Law Commons^™

A Historical Comparative Analysis Of Executions In The United States From 1608 To 2009, Emily Jean Abili

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The death penalty has been a contested issue throughout American history. The United States has been executing offenders since Jamestown became a colony in 1608 (Allen & Clubb, 2008). Since that time, many issues have been raised about the death penalty including whether or not it is moral, discriminatory, or a deterrent.

This study examines the history of executions, including lynchings, in the United States from 1608 to 2009 using a variety of sociological theories on law and society. Some of the research questions that guide this project are:

* What is the nature of change in the relative prevalence …

States' Rights In The Twenty-First Century, Jay Tidmarsh, Mark Racicot, Robert Miller, Michael Greve

Jay Tidmarsh

No abstract provided.

Monroe County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 1217), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1217. Docket book, Monroe County, Kentucky, December 1832 - November 1838, listing judgments and warrants.

Page, Leonard, 1762-1836 (Sc 1191), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1191. Receipts and sundry papers related to the estate of Leonard Page of Logan County, Kentucky.

King, Elijah (Sc 2781), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scanned images (click on "Additional Files") for Manuscripts Small Collection 2781. Declaration filed in the Circuit Court, Henderson County, Kentucky, 26 May 1818 awarding Elijah King damages for breach of a covenant to pay $75 or the equivalent in livestock, deliverable at the "red banks" (i.e. Henderson, Kentucky).

Secrecy Broken: Reports Of The Delegates Following The Federal Convention, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Despite the measures taken to ensure the secrecy of the proceedings during the federal convention, many delegates made reports to their states and explained the choices underlying various clauses. However, no delegate had access to the official journal of the constitutional convention.

A Horse! My Constitution For A Horse! Wm. Shakespeare And Alex. Pope Serve The Delegate Laureates, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

‘We the people’ is justly celebrated, and was upon its first reading, by those assembled in Philadelphia. OCL, having studied the orthography and punctuography of the instrument, along with its semantic provenance, now turns to the meter of it all.

Table Annexed To Article: British Orthography In The Early Constitution, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

OCL surveys the appearance of British spelling in the Early Constitution. The stylistic developments during the course of 27 years are tracked.

Table Annexed To Article: Counting ‘Sled Dog’ Adjectives Deployed In The Early Constitution (1787-1804), Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

When a vocabulary of 49 adjectives – cardinals, ordinals, pronomials, and so forth – what OCL calls the ‘sled dog’ adjectives are tested against the target vocabulary – all 5,224 words in the Early Constitution (1787-1804), a total of 485 hits are recorded. OCL surveys these results and draws conclusions.

Table Annexed To Article: Color Me Adverb: How The Convention Painted The Text Of The Philadelphia Constitution, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Adverbs are one of the principal – and most readily trackable – means by which writers of the English language color their output. Relying on ‘-ly’ adverbs (out of 3,732 total adverbs), adverb usage in the Philadelphia constitution is measured.

Table Annexed To Article: Counting Adjectives Deployed In The Early Constitution (1787-1804), Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

How many adjectives were deployed by the authors of the Early Constitution (1787-1804)? Counting adjectives in the target vocabulary, the computation returns 114 different adjectives with 531 total deployments in the 5,224 words of the Early Constitution. Why do adjectives matter in English (or in any IE language)? Why do these counts matter?

Speeches And Essays On The Jay Treaty Funding Bill (1796), Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

William Vans Murray challenged James Madison on the floor of the House to take up the mantle of “oracle” of the constitution. James Madison refused and returned that it was the ratifiers, not the writers, of the constitution whose opinion mattered. Hamilton, having had his say and taunted Murray into the fray, is quoted in full (and for good) measure. The year is 1796 and we still don’t know the answer to the question ‘Why do we have a constitution.’ OCL explores these issues.

'Dred Scott V. Sandford' Analysis, Sarah E. Roessler

Student Publications

The Scott v. Sandford decision will forever be known as a dark moment in America's history. The Supreme Court chose to rule on a controversial issue, and they made the wrong decision. Scott v. Sandford is an example of what can happen when the Court chooses to side with personal opinion instead of what is right.

Table Annexed To Article: Secrecy Broken: Reports Of The Delegates Following The Federal Convention, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Despite the measures taken to ensure the secrecy of the proceedings during the federal convention, many delegates made reports to their states and explained the choices behind various clauses. However, no delegate had access to the official journal of the constitutional convention.

Table Annexed To Article: Our Constitutional Kinesis: Words That Can Go Like A Machine, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Constitution II, the Philadelphia constitution (1787), inspired many ‘machine/ry’ references. OCL catalogs, with the help of acknowledged secondary sources, a working list of metaphors which were deployed to credit and discredit our second constitution.

Table Annexed To Article: Congress And Parliament Deploy Appraisives (1801-1802), Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Parliament (primary text writer, the House of Commons) produced 24,647 words beginning in 1801; in in a comparable interval, Congress produced 27,123 words. By coincidence, this was the first year that Parliament served as the text-writer for the newly-minted United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Appraisives in the English language, numbering 3,683 have been tested against the Early Constitution. Appraisives in the Early Constitution, 2 OCL 193. This investigation tests the known class of appraisives in these target vocabularies employed by Congress and Parliament. Mean words between ‘hits’ are returned.

Book Review Of Arnold H. Leibowitz, An Historical-Legal Analysis Of The Impeachments Of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, And William Clinton: Why The Process Went Wrong, Jeffrey B. Morris

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.

A New Introduction To American Constitutionalism, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism is the first text to study the entirety of American constitutionalism, not just the traces that appear in Supreme Court decisions. Mark A. Graber both explores and offers original answers to such central questions as: What is a Constitution? What are fundamental constitutional purposes? How are constitutions interpreted? How is constitutional authority allocated? How do constitutions change? How is the Constitution of the United States influenced by international and comparative law? and, most important, How does the Constitution work? Relying on an historical/institutional perspective, the book illustrates how American constitutionalism is a distinct form …

Table Annexed To Article: Hamilton And Madison Deploy ‘Constitution’ In The Federalist Papers: Semantic Values Surveyed, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The eighty-five Federal Papers (authors James Madison and Alexander Hamilton; John Jay contributed five) are justifiably famous as elaborations of constitutional structure and text, sans citation to the convention, understandably, since secrecy imposed by Standing Order on May 28th was continued indefinitely (at the pleasure/non-action of Congress) on September 17th. Counts on semantic value/s of ‘constitution’ and ‘constitutional’ are surveyed.

A Detailed Breakdown Of Note-Takers Surveyed From Farrand’S Records Vols. 1 And 2 (1937), Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Eleven of the fifty-five delegates that attended the Federal Convention took notes during the proceedings. These notes, along with Jackson’s official journal and available committee drafts, are assembled in Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 at volumes 1 and 2. OCL provides a page-by-page breakdown of the text [of their notes] which appears in the Farrandian presentation.

New York Times V. U.S.: Implications And Relevance In The 21st Century, Maria E. Lombardi

Student Publications

In 1971, the New York Times released the first installment in a series later referred to as the Pentagon Papers that would eventually have significant political, social, and historical impacts that are felt even in the 21st Century. Following the first release, President Nixon’s administration sought an injunction against the publication of the remaining contents of the classified study, ultimately becoming an extensive legal process that culminated in the Supreme Court. In a per curiam opinion, the Court ruled that in accordance with Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe and Near v. Minnesota that the federal government did not …

Review Of Prigg V. Pennsylvania: Slavery, The Supreme Court, And The Ambivalent Constitution, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In 1842, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Prigg v. Pennsylvania, resolving a dispute about fugitive slave rendition that had raged between the states for decades. H. Robert Baker’s analysis of the decision and the events that led up to it is the first book-length work to investigate Prigg and its place in American history. Baker traces the development of fugitive slave laws and recounts the heart-wrenching story that lies behind Prigg to shed light on the Supreme Court’s decision and the gradual clarification of American federalism.

Order Of Delegate Arrival At Philadelphia Tabled Against Support/Opposition To Constitution, Peter J. Aschenbrenner, David Kimball

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Fifty-five delegates were appointed by twelve states to attend the federal convention in May, 1787. Arrival of the delegates is matched with support/opposition for the Constitution.

Table Annexed To Article: Deployment Of ‘Constitution’ Surveyed In Farrand’S Records Of The Federal Convention, Vols. 1 And 2, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Excluding Farrand’s apparatus, the convention’s speech events as recorded by any note-taking total 386,049 words. The word ‘constitution’ was deployed 147 times in Vol. 1 and 411 times in Vol. 2 for a grand total of 558 hits. Of these 558 hits, 74.91% were assigned the semantic value of ‘text,’ 17.03% value ‘government,’ 1.61% could have been taken by a reader to refer to either value, and 6.45% of these instances referred to a foreign constitution. OCL surveys and cumulates this data.

Delegate Arrivals At Philadelphia Compared To Voting Records At The Ratification Conventions By State, Peter J. Aschenbrenner, David Kimball

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Fifty-five delegates were appointed by twelve states to attend the federal convention in May, 1787. Eleven states ratified the Constitution between December 7, 1787 and July 26, 1788. When delegate arrival dates are compared with the order in which their respective state ratification conventions completed their business, a significant number of delegates supporting the constitution are missing in action.

Table Annexed To Article: Delegate Arrivals In Philadelphia Compared To Voting Records, Peter J. Aschenbrenner, David Kimball

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Fifty-five delegates were appointed by twelve states to attend the federal convention in May, 1787. Eleven states ratified the Constitution between December 7, 1787 and July 26, 1788. When delegate arrival dates are compared with the order in which their respective state ratification conventions completed their business, a significant number of delegates supporting the constitution are missing in action.

Table Annexed To Article: A Detailed Breakdown Of Note-Takers Surveyed From Farrand’S Records Vols. 1 And 2 (1937), Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Eleven of the fifty-five delegates that attended the Federal Convention took notes during the proceedings. These notes, along with Jackson’s official journal and available committee drafts, are assembled in Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 at volumes 1 and 2. OCL provides a page-by-page breakdown of the text [of their notes] which appears in the Farrandian presentation.

Table Annexed To Article: Introducing Constitutional Text Units, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

The traditional citation format for reference to specific passages in the federal constitution does not account for the order in which text was added, changed or deleted; a new citation format is proposed, called ‘Constitutional Text Units’; Madison’s June, 1789 suggestion for maintaining a coherent presentation is explained and defended.

Table Annexed To Article: Our Aesthetic Constitutions: A New View, Peter Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

A six-way division of constitutional text is presented. Responsibilities and disabilities occupy the semantic spaces ordinarily assigned to ‘powers’ and ‘rights,’ respectively. Titles, offices and intersections are segregated, which category includes the restraints between any two (and more) actors and bodies. Aspirational language is carved out, along with text addressing government to government issues, here, federal and state governments. Finally each instance of an apparatus, permitting, commanding, and prohibiting operational consideration of issues (as they may arise in the future) are named.

Comparing American Constitutions I And Ii: Topics Treated In Constitution I With Similar Topics Followed Into Constitution Ii, Peter J. Aschenbrenner

Peter J. Aschenbrenner

OCL explores, topic by topic, the treatment by text-writers in Constitution II of similar text crafted in Constitution I. Results are surveyed, topic by topic.