June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

King Philip’s War

June 24, 1675: in colonial New England, King Philip’s War began when a band of Wampanoag warriors raided the border settlement of Swansee, Massachusetts, and massacred the English colonists there.

In the early 1670s, 50 years of peace between the Plymouth colony and the local Wampanoag Indians began to deteriorate when the rapidly expanding settlement forced land sales on the tribe. Reacting to increasing Native American hostility, the English met with King Philip, chief of the Wampanoag, and demanded that his forces surrender their arms. The Wampanoag did so, but in 1675 a Christian Native American who had been acting as an informer to the English was murdered, and three Wampanoag were tried and executed for the crime.

King Philip responded by ordering the attack on Swansee, which set off a series of Wampanoag raids in which several settlements were destroyed and scores of colonists massacred. The colonists retaliated by destroying a number of Indian villages. The destruction of a Narragansett village by the English brought the Narragansett into the conflict on the side of King Philip, and within a few months several other tribes and all the New England colonies were involved.  [History of Massachusetts article] (see August 12, 1676)

Colorado Gov Evans invites citizens to murder Native Americans

June 24, 1864: Colorado Governor John Evans warned that all peaceful Indians in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked. Evans’ offer of sanctuary was at best halfhearted. His primary goal in 1864 was to eliminate all Native American activity in eastern Colorado Territory, an accomplishment he hoped would increase his popularity and eventually win him a U.S. Senate seat. Immediately after ordering the peaceful Indians to the reservation, Evans issued a second proclamation that invited white settlers to indiscriminately “kill and destroy all…hostile Indians.” At the same time, Evans began creating a temporary 100-day militia force to wage war on the Indians. He placed the new regiment under the command of Colonel John Chivington, another ambitious man who hoped to gain high political office by fighting Indians. (see Nov 29)

Leonard Peltier

June 24, 1987: two Soviet ophthalmologists, Eduard Avetisov and Lev Katselson, examined Leonard Peltier and recommended treatment with drugs they said were available only in their country. Soviet bloc officials regarded him as a political prisoner. (see August 21, 1987)

Unmarked Graves

June 24, 2021: leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada said investigators had found more than 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children — a discovery that follows last month’s report of 215 bodies found at another school.

The bodies were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1899 to 1997 where the Cowessess First Nation is now located, about 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan.

A search with ground-penetrating radar resulted in 751 ’’hits,″ indicating that at least 600 bodies were buried in the area, said Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess. The radar operators have said their results could have a margin of error of 10%.

“We want to make sure when we tell our story that we’re not trying to make numbers sound bigger than they are,” Delorme said. “I like to say over 600, just to be assured.” [AP article] (next NA, see Aug 25)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Berlin Airlift

June 24, 1948: the Soviets blockaded West Berlin, leaving the city—which was surrounded on all sides by Communist East Germany—without access to food and supplies. [Truman Library article] (see June 26)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Roth v. United States

June 24, 1957: the US Supreme Court (in a 6-to-3 decision written by Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. ) held that obscenity was not “within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.” The Court noted that the First Amendment was not intended to protect every utterance or form of expression, such as materials that were “utterly without redeeming social importance.” The Court held that the test to determine obscenity was “whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest.” The Court held that such a definition of obscenity gave sufficient fair warning and satisfied the demands of Due Process. Brennan later reversed his position on this issue in Miller v. California (June 26, 1975) [Oyez article] (LGBTQ, see Sept 7; FS, see Oct 3)

Village of Skokie

June 24, 1977: the Village of Skokie denied the Nazis the right to a permit to march in military style uniforms. (see Oct 21)

Rankin v. McPherson

June 24, 1987: Ardith McPherson was a deputy constable working in Texas’s Harris County Constable’s office. McPherson had the radio on in her office, when she learned of an assassination attempt on President Reagan (March 30, 1981). During a conversation with another office worker, Lawrence Jackson, she remarked, “Shoot, if they go for him again, I hope they get him.” This comment, unbeknownst to McPherson, had been overheard by another deputy constable, who had then reported what he heard to Constable Rankin, effectively in charge of all those in the office. He requested to speak with McPherson, who admitted to him what she had said, stating, “Yes, but I didn’t mean anything by it.” After the conversation, Constable Rankin terminated her employment.

The Supreme Court affirmed the position of the Court of Appeals. The Court reasoned that, even though McPherson was a probationary employee who could be, as a condition of her hire, be fired for any reason the employer decided — even no reason at all — she deserved to be reinstated if she had been fired for merely exercising a right enshrined in the Constitution. Even though the state, as an employer, certainly has the right to determine certain modes of appropriate conduct among employees, the Court did not believe that this right balanced fairly against an employee’s right to discuss matters of “public concern.” The life or death of the President was deemed an obvious matter of public concern, which placed McPherson’s comments into the realm of protected speech, further bolstered by the fact that her comment did not amount to a bona fide threat on the President’s life. Just because a statement is incorrect, unpopular, or ill-advised, the Court determined, it does not mean it is beyond constitutional protection. [Justia article] (see January 6, 1988)

Iancu v. Brunetti

June 24, 2019:  in Iancu v. Brunetti, the US Supreme Court voted 6 – 3 and struck down a ban on trademarking words and symbols that are “immoral” or “scandalous.”

Clothing designer Erik Brunetti brought the case. He sought to trademark the phrase FUCT. The decision paved the way for him to get his brand trademarked.

The court struggled with how to deal with the word — in particular, its pronunciation. Justice Elena Kagan described it in her majority opinion: The clothing brand “is pronounced as             four letters, one after the other: F-U-C-T. … But you might read it differently and, if so, you would hardly be alone.”

She noted that it has been described “as ‘the equivalent of [the] past participle form of a well-known word of profanity.’ ”

The five justices who joined Kagan’s majority opinion: Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaug.  [NPR story] (see July 9)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Voting Rights

June 24, 1964:  thirty Freedom Summer workers from Greenville, Miss. made the first effort to register black voters in Drew, Miss., and local whites resisted with open hostility. Whites circled the workers in cars and trucks, some equipped with gun racks, making violent threats. One white man stopped his car and said, “I’ve got something here for you,” flaunting his gun. (BH, see June 25; VR, see August 6, 1965)

Poor People’s Campaign

June 24, 1968: Washington, D.C. police evicted remaining protesters from Resurrection City, formed by the Poor People’s Campaign.  [WTOP article] (Sept 8)

Springboks

June 24, 1995:  South Africa’s national rugby team, the Springboks, won the World Cup final. The team had been banned from international competition until 1992, and was long seen as a symbol of oppression by many black South Africans. Mr. Mandela’s call for blacks to support the team was hailed as a masterly move toward racial reconciliation. He congratulated the team while wearing a green Springboks jersey, in a stadium full of cheering white rugby fans. (SA/A, see Nov 1;  see Mandela for his expanded chronology)

Church burning

June 24, 2015: arson fire occurred in the predawn hours at the Briar Creek Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. (BH, see June 29; CB, see June 30)

Ahmaud Arbery

June 24, 2020: CNN reported that Cobb District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes had announced that Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William R. Bryan were indicted by a grand jury.

“We will continue to be intentional in the pursuit of justice for this family and the community at large as the prosecution of this case continues,” said Holmes, the specially appointed prosecutor in the case.

The charges also include aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, according to the indictment. (next B & S and AA, see or see AA for expanded chronology)

Mary Jackson honored

June 24, 2020: the NY Times reported that NASA had announced that it would name its Washington, D.C., headquarters after Mary Jackson, the organization’s first black female engineer and a pivotal player in helping U.S. astronauts reach space.

Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA, said the agency would continue to honor those whose histories have long been overlooked.

“Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building,” Mr. Bridenstine said in a statement. “It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success.” (next BH, see June 28)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

Cigarette package warning

June 24, 1964: the Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking. (see November 5, 1965)

National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act

June 24, 1966: the US Senate voted 76-0 for the passage of what will become the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 9, the act created the nation’s first mandatory federal safety standards for motor vehicles.

The origins of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act can be traced directly of the efforts of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who in 1965 published the bestselling “Unsafe at Any Speed.”  [US DoT article] (see Sept 9)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

June 24 Music et al

A Spaniard in the Works

June 24, 1965: A Spaniard in the Works, John’s second book, published. (see July 10)

see The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular for more

June 24 & 25, 1966,  San Francisco FM radio station KFRC sponsored the “The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular” at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Future Woodstock Music and Art Fair performers were: Jefferson Airplane and John Sebastian from the Lovin’ Spoonful. (see March 25, 1967)

Performers The Beach Boys Neil Diamond The Byrds Jefferson Airplane Lovin’ Spoonful

The Leaves The Sunrays Percy Sledge The Sir Douglas Quintet Chad and Jeremy The Outsiders

Headquarters

June 24 – 30, 1967: The Monkees Headquarters is the Billboard #1 album.

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Ring v. Arizona

June 24, 2002:  the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that juries, rather than judges, must make the crucial factual decisions as to whether a convicted murderer should receive the death penalty. Ring v. Arizona overturned the law of Arizona and four other states – Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska – where judges alone decided whether there were aggravating factors that warrant capital punishment. The decision also raised questions about the procedure in four other states – Alabama, Delaware, Florida, and Indiana – where the judge decided life imprisonment or death after hearing a jury’s recommendation. The Ring opinion also said that any aggravating factors must be stated in the indictment, thus also requiring a change in federal death penalty laws. [DPIC article] (see January 11, 2003)

New York State death penalty unconstitutional

June 24, 2004: New York State’s highest court ruled that a central provision of the state’s capital punishment law violated the State Constitution. Lawyers said the ruling would probably spare the lives of the four men on death row and effectively suspended the death penalty in New York. The 4-to-3 ruling from the State Court of Appeals in Albany went well beyond the particulars of a single case, giving opponents of the law an important victory. Besides the four death-row inmates, lawyers said, it could spare the lives of nine defendants fighting capital cases and more than 30 others whose murder cases are in early stage. The court’s majority said, ‘Under the present statute, the death penalty may not be imposed” [NYT article] (see March 1, 2005)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

NYS same-sex marriage

June 24, 2011: New York State passed a law allowing same-sex marriage making New York the largest state that allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry. The vote came on the eve of the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade and gave new momentum to the national gay-rights movement. The marriage bill was approved 33 to 29. Cheering supporters greeted Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he arrived on the Senate floor to sign the measure at 11:55pm, just moments after the vote. [NYT article]  (see September 19, 2011)

Frank Schaefer

June 24, 2014: a United Methodist Church appeals panel overturned a decision to defrock Frank Schaefer. It permitted his return to the pulpit. Schaefer was the pastor who presided over his son’s same-sex wedding ceremony and vowed to perform other gay marriages if asked.

The nine-person appeals panel ordered the church to restore Schaefer’s pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him of breaking church law erred when fashioning his punishment.

The appeals panel upheld a 30-day suspension that Schaefer has already served and said he should get back pay dating to when the suspension ended in December.

The appeals panel concluded that the jury’s punishment was illegal under church law, writing in its decision that “revoking his credentials cannot be squared with the well-established principle that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do in the future.” (LGBTQ, see June 25; Schaefer, see Oct 27)

Christopher Park

June 24, 2016: President Obama announced that he was officially declaring a national monument at the Stonewall Inn, commemorating the historic rise of the modern LGBTQ movement that started there. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the gay bar, spurring the LGBTQ patrons to riot and begin organizing resistance efforts that turned into what is now known as Pride.

Technically the new national park was Christopher Park, the area directly across from the Stonewall Inn. Obama’s proclamation notes that the park has become “a popular destination for LGBTQ youth, many of whom had run away from or been kicked out of their homes,” as well as a place of organizing for other LGBTQ milestones:

Christopher Park and its environs have remained a key gathering place for the LGBTQ community. For example, on June 26, 2015, within moments of the issuance of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, LGBTQ people headed to Christopher Park to celebrate the Court’s recognition of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. A few days later, Governor Cuomo continued that celebration by officiating at the marriage of two gay men directly outside the Stonewall Inn. Within minutes of the recent news of the murders of 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida — one of the most deadly shootings in American history — LGBTQ people and their supporters in New York headed again to Christopher Park to mourn, heal, and stand together in unity for the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country. (see June 30)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

June 24, 2022: the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe “must be overruled” because they were “egregiously wrong,” the arguments “exceptionally weak” and so “damaging” that they amounted to “an abuse of judicial authority.”

The decision, most of which was leaked in early May, meant that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. [NPR article] (next Feminism, see July 28)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

June 24, 2024: according to a study in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution the hottest year on record, 2023, was also the most extreme for wildfires

Both the frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires had more than doubled in the last two decades, the study found. And when the ecological, social and economic consequences of wildfires were accounted for, six of the last seven years were the most “energetically intense.”

“That we’ve detected such a big increase over such a short period of time makes the findings even more shocking,” said Calum Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher in pyrogeography at the University of Tasmania and lead author of the study. “We’re seeing the manifestations of a warming and drying climate before our very eyes in these extreme fires.” [NYT article] (next EI, see Aug 28)

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June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Nine Lynched

June 22, 1908: nine Black men were lynched in Sabine County, Texas, within a 24-hour period. The reign of racial terror began when a white farmer was shot to death in his home by an unknown assailant on the evening of June 21.

Six Black men—Jerry Evans, William Johnson, William Manuel, Moses Spellman, Cleveland Williams, and Frank Williams—were already in jail, accused of being involved in a completely unrelated shooting of another local white man. Early on the morning of June 22, a mob of about 200 white men broke into the jail and seized them from the police custody. Five of the men were hanged from a tree outside of the jail, and Mr. Williams, the sixth, was shot in the back as he tried to escape.

Later that night, marauding white men shot and killed a Black man named Bill McCoy near the white farmer’s home, and shot and killed two unidentified Black men and threw their bodies into a creek. A Black church and school house in the town were also burned to the ground.  [EJI article] (next BH and Lynching,  see Aug 14 or see AL2 for expanding lynching chronology)

Scottsboro Nine

June 22, 1931: Alabama Supreme Court stayed executions pending appeal.

June 22, 1933: Haywood Patterson granted a new trial on the basis that the prosecution’s testimony was uncorroborated. (see SB for expanded story)

Freedom Riders (Florida)

June 22, 1961: Judge John Rudd acquitted the local activists of the unlawful assembly charge but convicted the ten interfaith riders and sentenced them to thirty days in jail or a $500 fine. The riders appealed to the United States Supreme Court but were denied relief. In August 1964, nine of the interfaith riders returned to Tallahassee to serve their jail sentences. After they were released, the riders enjoyed a meal at the airport restaurant which had been desegregated by federal order just months after their convictions. (BH, see Aug 4; Freedom Riders, see Sept 22)

March on Washington

June 22, 1963:  at a White House meeting with the nation’s top civil rights leaders, President Kennedy tried but failed to persuade the group to call off their planned March on Washington, scheduled for August 1963. Kennedy argued that a march would have a “negative impact” on Congress. Civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who had attempted to organize a march on Washington in 1941 (see January 14, 1941; June 18, 1941), replied, “Mr. President, the Negroes are already in the street. It is very likely impossible to get them off.”

At this same meeting, Kennedy took Rev. Martin Luther King aside and tried to persuade him to fire one of his top aides because he was alleged to be a Communist. Kennedy had not been supportive of the civil rights movement, and this was one more occasion when he sought to control the tempo of the movement. He did not, for example, give strong support to the 1961 Freedom Rides that began on May 4, 1961. (BH, see June 23; MLK, see Aug 28)

Wright v. Council of the City of Emporia

June 22, 1972: the US Supreme Court refused to allow public school systems to avoid desegregation by creating new, mostly or all-white “splinter districts.” [Justia article] (BH, see July 25, 1972; SD, see March 21, 1973)

137 SHOTS

June 22, 2015: U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko gave the green light to a lawsuit filed against the city of Cleveland by police Sgt. Johnny Hamm who claimed he was wrongfully suspended for Facebook posts he made about the 2012 police chase and fatal shooting of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

Boyko wrote that Hamm had a “plausible claim for deprivation” of his right to due process, if what Hamm alleges is true. Boyko wrote that the complaint over the Facebook posts was lodged by police Chief Calvin Williams and decided at a disciplinary hearing that was also presided over by the chief.

“These allegations raise the claim, beyond the speculative level, that Plaintiff was denied a meaningful hearing due to the bias and/or conflict of interest of the supervisory official, Chief of Police, Calvin D. Williams,” Boyko wrote. (see 137 for expanded story)

Church Burning

June 22, 2015: an arson fire occurred in the early morning hours at the College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church, home to a predominately black congregation, in Knoxville, Tenn. (see June 23)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Herrin, Ill

June 22, 1922: violence erupted during a coal mine strike at Herrin, Ill. A total of 36 were killed, 21 of them non-union miners. [American Heritage article] (see Nov 6)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

June 22, 1942: The United States Congress officially recognized the Pledge for the first time, in the following form: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (see Pledge for expanded story)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Bonus March

June 22, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the “G.I. Bill.” It was designed to compensate returning members of the armed services–known as G.I.s–for their efforts in World War II.

As the last of its sweeping New Deal reforms, Roosevelt’s administration created the G.I. Bill–officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944–hoping to avoid a relapse into the Great Depression after the war ended. FDR particularly wanted to prevent a repeat of the Bonus March of 1932, when 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families flocked in protest to Washington. The American Legion, a veteran’s organization, successfully fought for many of the provisions included in the bill, which gave returning servicemen access to unemployment compensation, low-interest home and business loans, and–most importantly–funding for education. By giving veterans money for tuition, living expenses, books, supplies and equipment, the G.I. Bill effectively transformed higher education in America.

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television

June 22, 1950: American Business Consultants, Inc published the report that ostensibly listed alleged Communists and Communist sympathizers in the broadcast and entertainment industries. Two former FBI agents founded ABC.  The report named 151 actors, writers, musicians, journalists, including such notable figures as Orson Welles, Leonard Bernstein, Pete Seeger, Edward G. Robinson, as well as many others. Many people named in the report were blacklisted from employment in their respective fields.

The Red Channels report operated on the principle of guilt by association, naming people because of groups they had once belonged to or meetings they had once attended, or friends they had. People were listed, for example, because they once signed a letter or petition sponsored by a group that was associated with the Communist Party. Naming people as being Communists or Communist sympathizers did not take into account individuals’ current political views or associations. (RS, see June 25; list, see May 14, 1951)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

June 22 Music et al

see Tony Sheridan and The Beatles for more

June 22 & 23, 1961: Tony Sheridan and The Beatles do first session recordings for Bert Kaempfert with the following songs: My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean); The Saints (When the Saints Go Marching In); Why; Cry For a Shadow; Ain’t She Sweet;Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby and Nobody’s Child. (see July 3)

This Guy’s In Love With You

June 22 – July 19, 1968: “This Guy’s In Love With You” by Herb Alpert #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

 

Bob Dylan

June 22, 1968: Rolling Stone magazine front page headline read: Dylan’s Basement Tapes Should Be Released. RS editor Jann Wenner had heard tapes of the many sessions Dylan and the Band had made at various locations around Woodstock, including the house—Big Pink—the Band used for playing. A bootleg version, The Great White Wonder, soon went into production. (see April 9, 1969)

Mark David Chapman

June 22, 1981: Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to killing John Lennon. (see Aug 24)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

Escobedo v. Illinois

June 22, 1964:  the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that suspects have the right to an attorney while they are questioned by police. Danny Escobedo confessed to the murder of his brother-in-law after being detained for hours without access to his lawyer. Over the course of the interrogation, police denied Escobedo’s repeated requests to speak with his lawyer and denied the lawyer’s requests to speak with his client. The Supreme Court overturned Escobedo’s confession on the ground that it violated his “absolute right to remain silent”.  [Oyez article] (see December 18, 1967)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Jacobellis v. Ohio

June 22, 1964: the US Supreme Court ruled whether the state of Ohio could, consistent with the First Amendment, ban the showing of a French film called The Lovers (Les Amants) which the state had deemed obscene. Nico Jacobellis, manager of the Heights Art Theatre in the Coventry Village neighborhood of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was convicted and fined $2,500 by a judge of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas for exhibiting the film, and his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction, ruling that the film was not obscene and hence constitutionally protected. However, the Court could not agree as to a rationale, yielding four different opinions from the majority, with none garnering the support of more than two justices, as well as two dissenting opinions. The judgment of the Court was announced by William J. Brennan, but his opinion was joined only by Justice Arthur Goldberg. Justice Hugo Black, joined by Justice William O. Douglas, reiterated his well-known view that the First Amendment does not permit censorship of any kind. Chief Justice Earl Warren, in dissent, decried the confused state of the Court’s obscenity jurisprudence and argued that Ohio’s action was consistent with the Court’s decision in Roth v. United States (June 24, 1957)  and furthered important state interests. Justice John Marshall Harlan II also dissented, believing that states should have “wide, but not federally unrestricted” power to ban obscene films.

The most famous opinion from Jacobellis, however, was Justice Potter Stewart’s concurrence, holding that the Constitution protected all obscenity except “hard-core pornography.” Stewart wrote, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.” (emphasis added) [Justia article] (see Oct 1)

Frank Collin/Nazis

June 22, 1977: Frank Collin and his band of Nazis applied to Skokie officials for a permit to march in Skokie. (see June 24).

A year later

Exactly a year later, after many legal back and forths,  Skokie Police Chief Kenneth Chamberlain issued a directive that the area bounded by Edens Highway, Howard Street, Skokie Blvd. and Main Street would be cordoned off to vehicular traffic on June 25. Only residents might enter into the cordoned off area. All vehicles would be subject to cursory searches for weapons. (see June 23)

R.A.V., Petitioner v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota

June 22, 1992: the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that hate-crime laws that ban cross-burning and similar expressions of racial bias violate free-speech rights. The St. Paul Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance was struck down both because it was overbroad, proscribing both “fighting words” and protected speech, and because the regulation was “content-based,” proscribing only activities which conveyed messages concerning particular topics. Judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota reversed. [Oyez article] (see June 11, 1993)

Student Rights

June 23, 2021: the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former high school cheerleader who argued that she could not be punished by her public school for posting a profanity-laced caption on Snapchat when she was off school grounds.

The case involving a Pennsylvania teenager was closely watched to see how the court would handle the free speech rights of some 50 million public school children and the concerns of schools over off-campus and online speech that could amount to a disruption of the school’s mission or rise to the level of bullying or threats.

The 8-1 majority opinion was penned by Justice Stephen Breyer.

“It might be tempting to dismiss (the student’s) words as unworthy of the robust First Amendment protections discussed herein. But sometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary,” Breyer wrote. [CNN article] (next SR, see June 23; next FS, see )

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

June 22, 1966: President Lyndon Johnson signed into law on this day the historic federal Bail Reform Act, which created a presumption of release before trial for federal criminal suspects. The law largely replaced the old money bail system, which meant that poor defendants had to remain in jail while awaiting trial. Perhaps most important, the federal law inspired similar bail reform laws in the 50 states. Attorney General Robert Kennedy had set in motion bail reform on May 27, 1964, at a national bail reform conference.

On signing the law, President Johnson affirmed the constitutional rights of criminal suspects, as he had previously done, on March 8, 1965. Johnson is the only president to have publicly supported the constitutional rights of criminal suspects.

The presumption of a right to bail has been severely undermined by the policy of preventive detention, which allows judges to deny to criminal defendants they believe are “dangerous.” See President Richard Nixon’s endorsement of preventive detention on January 31, 1969, shortly after he took office, and the Supreme Court decision on May 26, 1987 which upheld the constitutionality of the federal preventive detention law. (see May 15, 1967)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Cuyahoga River

June 22, 1969: oil-sodden floating debris on the Cuyahoga River (Cleveland, OH) ignited (perhaps by sparks from a passing train) and burned with flames reported up to five stories high. Although fire-fighters extinguished the blaze in a half-hour or so, it caused $50,000 in damage. For a century the Cleveland, Ohio river had been an open sewer for industrial waste, through the times when factory production seemed more important than worrying about the environment. Several fires had happened in the prior hundred years, but attitudes changed to outrage as this time, national attention was aroused. It became one of several disasters that led to the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (next EI, see Nov 20; see Cuyahoga for expanded story)

Santa Barbara oil spill

June 22, 2015: “…of the 96.5 miles of shoreline surveyed in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, 91 percent have met cleanup goals,” the unified command said in its latest operational update. (EI, see June 29; Santa Barbara, see July 16)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

June 22, 1970: President Richard Nixon signed an extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which included a provision granting 18-year-olds the right to vote in federal and state elections. (This was not the 26^th amendment) (see Dec 21)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

June 22, 1977: John N. Mitchell became the first former U.S. Attorney General to go to prison as he began serving a sentence for his role in the Watergate cover-up. (see Watergate for expanded story)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Leonard Matlovich

June 22, 1988: less than a month before his 45th birthday, Leonard Matlovich died in Los Angeles of complications from HIV/AIDS. By his choice, his name does not appear on his gravestone. (see Nov 19)

Execution of gays

June 22, 2015: California Superior Judge Raymond M. Cadei ruled against a proposed ballot initiative authorizing the execution of gay and lesbian people, calling the suggested measure “unconstitutional on its face.”

The proposed Sodomite Suppression Act called for “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.” The measure also would have outlawed advocating gay rights to minors, punishable by 10 years in prison and permanent expulsion from California.

While the measure was publicly ridiculed and stood little chance of collecting more than 365,000 signatures necessary to appear on the 2016 ballot, California Attorney General Kamala Harris was required by state law to circulate the proposed initiative because its backer, attorney Matt McLaughlin, paid a $200 filing fee ahead of the February deadline. In March, Harris asked for legal permission to toss out the initiative. (see June 23)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

June 22, 1998

• Kramer Books and lawyers for Monica Lewinsky strike a deal in which records of Lewinsky’s purchases are submitted to Ken Starr’s office by her lawyers and not the book store, thereby allowing the book store to maintain it stood up for the First Amendment.
• CNN learned that Ken Starr might be willing to make an immunity deal without requiring that Monica Lewinsky plead guilty to some charge against her if they decide that she is cooperating fully with the prosecution. (see Clinton for expanded story)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

June 22, 2012: Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former archbishop’s aide, was found guilty of one count of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted of covering up child sexual abuses by priests under his supervision. (SA, see October 8, 2012; Lynn, see December  26, 2013)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

June 22, 2015: “…of the 96.5 miles of shoreline surveyed in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, 91 percent have met cleanup goals,” the unified command said in its latest operational update. (EI, see June 29; Santa Barbara, see July 16)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

City of Los Angeles v. Patel

June 22, 2015: in City of Los Angeles v. Patel the Supreme Court considered a Los Angeles city ordinance that allowed police to walk into a hotel, request a copy of the guest registry, and look through the names of everyone who had checked in—all without a warrant.

Naranjibhai and Ramilaben Patel, two Los Angeles hotel owners, challenged the law as authorizing a regime of unconstitutional searches. After considering arguments from the city, the Patels, the Solicitor General, and amici including EFF, the Supreme Court struck down the law (5 – 4) as an unconstitutional invasion on the rights of the hotel owners because “it penalizes them for declining to turn over their records without affording them any opportunity for pre-compliance review.” [Oyez article] (see June 5, 2017)

Carpenter v. United States

June 22, 2018: in Carpenter v. United States, the US Supreme Court decided 5 – 4 that law authorities must generally have a search warrent for sustained cellphone locatoin information.

Chief Justice John Roberts pointed to “seismic shifts in digital technology,” which allowed wireless carriers to collect “deeply revealing” information about cellphone owners that should be protected by the Constitution.

The issue came to the Supreme Court in the case of Timothy Carpenter, who was convicted and sentenced to almost 116 years in prison for his role in a series of armed robberies in Ohio and Michigan. Law-enforcement officials used cell-site records from his cellphone provider to place him in the vicinity of the crimes, but Carpenter argued that the jury should not hear about those records because the government had not obtained a warrant for them. (see April 22, 2019)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Trump Suspends Visas Allowing Hundreds of Thousands of Foreigners to Work in the U.S.

June 22, 2020:  the NY times reported that President Trump temporarily suspended new work visas and barred hundreds of thousands of foreigners from seeking employment in the United States, part of a broad effort to limit the entry of immigrants into the country.

In the sweeping order Trump blocked visas for a wide variety of jobs, including those for computer programmers and other skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa, as well as those for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry, students on work-study summer programs and au pairs who arrive under other auspices.

The order also restricts the ability of American companies with global operations and international companies with U.S. branches to transfer foreign executives and other employees to the United States for months or yearslong stints. And it blocks the spouses of foreigners who are employed at companies in the United States.

Officials said the ban on worker visas, combined with extending restrictions on the issuance of new green cards, would keep as many as 525,000 foreign workers out of the country for the rest of the year. (next IH, see July 6; suspension, see Oct 1)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

June 22, 2021: Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed a marijuana legalization bill. A top staffer said in an email to equity advocates that there’s “still much work to be done” to ensure that the law upholds principles of social justice and ensures that disproportionately impacted communities are empowered to participate in the industry. (next C see June 28 or see CAC for expanded chronology)

June 22 Peace Love Art Activism