Minimum Competence

On this day in legal history the first televised trial in New York hit the airwaves, paving the way to what would become Court TV and all the other reality-TV-meets-judicial-system abominations currently on air.  On October 25, 1988, New York witnessed its first-ever televised murder trial, involving Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum. The couple lived in a tumultuous relationship marked by drug ab...

On this day in legal history, October 24, the United Nations came into being. On October 24, 1945, a major milestone in international legal history was achieved with the ratification of the Charter of the United Nations. This marked the formal establishment of the United Nations (UN), an organization conceived at that time with the noble aim of promoting global peace, security, and cooperation amo...

On this day in legal history, October 23, 1987, the United States Senate rejected the nomination of Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, Bork, a distinguished legal scholar and a fervent conservative, faced staunch opposition primarily from the Democratic Senate, who were troubled by his originalist interpretations of the Constitution and his past controversia...

On this day in legal history, President Richard Nixon fired folks to try to keep a lid on the Watergate scandal. Turns out, that doesn’t work all that well.  On October 20, 1973, the "Saturday Night Massacre" unfolded, marking a pivotal moment in the Watergate scandal and American legal history. Solicitor General Robert Bork, acting on orders from President Richard Nixon, fired Watergate Special P...

On this day in legal history, October 19, 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City, adopting resolutions that played a crucial role in shaping American constitutional theory and paving the way for the American Revolution. The Congress, comprised of delegates from nine American colonies, was formed as a united response to the Stamp Act of 1765. The act had imposed "internal" taxes on...

On this day in legal history in 1929, the Privy Council of the United Kingdom declared women officially “persons” under the laws of Canada. Which is good, that’s a good thing to do, generally. People should be persons.  On October 18, 1929, a landmark decision by the Privy Council of the United Kingdom fundamentally altered the legal status of women in Canada. On this day, the Privy Council overtu...

On this day in legal history, October 17, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed Public Law 95-79, a bill that retroactively restored the U.S. citizenship of Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederate States of America. The restoration of his citizenship by Carter, a Southern Democrat, was seen by some as a symbolic gesture aimed at post-Civil Rights Era reconciliation. Debates surround...

On this day in legal history in 1946 the Nuremberg executions were carried out, following the trials of ten high level officials of the Third Reich. On October 16, 1946, a somber chapter in the aftermath of World War II closed with the Nuremberg executions. Ten prominent members of the Nazi regime were hanged, marking the end of the historic Nuremberg trials that sought justice for crimes against...

On this day in legal history, October 13, 1952 the Supreme Court denied certiorari in the appeal of the death penalty by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg–each convicted of espionage. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who gained notoriety in the early 1950s for being accused of espionage during the Cold War. They were alleged to have passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, a charge tha...

On this day in legal history, October 12, 1977, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in the landmark case of Allan Bakke, which centered around the contentious issue of "reverse discrimination." Bakke, a white student, had been denied admission to the University of California Davis Medical School, with the school reserving a specific number of seats for minority applicants. Bakke argued that this...

On this day in legal history, October 11, 1872, Chief Justice Harlan Stone was born – but he wasn’t born the Chief Justice. He was appointed much later when he was an adult.  Harlan Fiske Stone was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941 and then as the 12th Chief Justice of the United States from 1941 until his death in 1946. Born on Octob...

On this day in legal history, October 10, 1967, a pivotal moment in the history of space exploration occurred as the Outer Space Treaty officially entered into force. Outer Space Treaty's legal significance is profound. When it entered into force on October 10, 1967, it established a set of binding international laws and principles that continue to shape the legal framework governing outer space t...

On this day in legal history, October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in retaliation for signing a peace treaty with Israel.  The assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on October 6, 1981, had profound legal and political ramifications for Egypt. Prior to his assassination, Sadat had initiated a crackdown on opposition figures, including Islamists and intellectual...

On this day in legal history, October 5, 1941, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis died at the age of 84.  Louis Brandeis was born on November 13, 1856, in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from Harvard Law School at the age of 20 with the highest grade point average in the school's history. In 1890, he gained recognition for developing the "right to privacy" concept through an article in the Ha...

On this day in history, October 4, 1974, the trial of key Watergate conspirators began, marking a seminal moment in American political history. The defendants were H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Mitchell, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson. Each played a significant role in the Nixon administration and faced serious charges related to the Watergate scandal. H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's Chief of...

On this day in legal history, October 3, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, marked a shift in U.S. immigration policy. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the act abolished the National Origins Formula, which had been in place since the 1920s and favo...

On this day in legal history, October 2, 1967he first African-American Supreme Court justice.  On this day in legal history, October 2nd, we commemorate a monumental moment: the swearing-in of Thurgood Marshall as the first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908, Marshall was the great-grandson of an enslaved person. He faced racial barrier...

On this day in legal history, September 29, 1983, the War Powers Act was invoked for the first time – by President Ronald Reagan in order to keep a U.S. Marine presence in Lebanon. On September 29, 1983, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 270 to 161 to invoke the War Powers Act concerning the deployment of American Marines in Lebanon for an additional 18 months. The resolution had bipartisan...

On this day in legal history, September 28, 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed an appropriations bill that abolished flogging as a punishment in the Navy.  Flogging, carried out with a cat-o-nine-tails—a whip made of nine knotted ropes—was a common method for maintaining discipline on naval ships. The move to end flogging was influenced by public opinion, which had been galvanized by two sign...

On this day in legal history, September 27, 1964, the Warren Commission released its report on the Kennedy assassination, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the plot. The Warren Commission report, released after a thorough 10-month investigation, aimed to provide definitive answers regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Wa...

On this day in legal history, September 26, 1789, John Jay was made the first Chief Justice of the United States after the Senate confirmed his nomination. On this day, September 26, we commemorate a cornerstone moment for the American judicial system: the passing of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Signed by President George Washington, this landmark legislation established the Supreme Court of the Uni...

On this day in legal history, September 22, 1692, eight people were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts during the so-called “Salem Witch Trials.” The Salem Witch Trials were a series of witchcraft cases brought before local magistrates in a settlement called Salem, which was a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century. The trials took place between February 1692 and May...

On this day in legal history, September 21, 1981, the United States Senate approved the nomination by President Reagan of Sandra Day O’Connor to the United States Supreme Court–making her the first female Supreme Court justice.  O'Connor, who often leaned conservative, used her political experience from her time in the Arizona state Senate to shape her judicial views. She was known for filing conc...

On this day in legal history, September 20, 1884, American suffragists formed the Equal Rights Party on the platform plank of recognizing women’s right to vote.  On this day in legal history, September 20th, we cast our gaze back to a significant milestone in the fight for gender equality in the United States. The Equal Rights Party, a political entity deeply rooted in the advocacy for equal right...

On this day in legal history, September 19, 2002, President Bush wrote Congress and requested authority to invade Iraq. On September 19, 2002, President George W. Bush submitted a resolution to Congress seeking authorization to use "all means he determines to be appropriate, including force" to disarm Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. This move came amidst escalating international tension...