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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Dred Scott V. Sandford: A Prelude To The Civil War, Faith Joseph Jackson
Dred Scott V. Sandford: A Prelude To The Civil War, Faith Joseph Jackson
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
This article will first review the foundational cracks that slavery left in the creation of the United States' Constitution. It will then examine the ensuing legislative efforts to contend with the political and societal consequences of the slavery divide. Next, it will discuss the history behind the Scott case, and the course and resolution of the case in the court system. It will then describe the notoriety of the case and the impact it had on the events leading up to the war. It will conclude with an analysis of Dred Scott's position at the locus of only real conflict …
Rebuilding The Closet: Bowers V. Hardwick, Lawrence V. Texas, And Themismeasure Of Homosexual Historiography, Jody Madeira
Rebuilding The Closet: Bowers V. Hardwick, Lawrence V. Texas, And Themismeasure Of Homosexual Historiography, Jody Madeira
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
This paper acknowledges that "[i]t is now commonplace to disparage the Hardwick Justices' performance as historians, though it is less common to specify what was wrong with it''. In an effort to engage in such specification, this paper will first address mischaracterization of history in Bowers, which portrays the historic legal and ecclesiastical penalties of what the Court labels as "homosexual activities" as a continuous, unitary narrative extending from the halls of the Emperors Theodosius and Justinian to the legislative assembly rooms of Georgia and Texas. This illusory perspective portrays the criminalization of sodomy (and therefore the identity of homosexuality …
Welfare Reform: An Historical Overview, Richard K. Caputo
Welfare Reform: An Historical Overview, Richard K. Caputo
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
This essay provides an historical overview of welfare reform efforts prior to enactment of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 by the 104th Congress. The author argues that the 1996 Act reaffirmed the labor market as the major arbiter of economic well-being of American citizens. In so doing, passage of the Act signified the formal end of income maintenance for able-bodied parents and released the federal government from assuming major responsibility for reducing poverty per se.