There are moments in American history when all eyes are focused on a federal court: when its bench speaks for millions of Americans, and when its decision changes the course of history. More often, the story of the federal judiciary is simply a tale of hard work: of finding order in the chaotic system of state and federal law, local custom, and contentious lawyering. The Federal Courts is a story of all of these courts and the judges and justices who served on them, of the case law they made, and of the acts of Congress and the administrative organs that shaped the courts. But, even more importantly, this is a story of the courts' development and their vital part in America's history. Peter Charles Hoffer, Williamjames Hull Hoffer, and N. E. H. Hull's retelling of that history is framed the three key features that shape the federal courts' narrative: the separation of powers; the federal system, in which both the national and state governments are sovereign; and the widest circle: the democratic-republican framework of American self-government. The federal judiciary is not elective and its principal judges serve during good behavior rather than at the pleasure of Congress, the President, or the electorate. But the independence that lifetime tenure theoretically confers did not and does not isolate the judiciary from political currents, partisan quarrels, and public opinion. Many vital political issues came to the federal courts, and the courts' decisions in turn shaped American politics. The federal courts, while the least democratic branch in theory, have proved in some ways and at various times to be the most democratic: open to ordinary people seeking redress, for example. Litigation in the federal courts reflects the changing aspirations and values of America's many peoples. The Federal Courts is an essential account of the branch that provides what Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Judge Oliver Wendell Homes Jr. called "a magic mirror, wherein we see reflected our own lives.
A comprehensive history of the people and cases that have changed history, this is the definitive account of the nation's highest court featuring a forward by Howard Zinn Recent changes in the Supreme Court have placed the venerable institution at the forefront of current affairs, making this comprehensive and engaging work as timely as ever. In the tradition of Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States, Peter Irons chronicles the decisions that have influenced virtually every aspect of our society, from the debates over judicial power to controversial rulings in the past regarding slavery, racial segregation, and abortion, as well as more current cases about school prayer, the Bush/Gore election results, and "enemy combatants." To understand key issues facing the supreme court and the current battle for the court's ideological makeup, there is no better guide than Peter Irons. This revised and updated edition includes a foreword by Howard Zinn. "A sophisticated narrative history of the Supreme Court . . . [Irons] breathes abundant life into old documents and reminds readers that today's fiercest arguments about rights are the continuation of the endless American conversation." -Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
astonishing feat of detective work reveals how a founder of the Bronx Zoo wound up writing. The passing of the Great Race (1916), the book that the Nazis later used to justify the exterminationist policies of the Third Reich." --Book Jacket.
An authoritative survey of the Taft Court, which served from 1921 to 1929, and the impact it had on the U.S. legal system, social order, economics, and politics. William Howard Taft's experience in the executive branch gave him a unique perspective on the court's work. He initiated judicial reform and was the prime mover behind the Judiciary Act of 1925, which gave the court wide latitude to accept cases based on their importance to the nation. The Taft Court decided about 1,600 cases during its nine terms. This book examines the "aggregate" personality of the court through discussions of individual voting characteristics, bloc alignments, and other patterned behavior. It also charts the strengths and weaknesses of the rulings and demonstrates Taft's penchant for increasing the impact of decisions by pursuing consensus among the justices, two of whom were his own appointees when he served as president.
Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts is a collection of legends and historical accounts about witches and warlocks from the Bay State. Organized by region, city and town, the book's dozens of stories include the earliest Puritan accounts of 17th century witches, urban legends about desolate locations haunted by ghostly witch hunt victims, tales of Cape Cod sailors battling witches, and other stories of sinister (and sometimes sympathetic) spellcasters. Massachusetts has a rich history of witchcraft that spans nearly four centuries. Most people are aware of the Salem witch trials but fewer know about the Dogtown witches, the Pepperell farmer who hired a hypnotist to save his bewitched daughter, or Half-Hanged Mary, the witch who died twice and inspired The Handmaid's Tale. These stories are known locally in the towns where they occurred but have never been collected into one book before.
For more than two centuries, the U.S. Supreme Court has provided a battleground for nearly every controversial issue in our nation’s history. Now a veteran team of talented historians—including the editors of the acclaimed Landmark Law Cases and American Society series—have updated the most readable, astute single-volume history of this venerated institution with a new chapter on the Roberts Court. The Supreme Court chronicles an institution that dramatically evolved from six men meeting in borrowed quarters to the most closely watched tribunal in the world. Underscoring the close connection between law and politics, the authors highlight essential issues, cases, and decisions within the context of the times in which the decisions were handed down. Deftly combining doctrine and judicial biography with case law, they demonstrate how the justices have shaped the law and how the law that the Court makes has shaped our nation, with an emphasis on how the Court responded—or failed to respond—to the plight of the underdog. Each chapter covers the Court’s years under a specific Chief Justice, focusing on cases that are the most reflective of the way the Court saw the law and the world and that had the most impact on the lives of ordinary Americans. Throughout the authors reveal how—in times of war, class strife, or moral revolution—the Court sometimes voiced the conscience of the nation and sometimes seemed to lose its moral compass. Their extensive quotes from the Court’s opinions and dissents illuminate its inner workings, as well as the personalities and beliefs of the justices and the often-contentious relationships among them. Fair-minded and sharply insightful, The Supreme Court portrays an institution defined by eloquent and pedestrian decisions and by justices ranging from brilliant and wise to slow-witted and expedient. An epic and essential story, it illuminates the Court’s role in our lives and its place in our history in a manner as engaging for general readers as it is rigorous for scholars.
The Law's Conscience is a history of equity in Anglo-American juris-prudence from the inception of the chancellor's court in medieval England to the recent civil rights and affirmative action decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Peter Hoffer argues that equity embodies a way of looking at law, including constitutions, based on ideas of mutual fairness, public trusteeship, and equal protection. His central theme is the tension between the ideal of equity and the actual availability of equitable remedies. Hoffer examines this tension in the trusteeship constitutionalism of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson; the incorporation of equity in the first American constitutions; the antebellum controversy over slavery; the fortunes of the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War; the emergence of the doctrine of "Balance of Equity" in twentieth-century public-interest law; and the desegregation and reverse discrimination cases of the past thirty-five years. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was the most important equity suit in American history, and Hoffer begins and ends his book with a new interpretation of its lessons.
Beginning with Thomas Edison's aggressive copyright disputes and concluding with recent lawsuits against YouTube, Hollywood's Copyright Wars follows the struggle of the film, television, and digital media industries to influence and adapt to copyright law. Though much of Hollywood's engagement with the law occurs offstage, in the larger theater of copyright, many of Hollywood's most valued treasures, from Modern Times (1936) to Star Wars (1977), cannot be fully understood without appreciating their legal controversies. Peter Decherney shows that the history of intellectual property in Hollywood has not always mirrored the evolution of the law and recounts these extralegal solutions and their impact on American media and culture.
This book examines a fundamental question in the development of the American empire: What constraints does the Constitution place on our territorial expansion, military intervention, occupation of foreign countries, and on the power the president may exercise over American foreign policy? Worried about the dangers of unchecked executive power, the Founding Fathers deliberately assigned Congress the sole authority to make war. But the last time Congress declared war was on December 8, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Since then, every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush has used military force in pursuit of imperial objectives, while Congress and the Supreme Court have virtually abdicated their responsibilities to check presidential power. Legal historian Irons recounts this story of subversion from above, tracing presidents' increasing willingness to ignore congressional authority and even suspend civil liberties.--From publisher description.
Reveals first-hand the issues linked with changes to the social fabric of Australia; the jailing of two Premiers and a deputy Premier; the ruthless removal of a Premier mid-term; the election of the nation's first female Premier, and the sensational 'WA Inc' Royal Commission. Many interviews were conducted, including those of key national figures to make this account of how the boom-bust West was led into its status as an economic powerhous of the twenty first century.
A comprehensive examination of the rulings, key figures, and legal legacy of the Stone Court. When President Franklin Roosevelt got the chance to appoint seven Supreme Court justices within five years, he created a bench packed with liberals and elevated justice Harlan Fiske Stone to lead them. Roosevelt Democrats expected great things from the Stone Court. But for the most part, they were disappointed. The Stone Court significantly expanded executive authority. It also supported the rights of racial minorities, laying the foundation for subsequent rulings on desegregation and discrimination. But whatever gains it made in advancing individual rights were overshadowed by its decisions regarding the evacuation of Japanese Americans. Although the Stone Court itself did not profoundly affect individual rights jurisprudence, it became the bridge between the pre-1937 constitutional interpretation and the "new constitutionalism" that came after.
The story of an American hero who stood against all the forces of Gilded Age America to help enshrine our civil rights and economic freedoms. Dissent. No one wielded this power more aggressively than John Marshall Harlan, a young union veteran from Kentucky who served on the US Supreme Court from the end of the Civil War through the Gilded Age. In the long test of time, this lone dissenter was proven right in case after case. They say history is written by the victors, but that is not Harlan's legacy: his views--not those of his fellow justices--ulitmately ended segregation and helped give us our civil rights and our economic freedoms. Derided by many as a loner and loser, he ended up being acclaimed as the nation's most courageous jurist, a man who saw the truth and justice that eluded his contemporaries. "Our Constitution is color blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens," he wrote in his famous dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, one of many cases in which he lambasted his colleagues for denying the rights of African Americans. When the court struck down antitrust laws, Harlan called out the majority for favoring its own economic class. He did the same when the justices robbed states of their power to regulate the hours of workers and shielded the rich from the income tax. When other justices said the court was powerless to prevent racial violence, he took matters into his own hands: he made sure the Chattanooga officials who enabled a shocking lynching on a bridge over the Tennessee River were brought to justice. In this monumental biography, prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Peter S. Canellos chronicles the often tortuous and inspiring process through which Supreme Courts can make and remake the law across generations. But he also shows how the courage and outlook of one man can make all the difference. Why did Harlan see things differently? Because his life was different, He grew up alongside Robert Harlan, whom many believed to be his half brother. Born enslaved, Robert Harlan bought his freedom and became a horseracing pioneer and a force in the Republican Party. It was Robert who helped put John on the Supreme Court. At a time when many justices journey from the classroom to the bench with few stops in real life, the career of John Marshall Harlan is an illustration of the importance of personal experience in the law. And Harlan's story is also a testament to the vital necessity of dissent--and of how a flame lit in one era can light the world in another. --
Over a century ago a series of shocking mutilation murders took place in a squalid, overcrowded district of Victorian London. Five women fell victim to a man driven by rage and violent fantasy. The newspapers of the day gave him a chilling nickname, a name that evokes images of gas-lit foggy streets and a top-hatted sinister figure carrying a Gladstone bag. From the outset, the murderer attained almost mythical status merely by virtue of his name and his uncanny ability to avoid detection. The legend of Jack the Ripper was born. Peter Hodgson’s detailed and entertaining overview of Ripper lore in fact, film and fiction analyses the fiend’s awesome legacy. He explores the institutions and the individuals: the Jewish community and their rituals with meat, the scandal-prone royal family, the Victorian police and their simplistic methods of investigation, the streetwalkers and their trade. This book compares the fiction with the reality of those ghastly events, and clearly shows how the real killer has been transformed into a creature of the mind–the ‘other’ Jack the Ripper. Examination of the victims’ mutilations reveals the true nature of ‘Jack’s’ grotesque fantasies. This aspect–coupled with his elementary anatomical knowledge–is used in conjunction with the FBI’s appraisal of the case to construct a unique psychological profile. From the long list of candidates the author reveals his prime suspect for the role of the world’s most infamous serial killer. Book reviews online: PublishedBestsellers website.
The Cavendish Law Cards cover the broad range of subjects available on the undergraduate law programme,as well as on the CPE/Diploma in Law course. Each one of the Cavendish LawCards is a complete, pocket-sized guide to key examinable areas of the law syllabus. Their concise text, user-friendly layout and compact format make the Cavendish LawCards ideal revision aids for identifying, understanding and committing to memory the salient points of each topic.
In the current legal climate where “everyone is an originalist,” conventional wisdom suggests that judges merely find law, rather than make it. Orthodox common-law jurisprudence makes fidelity to the past the central goal and criterion. By contrast, the alternative approach, “reading the law forward”—what some call judicial pragmatism or consequentialism—is viewed as heretical. Rather than mount a theoretical defense of a forward-thinking jurisprudence, legal historian Peter Charles Hoffer offers an empirical study of how this approach to constitutional interpretation actually leads to better law. Reading Law Forward looks at seven judges who exemplify this alternative jurisprudence: John Marshall, Joseph Story, Lemuel Shaw, Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, William O. Douglas, and Stephen G. Breyer. “In the hands of America’s leading judges, a jurisprudence of reading law forward enabled courts to respond to the challenges of changing conditions. It kept law fresh. It promoted and still promotes the growth of a democratic society,” Hoffer convincingly argues.
This extensive revision of the landmark Leading Constitutional Decisions brings together recent Charter cases with the classical cases on the Canadian Constitution. An introductory essay traces the evolution and distinctive features of judicial review in Canada and includes references to the Constitution Act, 1982, and the important changes resulting from it.
Americans have long been identified as a people of law and lawyers with an addiction to lawsuits. In Litigation Nation, Peter Charles Hoffer, one of America’s most preeminent legal historians, charts the history of civil litigation from the seventeenth century to the present, using key cases pursued by ordinary people to illustrate how the civil courts have been a battlefront to contest the boundaries of permissible personal conduct in times of social and political change. Using representative case studies from each period—from defamation suits in seventeenth-century America to recent civil rights and gender discrimination lawsuits, Hoffer’s concise and accessible history shows how litigation reflects the lives and values of ordinary Americans.
New England, the most clearly defined region in the United States, includes the six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. First colonized by the French in 1604 and the British in 1607, the New England colonies were the first to secede from the British Empire and were among the first states admitted to the union. No region has claimed more presidents as native sons (seven) or produced more men and women of exceptional accomplishment and fame. Many Americans see New England as a touchstone for the founding ideas of the nation, and the region served as a source of inspiration for many artists and writers. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of New England contains a chronology, an introduction, appendix, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, places, institutions, and events. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about New England.
Ever since Douglass Adair convincingly demonstrated that a love of fame was central to the American founding, political scientists and historians have started to view the founders and their acts in a new light. In The Noblest Minds, ten distinguished scholars examine this passion for fame and honor and demonstrate for the first time its significance in the development of American democracy. The first two-thirds of the book is devoted to essays on individual founders, as the contributors consider the role of fame in the lives and political characters of Washington, Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Marshall. The remaining chapters analyze the founders' theoretical accomplishment in reviving political science, and explore the problem of honor in the modern world. Political scientists and American historians alike will find this book to be valuable and illuminating. What made the founding generation of American statesmen so outstanding? To answer this question, The Noblest Minds brings together a distinguished group of historians and political scientists to evaluate a neglected but compelling theory advanced nearly four decades ago by Douglass Adair. Adair argued that it was the 'love of fame' that moved many of the leading lights of the founding generation. Adair's thesis is the starting point for a series of searching essays on the role of fame in the lives of Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, and Washington. These profiles also provide wide-ranging historical and philosophical reflections on the question of fame. What emerges from these essays is a more complex picture of the founding generation than that presented by Adair. While acknowledging the role of the love of fame, The Noblest Minds argues for the influence of other concerns such as honor, virtue, and the cause of liberty. This more complex picture of the founding generation provides a unique and rewarding vantage point from which to consider the question of 'character' in politics, which looms so large in contemporary political debate. It illuminates the differences between true fame and mere celebrity in such a way as to point to considerations that transcend both. Political scientists and American historians alike will find this book to be valuable and illuminating.
Challenging traditional accounts of the development of American private law, Peter Karsten offers an important new perspective on the making of the rules of common law and equity in nineteenth-century courts. The central story of that era, he finds, was a struggle between a jurisprudence of the head, which adhered strongly to English precedent, and a jurisprudence of the heart, a humane concern for the rights of parties rendered weak by inequitable rules and a willingness to create exceptions or altogether new rules on their behalf. Karsten first documents the tendency of jurists, particularly those in the Northeast, to resist arguments to alter rules of property, contract, and tort law. He then contrasts this tendency with a number of judicial innovations--among them the sanctioning of 'deep pocket' jury awards and the creation of the attractive-nuisance rule--designed to protect society's weaker members. In tracing the emergence of a pro-plaintiff, humanitarian jurisprudence of the heart, Karsten necessarily addresses the shortcomings of the reigning, economic-oriented paradigm regarding judicial rulemaking in nineteenth-century America. Originally published in 1997. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
Civil Procedure: A Coursebook offers students doctrinal clarity without sacrificing analytical rigor or glossing over ambiguities. The book’s accessibility, organization, and interior design support its innovative pedagogy making it the ideal text for any civil procedure course. New to the Fourth Edition: New case treatment of personal jurisdiction in the Internet context. New cases and materials for affirmative defenses (qualified immunity), class certification (stop and frisk policy), summary judgment (police shooting/qualified immunity), and issue preclusion (official misconduct), helping students connect procedure to current social issues. New case treatment of proportionality in discovery. Professors and student will benefit from: Nearly all questions asked are answered in the book Each chapter includes mini table of contents at beginning and summary of fundamentals at end Each case prefaced by accessible introduction Interior design and graphics support innovative pedagogy
The civil rights era was a time of pervasive change in American political and social life. Among the decisive forces driving change were lawyers, who wielded the power of law to resolve competing concepts of order and equality and, in the end, to hold out the promise of a new and better nation. The Search for Justice is a look the role of the lawyers throughout the period, focusing on one of the central issues of the time: school segregation. The most notable participants to address this issue were the public interest lawyers of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, whose counselors brought lawsuits and carried out appeals in state and federal courts over the course of twenty years. But also playing a part in the story were members of the bar who defended Jim Crow laws explicitly or implicitly and, in some cases, also served in state or federal government; lawyers who sat on state and federal benches and heard civil rights cases; and, finally, law professors who analyzed the reasoning of the courts in classrooms and public forums removed from the fray. With rich, copiously researched detail, Hoffer takes readers through the interactions of these groups, setting their activities not only in the context of the civil rights movement but also of their full political and legal legacies, including the growth of corporate private legal practice after World War II and the expansion of the role of law professors in public discourse, particularly with the New Deal. Seeing the civil rights era through the lens of law enables us to understand for the first time the many ways in which lawyers affected the course and outcome of the movement.
A collection of 64 essays, written between 2002-2008, primarily about economics (theory versus 'actually existing capitalism' through various topics including economic growth, business cycles, globalization and monopoly power, and political science (theory versus 'actually existing democracy' through various topics including constitutional government, emergency powers, and civil liberties). The geographic focus is the English-speaking nations of the Northern Hemisphere, primarily the U.S. A significant reason for setting this time frame is that it corresponds to a period when the author was experiencing his own 'darkness at noon.
This definitive legal guide to the new world of telecommunications provides you with thorough, authoritative analysis you need to understand and comply with the complex regulatory landscape in the industry. You'll find timely review of key legislation, FCC rules, regulations and orders, and court decisions with extensive citations and cross-references for such essential topics as the economics of interconnection and detailed discussions of pricing methodologies of offering services for resale; interconnection rules for wire line networks, including the specific rules imposed on incumbent LECs; antitrust litigation in the wake of the 1996 Act, with comprehensive analysis of the cases brought against incumbent local telephone companies; significant changes to universal services requirements; regulations and policies involving horizontal and vertical mergers and acquisitions; the FCC's rule-making and other powers; rights and duties arising from the laws of privacy, intellectual property and free speech; and much more. Federal Telecommunications Law, Second Edition provides all the laws and rules -- including those for price regulation, common carriage, universal service, regulations and court decisions -- are analyzed in detail to provide you with a thorough understanding of the environment within which you must work. Trends in competition, industry structures and technology are explored -- offering you a total picture of the telecommunications industry, in areas such as telecommunications equipment; long distance services; wireless services; the Internet and data services; information services; video services; and more.
It was the Eve of Christmas 1990, when Anthony Miller lost his father in a road traffic accident. Not being able to cope with the grief, his mother places him in care, by the advice of her daughter and that of the local authorities; where over time she forgets about him. Those nine years in care would prove costly, as it would take away Anthony's Christmas spirit, as well as the trust in adults. Now an adult himself, Anthony became involved intimately with a co-worker; but it soon diminished as their relationship became toxic. Trying to make amends, because of the love he has for this woman, he goes to surprise her in the bar she frequents, when Anthony finds her in the arms of another man. With a scared childhood, and relationship; Anthony parts ways and then throws himself into his work, which pays off as he becomes the owner. He accepts a role in the local orphanage, where he soon comes across a young boy named Tyler. Could this young boy finally break his defences; and show him the meaning of Christmas?
International Civil Litigation in United States Courts is the essential, comprehensive law school text for the current and future international litigator or international corporate lawyer. Covering all the topics discussed in competing texts and more, this casebook seamlessly combines international litigation, conflict of laws, and comparative civil procedure. This Sixth Edition includes excerpts and updated discussion of recent U.S. court decisions and legislation relating to a wide range of private and public international law topics, including foreign sovereign immunity, choice of law, antisuit injunctions, legislative jurisdiction, service of process on non-U.S. citizens, international discovery, foreign judgment enforcement, and international arbitration. Key Features: Updates on recent US Supreme Court and other significant U.S. court decisions, including Daimler AG v. Bauman, BNSF Ry. Co. v. Tyrrell, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of Cal., Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon, and more. Updated discussion of international law and national law from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Revised Notes on recent developments and current topics such as terrorism, proof of foreign law, and judicial jurisdiction.
A history of the men who were sentenced to hang in South Africa following the death of a deputy-mayor in Sharpeville in 1984. The authors focus on the trial, sentencing, and subsequent international campaign that eventually led to their release after a stay of execution was ordered only 18 hours before the death sentence was to be carried out. Their exploration of the events also leads the authors into discussions of the way the criminal justice system in apartheid South Africa was biased against blacks. The source material for the book included countless interviews and letters written from Death Row. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Access the law at your fingertips. Contains a detailed table of contents and all rules in effect as of March 15, 2021. Look for other titles in our series such as Mississippi Rules of Evidence and Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure.
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