Novalawcity

National Museum of Crime and Punishment

The current issue of ABA Journal features a profile of the new National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C:

The new National Museum of Crime and Punish­ment—opening May 22 in Washington, D.C.—will focus on that nation­al fascination with exhibits that chronicle both our history of bad be­haviors and our sometimes cruel and ingenious ways of reproving them.
. . . .
In addition to a variety of interactive exhibits on activities such as safecracking and crime scene photography, the museum also tries to explore the legal consequences of crime and punishment by devoting part of its ex­hibition space to constitutional rights and notable U.S. Supreme Court rul­ings, including Miranda v. Ari­zona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

It sounds both fascinating and macabre.

The L Word

Now that it appears there's only one lawyer left in the race for the Presidency, it's time for a quasi-legal history quiz.  How many of the ten men who occupied the office in the past 50-odd years (and some of them have been very odd) were lawyers?  Just to make it easier, those ten were Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy and Eisenhower. 

Why do you wear purple?

Ever wonder why law graduates wear purple?  In honor of his university's graduation, Dave Hoffman at Temple re-posted his thoughts at Concurring Opinions on the origin of purple academic regalia and law:

Interestingly, the dominant theory seems to be that academic dress recalls an era where laws flowed from the King:  purple symbolizes lawyer's roots as agents of the sovereign. And it is true that of the professions, the one with the closest tie with the institutions of state sanctioned force remains law. But you've got to wonder why the folks who codified academic dress in the U.S. decided to tie themselves to an idea of legal rules that evoked royalty...

(Link is to the original 2006 post, which contains some interesting comments as well.)

Mildred Loving has died

Mildred Loving, a plaintiff in the landmark case Loving v. Virginia that overturned the last segregation laws, died on May 2 at age 68.  From the New York Times: 

By their own widely reported accounts, Mrs. Loving and her husband, Richard, were in bed in their modest house in Central Point in the early morning of July 11, 1958, five weeks after their wedding, when the county sheriff and two deputies, acting on an anonymous tip, burst into their bedroom and shined flashlights in their eyes. A threatening voice demanded, “Who is this woman you’re sleeping with?”

Mrs. Loving answered, “I’m his wife.”  

Mr. Loving pointed to the couple’s marriage certificate hung on the bedroom wall. The sheriff responded, “That’s no good here.”

The certificate was from Washington, D.C., and under Virginia law, a marriage between people of different races performed outside Virginia was as invalid as one done in Virginia. At the time, it was one of 16 states that barred marriages between races.

For those who haven't heard their story before, it is well worth clicking through to read.

 

Library of Congress Celebrates Thomas Jefferson's Birthday!

Sunday is Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, and the Library of Congress is celebrating! Read more about it here.  You might also want to see the Library’s online exhibition of Jefferson’s library, and read the Washington Post’s article on the exhibition.

Digital Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers have been put online in a thoughtful and beautiful digital edition.  Read them here.

Edward O'Connor, the web developer who created this edition, has some interesting stats about which of the papers have received the most hits.  Read his thoughts here.

Thanks to the University of Baltimore Law Library Blog for the tip.