March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee

March 20, 1816:  Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, case affirmed the Supreme Court’s right to review state court decisions.

From 1779 to 1785, Virginia passed a series of laws by which the state confiscated all lands owned by foreigners. David Hunter was granted 800 acres of confiscated lands that had been willed to Denny Martin Fairfax, a British subject. Fairfax brought suit against Hunter for return of the land. On Fairfax’s death the suit was taken over by his heir, Philip Martin. Martin argued that Fairfax’s ownership had been protected by treaties between the United States and Great Britain guaranteeing British subjects the right to hold land in America. The Virginia court of appeals upheld the grant to Hunter, but on appeal the U.S. Supreme Court voided the grant (1813). The Virginia court refused to obey the Supreme Court ruling, declaring that it had no right to review the decisions of state courts under the U.S. Constitution. When the case again came before the Supreme Court, Justice Story ruled that section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which granted the U.S. Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over state courts in certain situations (as in this case, where a state court denied the validity of a federal statute), was constitutional. (Oyez article) (see May 10, 1886)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

March 20, 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published. 10,000 copies were sold in the first week, 300,000 within the first year. The many different editions published in Europe sold an aggregate of one million copies in the first year.

It was the second best-selling book of the 19th century after the Bible.and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.” (pdf of text) (see Mar 22)

Dred Scott

March 22, 1852: in Scott v. Emerson, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the lower court and declared that Scott was still a slave. The decision was frankly political. The court decided the case not on the basis of legal precedent, but because of popular prejudice. Chief Justice William Scott stated: 

Times are not now as they were when the former decisions on this subject were made. Since then not only individuals but States have been possessed with a dark and fell spirit in relation to slavery, whose gratification is sought in the pursuit of measures, whose inevitable consequence must be the overthrow and destruction of our government. Under such circumstances it does not behoove the State of Missouri to show the least countenance to any measure which might gratify this spirit. She is willing to assume her full responsibility for the existence of slavery within her limits, nor does she seek to share or divide it with others.

Thus, Chief Justice Scott overturned twenty-eight years of Missouri precedents. (see Dred Scott for expanded story)

Muhammad Ali

March 20, 1964: The Department of the Army issued the following statement about Ali’s draft status: “The Department of the Army has completed a review of Cassius Clay’s second pre-induction examination and has determined he is not qualified for induction into the Army under applicable standards.”

The Army had given Ali a second test after it was determined that the results of his initial test were inconclusive. Ali’s response was, “I just said I’m the greatest. I never said I was the smartest.” (Ali, see May 25, 1965)

Voting Rights

March 20, 1964:  the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee announced the “Freedom Summer” program that would train young people to go to Mississippi and help Black register to vote. (BH, see Mar 23; VR, see June 14) 

March to Montgomery

March 20, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson notified Alabama’s Governor George Wallace that he would use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise the planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. (see March for expanded story)

James Earl Ray

March 20, 1969: James Earl Ray sentenced to 99 years for murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Prior to his death, Ray was in the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville.

He died at age 70 on April 23, 1998, at the Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital in Nashville from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C.  (NYT obit for Ray) (see Apr 8)

Michael Donald

March 20, 1981: Mobile, Alabama. Henry Hays (age 26), and James Llewellyn “Tiger” Knowles (age 17) kidnap, beat, strangle, and slit the throat of Michael Donald before hanging him from a tree.

Local police initially stated that Donald had been killed as part of a drug deal gone wrong. (see June 6, 1997). Donald, an African-American, had been walking back from a store and randomly selected by Ku Klux Klan members Hays and Knowles. (retrospective Vanguard USA article)  (BH, see Dec 11; Michael Donald, see June 16, 1983)

Laquan McDonald

March 20, 2018: the American Civil Liberties Union and several community organizations said that they have reached an agreement to provide input into reforms being proposed for the Chicago Police Department. (B & S, see Mar 27; McDonald, see Sept 13)

Antwon Rose

March 20, 2019:  John Leach, a neighbor who lives a few houses away from the scene of East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld shooting Antwon Rose, testified that he saw the officer standing on the sidewalk, panicking, saying, “I don’t know why I shot him. I don’t know why I fired.” (B & S and AR, see Mar 22)

BLACK & SHOT

March 20, 2024: U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Daniel Ready Opdyke to 17.5 years and Chritsian Lee Dedmon to 40 years in prison for torturing Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. [NBC article] (next B & S, see March 21)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Martha Place

March 20, 1899: Martha Place, convicted of the murder of her step-daughter, became the first woman to die in the electric chair. The execution was carried out at New York’s Auburn Prison. (CDNC article) (see May 2, 1910)

Pope Francis

March 20, 2015: Pope Francis came out against the death penalty once again, calling it “unacceptable” regardless of the seriousness of the crime of the condemned. The pope met with a three-person delegation of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty and issued a letter on the occasion urging worldwide abolition.

Citing his previous messages against the death penalty, the pope called capital punishment “cruel, inhumane and degrading” and said it “does not bring justice to the victims, but only foments revenge.” Furthermore, in a modern “state of law, the death penalty represents a failure” because it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice, the pope said. Rather, it is a method frequently used by “totalitarian regimes and fanatical groups” to do away with “political dissidents, minorities” and any other person deemed a threat to their power and to their goals. (American Magazine article) (see Mar 23)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

R.B. Grover shoe factory

March 20, 1905: an old boiler exploded and shot up through three floors and the roof of the R.B. Grover shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts. The building collapsed and burst into flames. killing 58 people and  injuring 150. The incident led to passage of a national boiler safety code. (see June 27)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

French return

March 20, 1945: French troops return to Hanoi. (see May 31)

Dien Bien Phu

March 20, 1954: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and other members of the Eisenhower administration were stunned at the turn of events at Dien Bien Phu (French defeated) and discussions  held discussions to decide on a course of action. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Arthur Radford proposed the use of nuclear strikes against the Viet Minh. Other options included massive conventional air strikes, paratrooper drops, and the mining of Haiphong Harbor. In the end, President Eisenhower decided that the situation was too far gone and ordered no action to be taken to aid the French. (see Apr 7)

Operation Popeye/1967

March 20, 1967:  a highly classified weather modification program in Southeast Asia called Operation Popeye began. It was an attempt to extend the monsoon season, specifically over areas of the Ho Chi Minh Trail maze. The military seeded the clouds over the Trail to create floods and wash out supply routes to hinder North Vietnam’s supply chain into and from South Vietnam.

The 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron carried out the operation using the slogan “make mud, not war.”

The initial area of operations was the eastern half of the Laotian panhandle.

At times the program was also known as Operation Motorpool, and Operation Intermediary-Compatriot.  (next V, see Mar 25)

Operation Popeye/1974

March 20, 1974: the Defense Department provided Senator Pell’s Subcommittee with a top secret briefing on weather modification activities in Southeast Asia. (V, see Apr 16; see OP for expanded chronology)

Gen. David Shoup

March 20, 1968:

• retired U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Shoup estimated that up to 800,000 men would be required just to defend South Vietnamese population centers. He further stated that the US could only achieve military victory by invading the North, but argued that such an operation would not be worth the cost.

• The New York Times published excerpts from General Westmoreland’s classified end-of-year report (1967), which indicated that the U.S. command did not believe the enemy capable of any action even approximating the Tet Offensive (January 1968). This report, Shoup’s comments, and other conflicting assessments of the situation in Vietnam contributed to the growing dissatisfaction among a large segment of American society with the Vietnam War. (see Mar 22)

Chicago 8

March 20, 1969: the grand jury impaneled to investigate the 1968 Chicago riots charged eight protesters with various crimes and eight police officers with civil rights violations. The eight protesters were: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. Later, Seale’s trial will be separated and the group will thereafter be known as the Chicago Seven. (Vietnam, see March 25 – 31; Chi8, see Sept 23)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Nikita Khrushchev

March 20, 1953: the Soviet government announced that Nikita Khrushchev had been selected as one of five men named to the new office of Secretariat of the Communist Party. Khrushchev’s selection was a crucial first step in his rise to power in the Soviet Union. (see Apr 13)

Cuba

March 20, 2016: President Barack Obama arrived in Cuba and ended a half-century of estrangement. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met. (Guardian article) (see Nov 25).

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Tunisia

March 20, 1956:  Tunisia independent from France. (see Nov 18)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

see March 20 Music et al for expanded info

Calcutta

March 20 – April 9, 1961: Lawrence Welk’s Calcutta  is Billboard #1 album.

Surrender

March 20 – April 2, 1961: “Surrender” by Elvis Presley #1 Billboard Hot 100. Though based on an early 20^th century Italian ballad, it was one of 25 songs Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote for Presley. (Apr 10)

Goldfinger

March 20 – April 9, 1965: the Goldfinger soundtrack is the Billboard #1 album.

John & Yoko

March 20, 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in Gibraltar. (see March 25 – 31)

Knight Ringo

March 20, 2018: Prince William knighted Ringo. Ringo became the second Beatle knighted. Paul was knighted in 1997. (next Beatles, see August 27, 2020)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

AZT

March 20, 1987: the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients. (see Mar 24)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

March 20, 1991: in Automobile Workers vs. Johnson Controls, the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the exclusion of women from jobs where exposure to lead might harm the fetus unless the women could prove they were medically infertile; the decision was unanimous; the court noted that men were not subjected to similar requirements, though exposure by men to lead was also known to be harmful to reproduction. (Oyez article) (see Oct 11)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

March 20, 1996: Rep Dave Camp (R-MI), introduced a bill in the House to prohibit taxpayer funding of assisted suicide. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

March 20, 1997: Liggett Group settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive. (see Aug 25)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 20, 1998: President Clinton decided to formally invoke executive privilege. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

March 20, 2003: the US House of Representatives voted 400-7 to condemn the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision not to reconsider its ruling that the addition of the phase “under God” to the The Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. (see Pledge for expanded chronology)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

March 20, 2012: Supreme Court: John Doe AP v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. The Court rejected an appeal challenging a Missouri court’s ruling that the Constitution’s religious- freedom protections shield churches from lawsuits questioning practices for employing and supervising the clergy. The Court agreed with a Missouri trial judge who had ruled that  the church couldn’t be sued on the “John Doe’s” claims and an appeals court had upheld the decision. (SCOTUS link) (see Mar 27)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

March 20, 2015: federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the United States government must release photographs showing the abuse of detainees in American custody at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other sites. Hellerstein gave the Defense Department 60 days to appeal. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a lawsuit in 2004 seeking the release of the photos. Judge Hellerstein ruled in August 2014 that the government had failed to show how the photos would endanger American soldiers, but allowed it to submit more evidence. He said in the Mar 20 ruling that the additional evidence had failed to change his decision. (see Apr 13)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Fracking

March 20, 2015: the Obama administration unveiled the nation’s first major federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing. The new rules applied only to oil and gas wells drilled on public lands, even though the vast majority of fracking in the US was done on private land. The rules will cover about 100,000 wells, according to the Interior Department.

“Current federal well-drilling regulations are more than 30 years old, and they simply have not kept pace with the technical complexities of today’s hydraulic fracturing operations,” said the interior secretary, Sally Jewell.     

The regulations, which would take effect in 90 days, would allow government workers to inspect and validate the safety and integrity of the cement barriers that line fracking wells. They wouldrequire companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in the fracturing process within 30 days of completing fracking operations.

The rules would also set safety standards for how companies could store used fracking chemicals around well sites, and will require companies to submit detailed information on well geology to the Bureau of Land Management, a part of the Interior Department. (see Apr 1)

Climate Change Report

March 20, 2023:  the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that Earth was likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade, and nations needed to make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from overheating dangerously beyond that level.

The report, by a body of experts convened by the United Nations, offered the most comprehensive understanding to date of ways in which the planet was changing. It said that global average temperatures were estimated to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre industrial levels sometime around “the first half of the 2030s,” as humans continued to burn coal, oil and natural gas. [NYT article] (next EI, see Apr 6)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Wisconsin

March 20, 2015: U.S. District Judge William Conley struck down a Wisconsin law requiring doctors performing abortions to get hospital admitting privileges, ruling that any benefits to women’s health from the requirement are “substantially outweighed” by restricting women’s access to abortion.

Conley, who earlier had put the law on hold, ruled that the 2013 law was unconstitutional. He issued a permanent injunction blocking its enforcement. (see Apr 27)

Gestational Age Act

March 20, 2018: federal Judge Carlton W. Reeves put the Gestational Age Act law on hold ruling after an emergency hearing that the clinic’s argument that the law was unconstitutional was “substantially likely to succeed.” [NYT report] (WH, see Mar 30; Mississippi, see Nov 20)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

March 20, 2015: Justice Secretary César Miranda, Puerto Rico’s attorney general, announced that its government would no longer defend a law that banned same-sex couples from marrying and did not recognize the validity of such marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

“The decision recognizes that all human beings are equal before the law,” Miranda said. “We believe in an equal society in which everyone enjoys the same rights.” (see Mar 26)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

March 20, 2017:  “Sesame Street” added Julia, a 4-year-old female muppet who has autism, to its cast as part of an expanding autism initiative.

The TV show rolled out the news of Julia’s arrival on its website and released a series of YouTube videos featuring her. Julia, who loves to sing and can memorize lyrics better than her young peers, struggles with loud noises like sirens, which can cause her to become emotionally upset. (CBS News story) (see Mar 22)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

Women’s vote

March 19, 1914:  US Senate voted for first time since 1887 on federal woman suffrage amendment. It defeated the bill,  but reintroduced it the next day. (VR, see Apr 8; Feminism, see May 2)

Gerrymandering

March 19, 2018: the US Supreme Court rejected a second emergency application from Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania seeking to overturn decisions from that state’s highest court, which had ruled that partisan gerrymandering had warped Pennsylvania’s congressional map and then imposed one of its own.

The ruling meant a new map drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would very likely be in effect in 2018’s elections, setting the stage for possible gains by Democrats. Under the current map, Republicans held 12 seats. Democrats held five and were expected to pick up another when the result of a special election the previous week was certified.

The full Supreme Court denied the latest application without comment or noted dissents. (see June 11)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Adamson Act

March 19, 1917: the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional. (U Penn Law Review article) (see Apr 10)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Harlem Revolt

March 19, 1935: Harlem Riot, a 12-year-old boy was caught shoplifting and threatened with physical punishment but the boy bit the employee’s hand and escaped. A number of coincidences cause local residents to assume that the boy was beaten to death and riots follow.

Sociologist Allen D. Grimshaw called the Harlem Riot of 1935 “the first manifestation of a ‘modern’ form of racial rioting,” citing three criteria:

1. “violence directed almost entirely against property”
2. “the absence of clashes between racial groups”
3. “struggles between the lower-class Negro population and the police forces”

Whereas previous race riots had been characterized by violent clashes between groups of black and white rioters, subsequent riots would resemble the riot in Harlem. (RR, see June 15, 1943; BH, see June 18, 1935)

Lloyd Gaines

March 19, 1939: after he prevailed on December 12, 1938 in a lawsuit to force the University of Missouri to accept him to its all-white law school, a Lloyd Gaines went missing and was never seen  again.

Family members suspected that Gaines was abducted and murdered for his activism, while state officials claimed he fled and assumed another identity in response to threats against him and his loved ones. To this day, Mr. Gaines’s fate is unknown.[EJI article]  (next BH, see Apr 9)

George Whitmore, Jr.

March 19, 1965:  NY Supreme Court Justice David L. Malbin found  that the jury in the Elba Borrero case had been influenced by “prejudice and racial bias” and reversed George Whitmore, Jr.’s conviction, granting him a new trial. Malbin stated: “The hearing revealed that prejudice and racial bias invaded the jury room. Bigotry I any of its sinister forms is reprehensible, it must be crushed, never to rise again. It has no place in an American courts of Justice.”

On the same day, a bipartisan commission recommended  the end of capital punishment in New York State. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Stop and Frisk Policy/1999

March 19, 1999: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a civil rights inquiry into whether the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices have caused some people to be unjustifiably searched. Spitzer’s study would conclude that stop-and-frisks disproportionately impact men of color. (see December 2002)

Stop and Frisk Policy/2005

March 19, 2015: Manhattan Federal Judge Analisa Torres, overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, affirmed the “important perspective” of police unions in the overhaul. Torres said the five unions representing cops should be allowed to give input regarding any reforms proposed by the city. After the unions voice their opinions, the reforms will go to the court-appointed federal monitor, then to Torres for final approval, she wrote. (see July 9)

Laquan McDonald

March 19, 2019: the Illinois Supreme Court let stand a prison sentence of less than seven years for Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke convicted of killing black teenager Laquan McDonald that many criticized as far too lenient.

The high court offered no explanation for its 4-2 decision that denied a rare bid by Illinois’ attorney general and a special prosecutor to get the justices to toss a lower court’s sentence. One judge issued a strong dissent and one partially dissented. (LM, see  June 14)

Antwon Rose

March 19, 2019: Pennsylvania police officer Michael Rosfeld, who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager Antwon Rose on,  went on trial.

A guilty verdict could put Rosfeld behind bars for life.

Rosfeld lawyers were expected to argue that the June 19 shooting of Antwon Rose II after a traffic stop in East Pittsburgh was justified, while prosecutors push for a conviction in the criminal homicide case.

Bystanders captured the shooting on video and posted it online, triggering a series of protests in the Pittsburgh area that included a  march that shut down a major highway.

The jury was made up of six men and six women, including three African-Americans. (next B & S and AR, see Mar 20 )

BLACK & SHOT/Jenkins and Parker

March 19, 2024: Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton , two former Mississippi police officers, were sentenced for torturing Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, two black, men in their own home. Jenkins and were beaten, shocked with stun guns and sexually assaulted by the officers.

Elward, who shot one of the victims in the mouth during a botched mock execution, was sentenced to 20 years; Middleton was sentenced to just over 17 years.  [BBC article] (next B & S, see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Music et al

The Blackboard Jungle

March 19, 1955: The Blackboard Jungle released. The NY Times review stated: Evan Hunter’s “Blackboard Jungle,” which tells a vicious and terrifying tale of rampant hoodlumism and criminality among the students in a large city vocational training school, was sensational and controversial when it appeared as a novel last fall. It is sure to be equally sensational and controversial, now that it is made into a film.

Actor Glenn Ford played the main character. Ford’s son, Peter, had liked the Bill Haley song “Rock Around the Clock” and recommended its inclusion in the movie. The movie made the song a huge hit. (see Mar 26; Haley, see July 9); see Princeton Blackboard riot)

Jackie McLean

March 19, 1962: Jackie McLean recorded Let Freedom Ring album at Van Gelder Studios. (All Music review)

Bob Dylan

March 19, 1962:  Columbia released 20-year-old Bob Dylan first album: Bob Dylan. He recorded it between November 20 – 22, 1961. The album sold only 5,000 copies in its first year. (2012 Rolling Stone magazine article) (see Apr 16)

Show Business Personalities

March 19, 1964 : British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, (they would sing about him later in “Taxman”) presented The Beatles with the award for being “Show Business Personalities of 1963” at the Variety Club of Great Britain Annual Show Business Awards. (see Mar 21)

Acid Test

March 19, 1966: Acid Test Los Angeles, California (Pico) Carthay Studios. (Rolling Stone magazine article on acid tests) (see Mar 22)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Horst Faas

March 19, 1964: a photograph of a Vietnamese man holding his dead child and begging US soldiers for help and other images from South Vietnam earned Associated Press photographer Horst Faas the Pulitzer Prize in 1965. The caption, as it appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel on March 20: The body of a child killed in battle Thursday in South Vietnam was held by his father as rangers of the Vietnamese army looked down from a tank. The child was killed as government forces pursued Vietcong guerrillas into a village near the Cambodian border. The Vietnamese forces used bombers and armored personnel carriers against the guerrilla forces in the battle. (Vietnam, see in “April – June”; Faas, see July 18, 1965)

Howard University

March 19 – 23, 1968: students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., staged rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum. (Harvard Crimson article) (see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Wounded Knee II

March 19, 1973: the insurgent Indians holding this tiny village publicly burned a detailed Government proposal aimed at settling the armed confrontation. However, they agreed to continue negotiations with Government officials. (see  Mar 27)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Barbara Papish

March 19, 1973: PAPISH v. BOARD OF CURATORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ET AL. Barbara Papish, a graduate student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, was expelled for distributing on campus a newspaper “containing forms of indecent speech” in violation of a bylaw of the Board of Curators. The newspaper, the Free Press Underground, had been sold on this state university campus for more than four years pursuant to an authorization obtained from the University Business Office. The particular newspaper issue in question was found to be unacceptable for two reasons. First, on the front cover the publishers had reproduced a political cartoon previously printed in another newspaper depicting policemen raping the State of Liberty and the Goddess of Justice. The caption under the cartoon read: “. . . With Liberty and Justice for All.” Secondly, the issue contained an article entitled “Motherfucker  Acquitted,” which discussed the trial and acquittal on an assault charge of a New York City youth who was a member of an organization known as “Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker”

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled her freedom of expression could be subordinated to the “conventions of decency in the use and display of language and pictures” on a public campus without violating the First Amendment.

The US Supreme court voted  6-3 to overturn that decision. The Supreme Court noted that the Eighth Circuit’s ruling had come several days before Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972), in which the Court had said that even though a state university could enforce reasonable rules governing student conduct, “state colleges and universities are not enclaves immune from the sweep of the First Amendment.” In a per curiam opinion, the Papish majority said Healy made “clear that the mere dissemination of ideas – no matter how offensive to good taste – on a state university campus may not be shut off in the name alone of ‘conventions of decency.'” (see June 21)

Civil rights inquiry

March 19, 1999: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a civil rights inquiry into whether the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices have caused some people to be unjustifiably searched. Spitzer’s study would conclude that stop-and-frisks disproportionately impact men of color. (see December 2002)

Federal Judge Analisa Torresm

March 19, 2015: Manhattan Federal Judge Analisa Torresm, overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, affirmed the “important perspective” of police unions in the overhaul. Torres said the five unions representing cops should be allowed to give input regarding any reforms proposed by the city. After the unions voice their opinions, the reforms will go to the court-appointed federal monitor, then to Torres for final approval, she wrote. (see July 9)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 19, 1988:  two British Army Corporals were killed after driving straight into a funeral for the victims of the Milltown Cemetery attack three days earlier, after they were mistakenly thought to be carrying out a similar attack to the one by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member Michael Stone, in which he killed three Catholics attending the funeral. (see Troubles for expanded story)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

Iraq War starts

March 19, 2003: U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq including a “decapitation attack” aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top members of the country’s leadership.

There were nearly 300,000 American, British and other troops at the border.

President George W. Bush warned Americans that the conflict “could be longer and more difficult than some predict.” He assured the nation that “this will not be a campaign of half-measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory.” (see Mar 23)

Iraq War continues

March 19, 2006:

•  on the eve of the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, President Bush promised to “finish the mission” with “complete victory,” urging the American public to remain steadfast but offering no indication when victory may be achieved. [Washington Post, 3/19/06]
• Time Magazine revealed that U.S. Marines killed at least 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha the previous November. (see Apr 23)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Westboro Baptist Church

March 19, 2014: the Rev. Fred Phelps, the virulently anti gay preacher who drew wide, scornful attention for staging demonstrations at military funerals as a way to proclaim his belief that God was punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuality died. He was 84. (see Sept 8)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 19, 2015:

• S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins issued orders that executions in Alabama were on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case regarding the drugs Oklahoma was using to kill condemned inmates. “The State has conceded that the best course of action is to stay decisions in lethal injection cases across the board” until the Oklahoma case was decided, Watkins wrote in a court order. Watkins issued orders this week in at least two death penalty cases, stating that executions in those cases were stayed until the nation’s highest court ruled on the use of midazolam as a lethal injection drug. Watkins’ orders indicated that Alabama would not oppose any motion for a stay of execution until the Supreme Court issued a ruling.
• The the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that inmates serving life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles should be re-sentenced under guidelines that went into effect last year. In four separate cases, the justices ordered lower courts to apply a 2014 law to inmates who, as juveniles, were sentenced in the past either to life in prison or to terms that would have effectively kept them behind bars until they die. Two of the inmates were convicted of murder. The highly anticipated rulings settled the question of whether two seminal U.S. Supreme Court decisions that found life sentences for juveniles violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment should apply retroactively. Lower courts were divided on the retroactivity issue. (see Mar 20)

March 19, 2018: the US Supreme Court turned down a request that it take a fresh look at whether the death penalty was constitutional anywhere in the nation.

The court also refused to consider a narrower question in the same case: Whether Arizona’s capital sentencing system, which appears to make virtually all murderers eligible for the death penalty, violates the Constitution.

Justice Breyer also issued a statement on the narrower challenge, saying that Arizona’s capital sentencing system may well be unconstitutional and invited a further challenge with more evidence. Justices Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Justice Breyer’s statement. (see Apr 19)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 19, 2018: saying that he was “saving the unborn,” Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed into law [Gestational Age Act] a measure that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights supporters called it the earliest abortion ban in the country, and said it was an unconstitutional restriction that defied years of federal court precedent over the limits states may impose on abortion providers.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, filed a complaint in United States District Court for Mississippi’s Southern District less than an hour after he signed the bill into law. [NYT report] (WH & Mississippi, see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 19, 2019: the Supreme Court adopted a strict interpretation of a federal immigration law, saying it required the detention of immigrants facing deportation without the possibility of bail if they had committed crimes, including minor ones, no matter how long ago they had been released from criminal custody.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s more conservative justices in the majority. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the plain language of a federal law required the result.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer summarized his dissent from the bench, a sign of profound disagreement. He said the majority had violated the nation’s basic values.

“The greater importance of the case,” he said, “lies in the power that the majority’s interpretation grants the government. It is a power to detain persons who committed a minor crime many years before. And it is a power to hold those persons, perhaps for many months, without an opportunity to obtain bail.” (see Mar 26)

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