July 26, 2010 marks the twentieth anniversary of President George H.W. Bush’s signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), thereby enacting one of the landmark laws of the twentieth century and providing important legal protection to those with physical or mental disabilities. Despite previous federal legislation that had addressed discrimination against these individuals, many remained unprotected in areas such as private employment, public accommodations, and transportation. Introduced in Congress in 1988, the ADA was the first disability-related legislation to also apply to private employers and businesses.  Senator Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (D-Conn), one of the ADA’s sponsors, wrote in 1991 that the intention of the Act was to “establish a broad-scoped prohibition of discrimination against people with disabilities and describe specific methods by which such discrimination is to be eliminated.”

In response to two subsequent Supreme Court decisions, Sutton v. United Air Lines (1999) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky v. Williams (2002), which were viewed as imposing overly restrictive interpretations of the ADA, Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act, which was signed into law on September 25, 2008. The new legislation made several revisions and clarifications to the law, including expanding the definition of what constitutes a disability.

Further reading:

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, 104 Stat. 327.

ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-325, 122 Stat. 3553.

Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., Historical Background of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 64 Temp. L. Rev. 387 (1991).

Ann K. Wooster, Annotation, Actions Brought Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C.A.  §§ 12101 et. seq.—Supreme Court Cases, 173 A.L.R. Fed. 369 (2001).

Alex B. Long, Introducing the New and Improved Americans with Disabilities Act: Assessing the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, 103 Nw. Univ. L. Rev. Colloquy 217 (2008).

Kate S. Arduini, Why the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act is Destined to Fail: Lack of Protection for the “Truly” Disabled, Impracticability of Employer Compliance and the Negative Impact it Will Have on Our Already Struggling Economy, 2 Drexel L. Rev. 161 (2009).

In 1215, a group of English barons rebelled against King John out of frustration and anger over his repeated violations of feudal and common law.  Acceding to the barons’ demands on June 15 at Runnymede, the king agreed to sign the Magna Carta, now considered the foundation of English constitutional history.

The Magna Carta, whose 63 clauses contain the seeds of the rights to trial by jury, due process, habeas corpus and equality under the law, became a symbol of the supremacy of the constitution over the king. Its influence is seen in the United States Constitution and it was cited by the Supreme Court as recently as 2008 in Boumediene v. Bush.

National Archives and Records Administration, Magna Carta and its American Legacy.
Max Radin, The Myth of Magna Carta, 60 Harv. L. Rev. 1060.
William Sharp McKechnie, Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, with an Historical Introduction.
BBC Radio 4 Programmes, In Our Time: The Magna Carta

On May 12, 1932, the body of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s infant son was discovered two miles from the New Jersey home from which he had been abducted two months earlier.  After an investigation lasting almost two years, police arrested Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German-born carpenter living in the Bronx. Hauptman’s six-week trial, which became known as the “trial of the century,” was covered by over 300 reporters and became the first trial to be broadcast live.

Evidence against Hauptmann included bank notes from an unsuccessful ransom drop, testimony from handwriting experts relating to multiple ransom notes, and testimony that broken ladder pieces found under the Lindbergh baby’s bedroom window matched wood that had been found in Hauptmann’s attic. The prosecutor’s trial strategy included incitement of ethnic hatred against the German defendant.  Hauptmann vehemently proclaimed his innocence, but was convicted and sentenced to death. His appeal was rejected by the appellate court and the New Jersey Board of Pardons refused to commute his sentence. Hauptmann was electrocuted on April 3, 1936.  In the ensuing years, many scholars and writers have argued, some convincingly, that Hauptman was indeed innocent.  The case resulted in enactment of the first federal kidnapping statute, which made the interstate transportation of a kidnapping victim a federal felony.

For more information on the Hauptmann trial, see Crimes of the Century, Gilbert Geis & Leigh B. Bienen, Northeastern University Press, 1998.  [KF220 G45 1998]; The Trial of Richard ‘Bruno’ Hauptmann: An Account, Douglas Linder; The Airman and the Carpenter, Ludovic Kennedy, Viking, 1985. [HV6603.L5 K45 1985].

Tax time calls to mind one of the most infamous tax-scofflaws – Al “Scarface” Capone.  A notorious Prohibition-era gangster, Capone managed to elude justice for scores of violent crimes, including Chicago’s infamous 1929 Valentine’s Day Massacre. In 1931, however, a federal grand jury indicted him for tax evasion.

Witnesses at trial testified that Capone had never filed an income tax return but regularly made large expenditures indicating an ample income. For example, a boathouse had been constructed at his Florida home, his weekly butcher’s bill averaged $200-$250, and shortly before Christmas in 1928, he purchased thirty gold and diamond belt buckles at $275 apiece.

On October 17, 1931, after deliberating for eight hours, the jury convicted Capone on twenty-three counts. He was sentenced to eleven years imprisonment and fined $50,000. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the conviction (56 F.2d 927).

Capone served seven and one-half years (five of them at Alcatraz) before his release in November 1939. With deteriorating physical and mental health (attributed to syphilis) Capone never returned to Chicago but spent his final years quietly at his Florida home, where he died in early 1947.

You can read more about Al Capone at:

4 American National Biography 358 [E 176.A446 (Reference)]; Francis X. Busch, Enemies of the State: An Account of the Trials of the Mary Eugenia Surratt Case, the Teapot Dome Cases, the Alphonse Capone Case, the Rosenberg Case, William S. Hein & Co. 2007 (available on Hein Online); Federal Bureau of Investigation, Al (Alphonse) Capone.

The American Society of International Law (ASIL) recently announced International Law 2008, which features a collection of US presidential candidates’ policy statements on international law topics, candidate surveys about international law in US foreign policy, and other resources.

Sweeping changes are coming to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2007. The changes consist of comprehensive style amendments to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 1-86 and style revisions to the Illustrative Civil Forms. The changes are intended to clarify and simplify the rules without changing their substantive meaning. More information on the new rules and forms, including the text of the rules amendments, excerpts of reports of the Rules Committees, and a chart listing each instance where a current Civil Rule was renumbered in the Restyled Civil Rules, is posted at the United States Courts web site. The web site also addresses amendments to Appellate Rule 25; Bankruptcy Rules 1014, 3007, 4001, 6006, and 7007.1, and new Rules 6003, 9005.1, and 9037; and Criminal Rules 11, 32, 35, 45, and new Rule 49.1.

You can view New York’s new rules governing lawyer advertising on the New York Office of Court Administration’s website here.  The rules take effect on February 1, 2007.

The American Constitution Society has a Supreme Court Preview blog featuring posts from leading legal experts commenting on issues and cases that will be argued this term.  Current posts include:

Whether a woman, whose health is endangered by her pregnancy, has a constitutional right to a safe abortion.

How quickly a victim of race, gender or religious discrimination in the workplace must initiate an action against a discriminatory employer in order to obtain relief.

Whether the Clean Air Act imposes a mandate on the EPA to issue rules restricting greenhouse gas emissions.

To what extent a court may impose punitive damages on a company engaged in "highly reprehensible" acts.

Whether the Constitution denies local school districts the authority to voluntarily integrate racially segregated schools.

For anyone following the debate over Presidential Signing Statements, we have created an online resource page containing relevant documents and links (including the ABA Task Force’s recent report and the legislation proposed by Senator Arlen Specter).  You can access the page here.

On April 12, 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States approved new rules and amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the Federal Bankruptcy Rules.  The rules will take effect on December 1, 2006, unless Congress enacts legislation to reject, modify, or defer the amendments.  You can view the pending rules amendments at the Federal Rulemaking page of the U.S. Courts web site.