Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 2 P6 pps

Binney wrote several biographies and case reports, including Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia (1859). He died August 12, 1875, in Philadelphia. v BIRD, ROSE ELIZABETH Rose Elizabeth Bird served as the first woman on the California Supreme Court, becoming the chief justice of one of the most prominent appellate courts in the United States. Bird became a controversial figure during the 1980s, as her adamant opposition to CAPITAL PUNISHMENT drew fire from political conservatives. In 1986 these views led voters to remove her from office. In her nine years on the court, however, Bird led a liberal majority that strengthened environmental laws, consumer rights, and women’srights. Bird was born on November 2, 1936, in Tucson, Arizona. She spent her childhood in Arizona and New York, where she graduated from Long Island University in 1958. She attended graduate school in political science at the University of California at Berkeley in 1960 but switched her career path to law when she entered Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1962. After graduation in 1965, Bird was admitted to the PRACTICE OF LAW in California. Following graduation, Bird served a one-year term as a law clerk for the chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court. In 1966 she joined the Santa Clara County, Californ ia, public defenders office. Bird remained in the public defenders office until 1974, serving successively as deputy PUBLIC DEFENDER, senior trial deputy, and chief public defender of the appellate division. As head of the appellate division, Bird oversaw all public defender criminal appeals to the California Courts of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. In addition to these duties, Bird served as an adjunct professor oflaw at Stanford University Law School from 1972 to 1974. Bird’s eventual rise to the California Supreme Court began when she became the chauffeur during Democrat Jerry Brown’s campaign for the governorship in 1974. Following his election, Brown appointed Bird to his cabinet as secretary of agriculture. She spent most of her time in that office working to settle a series of ongoing disputes between growers and farm unions. Moreover, she drafted reforms to the state’s farm LABOR LAW and to consumer legislation. In 1977, after twenty-two months in the cabinet, Governor Brown appointed Bird, then age 40, as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. She gained immediate national promi- nence because she was the first woman to serve on the state’s high court. As a member of a liberal majority, Bird established herself as a brilliant and combative judge. During her tenure, the court issued decisions that promoted environmental regulation and CIVIL RIGHTS for racial minorities and women. Other decisions gave tenants more rights and poor women the right to have a state-funded ABORTION. Coming from the public defenders office, the large corporate law firms and influential bar associations viewed her as an outsider. Bird signaled her disdain for the “old boys” system of privilege by selling the chief justice’s Cadillac and by staying at inexpensive motels rather than at expensive hotels while on state business. She also exercised strong leadership over the administration of the courts. Bird promoted racial and gender diversity on the bench. During her tenure, more than 1,000 judges were appointed who were either persons of color or female. In Horace Binney 1780–1875 ❖ ◆◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ 1775–1783 American Revolution 1780 Born, Philadelphia, Pa. 1800 Admitted to Philadelphia bar 1806 Elected to Pennsylvania legislature 1816–19 Served on the Philadelphia Select Council 1810–16 Served on the Philadelphia Common Council 1808 Became director of the First Bank of the United States 1833–35 Served in the U.S. House of Representatives 1844 Won the Girard Trust case 1859 Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia published 1861–65 U.S. Civil War 1875 Died, Philadelphia, Pa. ▼▼ ▼▼ 17751775 18251825 18501850 18751875 19001900 18001800 ❖ GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 38 BIRD, ROSE ELIZABETH addition, she led the court system to change its rules to allow cameras in the courtroom. Finally, she initiated a study of gender bias in the courts, a groundbreaking effort that was adopted by many other state courts during the 1980s and 1990s. It was Bird’s opposition to the death penalty, however, that had the greatest effect on her judicial career. California reinstated the death penalty in 1977 over the veto of Governor Brown. Thus, Bird took the bench at the same time that death penalty appeals would return to the state supreme court. Although Bird never discussed her personal views while on the court, she voted to overturn all 64 death sentences under her considerati on. By the mid-1980s, conservative political leaders began attacking Bird and members of the liberal majority who regularly voted against the death sentence. In 1986 Republican Gover- nor George Deukmejian, along with local prosecutors, led a hard-hitting campaign to remove Bird and fellow justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin from the court. They became the first judges in state history to be removed from office in a retention election. A retention election allows citizens to vote to retain or oust the judge in which there are no opposing candidates. Governor Deukmejian then appointed three justices to fill the vacancies. Following her defeat, Bird dropped from the public scene. She volunteered at a Palo Alto LEGAL AID office, doing clerical work because she let her bar registration dues lapse. She also worked at a local food bank, taught for a short time in Australia at the University of Sydney, and lectured occasionally around the country. She died on December 4, 1999, in Palo Alto from complications related to breast cancer. FURTHER READINGS Beck, Susan. 1998. “Justice on the Run.” American Lawyer (September) 76. Cooper, Claire. 2000. “Rose Bird: The Last Interview.” California Lawyer 20 (February). Purdum, Todd S. “Rose Bird, Once California’s Chief Justice, Is Dead at 63.” The New York Times (November 6, 1999). BIRTH CONTROL Birth control is a measure or measures under- taken to control the number of children born by preventing concepti on and reproduction. Rose Bird. AP IMAGES Rose Elizabeth Bird 1936–1999 ❖ ❖ 1936 Born, Tucson, Ariz. 1939–45 World War II 1961–73 Vietnam War 1965 Graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley 1966–74 Served as first woman deputy public defender in Santa Clara County, Cal. 1972–74 Taught at Stanford Law School ◆ 1975 Appointed secretary of agriculture, first woman cabinet member in California state history 1977–87 Served as first woman chief justice of the California Supreme Court and chair of Judicial Council of California ◆ 1986 Ousted from court, along with two colleagues, in historic retention election; left court in January 1987 ◆ 1991 Became full-time volunteer in East Palo Alto Community Law Clinic 1997 Received Conscience Award from American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California ▼▼ ▼▼ 19001900 19501950 19751975 20002000 19251925 ◆ 1999 Died, Stanford, Cal. ◆ 2000 California Public Defenders Association inaugurated the Rose Elizabeth Bird Award ◆ ◆ 1987 Established the Committee on Gender Bias in the Courts GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION BIRTH CONTROL 39 In the 1800s, temperance unions and anti- vice societies headed efforts to prohibit birth control in the United States. Anthony Com- stock, the secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, advocated a highly influ- ential law passed by Congress in 1873. It was titled the Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use, but known popularly as the Comstock Law or Comstock Act (18 U.S. C.A. § 1416-62 [1964]; 19 U.S.C.A. § 1305 [1964]). The Comstock Act prohibited the use of the mail system to transmit obscene materials or articles addressing or for use in the prevention of conception, including infor- mation on birth control methods or birth control devices as well as birth control devices themselves. Soon after the federal government passed the Comstock Act, more than half of the states passed similar laws. All but two of the remaining states already had laws banning the sale, dis- tribution, or advertising of contraceptives. Con- necticut had a law that prohibited even the use of contraceptives; it was passed with little or no consideration for its enforceability. Despite popular opposition, birth control had its advocates, including MARGARET SANGER.In1916 Sanger opened in New York City the first birth control clinic in the United States. For doing so, she and her sister Ethel Byrne, who worked with her, were prosecuted under the state’sversionof the Comstock law (People v. Byrne, 99 Misc. 1, 163 N.Y.S. 682 [1917]; People v. Sanger, 179 A.D. 939, 166 N.Y.S. 1107 [1917]). Both were convicted and sentenced to thirty days in a workhouse. After serving her sentence, Sanger continued to attack the Comstock Act. She established the National Committee for Federal Legislation for Birth Control, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and proposed the doctor’sbill.This bill advocated change in the government’spolicy toward birth control, citing the numerous instances in which women had died owing to illegal abortions and unwanted pregnancies. The bill was defeated, due, in part, to opposition from the Catholic Church and other religious groups. But when the issue of Sanger’s sending birth control devices through the mail to a doctor was pressed in United States v. One Package (13 F. Supp. 334 [S.D.N.Y. 1936]), the court ruled that the Comstock Act was not concerned with preventing distribution of items that might save the life or promote the well-being of a doctor’s patients. Sanger had sought to challenge the Comstock Act by breaking it and sending contraception in the mail. Her efforts were victorious and the exception was made. The doctor to whom Sanger had sent the device was granted its possession. Sanger furthered her role in reforming attitudes toward birth control by founding the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. Planned Parenthood merged previously existing birth control federations and promoted a range of birth control options. In the 1950s, Sanger supported the work of Dr. Gregory Pincus, whose research eventually produced the revolutionary birth control pill. The birth control pill is one of the most widely used forms of birth control. In the 1950s, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger raised $150,000 to pay for research into the development of the birth control pill by Dr. Gregory Pincus. AP IMAGES GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION 40 BIRTH CONTROL CONTRACEPTIVE USE BY WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE, 15 TO 44 YEARS OLD, IN 2002 SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Vital and Health Statistics, series 23, no. 25, December 2005. a Numbers may not add up to 100 due to rounding. b Includes sterilizations performed on women for contraceptive or medical reasons, as well as sterilizations performed on husbands or partners. c Includes IUD, diaphragm, withdrawal, and other methods. d Includes women who have never had intercourse. All women age 15–44 a Periodic abstinence (includes natural family planning) 0.9% Implant, patch, or injectable 4.1% Condom 11.1% Oral contraceptive 19.0% Other nonsurgical contraceptives c 4.6% Surgically sterile b 22.4% Not using contraceptives d 38.1% Other nonsurgical contraceptives c 3.3% Implant, patch, or injectable 1.3% Age 40–44 a Periodic abstinence (includes natural family planning) 1.6% Condom 8.0% Oral contraceptive 7.6% Surgically sterile b 47.4% Not using contraceptives d 31.0% Implant, patch, or injectable 4.8% Age 15–19 a Periodic abstinence (includes natural family planning) 0.0% Other nonsurgical contraceptives c 1.5% Condom 8.5% Surgically sterile b 0.0% Oral contraceptive 16.7% Not using contraceptives d 68.5% Birth Control Implant, patch, or injectable 7.0% Age 20–24 a Periodic abstinence (includes natural family planning) 0.8% Other nonsurgical contraceptives c 4.5% Condom 14.0% Oral contraceptive 31.8% Surgically sterile b 2.7% Not using contraceptives d 39.4% ILLUSTRATION BY GGS CREATIVE RESOURCES. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF GALE, A PART OF CENGAGE LEARNING. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION BIRTH CONTROL 41 By the 1960s, partly as a result of Sanger’s efforts, popular and legal attitudes toward birth control began to change. The case of Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479, 85 S. Ct. 1678, 14 L. Ed. 2d 510 [1965]), loosened the restrictions of the Comstock Act. When the Planned Parent- hood League of Connecticut opened in 1961, its executive director, Estelle Griswold, faced charges of violating Connecticut’s ban on the use of contraceptives (Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. §§ 53-32, 54-196 [1958]). A divided Supreme Court overturned Griswold’s conviction with a ground-breaking opinion that established a constitutional right to marital privacy. The Court threw out the underlying Connecticut statute, which prohib- ited both using contraception and assisting or counseling others in its use. The majority opinion, authored by Justice WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, looked briefly at a series of prior cases in which the Court had found rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution—for example, the right of freedom of association, which the Court has said is protected by the FIRST AMENDMENT , even though that phrase is not used there (NAACP v. Alabama, 357U.S.449,78S. Ct. 1163, 2 L. Ed. 2d 1488 [1958]). Douglas concluded that various guarantees contained in the Bill of Rights’ Amendments One, Three, Four, Five, Nine, along with Amendment Fourteen, create “zones of privacy,” which include a right of marital privacy. The Connecti- cut statute, which could allow police officers to search a marital bedroom for evidence of contraception, was held unconstitutional; the government did not have a right to make such intrusions into the marital relationship. The other branches of the government followed the Court’s lead. President LYNDON B . JOHNSON endorsed public funding for family planning services in 1966, and the federal govern- ment began to subsidize birth control services for low-income families. In 1970 President RICHARD M. NIXON signed the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.). This act supported activities related to population research and family planning. More and more, the Comstock Act came to be seen as part of a former era, until, in 1971, the essential co mponents of it were repealed. But this repeal was not necessarily followed in all the states. In the 1972 case of Eisenstad v. Baird (405 U.S. 438, 92 S. Ct. 1029, 31 L. Ed. 2d 349), the Court struck down a Massachusetts law still on the books that allowed distribution of contraceptives to married couples only. The Court held that the Massachusetts law denied single persons EQUAL PROTECTION, in violation of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. In the 1977 case of Carey v. Population Services International (431 U.S. 678, 97 S. Ct. 2010, 52 L. Ed. 2d 675), the Supreme Court continued to expand constitutional protections in the area of birth control. The Court imposed a strict standard of review for a New York law that it labeled “defective.” The law had prohibited anyone but physicians from distributing contra- ceptives to minors under sixteen years of age. The law had also prohibited anyone but licensed pharmacists from distributing contraceptives to persons over sixteen. Carey allowed ma kers of contraceptives more freedom to distribute and sell their products to teens. Throughout the 1990s, cases were brought in a number of jurisdictions in which parents sought to prohibit the distribution of condoms and other forms of birth control in schools to unemancipated minor students without the consent of a parent or guardian. Although some jurisdictions held that such birth control distribution programs violated the parents’ due process righ ts, other jurisdictions upheld the privacy rights of such minors and found the programs to be constitutional. More controversy arose after women gained access to RU-486, the so-called morning-after pill and later generations of emergency contracep- tives, which are high-dosage birth control pills designed to be taken shortly after unprotected intercourse has taken place. Emergency contra- ception continues to be opposed by antiabortion groups on the ground that it is another form of ABORTION. However, in 2006 the FDA approved the sale of the morning after pill without a prescription to women 18 and older. In 2009, the FDA approved the sale of the pill without a prescription to 17-year old women as well. Conservative gains in state legislatures from 2000 to 2006 strengthened the position of groups opposing abortion and reproductive rights. In addition to continuing to battle for the right to require parental consent for contraceptive ser- vices to minors both in schools and community health clinics, a number of conservative groups supported abstinence-only sexuality education classes in schools. While some proponents GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 42 BIRTH CONTROL wanted to make such classes optional and were willing to have them taught alongside traditional courses that discuss various methods of birth control, other adherents sought to have these classes taught in place of the traditional courses. With the election of BARACK OBAMA in 2008 and the subsequent congressional discussion of health- care reform, the debate continued over abortion and the federal role in funding medical insurance that may or may not include covering the cost of having an abortion. FURTHER READINGS Bacigal, Ronald J. 1990. The Limits of Litigation—The Dalkon Shield Controversy. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press. Hoff-Wilson, Joan. 1991. Gender and Injustice: A Legal History of U.S. Women. New York: New York Univ. Press. McCann, Carole R. 1994. Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916–1945. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. McLaren, Angus. 1990. A History of Contraception from Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell. Planned Parenthood. Available online at http://www. plannedparenthood.org (accessed November 23, 2009). Solinger, Rickie. 2000. Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade. New York: Routledge. CROSS REFERENCES Family Law; Griswold v. Connecticut (Appendix, Primary Document); Parent and Child; Privacy; Reproduction; Schools and School Districts v BISSELL, WILSON SHANNON Wilson Shannon Bissell was born December 31, 1847, in New London, New York. He graduated from Yale in 1869 and received a doctor of laws degree in 1893. In 1872 he established a legal practice with Lyman K. Bass and in 1873 Grover Cleveland joined the firm, forming Bass, Cleve- land and Bissell. In 1888 Bissell acted as a presidential elector and in 1890, served on a commission to amend the judicial articles of the New York Constitu- tion. Grover Cleveland, as PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES in 1893, selected his former law partner to serve as U.S. postmaster general, a post Bissell held until 1895. Extending his career to the field of educa- tion, Bissell became chancellor of the University of Buffalo in 1902. He died October 6, 1903, in Buffalo. BLACK CODES A body of laws, statutes, and rules enacted by southern states immediately after the Civil War to regain control over the freed slaves, maintain white supremacy, and ensure the continued supply of cheap labor. The Union’s victory over the South in the CIVIL WAR signaled the end for the institution of SLAVERY in the United States. Ratified in 1865, the THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT to the U.S. Constitu- tion formalized this result in U.S. law, abolish- ing slavery throughout the country and every territory subject to its jurisdiction. For the next several months, southern states sought a way to restore for the white majority what the Civil War and the Thirteenth Amend- ment had tried to deny them: supremacy, control, and economic power over the fate of African Americans. Under slavery, whites had disciplined the blacks largely outside the law, through extralegal whippings administered by slave owners and their overseers. After the slaves were emancipated, panicky whites feared that blacks would seek revenge against them for their harsh and inhumane treatment on the southern plantations. Former slave owners feared for themselves, their families, and their property. Wilson Shannon Bissell 1847–1903 ❖ ❖ ◆ ◆ ◆ 1847 Born, New London, N.Y. 1861–65 U.S. Civil War 1873 Bass, Cleveland, and Bissell formed 1885–89 Grover Cleveland's first term as U.S. president 1888 Served as presidential elector 1890 Served on commission to amend the judicial articles of the New York Constitution 1903 Died, Buffalo, N.Y. 1902 Became chancellor of the University of Buffalo 1893–97 Grover Cleveland's second (nonconsecutive) term as president 1893–95 Served as U.S. postmaster general ▼▼ ▼▼ 1850 1825 1875 1900 1925 ◆ GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION BLACK CODES 43 Whereas some white southerners thought that African-Americans were best controlled through vigilantism, Mississippi whites began passing laws to take away the former slaves’ new found freedom. The first such law was enacted on November 22, 1865. It directed civil officers to hire orphaned African Americans and forbade the orphans to leave their place of employment for any reason. Orphans were typically compensated with a free place to live, free meals, and some type of nominal wage. Other white employers were prohibited from offering any enticement to blacks “employed” by someone else. The Mississippi legislature next passed a VAGRANCY law, defining vagran ts as workers who “neglected their calling or employment or misspent what they earn ed.” Another Missis- sippi law required African Americans to carry with them written evidence of their present employment at all times, a practice that was hauntingly reminiscent of the old pass system under slavery. The final piece to the puzzle came when Mississippi established a system of special county courts to punish blacks charged with violating one of the new state employment laws. The law imposed draconian punishments, including “corporal chastisement” for blacks who refused to work or otherwise tried to frustrate the system. African Americans who committed real crimes, such as stealing, could be hung by their thumbs. Widely considered to be the first set of Black Codes passed in the south after the Civil War, these Mississippi laws represented a concerted effort by white lawmakers to restore the master- slave relationship under a new name. Within a few months after Mississippi passed its first such law, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina fol- lowed suit by enacting similar laws of their own. Congress quickly responded to the Black Codes by passing the CIVIL RIGHTS Act of 1866, which made it illegal to discriminate against blacks by assigning them an inferior l egal and economic status. Two years later the states ratified the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, which guaranteed “equal protection of the laws” to the residents of every state. But the southern states were not deterred. They soon passed a new set of laws that permitted local officials to informally discrimi- nate against blacks, without specific statutory authority. The thrust-and-parry exchanges be- tween Congress and the southern states contin- ued throughout the period RECONSTRUCTION (1865-77) and through the first half of the twentieth century. FURTHER READINGS Birnbaum, Jonathan, and Clarence Taylor, eds. 2000. Civil Rights since 1787. New York: NYU Press. Kramer, William. 1984. “How ‘Black Codes’ Virtually Nullified the Emancipation Proclamation.” The Los Angeles Daily Journal 97. Litwack, Leon F. 1979. Been in the Storm So Long. New York: Vintage. Pulliam, Ted. 2001. “The Dark Days of Black Codes.” Legal Times 24. Wilson, Theodore B. 1965. The Black Codes of the South. Birmingham, AL: Univ. of Alabama Press. CROSS REFERENCES Civil Rights Acts; Civil Rights Cases; Civil Rights Move- ment; Corporal Punishment; Fourteenth Amendment; Jim Crow Laws; Reconstruction; Segregation; Thirteenth Amendment. v BLACK, HUGO LAFAYETTE Hugo LaFayette Black was an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court f or nearly 34 years, serving one of the longest and most influential terms in the history of the Court. Black was born February 27, 1886, in Harlan, Alabama, the eighth child of a store- keeper and farmer. He was raised in rural Alabama and attended local schools. At the age of seventeen, Black entered Birmingham Medi- cal College. He decided that he was more suited to the study of law, however, and left the colleg e after one year to attend the University of Alabama Law School, where he received his bachelor of laws degree in 1906. In the same year, Black was admitted to the Alabama bar. He practiced briefly in Ashland, Alabama, near his childhood home. He then moved to Birmingham, where he quickly developed a successful practice in tort, labor, and contract law. In 1911 he was appointed a judge on the Birmingham police Court, but he resigned eighteen months later to return to private practice. In 1914 Black was elected county prosecutor for Jefferson County, Alabama, and gained local prominence for his investigation of brutal police tactics used to question suspects at the county jail. In 1917 Black resigned his position as prosecutor and enlisted in the Army. He remained in the United States and served as a captain of the artillery for a year. Then he GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 44 BLACK, HUGO LAFAYETTE resumed his private practice in Birmingham, where he frequently represented local workers in PERSONAL INJURY suits and served as an attorney for the local chapter of the United Mine Workers. In 1921 he married Josephine Foster, with whom he had three children. In 1923 Black joined the Birmingham chapter of the KU KLUX KLAN (KKK). He remained a member for two years. He com- mented later that, at the time, he believed joining the group could further his political and professional career. In 1926 Black, a Democrat, won a seat in the U.S. Senate, overcoming four other Democrats in the race. Black served in the Senate for nearly ten years and gained prominence as a tenacious and sometimes relentless investigator into the activities of Washington, D.C. lobbyists for PUBLIC UTILITIES. He was also a member of the SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE and a staunch supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s NEW DEAL legislation. A longtime supporter of organized labor, Black helped secure passage of the FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT of 1938 (29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.), which established a MINIMUM WAGE and a forty-hour workweek for enterprises in interstate c ommerce. In August 1937 Black became Roosevelt’s first appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, nominated to replace retiring justice WILLIS VAN DEVANTER . Initially, Black’s nomination was met with some opposition. Some critics cited his relative lack of judicial experience; others expressed concern about his “judicial tempera- ment,” given the aggressive and even abrasive manner that he was said to display when interrogating witnesses while a senator. Black was nevertheless confirmed in October 1937, by a vote of 63–16. Shortly afterward came confirmation of rumors that had been circulat- ing throughout Washington, D.C., about Black’s KKK ties in the mid-1920s. The controversy died quickly after Black spoke about the matter in a radio address. He admitted that he had once been a member but maintained that he had resigned many years earlier and had disavowed any further association with the organization. Throughout his long career on the Court, Black wrote a number of landmark decisions concerning CIVIL RIGHTS, free speech, and other important constitutional issues. In Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227, 60 S. Ct. 472, 84 L. Ed. 716 (1940), he wrote the majority opinion Hugo L. Black. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Hugo LaFayette Black 1886–1971 1886 Born, Harlan, Ala. ❖ ◆◆◆ ◆ 1914 Elected public prosecutor for Jefferson Co. (Alabama) 1911 Became part-time judge on the Birmingham Police 1914–18 World War I 1923–25 Member of Ku Klux Klan 1926 Elected to U.S. Senate 1937 Nominated to U.S. Supreme Court by President Roosevelt 1939–45 World War II 1944 Wrote Korematsu v. United States opinion 1950–53 Korean War 1960 Wrote Boynton v. Virginia opinion 1962 Wrote Engel v. Vitale opinion 1971 Retired from Supreme Court; died Bethesda, Md. 1961–73 Vietnam War ▼▼ ▼▼ 19001900 18751875 19251925 19501950 19751975 ❖ ◆ ◆ ◆ GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION BLACK, HUGO LAFAYETTE 45 overturning the death sentences of several blacks who had been coerced, through many hours of police interrogation, into confessing to MURDER. The Chambers decision, which came early in Black’s tenure on the Court and was the first major civil rights decision he wrote, did much to alleviate the fears of civil libertarians about his earlier KKK involvement. In another civil rights case, Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454, 81 S. Ct. 182, 5 L. Ed. 2d 206 (1960), Black wrote the majority opinion holding that racial segregation in facilities for travelers violated the INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT (49 U.S.C.A. § 501 et seq.). Black had represented many labor organiza- tions while a practicing attorney, and he continued his strong pro-labor stance through- out his caree r on the Court. In NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. Waterman Steamship Corp., 309 U.S. 206, 60 S. Ct. 493, 84 L. Ed. 704 (1940), which involved a dispute over unfair labor practices, Black wrote for the majority that the court of appeals could not substitute its judgment for that of the National Labor Relations Board. In his dissent in United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75, 67 S. Ct. 556, 91 L. Ed. 754 (1947), he opposed restrictions that prohibited federal government workers from participating in political campaigns. In YOUNGSTOWN SHEET & TUBE CO. V. SAWYER, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S. Ct. 863, 96 L. Ed. 1153 (1952), the Court, with Black writing the majority opinion, held that President HARRY S. TRUMAN did not have the authority to seize most of the United States’ steel mills to avert a threatened strike. Black strongly believed that the Due Process Clause of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution—which provides that “[n]oState shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”—means that the first eight amendments of the BILL OF RIGHTS must be applied to th e states as we ll as to the federal government. Eventually, a majority of the Court agreed with him. In GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT,372 U.S. 335, 83 S. Ct. 792, 9 L. Ed. 2d 799 (1963), Black wrote for the majority that states must provide defense counsel to indigent defendants accused of a felony, at any “critical stage” of the criminal proceedings. In Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 85 S. Ct. 1065, 13 L. Ed. 2d 923 (1965), in another majority opinion, Black wrote that the SIXTH AMENDMENT right of an accused to confront witnesses extends to defendants in state cases. Black always carried a copy of the Constitu- tion in his pocket. He was a staunch defender of the FIRST AMENDMENT and vehemently opposed any restrictions on the FREEDOM OF SPEECH.He dissented in Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S. Ct. 857, 95 L. Ed. 1137 (1951), which upheld a federal statute making it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the government by force. Black rejected the Court’s reliance on the “clear-and-present-danger” test, in which the Court considered whether such a serious danger existed that the restriction of speech was justified. Black wrote, “There is hope that in calmer times, when present pressures, passions and fears subside, this or some other Court will restore the First Amendment liberties to the high preferred place where they belong in society.” He joined Justice William O. Douglas’s dissent in the obscenity case ROTH V. UNITED STATES , 354 U.S. 476, 77 S. Ct. 1304, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1498 (1957), in which Douglas maintained that even “prurient” material was entitled to abso- lute First Amendment protection. In the First Amendment case ENGEL V. VITALE, 370 U.S. 421, 82 S. Ct. 1261, 8 L. Ed. 2d 601 (1962), he wrote the majority opinion holding that voluntary prayers sponsored by public schools are uncon- stitutional. He stated, “It is neither sacrilegious nor antireligious to say that each separate government in this countr y should stay out of the business of sanctioning prayers and leave that purely religious function to the people themselves and to those the people choose to look to for religious guidance.” One of Black’s last opinions before leaving the Court was for the Pentagon Papers case, NEW YORK TIMES CO. V. UNITED STATES, 403 U.S. 713, 91 S. Ct. 2140, 29 L. Ed. 2d 822 (1971), in which he concurred in the Court’s holding that the government could not prevent publication of a classified study on the VIETNAM WAR. Black departed from his liberal views in KOREMATSU V. UNITED STATES, 323 U.S. 214, 65 S. Ct. 193, 89 L. Ed. 194 (1944), a widely criticized decision, for which he wrote the majority opinion upholding the internment of Japanese Americans during WORLD WAR II. Despite the condemnation of Korem atsu in the years following the war, Black stood by the decision, maintaining that it was justified by the climate of fear that existed at the time. In addition, his STRICT CONSTRUCTION of the Constitution led him to write other opinions that sometimes seem inconsistent with his liberal views. He dissented THE LAYMAN’S CONSTITUTIONAL VIEW IS THAT WHAT HE LIKES IS CONSTITUTIONAL AND THAT WHICH HE DOESN ’T LIKE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL . —HUGO BLACK GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 46 BLACK, HUGO LAFAYETTE in GRISWOLD V. CONNECTICUT, 381 U.S. 469, 85 S. Ct. 1678, 14 L. Ed. 2d 510 (1965), in which the Court struck down, on privacy grounds, a state law that prohibited the sale of contraceptives. Black maintained that no right of privacy could be found to emanate “from one or more constitutional provisions.” While on the Court, Black was known for being sometimes antagonistic toward other justices with whom he disagreed. The Court’s tradition of keeping private its inner workings and the nature of the personal relationships between the justices was broken when Black became engaged in an unusually public feud with Justice ROBERT H. JACKSON in 1946. The dispute began when Jackson, in a letter to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, ac- cused Black of a CONFLICT OF INTEREST for participating in two labor decisions that were argued by a former law partner of Black’s. Jackson failed to mention that Black and the attorney had dissolved their partnership 19 years earlier and had hardly seen each other since. Black, in turn, publicly criticized Jackson’s leave of absence from the Court from 1945 to 1946 to serve as the U.S. prosecutor at the NUREMBERG TRIALS, calling those proceedings a “high grade lynching party.” Jackson was in line for the chief justice seat, which had been vacated in 1946, and he blamed Black when the appointment went to Fred M. Vinson, selected by President Truman to restore peace among the members of the Court. Following Vinson’s appointment, Black and Jackson were outwardly cordial to each other, though Jackson was reported to have remained resentful, believ- ing that Black’s actions had denied him the post of chief justice. Healthy and vigorous well into his later life, Black was an avid tennis player who often shared the court with his law clerks. On September 17, 1971, Black resigned from the Court at the age of eighty-five. He died just eight days later after suffering a massive stroke. FURTHER READINGS Frank, John P. 1997. “The Shelf Life of Justice Hugo L. Black.” Wisconsin Law Review. (January–February). Hockett, Jeffrey D. 1996. New Deal Justice: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Hugo L. Black, Felix Frankfurter, and Robert H. Jackson. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. Newman, Roger K. 1997. Hugo Black: A Biography. New York: Fordham Univ. Press. ———. 1999. “The Populist: Hugo Black Overcome Humble Beginnings—and Membership in the Ku Klux Klan—to Become a Constitutional Pioneer of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.” American Lawyer 21 (December). CROSS REFERENCES Freedom of the Press; Incorporation Doctrine; Japanese American Evacuation Cases; Right to Counsel; School Prayer. v BLACK, JEREMIAH SULLIVAN Jeremiah Sullivan Black was a prominent lawyer, judge, and U.S. attorney general, and also an unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Black was born January 10, 1810, in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania. He was raised in rural Pennsylvania and was largely self-educated through his own reading and study of Shake- speare, the Bible, and other works of literature. He originally planned a career in medicine, but his father arranged for him to study law with Chauncey Forward, a prominent local attorney and politician. After three years with Forward, Black was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, in late 1830. Forward then left his practice to take a seat in the U.S. Congress and turned over his clients to Black, enabling Black to develop a lucrative law practice of his own. Black married Forward’s daughter in 1836, and they had two children. Black soon became active in Democratic politics and was appointed deputy attorney general for his county. In 1842 he was appointed judge of the district court, and nine years later he was elected to the state supreme court. He won reelection to the state high court in 1854, and served as chief justice for three years. While an appellate judge, Black was best known for his opinions defining and construing the meaning of corporate charters. A longtime supporter of President JAMES BUCHANAN , Black was appointed U.S. attorney general by Buchanan in 1857. While attorney general, Black gained recognition for launching a vigorous prosecution of fraudulent land schemes in California. The investigation, head- ed by EDWIN M. STANTON, Black’s eventual successor, resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversing many district court cases involving land fraud. Black also enforced federal laws concerning the slave trade and the return of fugitive slaves. In addition, Black helped estab- lish the Buchanan administration’s position on JUSTICE TRAVELS WITH A LEADEN HEEL , BUT STRIKES WITH AN IRON HAND . —JEREMIAH BLACK GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION BLACK, JEREMIAH SULLIVAN 47 . RESOURCES. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF GALE, A PART OF CENGAGE LEARNING. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION BIRTH CONTROL 41 By the 1960s, partly as a result of Sanger’s efforts, popular. U.S. postmaster general ▼▼ ▼▼ 1850 1 825 1875 1900 1 925 ◆ GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION BLACK CODES 43 Whereas some white southerners thought that African-Americans were best controlled through. Gregory Pincus. AP IMAGES GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION 40 BIRTH CONTROL CONTRACEPTIVE USE BY WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE, 15 TO 44 YEARS OLD, IN 20 02 SOURCE: Centers for Disease