrutiny. In the aftermath, victims’ families filed multip...

This Day in Legal History: Bay of Pigs April 17 has marked several important moments in legal history, particularly in the development of constitutional law, civil rights, and international justice. One notable event occurred in 1961, when the Bay of Pigs Invasion began, raising serious legal debates about executive war powers in the United States. Although primarily a military operation, it promp...

This Day in Legal History: Texas City Disaster On April 16, 1947, a catastrophic industrial disaster struck Texas City, Texas, when a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate exploded, killing nearly 600 people and injuring thousands more. The blast devastated the surrounding area, leveling buildings and igniting fires that burned for days. In the aftermath, victims and their families turned to the court...