CROSS REFERENCES Case Law; Court Opinion; Legal Education; Precedent.. CASE OR CONTROVERSY A term used in Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution to describe the structure by which a
Trang 1examinations Typically, law students are tested only once in each class They face enormous pressure to perform well on this examination since their single score on it usually constitutes their entire grade for the class It is difficult to test analysis skills, so often these examinations test the students’ ability to spot legal issues and apply legal rules Therefore, although professors try to teach case analysis skills, students tend to focus on simply learning rules of law in the hope of getting good grades This diminishes the case method’s intended result
The case method may be unpopular with law students owing to the amount of reading it requires It is not uncommon for law professors
to assign 20 to 30 pages of reading, containing excerpts from four or five cases, each night for each class Some law professors have argued that pupils learn to analyze cases within the first few months of law school, and that thereafter the case method becomes ineffective because students lose enthusiasm and interest in reading cases
Another complaint concerns the role of casebooks Casebooks commonly contain cases
or case excerpts as well as some explanatory text They are most often compiled by law professors, who arrange the cases to show legal development or illustrate the meaning of legal principles These casebooks provide only a small sample of cases, the vast majority of them appellate-level decisions Thus, law students usually receive little or no exposure to decisions
of trial courts Some commentators suggest that students therefore miss critical elements of a lawyer’s initial role: discovering and shaping facts and determining legal strategies to present
to the court at the trial level
Frequently, students do not see legal con-flicts in their undeveloped form until they graduate and begin practicing law Law schools increasingly are trying to remedy that problem
by offering instruction in basic lawyering skills
For example, classes in trial advocacy allow students to conduct mock jury trials Other courses teach client-counseling skills, document-drafting skills, and oral argument skills The idea
is not to abandon the case method entirely but
to balance it with other teaching methods
FURTHER READINGS Marks, Thomas C., Jr 2000 “Understanding the Process of Judicial Policymaking through Case Analysis ” Stetson Law Review 29 (spring).
Rand, Joseph W 2003 “Understanding Why Good Lawyers
Go Bad: Using Case Studies in Teaching Cognitive Bias
in Legal Decision-Making.” Clinical Law Review 9 (spring).
Weaver, Russell 1991 “Langdell’s Legacy: Living with the Case Method ” Villanova Law Review 36.
CROSS REFERENCES Case Law; Court Opinion; Legal Education; Precedent.
CASE OR CONTROVERSY
A term used in Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution to describe the structure by which actual, conflicting claims of individuals must be brought before a federal court for resolution if the court is to exercise its jurisdiction to consider the questions and provide relief
A case or controversy, also referred to as a
JUSTICIABLE controversy, must consist of an actual dispute between parties over their legal rights that remain in conflict at the time the case
is presented and must be a proper matter for judicial determination A dispute between parties that isMOOTis not a case or controversy because it no longer involves an actual conflict
CASE STATED
An action that is brought upon the agreement of the parties who submit a statement of undisputed facts to the court but who take adversary positions
as to the legal ramifications of the facts, thereby requiring a judge to decide the question of law presented
A case stated is also called an AMICABLE ACTION, aCASE AGREED ON, or aFRIENDLY SUIT
CASEBOOK
A printed compilation of judicial decisions illustrating the application of particular principles
of a specific field of law, such as torts, that is used
in legal education to teach students under the case method system
vCASEMENT SIR, ROGER DAVID Sir Roger David Casement pursued an illustri-ous career in the British Foreign Service His achievements were overshadowed by his cam-paign for Irish nationalism, which eventually led
to his trial and execution
Casement was born September 1, 1864,
in Dublin, Ireland From 1892 to 1904 and from 1906 to 1911, Casement made several
LOYALTY IS A
SENTIMENT,NOT
A LAW
—S IR R OGER
C ASEMENT
278 CASE OR CONTROVERSY
Trang 2noteworthy contributions to the field of British
consular service His investigation of the brutal
working conditions of the Congolese on rubber
plantations owned by Belgium led to drastic
reforms in Africa He subsequently performed a
similar service for workers on British rubber
plantations in South America In 1911 he was
knighted for his humanitarian efforts and in
1912 he resigned from foreign service due to
illnesses contracted during his work in foreign
countries
Casement returned to Ireland and became
interested in the movement for Irish freedom
from British rule He journeyed to Germany
and the United States seeking support for an
Irish insurrection In April 1916 Casement
received a pledge of aid from Germany but it
proved inadequate He returned to Ireland
hoping to curtail the planned Easter Rebellion,
but British authorities apprehended him upon
his arrival
Accused of TREASON, Casement was put on
trial To add to the sensationalism of the
proceedings and the case against him, several
of Casement’s diaries were publicly distributed
These diaries contained accounts of practices
considered to be homosexual in nature
Case-ment was not given the opportunity to confirm
or DENY the validity of the diaries and the
genuineness of the papers is still in question
today
The evidence against Casement was
suffi-cient for a conviction and he was sentenced to
be executed Originally a Protestant, Casement
converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before
his death On August 3, 1916, he was hanged in
Pentonville Jail in London, England
vCASEY, WILLIAM JOSEPH William Joseph Casey was a lawyer with a long and distinguished career in business and public service who later became the controversial director of the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
(CIA) during the Reagan administration
Casey was born March 13, 1913, in Elmhurst, New York He received his bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in 1934, did graduate work at the Catholic University of America, and then entered St John’s University Law School, graduating with a bachelor of laws degree in 1937 Following his admission to the New York state bar he moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the Research Institute of America, a private organization involved in
Sir Roger David Casement 1864–1916
1864 Born, Dublin, Ireland
1861–65 U.S Civil War
◆
1892 Appointed traveling commissioner to
the Niger Coast Protectorate
1903 Report on rubber plantation working conditions in Upper Congo published; led to reforms in Africa
1913 Joined Irish National Volunteers
1911 Knighted for humanitarian efforts
1914–18 World War I
◆
1922 Irish Free State born
1916 Easter Rebellion; Casement arrested, tried and convicted of treason; died, London, England
1895 Appointed British consul to Lourenço Marques
1898 Appointed British consul to Angola, then Congo
1906–11 Served as British consul to Brazil
1905 Received the C.M.G.
1875
1925 1900
1850
Sir Roger Casement CASEY, WILLIAM JOSEPH 279
Trang 3analyzing economic and political data concern-ing theNEW DEAL
DuringWORLD WAR IICasey served with Army Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and, from London, directed the activities
of OSS spies After the war Casey returned to Washington, D.C., and served for two years as special counsel to theSMALL BUSINESS Committee
of the U.S Senate He remained interested in international relations as a result of his wartime activities, however, and in 1948 he returned to Europe to become associate general counsel for
the MARSHALL PLAN Following his war-related service, he started practicing law and became a partner in a large New York law firm He also began teaching at New York University, where he lectured on tax law from 1948 to 1962, and taught periodically at the Practicing Law Insti-tute While practicing and teaching, he wrote a number of highly successful books on taxes,REAL ESTATE, and investments, including Tax Shelter Investments (1952) and Accounting Desk Book (1956), and a book on U.S history titled Where and How the War Was Won: An Armchair Guide
to the American Revolution (1976) The profits from his books, in addition to his income from his law practice and his investments, helped to make him a multimillionaire
In the 1960s Casey moved from business to politics, running in 1966 for a seat in the U.S House of Representatives Though he lost the primary to a more conservative Republican opponent, Casey remained active in the REPUBLI-CAN PARTY, writing and conducting research for Richard M Nixon’s 1968 presidential cam-paign In 1969 he helped the new president set
up the Citizens Committee for Peace with Security, which was organized to back Nixon’s policy on antimissileWEAPONS, and served on the advisory council of the ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENTAgency
In 1971 Nixon appointed Casey chairman of the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC), where he quickly became known as a tough administrator who favored strict regulation of stockbrokers Casey also became unpopular with his fellow securities lawyers when he named them as defendants in connection with their clients’ alleged frauds While head of the SEC,
he persuaded Congress to increase the agency’s
William Joseph
Casey.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
William Joseph Casey 1913–1987
1913 Elmhurst, N.Y.
◆
1941–46 Supervised spy missions for the Office of Strategic Services
1984 Congress voted to prohibit aid to the anti-communist Nicaraguan "contra" rebels
1980 Ran Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign
1914–18 World War I
◆
1987 Resigned his post at CIA; died, Glen Cove, N.Y.
1961–73 Vietnam War
◆
◆
1939–45 World War II
1950–53 Korean War
1948–62 Lectured on tax law at New York University
1971–73 Served as chair
of the Securities and Exchange Commission
1973–74 Served as undersecretary of state for economic affairs
1981 Appointed director of the CIA
by President Reagan
1986 Iran-Contra Affair hearings began
AFFINITIES BETWEEN
THE PROFESSION
OF LAW AND
INTELLIGENCE
-GATHERING[INCLUDE]
CONFRONTING THE
PARADOX OF BEING
AT THE SAME TIME
SEEKERS OF TRUTH
AND PARTISANS IN A
CAUSE
—W ILLIAM C ASEY
280 CASEY, WILLIAM JOSEPH
Trang 4budget by $1.5 million, which he used to hire
more lawyers, accountants, and other specialists
to improve the agency’s efficiency In 1973 Casey
moved from the SEC to the STATE DEPARTMENT,
where he served as undersecretary of state for
economic affairs for two years He then became
president and chairman of the Export-Import
Bank, an independent government agency
charged with facilitating the export of U.S goods
and services In 1976 he left government to
return toPRIVATE LAW practice in New York and
Washington, D.C., though he did return to
accept an appointment to President Gerald R
Ford’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
In 1981 Casey embarked on what was to be
the final and most controversial chapter of his
career when PresidentRONALD REAGANappointed
him director of the CIA The nomination
was criticized by some members of Congress
as blatantly political because Casey had run
Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign
Neverthe-less, Casey eventually won congressional
ap-proval and became the first director of the
agency to be given cabinet-level rank
Known for his hard-driving and sometimes
confrontational management style, Casey won
early praise for improving the CIA’s analytical
work But he also drew heavy criticism for the
agency’s political activity outside the United
States when the CIA stepped up its support for
anti-Communist organizations in developing
countries Under Casey the agency engaged in
intelligence operations in Central America, where
it mined Nicaraguan harbors and provided
textbooks for the Nicaraguan contras (the rebels
fighting the Marxist government of Nicaragua)
on how to use violence against civilian officials
Congress, angered by reports of the
opera-tions, voted in 1984 to make aid to the contras
illegal When a diversion of funds to the contras
from arms sales to Iran came to light—in a
scandal that became known as the Iran-Contra
Affair—Casey denied that he had any
knowl-edge or involvement of such sales Critics
charged that as CIA director, Casey should
have known about the affair, and suspected that
Casey had played a larger role than he
acknowledged In addition, members of
Con-gress criticized Casey for allowing CIA staff
members wide latitude to circumvent the
prohibition against giving aid to the contras
Casey was to testify before a Senate panel
about the CIA’s role in the sale of arms to Iran
in December 1986 but became ill and was hospitalized the day before he was to appear
He then underwent surgery for removal of a malignant brain tumor and it was also reported that he was suffering from prostate cancer In February 1987, after several weeks in the hospital, Casey resigned his post at the CIA
Later that spring congressional hearings on the IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR commenced The first witness, retired Air Force major general Richard
V Secord, testified that Casey was involved in providing arms to the Nicaraguan rebels after Congress had outlawed such activity However, the nature and extent of any involvement by Casey remained unclear On May 7, 1987, Casey died of pneumonia
Casey’s death left many unanswered ques-tions about the Iran-Contra Affair However, both Republicans and Democrats praised Casey for his patriotism, intellect, and commitment to public service
CASH BASIS
A method of accounting that considers only money actually received as income and only money actually paid out as expense
For INCOME TAX purposes, TAXABLE INCOME is computed under cash basis accounting as the difference between income received and expenses paid out within the tax year Cash basis accounting is not the same as ACCRUAL BASIS
accounting
CASH SURRENDER VALUE The amount of money that an insurance company pays an insured upon cancellation of a life insurance policy before death and which is a specific figure assigned to the policy at that particular time, reduced by a charge for adminis-trative expenses
The cash surrender value of an insurance policy is not based upon its actual value, but upon its reserve value—the face amount of the contract discounted at a specific rate of interest according to the insured’s life expectancy Not all life insurance policies have cash surrender values; the terms of the policy must so provide
CASUAL Irregular, occasional, or accidental; happening without being planned or foreseen
CASUAL 281
Trang 5The term is used to describe an event that is unanticipated or unusual A casual sale is one that is not customary, or done in the usual course of business—such as a jeweler occasion-ally selling vacuum cleaners
Casual employment is irregular, periodic, or seasonal employment, such as someone selling ice cream only during the summer Workers’
compensation laws in many states do not apply
to casual employment
CASUAL EJECTOR
A fictitious and nominal defendant in an action of ejectment
EJECTMENT was one of the old common-law
FORMS OF ACTION It could be used to oust an intruder on the plaintiff’s land, such as a holdover tenant It could also be used when there was no intruder, but the owner wished to remove any doubt about his or her right to the land without waiting for someone to sue him or her In such a case, the strict form of procedure required that the PLAINTIFF name a DEFENDANT
even when none actually existed The action was brought against a fictitious person called the casual ejector The name John Doe was used often for this nonexistent defendant
CASUALTY
A serious or fatal accident A person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed A disastrous occurrence due to sudden, unexpected, or unusual cause
Accident; misfortune or mishap; that which comes
by chance or without design A loss from such an event or cause, as by fire, shipwreck, lightning, etc
An inevitable casualty is one that occurs throughNO FAULT of anyone It happens totally without design, as in the case of an ACCIDENT
resulting from an ACT OF GOD, such as a house struck by lightning or flooded by a storm
A casualty loss is a tax deduction that can be taken for an accident that is incurred in a trade
or business, in a transaction entered into for profit, or for the complete or partial loss or destruction of property owned by the taxpayer
It arises from certain specific events such as a fire, an auto accident, or a flood Casualty losses are computed subject to special rules and are treated as itemized deductions
Many people purchase casualty insurance so that they will be protected or covered in the event of specific misfortune or accident It is a
type of insurance that covers losses resulting from injuries to people
CASUS BELLI [Latin, Cause of war.] A term used in interna-tional law to describe an event or occurrence giving rise to or justifying war
CROSS REFERENCE War.
CATEGORICAL That which is unqualified or unconditional
A categorical imperative is a rule, command,
or moral obligation that is absolutely and universally binding
Categorical is also used to describe pro-grams limited to or designed for certain classes
of people Categorical assistance plans are social
WELFARE programs extending benefits to mem-bers of a particular group, such as Aid to the Elderly, Aid to the Blind, or Aid to Families with Dependent Children
vCATON, JOHN DEAN John Dean Caton was born March 19, 1812, in Monroe, New York He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1835 He achieved success in various fields of public service and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Hamilton College in 1866
In 1834 the first political convention was held in Illinois and Caton participated as its secretary as well as a member He served on the Illinois Supreme Court, beginning as an ASSOCI-ATE JUSTICE from 1842 to 1864, and acting as chief justice in 1855 and again from 1857 to 1864
In addition to his legal and political careers, Caton served as president of the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraphic Company from 1852 to
1867, performed the duties of JUSTICE OF THE PEACEin Ottawa, and gained recognition as an author His most famous works are A Summer
in Norway, written in 1875, and The Antelope and Deer of America, published in 1877 Caton also contributed numerous articles on nature to the Ottawa Academy of Science Caton died July
30, 1895, in Chicago, Illinois
THE LAW IS A GREAT
AND GROWING
SCIENCE,WHICH
MUST ENLARGE AND
EXPAND WITH THE
ADVANCEMENT OF
SOCIETY
—J OHN C ATON
282 CASUAL EJECTOR
Trang 6vCATRON, JOHN
John Catron served as an ASSOCIATE JUSTICE of
the U.S Supreme Court from 1836 to 1865
During his career on the Court, Catron was a
staunch defender of states’ rights and the
INSTITUTION of SLAVERY He participated in the
LANDMARK decisions upholding the power of
state governments to regulate local aspects of
interstate commerce and, in DRED SCOTT V
SANDFORD, 60 U.S (19 How.) 393, 15 L Ed 691
(1856), he voted with the Court in deciding
that an ex-slave had no rights as a citizen
Despite personal Southern affiliations and his
own support of slavery, Catron backed the
Union during the CIVIL WAR A close friend of
Andrew Jackson’s as early as the WAR OF 1812
and a fellow resident of Nashville, Catron was a
true Jacksonian in his outlook His judicial
career and opinions—from a suspicion of large
corporations to a fervent support of states’
rights—bear all the marks of Jacksonian
democracy
Catron was the descendant of poor, German
immigrants He was probably born in
Pennsyl-vania around 1786—some sources cite his birth
as early as 1779, however His father, Peter
Catron, worked with horses in Pennsylvania
and Virginia, and moved to Kentucky in 1804,
hoping to establish his own horse farm Catron
grew up with little formal education He
supported himself and his family by herding
cattle and grooming horses, but he found time
to read the classics as well Around 1812, Catron
moved to Sparta, in Tennessee’s Cumberland
Mountains region At about the same time, he
married Matilda Childress; the couple had no
children
Catron read law briefly in Sparta and then
joined the Second Tennessee Regiment, a group
of local volunteers who sought to avenge the
massacre of Fort Mims by the Creek Indians
This unit eventually joined General Andrew Jackson’s army in Alabama and fought in the War of 1812 Catron became friendly with Jackson, who had passed the bar exam and served as a judge, and the two corresponded frequently in subsequent years
After the war, Catron returned to the Cumberland Mountains and resumed his legal studies He was admitted to the Tennessee bar
in 1815 and worked both as an attorney in a general legal practice and as a PROSECUTORin a
CIRCUIT COURT In 1818 Jackson suggested that Catron move to Nashville, then a growing frontier town, where Jackson himself lived and had a plantation Catron took his advice and developed a lucrative practice in Nashville, with much of his work involving land titles, a busy area of the law on the rapidly growing frontier
By 1824 he was elected to the bench of Tennessee’s highest court, the Court of Errors and Appeals In 1831 the Tennessee legislature created the office of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals and elected Catron
to serve in it Catron held the position until 1834
As a judge, Catron worked principally to resolve the morass of conflicting land claims then before the courts, but he addressed other issues as well In separate 1829 rulings, Catron denounced both gambling and dueling, calling the latter no more than“honorable homicide.”
“The law knows it as a wicked and willful
MURDER, and it is our duty to treat it as such,”
wrote Catron in his decision for Smith v State,
9 Tenn 228 “We are placed here firmly and fearlessly to execute the laws of the land, not visionary codes of honor, framed to subserve the purposes of destruction.” In an 1834 case, Fisher’s Negroes v Dabbs, 14 Tenn 119, Catron
John Dean Caton 1812–1895
1812 Born, Monroe, N.Y.
1818 Illinois admitted
to the Union
1833 Moved to Chicago, population 300 with no lawyers
1855 Became chief justice
of Illinois Supreme Court
1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates made Illinois the center of the slavery debate
1864 Retired from bench
1875 A Summer in
Norway published
1893 The Early Bench
and Bar of Illinois
published 1895 Died,
Chicago, Ill.
❖
◆
1842 Appointed associate justice
on Illinois Supreme Court
◆
◆
1861–65 U.S Civil War
CATRON, JOHN 283
Trang 7ruled on the issue of freeing slaves Slave owners would often grant manumission, or freedom, to their slaves through their wills Catron argued that the state must approve such instruments before they can be valid, because, he wrote,
“free negroes are a very dangerous and most objectionable population where slaves are numerous.” Nor would it do to send freed slaves to states where slavery was not practiced, according to Catron Whether in a slaveholding
or nonslaveholding society, the freed African American is “a degraded outcast, and his fancied freedom a delusion.” Slaves could only
be freed, Catron wrote, if they were sent to the African nation of Liberia
American Indian affairs, particularly relating
to the Cherokee nation, were also were pressing issues during Catron’s tenure on the Tennessee high court In 1833, the state legislature, following the earlier example of Georgia’s general assembly, passed laws giving itself jurisdiction over Cherokee land within its boundaries In State v Foreman, 16 Tenn 256,
it was charged that these laws were unconstitu-tional Catron upheld the state laws in a long opinion that is notable for its brutal attitude toward the Indians.“It was more just,” Catron wrote, “that the country should be peopled by Europeans, than continue the haunts of savage beasts, and of men yet more fierce and savage.” The Indians were, in his mind,“mere wander-ing tribes of savages” who “deserve to be exterminated as savage and pernicious beasts.” Furthermore, it was simply by right of power that whites could exert their dominance: “Our claim is based on the right to coerce obedience The claim may be denounced by the moralist
We answer, it is theLAW OF THE LAND Without its assertion and vigorous execution, this continent never could have been inhabited by our ancestors.” The issue resurfaced a few years later during Martin Van Buren’s presidency when the Cherokee were forced to give up their land and make a long march on what was called the Trail of Tears to land west of the Mississippi
In 1836 Catron directed Van Buren’s presidential campaign in Tennessee Van Buren won the election, succeeding fellow Democrat Jackson On his last day in office, March 3,
1837, Jackson appointed two new members— Catron and John McKinley—to the U.S Supreme Court as required by the Judiciary Act of 1837, which increased the size of the
John Catron.
COLLECTION OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF THE
UNITED STATES
John Catron 1786?–1865
1786 Born, Pa.
◆
◆
◆
◆ ◆
1812 Moved to Sparta, Tenn.
1829 Andrew Jackson inaugurated as president
1824 Elected to Tennessee's Court of Errors and Appeals
1837 Nominated to U.S.
Supreme Court by Jackson
1857 Dred Scott v Sandford
decision held that ex-slaves did not have U.S citizenship rights
1831 Appointed chief justice of Tennessee's Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals 1961 Catron's support of the
Union led to loss of his Nashville estate
1775–83
American Revolution
◆
◆
1813–14 Fought under Andrew Jackson in War of 1812 in Second Tennessee Regiment
1838 Cherokee Indians forcibly removed from Georgia to Oklahoma, trek known
as "Trail of Tears"
1865 Died, Nashville, Tenn.
❖
1861–65 Civil War
284 CATRON, JOHN
Trang 8Court from seven to nine members Catron was
confirmed five days later, and at age 51 he
became a sitting justice with ROGER B TANEY
serving as chief justice
Catron was a strong advocate of states’
rights during his tenure on the Court In the
cases considered in Thurlow v Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, 46 U.S (5 How.) 504, 12 L
Ed 256 (1847), Catron wrote two opinions
upholding the rights of states to regulate the
importation of liquor from other states and
countries The cases touched on interpretation
of the COMMERCE CLAUSE, the part of the
Constitution—Article I, Section 8, Clause 3—
that gives Congress power “[t]o regulate
Commerce with foreign Nations, and among
the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”
Catron argued that the federal government
does not have exclusive power to regulate
interstate commerce and that where it does not
act to regulate commerce, the states are free
to do so The state laws in question had
encroached on no laws passed by Congress and
were therefore valid According to Catron,“the
POLICE POWERwas not touched by the
Constitu-tion, but left to the States as the Constitution
found it.” Catron and the Court ruled similarly
in Cooley v Board of Wardens, 53 U.S (12
How.) 299, 13 L Ed 996 (1851), again
upholding the ability of states to regulate local
aspects of interstate commerce
Catron dissented from the Court’s opinion
in several cases involving the states’ ability to
regulate corporations In one case in which the
Court had ruled in favor of a large corporation,
Catron expressed concern regarding “the
un-paralleled increase of corporations throughout
the Union …; the ease with which charters
containing exclusive privileges and exemptions
are obtained; the vast amount of property,
power, and exclusive benefits, prejudicial to
other classes of society that are vested in and held
by these numerous bodies of associated wealth”
(Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Co v Debolt, 57
U.S.[16 How.] 416, 14 L Ed 997 [1853])
Catron played an important role in the
famous Dred Scott case, which concerned
the highly controversial issue of slavery in the
territories Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri
whose owner took him into Illinois, where
slavery had been outlawed, and the Louisiana
Territory, where it had been forbidden as well by
the Missouri Compromise, the 1820 agreement
that attempted to resolve the dispute as to
whether new states would be admitted to the Union as free or slave states When Scott returned to Missouri, he brought suit against his owner, claiming that he was free because he had resided in free territory In its decision, the Court, with Catron writing a concurring opinion, held that a slave could not become a citizen under the U.S Constitution Scott, the Court wrote, was not a citizen and therefore could not sue in federal courts Chief Justice Taney went further and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, denying the au-thority of Congress to exclude slavery from the territories This was only the second time the U
S Supreme Court had found an act of Congress unconstitutional, the first having been the 1803 decision MARBURY V.MADISON 5 U.S (1 Cranch)
137, 2 L Ed 60[1803] Many viewed Dred Scott
as a pro-slavery ruling from a Court dominated
by a Southern majority The ruling may very well have hastened the coming of the Civil War
In his concurring opinion, Catron empha-sized that Congress could not abridge the property rights of slave-owning citizens in the Louisiana Territory by outlawing slavery
He also argued that the Missouri Compromise violated the constitutional guarantee of equal
PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIESto citizens of all states,
a guarantee that was, Catron wrote, a “leading feature of the constitution—a feature on which the Union depends, and which secures to the respective States and their citizens an entire equality of rights” (60 U.S at 529) Three of the seven concurring justices argued that an African American descended from slaves had no rights as a U.S citizen and no standing in court
Catron was one of four justices who did not address this last question of whether a freed slave was a citizen or not
Despite his pro-Southern leanings and the subsequent loss of his estate, Catron supported the Union during the Civil War As hostilities began to mount and war neared in March 1861, Catron returned to Nashville to try to keep the border states of his judicial circuit—Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri—in the Union Of these, only Tennessee would eventually join the CON-FEDERACY After an angry mob confronted him when he tried to hold federal court in Nashville, Catron was forced to leave for Washington, D.C., accompanied by a military escort, leaving behind
an estate worth more than $100,000 During the war, Catron continued to support the Union by broadly interpreting the federal government’s
POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY,IN ITS TRUE SENSE,EXISTS ONLY WITH THE PEOPLE.…AND IS [THE]POLITICAL AXIOM UPON WHICH THEAMERICAN GOVERNMENT[HAS] BEEN BASED
—J OHN C ATRON CATRON, JOHN 285
Trang 9war powers In one case, he wrote an opinion refusing to release a prisoner if evidence showed that he was a Confederate sympathizer After
1862 Catron also worked hard to keep order in the states forming his new circuit: Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Kentucky He stayed in close touch with President ABRAHAM LINCOLN and worked hard to keep the federal judiciary effective during the war
On May 30, 1865, Catron, one of the last embodiments of Jacksonian democracy to leave the national scene, died in his adopted city of Nashville
FURTHER READINGS Anderson, Burnet 1996 “John Catron.” In The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789 –1995, 2d ed Claire Cushman Washington, D.C.: Congres-sional Quarterly.
Gatell, Frank O 1995 “John Catron.” In The Justices of the United States Supreme Court 1789–1969: Their Lives and Major Opinions, Volumes I–V New York: Chelsea House.
Tennessee Dept of State “Catron, John (1786–1865) Papers
1833 –[1833–1862]–1918.” Nashville: Tennessee State Library and Archives.
CROSS REFERENCES Judicial Review; Native American Rights.
CAUSA MORTIS [Latin, In contemplation of approaching death.]
A phrase sometimes used in reference to a deathbed gift, or a gift causa mortis, since the giving of the gift is made in expectation of approaching death A gift causa mortis is distinguishable from a gift inter vivos, which is a gift made during the donor’s (the giver’s) lifetime
The donor of the gift of PERSONAL PROPERTY
must expect to die imminently from a particular ailment or event This has important conse-quences in terms of the donor’s ability to revoke the gift
For example, an elderly man is suffering from pneumonia and believes he is going to die as a result of the sickness He tells his grandson that if
he dies, he will give the grandson his pocket watch If the man recovers and wants to retain his watch, he will be able to do so, because a gift causa mortis is effective only if made inCONTEMPLATION
OF DEATHdue to a known condition and the donor actually dies as a result of that condition
A gift causa mortis is taxed under federal estate tax law in the same way as a gift bequeathed
by a will
CAUSE Each separate antecedent of an event Something that precedes and brings about an effect or a result
A reason for an action or condition A ground of a legal action An agent that brings something about That which in some manner is accountable for a condition that brings about an effect or that produces a cause for the resultant action or state
A suit, litigation, or action Any question, civil
or criminal, litigated or contested before a court of justice
Cause and Causality in American Law
If an individual is fired from a job at the bank for embezzlement, he or she is fired for cause—
as distinguished from decisions or actions considered to be arbitrary or capricious
InCRIMINAL PROCEDURE,PROBABLE CAUSEis the reasonable basis for the belief that someone has committed a particular crime Before someone may be arrested or searched by a police officer without a warrant, probable cause must exist This requirement is imposed to protect people from unreasonable or unrestricted invasions or intrusions by the government
In the law of torts, the concept of causality is essential to a person’s ability to successfully bring
an action for injury against another person The injured party must establish that the other person brought about the alleged harm A defendant’s liability is contingent upon the connection between his or her conduct and the injury to thePLAINTIFF The plaintiff must prove that his or her injury would not have occurred but for the defendant’sNEGLIGENCEor intentional conduct
Actual, Concurrent, and Intervening Cause
The actual cause is the event directly responsible for an injury If one person shoves another, thereby knocking the other person out an open window and he or she breaks a leg as a result of the fall, the shove is the actual cause of the injury TheIMMEDIATE CAUSEof the injury in this case would be the fall, because it is the cause that came right before the injury, with no intermediate causes In some cases the actual cause and the immediate cause of an injury may
be the same
Concurrent causes are events occurring simultaneously to produce a given result They are contemporaneous, but either event alone would bring about the effect that occurs If one
286 CAUSA MORTIS
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simulta-neously being shot by a third person, either act
alone could cause the person’s injury
AnINTERVENING CAUSEis one that interrupts
the normal flow of events between the wrong
and the injury It comes between an expected
sequence of occurrences to produce an
unan-ticipated result If someone driving under the
influence of alcohol grazes a telephone pole that
is rotted and thus knocks it down, the condition
of the pole would be the intervening cause of
its collapse This is important in determining
the liability of the intoxicated driver If the
telephone company knew or should have known
about the unsafe condition of the pole and
negligently failed to replace it, the telephone
company would be responsible for the harm
caused by the falling pole Depending upon how
hard the driver hit the pole, the driver may be
held contributorily negligent, or partially liable,
for the accident that took place
An intervening EFFICIENT CAUSE is one that
totally supersedes the original wrongful act or
omission For example, an intoxicated cabdriver
transports a person in a cab with faulty brakes
An accident occurs, which is a direct result of
the INTOXICATION rather than the faulty brakes
The injury resulting to the passenger is
attributable to the driver’s condition The
intervening efficient cause thereby broke the
causal connection between the original wrong
of the faulty brakes and the injury
Proximate, Unforeseeable, and
Remote Cause
The PROXIMATE CAUSEof an injury is the act or
omission of an act without which the harm
would not have occurred This is a concept in
the law of torts and involves the question of
whether a defendant’s conduct is so significant
as to make him or her liable for a resulting
injury For example, a person throws a lighted
match into a wastepaper basket that starts a fire
that burns down a building The wind carries
the flames to the building next door The act of
throwing the match would be the proximate
cause of the fire and the resulting damage;
however, the person may not be held fully liable
for all resulting consequences
An unforeseeable cause is one that
unexpect-edly and unpredictably results from the
proxi-mate cause The degree of injury sustained
is unanticipated or far removed from the
negligent or intentional conduct that took place
For example, if a customer in a supermarket irritates a clerk and the clerk pushes the customer out of the way, which results in prolonged bleeding because the person is a hemophiliac, the bleeding is an unforeseeable consequence of the clerk’s action Even if the clerk intentionally pushed the customer, the resulting injury is clearly far removed from the conduct
A remote cause is one that is removed or separate from the proximate cause of an injury
If the injuries suffered by a person admitted to a hospital after being hit by a truck are aggravated
by MALPRACTICE, the malpractice is a remote cause of injury to that person The fact that the cause of an injury is remote does not relieve a
DEFENDANT of liability for the act or omission, but there may be an apportionment of liability between the defendants
CROSS REFERENCES Action; Arbitrary; Arrest; “But For” Rule; Criminal Proce-dure; Probable Cause; Search and Seizure; Tort Law;
Warrant.
CAUSE CÉLÈBRE [French, famous case.] A trial or lawsuit in which the subject matter or a participant is particularly newsworthy, unusual, or sensational and that typically attracts a great deal of media attention For example, the case of Scott Peterson, accused of the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, was a cause célèbre in 2003
CAUSE OF ACTION The fact or combination of facts that gives a person the right to seek judicial redress or relief against another Also, the legal theory forming the basis of a lawsuit
The cause of action is the heart of the complaint, which is thePLEADINGthat initiates a lawsuit Without an adequately stated cause of action the plaintiff’s case can be dismissed at the outset It is not sufficient merely to state that certain events occurred that entitle thePLAINTIFF
to relief All the elements of each cause of action must be detailed in the complaint The claims must be supported by the facts, the law, and a conclusion that flows from the application of the law to those facts
The cause of action is often stated in the form of a syllogism, a form of deductive
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