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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Bellona Company's Case, Casey Conrad
The Bellona Company's Case, Casey Conrad
Legal History Publications
The Bellona Gunpowder Company of Maryland was one of Maryland’s most prominent gunpowder manufactories during the early nineteenth century. Founded in 1801, the gunpowder company become the second leading gunpowder producer for the American government, and supplied almost one-fifth of American domestic gunpowder. In 1828, the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad Company was incorporated by the State of Maryland to construct a railroad that would connect the City of Baltimore to the Susquehanna River. The legislature authorized the railroad company to initiate condemnation proceedings against private property owners, if it was unable to negotiate for the sale of such land. In …
Case Study: Webster V. Susquehanna Pole Line Company Of Harford County (1910), Alyssa E. Leonhardt
Case Study: Webster V. Susquehanna Pole Line Company Of Harford County (1910), Alyssa E. Leonhardt
Legal History Publications
At the turn of the 20th century, the State of Maryland witnessed an increase in the demand for hydroelectricity. Several public utility companies raced to construct a hydroelectric facility on the Susquehanna River, by which they could distribute electricity to Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Wilmington. This case study examines the use of eminent domain by one such company, the Susquehanna Pole Line Company of Harford County, for the purpose of erecting a continuous transmission line, originating at McCall’s Ferry Dam, the first hydroelectric facility built on the Susquehanna River. This project was subsequently challenged by Harford County residents, whose property …
The Constitutional Dimensions Of Sports Franchise Takings: Lessons Learned From The Baltimore Colts, Travis Bullock
The Constitutional Dimensions Of Sports Franchise Takings: Lessons Learned From The Baltimore Colts, Travis Bullock
Legal History Publications
This paper chronicles the history of the Baltimore Colts up to and during that franchises’ relocation from Baltimore City to Indianapolis. Although Baltimore City attempted to prevent the relocation by taking the franchise through eminent domain, the Colts were no longer subject to Maryland’s, and therefore the city’s, jurisdiction. By moving, the Colts exposed an important limitation on State eminent domain authority; that condemned property must be located within a state’s territory in order to be subject to eminent domain. Further, the commerce clause would likely have prevented the city from condemning the Colts.
"Displaced By A Force To Which They Yielded And Could Not Resist": A Historical And Legal Analysis Of Mayor And City Counsel Of Baltimore V. Charles Howard Et. Al, Matthew Kent
Legal History Publications
The experience of the Baltimore Police Commissioners is instructive in understanding the state of affairs in Baltimore during the Civil War era. The removal of the commissioners by the Union Army and the subsequent civil trial, The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Charles Howard, provides a window through which one may examine the historical, legal and political circumstances of the time. The legal status of the commissioners also sheds light on modern legal doctrine related to the detention of American citizens as “enemy combatants” without the benefit of certain constitutional guarantees. By analyzing the Howard case with a …