Minimum Competence

This Day in Legal History: FDR’s Court Packing Plan On February 5, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, better known as the “court-packing plan.” This controversial legislation aimed to expand the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court from nine to as many as fifteen. Roosevelt’s justification was to improve the efficiency of the judicia...

This Day in Legal History: Blockburger On February 4, 1932, the United States Supreme Court decided Blockburger v. United States , 284 U.S. 299 (1932), a case that established an enduring rule in American criminal law known as the Blockburger test. This test is used to determine whether two offenses are sufficiently distinct to permit multiple punishments or prosecutions under the Double Jeopardy...

This Day in Legal History: Fifteenth Amendment Ratified On February 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, marking a pivotal moment in American legal history. The amendment prohibits federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Its ratification was the third and final of...

This Day in Legal History: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo On February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, officially ending the Mexican-American War and significantly altering the legal and territorial landscape of the United States. The treaty ceded vast swaths of land to the U.S., including present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of several other western states—about...

This Day in Legal History: Hitler Appointed Chancellor On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, a moment that marked the beginning of one of the darkest legal and political transformations in modern history. Contrary to popular belief, Hitler did not seize power in a coup; his rise was accomplished through entirely legal means under the Weimar Constitution. Once in of...

This Day in Legal History: “Axis of Evil” On January 29, 2002, President George W. Bush delivered his first State of the Union address after the September 11 attacks, a speech that would shape U.S. legal and foreign policy for years to come. During the address, Bush coined the term “Axis of Evil” to describe Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, alleging these nations were actively pursuing weapons of mass...

This Day in Legal History: Monkey Selfie On January 28, 2016, a federal judge in California dismissed a highly publicized copyright lawsuit that sought to establish whether a monkey could own intellectual property rights. The case stemmed from a 2011 incident in which a crested macaque named Naruto allegedly took a series of selfies using wildlife photographer David Slater’s unattended camera in I...

This Day in Legal History: Paris Peace Accords On January 27, 1973, the United States signed the Paris Peace Accords, effectively marking the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Though primarily a geopolitical and military agreement, the Paris Peace Accords had significant legal dimensions. Negotiated between the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong (under the banner of th...

This Day in Legal History: Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill On January 26, 1922, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, a landmark but ultimately thwarted attempt to make lynching a federal crime. Introduced by Missouri Republican Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer, the bill was drafted in response to the widespread and brutal practice of lynching—acts of racial terror largely aime...

We launched something new — and it’s for anyone tired of hearing sloppy arguments pass unchallenged. LSAT Logic Applied is a new short-form podcast hosted by me, Andrew Leahey, the steady (?) voice at the helm of Minimum Competence. Twice a week, we’ll take the tools used in LSAT Logical Reasoning — assumptions, flaws, causation, strengthen/weaken — and apply them to the real world: news stories,...

This Day in Legal History: League of Nations Meets On January 23, 1920, the League of Nations held its first official meeting, marking a major experiment in international law and collective governance. The League was created in the aftermath of World War I as part of the Treaty of Versailles. Its core mission was to prevent future wars through diplomacy, arbitration, and collective security. For t...

This Day in Legal History: Roe v. Wade On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade , fundamentally reshaping American constitutional law and reproductive rights. In a 7–2 ruling, the Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects a person’s right to privacy, which includes the right to choose to have an abortion. The...

This Day in Legal History: Nixon Aides Convicted On January 21, 1975, three of Richard Nixon’s closest aides—H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and former Attorney General John Mitchell—were convicted for their roles in the Watergate cover-up. The charges? Conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. These convictions weren’t just about punishing political wrongdoing; they were the direct legal a...

This Day in Legal History: Marbury v. Madison On January 20, 1803, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison, a case that began as a minor dispute over an undelivered judicial commission and ended by redefining American constitutional law. The story traces back to the final days of the Adams administration, when outgoing President John Adams rushed to appoint Federalist judges before Thoma...

This Day in Legal History: 18th Amendment to the US Constitution On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, marking a pivotal moment in American legal history by establishing the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. The amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” for consumption in the United States and its ter...

This Day in Legal History: Williams v. Florida On January 15, 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Williams v. Florida , a significant case interpreting the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a trial by jury. The petitioner, Johnny Paul Williams, was convicted in a Florida court by a six-member jury and argued on appeal that his constitutional rights had been violated because the jury did not consist...

This Day in Legal History: Wong Kim Ark On January 14, 1898, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark , firmly establishing the doctrine of birthright citizenship under the Constitution. The case arose after Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco to Chinese parents who were not U.S. citizens, was denied reentry to the country following a tri...

This Day in Legal History: Judge Robert W. Archbald Impeached On January 13, 1913, Judge Robert W. Archbald of the U.S. Commerce Court was convicted by the U.S. Senate on articles of impeachment and removed from office, becoming one of the earliest federal judges ousted through this constitutional process. The House had impeached him the prior July on thirteen charges of corruption and misconduct,...

This Day in Legal History: Hattie Wyatt Caraway Elected to Senate On January 12, 1932, Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman elected to the United States Senate in her own right, marking a milestone in American legal and political history. Initially appointed to her late husband Thaddeus Caraway’s Senate seat, she was widely expected to serve only as a placeholder until a male su...

This Day in Legal History: Schenck v. United States On January 9, 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in Schenck v. United States , a foundational case in American free speech law. Charles Schenck, the general secretary of the Socialist Party, had been convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 for distributing leaflets urging resistance to the military draft during World War...

This Day in Legal History: George Washington Delivers First State of the Union Address On January 8, 1790, President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in New York City, the temporary capital of the United States. This moment marked the formal inauguration of a constitutional duty outlined in Article II, Section 3, which require...

This Day in Legal History: Nixon’s Plumbers On January 7, 1972, President Richard Nixon announced the formation of a special unit within the White House to investigate and prevent leaks of classified information, which would eventually evolve into the so-called “Plumbers” unit. This decision followed the publication of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, which deeply embarrassed the Ni...

This Day in Legal History: January 6 Insurrection On January 6, 2021, a significant and unprecedented legal and constitutional crisis unfolded in the United States. As a joint session of Congress convened to certify the Electoral College results of the 2020 presidential election, a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. The attack followed weeks of false claims...

This Day in Legal History: Federal Court Strikes Down “Balanced Treatment” Law in Arkansas On January 5, 1982, a federal district court in Arkansas issued a landmark ruling in McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education , striking down a state law that required public schools to give “balanced treatment” to both evolution and creation science. The law, known as Act 590, had been passed in 1981 and manda...

This Day in Legal History: Fundamental Laws of 1906 On December 30, 1905, Tsar Nicholas II signed the “Fundamental Laws of 1906,” marking a pivotal moment in the Russian Empire’s struggle between autocracy and constitutionalism. This act came in response to the Revolution of 1905, a period of mass unrest fueled by political repression, economic hardship, and a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japan...