Minimum Competence

This Day in Legal History: United States v. Carolene Products Co. Decided On April 25, 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Carolene Products Co. , 304 U.S. 144, a seemingly mundane case about a federal law banning the interstate shipment of “filled milk.” But beneath its surface lay one of the most consequential footnotes in American constitutional history. The Cou...

This Day in Legal History: Easter Rising On April 24, 1916, the Easter Rising erupted in Dublin as Irish republicans launched a bold and ultimately tragic insurrection against British rule. The event, intended to establish an independent Irish Republic, had enormous legal and constitutional consequences that would ripple through British and Irish law for years. Roughly 1,200 rebels seized key buil...

This Day in Legal History: Sirhan Sirhan Sentenced to Death On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was formally sentenced to death for the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a tragedy that shook the United States during a period of intense political and social upheaval. Kennedy had been shot on June 5, 1968, just after declaring victory in the California Democratic primary, and he died...

This Day in Legal History: Maryland Toleration Act Passed On April 21, 1649, the Maryland Assembly passed the Maryland Toleration Act, a landmark piece of colonial legislation that granted freedom of worship to all Christians in the colony. Also known as the Act Concerning Religion, it was one of the first legal efforts in the American colonies to protect religious liberty through statutory law. T...

This Day in Legal History: Army-McCarthy Hearings Begin On April 22, 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings began in Washington, D.C., marking a pivotal moment in American legal and political history. The televised proceedings, which stretched over two months, were convened to investigate conflicting accusations between Senator Joseph McCarthy and the U.S. Army. McCarthy claimed the Army was sheltering...

This Day in Legal History: Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. On April 18, 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its opinion in Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. , a significant decision reinforcing the constitutional principle of separation of powers. The case arose after Congress enacted legislation requiring federal courts to reopen certain final judgments in securities fraud cases that had been di...

This Day in Legal History: Lochner On April 17, 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Lochner v. New York , a landmark case in American constitutional law that struck down a New York law limiting bakery workers to a 60-hour workweek and 10-hour workday. The Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause by interfering with the freedom of contract b...

This Day in Legal History: Rush-Bagot Treaty On April 16, 1818, the United States Senate ratified the Rush-Bagot Treaty, a landmark agreement with Great Britain that fundamentally reshaped security along the U.S.-Canada border. Negotiated in the aftermath of the War of 1812, the treaty aimed to de-escalate military tensions between the two nations by significantly limiting naval armaments on the G...

This Day in Legal History: President Lincoln Dies On this day in legal history, April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died from a gunshot wound inflicted the night before by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. The assassination occurred at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Lincoln was watching a play with his wife. He was shot in the back of the head and never regained...

This Day in Legal History: First American Anti-Slavery Society Organized On April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American society dedicated to the abolition of slavery was organized. Known as the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage , it marked a critical early step in the formal anti-slavery movement in the United States. Among its key founders wer...

This Day in Legal History: Fair Housing Act On this day in legal history, April 11, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law, a pivotal expansion of civil rights protections in the United States. Commonly referred to as the Fair Housing Act, the legislation was enacted just days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy of nonviolent...

This Day in Legal History: Patent Act of 1790 On April 10, 1790, the United States passed its first patent law, the Patent Act of 1790, laying the groundwork for a legal framework that would protect inventors and promote innovation. This early legislation granted inventors the exclusive right to their discoveries for a period of 14 years, provided the invention was deemed "useful and important." I...

This Day in Legal History: Senate Approves Alaska Purchase On April 9, 1867, the United States Senate voted to ratify the Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska, approving the acquisition of the territory for $7.2 million. The deal, championed by Secretary of State William H. Seward, added over 586,000 square miles to U.S. territory. At the time, many Americans viewed the icy, remote land a...

This Day in Legal History: Seventeenth Amendment On April 8, 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was officially ratified, transforming the way U.S. senators are selected. Prior to this amendment, senators were chosen by state legislatures, a system intended by the framers to preserve state influence within the federal government. However, by the late 19th and early 20...

This Day in Legal History:   Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service On April 7, 1933, the German government enacted the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , a key early legal step in the Nazi regime’s campaign to marginalize and exclude Jews and political dissenters from public life. The law targeted civil servants, stating that anyone who was not of “Arya...

This Day in Legal History:   MLK Assassinated On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King had traveled to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, emphasizing his ongoing commitment to economic justice alongside racial equality. His death sent shockwaves through the United S...

This Day in Legal History: Smith v. Allwright On April 3, 1944, the United States Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision in Smith v. Allwright , reshaping the landscape of voting rights in the American South. The case centered on Lonnie E. Smith, a Black voter from Texas who was denied the right to vote in the Democratic Party’s primary election due to a party rule that only allowed white vot...

This Day in Legal History: MA Enacts Anti-Vietnam War Legislation On April 2, 1970, Massachusetts enacted a bold piece of legislation challenging the U.S. government’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The law stated that no resident of Massachusetts, whether inducted or already serving in the military, could be compelled to participate in armed hostilities abroad unless Congress had formally declar...

This Day in Legal History: Federal Minimum Wage Increase On this day in legal history, April 1, 1991, the federal minimum wage in the United States increased to $4.25 per hour. This followed an earlier increase on April 1, 1990, when the wage rose from $3.35 to $3.80 per hour. These back-to-back adjustments marked the first changes to the federal minimum wage since 1981, when it had been set at $3...

This Day in Legal History: Civilian Conservation Corps Created by FDR On this day in legal history, March 31, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Senate Bill S. 598, creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as part of his sweeping New Deal agenda. The CCC was a rapid-response effort to the economic devastation of the Great Depression, designed to provide immediate employment to youn...

This Day in Legal History:  Wong Kim Ark becomes Wong Kim Ark On March 28, 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark , affirming that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrant parents was a U.S. citizen by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese nationals who were legally residing in t...

This Day in Legal History: President Johnson Vetoes Civil Rights Act of 1866 On March 27, 1866, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, an extraordinary move that underscored his deep hostility to racial equality and his resistance to Reconstruction efforts. The bill, which Congress had passed in the wake of the Civil War, aimed to grant full citizenship to formerly enslaved...

This Day in Legal History: Sandra Birth-Day O’Connor On this day in legal history, March 26, 1930, Sandra Day O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas. Raised on a remote Arizona ranch, O’Connor would go on to become the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court. After graduating near the top of her class at Stanford Law School in 1952, she struggled to find legal work due to widespread...

This Day in Legal History: Scottsboro Boys Arrested On this day in legal history, March 25, 1931, nine Black teenagers were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama, accused of raping two white women aboard a freight train. The arrests set off one of the most infamous legal sagas of the 20th century, exposing the deep racial injustices of the Jim Crow South. The teens, later known as the Scottsboro Boys, w...

This Day in Legal History: Last Quaker Executed for Religious Beliefs in US On March 24, 1661, William Leddra was executed in Boston, becoming the last Quaker in the American colonies to be put to death solely for his religious beliefs. Leddra, a devout Quaker, had previously been banished from Massachusetts under the colony's anti-Quaker laws but returned in defiance of the order. His return led...