Legal History

February 2, 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Signed

Feb 1, 2010 6:20 AM CST

Martin Luther King Jr.‘s Dream Is Not Yet a Reality

Martin Luther King Jr. famously had a dream. The nation he foresaw, in which fairness and equality had triumphed and no one was judged by the color of his or her skin, is not yet a reality. But significant progress has been made towards the goals the slain civil rights…

Jan 19, 2010 10:19 PM CST

Fla. Bar Probes at Least 35 Lawyers in Alleged Ponzi Schemer’s Firm

The Florida Bar is investigating at least 35 lawyers who practiced law with alleged Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein. Ethics investigators are probing whether senior lawyers from Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler made false representations to the Florida Bar when they certified client trust accounts and whether they misappropriated money from the accounts,…

Jan 14, 2010 12:44 PM CST

Case of Murdered Lawyer Who Had Informed on Capone Gets New Look

Chicago police will reopen a 70-year-old investigation into the murder of a Chicago lawyer who helped put Al Capone behind bars. The lawyer, Edward O’Hare, was the president of Sportsman’s Park racetrack in Cicero and paid Capone a cut of the proceeds until the mobster went to prison for tax…

Jan 13, 2010 3:43 PM CST

DNA Sample Taken From Longtime Suspect in 1982 Tylenol Killings

A longtime suspect in the 1982 deaths of seven people in the Chicago area who ingested cyanide-laced Tylenol has turned over a DNA sample in response to an order to do so this week by a Massachusetts judge. It was made in response to a DuPage County, Ill., grand jury…

Jan 8, 2010 9:22 PM CST

Civil Obedience

It probably comes as no surprise that the youth of today know little about the civil rights movement: the 1963 “children’s crusade” in Birmingham, Ala., or the desegregration of Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas or the role played by a 15-year-old African-American girl.

Jan 2, 2010 4:10 AM CST

January 28, 1916

Brandeis Nominated to High Court

Jan 2, 2010 12:30 AM CST

Train Ride Home Took Lawyer on Journey Toward Writing Book About Christmas 1945

Needing a break after a workday spent on white-collar insurance fraud defense matters in New York City, Matthew Litt started reading printouts of archived 1945 newspaper articles on his ride home on the subway, years ago. A politics major in college, the now-32-year-old New Jersey lawyer says he didn’t even…

Dec 24, 2009 2:24 AM CST

Among Decade’s 25 Key Legal Trends: Lawyer Pay, Terror Law, Social Sites

In a sweeping review of the top 25 topics and trends of the decade that have impacted the legal profession, the National Law Journal puts the war on terror and its test of the limits of the law at the top of the list. In second place is the roller-coaster…

Dec 21, 2009 9:30 PM CST

Unethical US Judges Often Get Away With Misconduct, Newspaper Finds

Citizens filed 6,000 misconduct complaints against federal judges in the last decade, but only seven faced formal disciplinary action, a newspaper investigation has found. “Federal judges have made illegal campaign contributions, falsified court records, and illegally concealed cash gifts and gambling debts,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “Many more have engaged…

Dec 14, 2009 2:32 PM CST

Inmate Apologizes for Murder, Is Executed in First 1-Drug Injection

After apologizing for murdering a 22-year-old woman in 1991, a death row inmate was executed in Ohio today in a historic one-drug lethal injection that the director of state prisons described as problem-free. Kenneth Biros, who was in his early 50s, died in about 10 minutes once thiopental sodium began…

Dec 8, 2009 6:56 PM CST

History Fix for “Shoeless” Joe?

Maybe it ain’t so, Joe. For 90 years the reputation of Chicago White Sox outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson has been tarnished by the belief that he and seven of his teammates threw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The Black Sox scandal was seemingly validated by Eliot Asinof’s…

Dec 2, 2009 4:59 AM CST

Clinton Impeached

December 19,1998

Dec 2, 2009 12:59 AM CST

Research Is Murder for Lucky Scientist with Lizzie Borden in Family Tree

Neuroscientist Jim Fallon was already studying the brains and DNA samples from seven family members, as a personal project to determine relatives’ risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. So unexpected news from his mother that multiple possible killers were in his family tree was a bonanza of potential behavioral research, reports…

Nov 30, 2009 9:42 PM CST

Still Famous Long After Landmark Trial, Judge Ito Can’t Keep a Nameplate

The most famous judge in the criminal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles doesn’t have a nameplate. That’s because visitors apparently in search of a souvenir keep removing it, reports the L.A. Now blog of the Los Angeles Times. Judge Lance Ito, who became not only a household name but a…

Nov 24, 2009 11:48 PM CST