Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 2 P41 pptx

Supreme Court case holding that Article III of the federal Constitution gives the Court original jurisdiction over lawsuits be-tween a state government and the citizens of another state,

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civic activities She served on the board of directors of the Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People and became a prominent member of the Brooklyn branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) She frequently volunteered her time for such groups as the Democratic Women’s Workshop; the League of Women Voters; and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League, an organization formed to support black candidates Her intense participation in local politics—marked by her forthrightness and her willingness to confront politicians with difficult questions about racial equality—made her unpopular with the predominantly white Democratic establishment in New York But it won her the recognition and respect of her community which was about 70 percent African American and Hispanic residents

So well known was Chisholm in Brooklyn

by 1964 that she could mount a successful campaign for a seat in the New York State Assembly despite having no support from the Democratic establishment She stressed that

“the people” had asked her to run As an assemblywoman from 1964 to 1968, she spear-headed legislation providing for state-funded day care centers and for unemployment in-surance for domestic workers Of particular importance to her were bills that she shep-herded through the Education Committee One major accomplishment was a financial aid program known as Search for Elevation, Education and Knowledge (SEEK) Passed into law in 1965, SEEK reached out to students of color who lacked the necessary academic requirements to enter state universities by providing them with scholarships and remedial training Other legislative successes boosted school spending limits and wiped out the practice of stripping tenure from women teachers who took maternity leave

In 1968 Chisholm became the first African American woman to run for the U.S Congress

In her pursuit of the Democratic nomination for the Twelfth District she bested two other African American candidates and was appointed New York’s National Committee representative

at the party’s national convention She later said that to win the nomination she had to beat the political machine, an entrenched BUREAUCRACY

that had never been fond of her brash style

With the nomination in hand, she faced her Republican opponent, James Farber, a liberal

white male who enjoyed national prominence as

aCIVIL RIGHTSleader Farber was expected to win, but on November 5, 1968, by a margin of more than 2–1, Chisholm staged an upset victory The success of her antiestablishment campaign, which ran under the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed,” was attributed both to widespread support from women and to her ability to address Puerto Rican voters in Spanish From the moment she took her seat in the House of Representatives, Chisholm demon-strated the bold iconoclasm that would mark her career in Washington, D.C With her, it would not be politics as usual Her initial appointment to a minor subcommittee of the Agriculture Committee struck her as a waste of her talents and experience, and, despite warn-ings that she was endangering her career, she protested The House Ways and Means Committee relented and she was appointed

to Veterans’ Affairs In her first speech on the floor of the House she vowed to vote against all defense spending She told lawmakers,

“Our children, our jobless men, our deprived, rejected and starving fellows, our dejected citizens must come first.” In May of 1969 she gave a speech to the House of Representatives in which she introduced the EQUAL RIGHTS AMEND-MENT and pointed out that the bill had been introduced before every Congress for the previous 40 years To those who argued that women were already protected under the law, she pointed out that existing laws were inade-quate and that the majority of women were concentrated in lower-paying menial jobs “If women are already equal”, she asked “Why is it such an event whenever one gets elected to Congress?”

Chisholm’s goals as a congresswoman were twofold First, when she took office, only nine

of the 435 House members were black, so she made herself an advocate for African Americans both in and out of her district Second, she tried

to advance the goal of racial equality She supported programs that provided housing and education aid to cities, voted to uphold laws that would end discrimination in federally funded jobs, and promoted new antidiscrimi-nation legislation.ABORTIONrights also became a focal point in her politics As a state assembly-woman she had supported bills that would make it easier for women whose lives were endangered to have abortions, although she had opposed outright legalization of abortion But

THE WORD

‘RADICAL,’PROPERLY

USED,MEANS GOING

TO THE BASIS OF A

PROBLEM—THE

WORD COMES FROM

THELATIN FOR

‘ROOT’—RATHER

THAN DEALING WITH

ITS MANIFESTATIONS

—S HIRLEY C HISHOLM

388 CHISHOLM, SHIRLEY ANITA ST HILL

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in 1968, with a change of heart, she agreed to be

honorary president of the newly formed

Na-tional Association for the Repeal of Abortion

Laws This would have been a dangerous

position for an established politician, let alone

a newly elected House member

Independence of thought was Chisholm’s

hallmark, however, and the following year she

crossed party lines to support Republican

mayor John V Lindsay in the New York

mayoral election Her decision so outraged her

own party that some members called,

unsuc-cessfully, for her ouster from the Democratic

National Committee But Chisholm saw the

need for revamping traditional politics,

sup-porting foes if necessary, and creating new bases

of power In 1971, along with such feminist

leaders as author GLORIA STEINEM, she helped

found the National Women’s Political Caucus

Chisholm’s dramatic decision to run for

president in 1972 came in part through her

widely publicized opposition to theVIETNAM WAR

and the policies of President RICHARD M.NIXON

While speaking at college campuses she was

frequently asked if she would consider running

At first doubtful that an African American

woman would stand a chance, she became

encouraged by the growing numbers of blacks

serving in elected office Initially she received

little support, even within black political circles,

but following an enthusiastic tour of Florida,

she announced her candidacy on January 25,

1972 During campaign stops she asked voters

to replace entrenched white male leadership

with a new voice: “I am your instrument of

change.… give your votes to me instead of one

of those warmed-over gentlemen who come to

you once every four years.” Criticized for

running a hopeless campaign, she remained

steadfast “Some people call me a freak for

running for the presidency,” she said, “but I am

very glad to be a freak in order to break down

this domain.”

Despite her popularity with women and

young people, Chisholm’s campaign suffered

from limited finances, internal disarray, and

lukewarm support from black political leaders

By July 1972 she had 28 delegates, almost half of

what she had hoped to bring to the Democratic

National Convention Nevertheless, she won

the support of the convention’s black caucus,

and, in a symbolic move, HUBERT H HUMPHREY

released his black delegates to vote for her As

a result, on the first ballot, she received 152

delegates and addressed the convention But the number was far too small to stop candidate George S McGovern from winning the party’s nomination

After the election the trouble that had beset her campaign continued A 1973 report by the government’s GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE

recommended that the U.S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

investigate possible misconduct in handling campaign funds but a 1974 investigation found

no evidence of any wrongdoing

Following her reelection to the House in the fall of 1972, Chisholm served every two-year term until 1982 The seniority she earned over seven terms—she was the only woman on the House Rules Committee—made her effective in building coalitions among liberal politicians In addition to supporting women’s equality, she was instrumental in advancing welfare legisla-tion designed to help poor and needy citizens

However, the onset of the Reagan era drastically changed the political landscape in Washington, D.C., as liberals were swept aside by conserva-tive challengers Announcing her retirement on February 10, 1982, Chisholm cited as her chief reason the defeat of liberal senators and representatives, which made it impossible for the old alliances to work

Chisholm accepted an invitation to join the faculty at Mount Holyoke, the United States’

oldest women’s college, where she taught courses

in political science and women’s studies until

1987 She was also a visiting professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia At one commence-ment address she urged new graduates to be active citizens: “Ask questions and demand answers Do not just tend your garden, collect your paycheck, bolt the door, and deplore what you see on television Too many people are doing that already Instead, you must live in the mainstream of your time and of your genera-tion.” Although she had left Washington, D.C., she remained immersed in politics In 1985, she became the first president of the newly formed National Political Congress of Black Women, which in three years grew from five hundred to 8,500 members In 1988 she campaigned for the ReverendJESSE JACKSON, who was seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination

Using her retirement to give speeches and commencement addresses on vital issues, Chisholm continued to inspire the public imagination She advocated sex education for students beginning at the age of seven in order

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to combat the “national plague” of teenage pregnancy In 1991, calling the small numbers

of African American college professors a crisis

in black education, she warned,“Blacks run the risk of becoming an intellectual boat people, just drifting.” Opposing the Persian Gulf War in

1991, she argued that the expense of U.S

militarism blocked the goals of peace and equality.“The foundation is being laid for yet another generation of minority Americans to be denied the American dream,” she cautioned

In 1993 Chisholm was nominated to the position of ambassador to Jamaica but was prevented from assuming the role because of poor health In 1999 she was a commencement speaker at San Diego State University College of Health and Human Services, where she received her 38th honorary degree Chisholm received the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED PERSONS

(AARP) Andrus Award in May 2000 The award

is given biennially to nationally recognized older Americans who have made significant contribu-tions to society In an interview with AARP’s news magazine Modern Maturity, the former congresswoman listed Eleanor Roosevelt, her grandmother, and Harriet Tubman as her three greatest influences and stated that race and poverty were the two major issues that still needed to be addressed in modern America

Chisholm died in Florida in January of

2005 Chisholm’s primary legacy is as a political pioneer among African American women, 23 of whom had followed her into Congress by 2006

FURTHER READINGS Brownmiller, Susan 1970 Shirley Chisholm New York:

Doubleday.

Chisholm, Shirley 2000 “The Straight-Talking Optimist.”

Interview by Mary Willis Modern Maturity (May/June).

Marshall-White, Eleanor 1991 Women: Catalysts for Change:

Interpretive Biographies of Shirley St Hill Chisholm, Sandra Doy O’Connor, and Nancy Landon Kassebaum New York:

Vantoge Press.

Scheader, Catherine 1990 Shirley Chisholm: Teacher and Congresswoman Springfield, N.J.: Enslow.

CHISHOLM V GEORGIA

An early U.S Supreme Court case holding that Article III of the federal Constitution gives the Court original jurisdiction over lawsuits be-tween a state government and the citizens of another state, even if the state being sued does not consent The decision generated immediate opposition from 12 states and led to the ratification of the Eleventh Amendment, which

gives states sovereign immunity from being sued in federal court by citizens of other states without the consent of the state being sued

In 1777, Robert Farquhar, a Charleston, South Carolina, merchant, sold goods to the Georgia army for use in the Revolutionary War The next year Farquhar died, and in

1791, his executor, Alexander Chisholm, brought suit to collect the debt in the U.S

CIRCUIT COURT for the District of Georgia Plaintiffs sought 100,000 pounds in sterling silver for payment of the debt plus interest Notably, Associate Justice JAMES IREDELL, who later filed the famous dissenting opinion in the U.S Supreme Court’s decision in Chisholm v Georgia, heard the arguments at the district court level while discharging his duties as a traveling circuit judge (in the early days of the U.S Supreme Court, justices performed the double duty of deciding cases for the nation’s highest court and riding circuit to hear cases in the particular jurisdictions they were assigned)

In his opinion for the circuit court, Iredell dismissed the suit for want of jurisdiction If any court had jurisdiction over the dispute, Iredell said, it was the U.S Supreme Court because Article III of the federal Constitution gave only the Supreme CourtORIGINAL JURISDICTIONover all cases in which a state is named as a party “It may fairly be presumed,” Iredell wrote for the circuit court,“that the several States thought it important to stipulate that so awful and important a Trial [to which a State is party] should not be COGNIZABLE by any Court but the Supreme.” Iredell’s conclusion was not challenged when the Supreme Court heard Chisholm under its original jurisdiction One reason Iredell’s lower court decision was not challenged in the Supreme Court is that Georgia would likely have been the only party objecting to it, and Georgia refused to appear before the nation’s high court after Chisholm refiled his lawsuit there Georgia feared that by making an appearance at trial, the Supreme Court would deem that appearance consent to the Court’s jurisdiction over the dispute, something Georgia denied the Court had power

to exercise Nonetheless, in public pronounce-ments the Georgia governor made clear that he believed the Court had no jurisdiction because the state had not consented to the suit in its capacity as an independent and sovereign government Without such consent, the Georgia

390 CHISHOLM V GEORGIA

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legislature contended, the states are immune

from being sued in federal court, and Article III

did nothing to abrogate thisIMMUNITY

At oral argument, the Supreme Court thus

heard only from Chisholm’s attorney, EDMUND

RANDOLPH According to Caleb Nelson in his

article on SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY, a courtroom

observer later reported that Georgia “was right

in not appearing to this action,” since Chief

Justice JOHN JAY“said from the Bench that had

the State pleaded it would have been an

acknowledgement of the jurisdiction of the

Court.” Having heard from only one party to

the dispute, the Supreme Court had no choice

but to enter a DEFAULT JUDGMENTin Chisholm’s

favor Chisholm v Georgia, 2 U.S 419, 2 Dall

419, 1 L.Ed 440 (U.S 1793)

In a 4–1 decision, the Court issued five

separate opinions Justices Jay, JAMES WILSON,

WILLIAM CUSHING, and John Blair Jr wrote

opinions concurring in judgment, while Justice

Iredell wrote the only dissent The four

concurring justices agreed that final

SOVEREIGN-TY resided in the people of the United States,

and at least for the purposes of this lawsuit

Georgia was not a sovereign state Wilson’s

opinion drew most attention among the

concurring justices because Wilson had been

the delegate who had introduced the Original

Jurisdiction Clause at the Constitutional

Con-vention in Philadelphia Not surprisingly,

Wilson said it was difficult for him to imagine

words that would“describe, with more precise

accuracy, the cause now [pending] before the

tribunal.”

In his dissenting opinion Iredell observed

that through theJUDICIARY ACT OF1789 Congress

had authorized federal courts to issue all writs

“necessary for the exercise of their respective

jurisdictions, and agreeable to the principles

and usages of law.” Judiciary Act of 1789, ch 20,

§14, 1 Stat 73, 81-82 Iredell interpreted

“principles and usages of law” to mean the

COMMON LAWof the several states, which Iredell

said embodied the common law as it existed in

England when America was first settled Under

the English common law, the British Crown was

sovereign and could not be sued without its

consent Iredell then concluded that the states

enjoyed the same sovereign immunity as the

English King at the time of the American

settlement Article III did not alter the states’

immunity from being sued without their consent, Iredell continued, and “even if the Constitution would admit of the exercise of such a power, a new law is necessary for the purpose, since no part of the existing law applies, this alone is sufficient to justify my determination in the present case.”

The states’ reaction to the majority’s deci-sion in Chisholm was fast and furious Each state understood the implications of being forced to pay Revolutionary War debt at a time when the state treasuries were struggling to avoid INSOL-VENCY The Massachusetts legislature led the way In a resolution that was circulated to the other states, it condemned “a power … of compelling a State to be madeDEFENDANTin any Court of the United States, at the suit of an individual.” The resolution instructed the state’s lawmakers “to obtain such amendments in the

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATESas will remove any clause or article of the said Constitution which can be construed to imply or justify a decision that a State is compellable to answer in any suit by an individual or individuals in any Court of the United States.” Other states quickly followed suit

Congress responded to this groundswell of state activity by drafting the ELEVENTH AMEND-MENT It provides that“[t]he Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced

or prosecuted against one of the United States

by Citizens of another State …” In short, the Eleventh Amendment sought to guarantee states sovereign immunity from being sued in federal court without their consent, the very right denied to them in Chisholm By 1798 the requisite 12 states had ratified the amendment

New Jersey and Pennsylvania refused to ratify, while Tennessee and South Carolina took no action

Chisholm v Georgia is considered the first great case decided by the U.S Supreme Court

The case forced the Court to grapple with contentious debates over FEDERALISM or the proper balance of power between the state and federal governments It was heard by justices who not only participated in the Constitutional Convention, but by the one justice who had actually drafted the very constitutional provi-sion being scrutinized Finally, Chisholm v

Georgia is the first Supreme Court case that was superseded by aCONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

CHISHOLM V GEORGIA 391

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FURTHER READINGS Lee, Thomas H 2002 “Making Sense of the Eleventh Amendment: International Law and State Sovereig-nity.” Northwestern Univ Law Review 96 (spring).

Meyler, Joan 2001 “A Matter of Misinterpretation, State Sovereign Immunity, and Eleventh Amendment Jur-ispurdence: The Supreme Court ’s Reformation of the Constitution in Seminole Tribe and Its Progeny ” Howard Law Journal 45 (fall).

Nelson, Caleb 2002 “Sovereign Immunity as a Doctrine of Personal Jurisdiction ” Harvard Law Review 115 (April).

Pfander, James E 1998 “History and State Suability: An

‘Explanatory’ Account of the Eleventh Amendment.”

Cornell Law Review 83 (July).

Strasser, Mark 2001 “Chisholm, the Eleventh Amendment, and Sovereign Immunity: On Alden ’s Return to Confederation Principles ” Florida State Univ Law Review 28 (spring).

CROSS REFERENCES Eleventh Amendment; Federalism; Sovereign Immunity.

CHOATE Perfected, complete, or certain

A choate right is an undefeatable right that is totally valid and cannot be subsequently lessened or altered by later claims If someone purchases a plot of land totally free from encumbrances, that person has a choate prop-erty interest in the land

A choateLIENis one to which nothing further must be done to make it enforceable Elements such as the identity of the lienor and the property that is subject to the lien are established; thus, the lien is certain and definite

INCHOATE, the opposite of choate, is the more commonly used phrase It means unfinished or incomplete and is used to describe a number of things such as liens, rights, crimes, or interests

For example the term inchoate BATTERYcan be used to describe anASSAULT

vCHOATE, JOSEPH HODGES Joseph Hodges Choate was a popular lawyer in New York in the late 1800s Choate distin-guished himself by his exceptional career before the bar, his accomplishments as ambassador to the Court of St James’s (an ambassador to England), his dedication to public service, and his sharp wit and clever after-dinner speeches Choate was born January 24, 1832, in Salem, Massachusetts, the fifth of six children and the youngest of four boys in a family with

an established heritage His father, Dr George Choate, was a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School and was one of Salem’s most distinguished physicians Choate was also the cousin of Congressman RUFUS CHOATE, who was just beginning his second term when Choate was born

Continuing the family tradition, Choate attended Harvard with his three brothers He went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in

1855 Choate then left New England to pursue a career in New York With the help of a letter from Rufus Choate toWILLIAM M EVARTS (who would becomeSECRETARY OF STATEfor President

RUTHERFORD B.HAYESfrom 1877 to 1881), Choate joined the law office of Butler, Evarts, and Southmayd

Choate’s skills as an orator made him a formidable litigator He appeared in hundreds

of cases covering a wide range of controversies One of the most notorious of these cases was the prosecution of William Marcy (“Boss”) Tweed Tweed, elected to the New York State

Joseph Hodges Choate 1832–1917

1832 Born,

Salem, Mass.

◆

1855 Graduated from Harvard Law School

1890 Served on Commission on revision of judicial system in New York state

1869 Helped found the American Museum of Natural History in New York City

1917 Died, New York City

1861–65 U.S Civil War

1895 Won a constitutional challenge

to the Income Tax Act of 1894 in

Pollock v Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.

1873 William "Boss"

Tweed convicted

1914–18 World War I

◆

1903 Panama Canal Treaty signed

1907 Headed U.S delegation to the International Peace Conference in The Hague

1871 Called for the Committee of Seventy

to investigate Tammany Hall abuses

1899 Appointed ambassador to England

392 CHOATE

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Senate in 1868, headedTAMMANY HALL, a corrupt

political organization in New York City that was

controlled by the DEMOCRATIC PARTY In 1871

Choate was appointed to the committee that

eventually charged Tweed with embezzling

funds from the city treasury

Many of Choate’s cases involved matters of

national importance and were appealed to the

U.S Supreme Court Choate unsuccessfully

fought Kansas’s liquor PROHIBITIONin Mugler v

Kansas, 123 U.S 623, 8 S Ct 273, 31 L Ed 205

(1887), and anti-Chinese legislation in Fong v

United States, 149 U.S 698, 13 S Ct 1016, 37

L Ed 905 (1893) He successfully appealed

claims of certain Native Americans that the

government had reneged on a treaty and

deprived them of their land in New York Indians

v United States, 170 U.S 1, 18 S Ct 531, 42

L Ed 927 (1898) In the landmark case Pollock

v Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 157 U.S 429, 15

S Ct 673, 39 L Ed 759 (1895), reh’g granted,

158 U.S 601, 15 S Ct 912, 39 L Ed 1108

(1895), overruled by South Carolina v Baker, 485

U.S 505, 108 S Ct 1355, 99 L Ed 2d 592

(1988), Choate won a constitutional challenge

to an INCOME TAX act of 1894 In his winning

argument, Choate said,“The act … is

commu-nistic in its purposes and tendencies, and is

defended here upon principles as

communis-tic, socialistic—what should I call them—

populistic as ever have been addressed to any

political assembly in the world.”

Choate’s prominence as an attorney

attracted the attention of the White House

and in January 1899, PresidentWILLIAM MCKINLEY

appointed Choate ambassador to the Court

of St James’s, in England As ambassador

Choate negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty,

which allowed the U.S government to build

and operate the Panama Canal Choate was

also instrumental in gaining an“open door” to

China, and he resolved a controversy over

Samoa with Germany and the United Kingdom

In 1907 Choate headed the delegation from the

United States at the International Peace

Confer-ence at The Hague

Choate supported many charitable causes

He was president of the New York State

Charities Aid Association and of the Association

of the Blind Choate was a member of the

Provisional Committee of 1869 which was

appointed to establish the Metropolitan

Muse-um of Art He continued his relationship with

the museum as one of its incorporators and as a member of the executive committee of the board of trustees He was also an incorporator and officer of the Museum of Natural History

Choate’s successes were due in part to his talents as a public speaker His keen intellect and engaging speaking style combined with his sense of humor to captivate audiences No lawyer of the New York bar was in as much demand at public functions He had speaking engagements before the New England Society, the Union League Club, and the Century Association before and during his presidency

of these societies, at dinners and receptions of theBAR ASSOCIATION, and at innumerable philan-thropic events Shortly after Choate had passed his eighty-fifth birthday he was appointed chairman of a committee of citizens to receive French and British commissioners on a visit to the United States He was in poor health but he survived long enough to fulfill his duties

Choate died May 14, 1917, in New York City

Choate once described the path of his career

as follows:

To be a priest… in the temple of justice, to serve at her altar and aid in her administra-tion, to maintain and defend those INALIEN-ABLErights of life, liberty, and property upon which the safety of society depends, to succor the oppressed and to defend the innocent, to

Joseph H Choate.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

LAW IS THE EXPRESSION AND THE PERFECTION OF COMMON SENSE

—J OSEPH C HOATE

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maintain constitutional rights against all

restore him to his proper place in the world—all this seemed to me to furnish a field worthy of any man’s ambition

FURTHER READINGS Choate, Joseph Hodges 1998 Arguments and Addresses of Joseph Hodges Choate Boston: Gaunt.

Lasson, Kenneth “Lawyering Askew: Excesses in the Pursuit

of Fees and Justice ” Boston Univ Law Review 74.

Martin, Edward S 1921 The Life of Joseph Hodges Choate—

As Gathered Chiefly from His Letters Vols 1 and 2.

Provo, UT: Brigham Young.

Simmons, Daniel L 1987 “The Tax Reform Act of 1986: An Overview ” Brigham Young Univ Law Review 1987.

Strong, Theron G 2008 Joseph Choate: New Englander, New Yorker, Lawyer, Ambassador Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corp.

vCHOATE, RUFUS Rufus Choate was born October 1, 1799, in Ipswich, Massachusetts He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1819 and was admitted

to the bar in 1823

In 1827 Choate served as a member of the Massachusetts Senate and from 1831 to 1834 he acted as a representative from Massachusetts to the U.S House of Representatives He was involved in the organization of theWHIG PARTYin Massachusetts He served as U.S senator from Massachusetts from 1841 to 1845

Choate continued his participation in politics

by nominatingDANIEL WEBSTERfor the presidency

in 1852 and by attending the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1853 He is the author of the Discourse Commemorative of Daniel Webster Choate died July 13, 1859, in Halifax, Nova Scotia

CHOSE [French, Thing.] Chattel; item of personal property

CHOSE IN ACTION The right to bring a lawsuit to recover chattels, money, or a debt

A chose in action is a comprehensive term used to describe aPROPERTY RIGHTor the right to possession of something that can only be obtained or enforced through legal action It is used in contradistinction to chose in possession, which refers to cases where title to money or property is in one person but possession is held

by another

Examples of a chose in action are the right

of an heir to interest in the estate of his or her

DECEDENT; the right to sue for damages for an injury; and the right of an employee to unpaid wages

CHRISTIAN COALITION The Christian Coalition is a NONPROFIT ORGANI-ZATION that serves as a powerful lobby for politically conservative causes Under federal tax law, the organization is permitted to lobby for political issues but cannot endorse political candidates The Christian Coalition has primar-ily sought the support of born-again evangelical Christians, but since 1996 it has attempted to build alliances with Roman Catholics, members

of the Greek Orthodox Church, and Jews The Christian Coalition was founded in

1989 by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson Robertson, who unsuccessfully sought the 1988

REPUBLICAN PARTY presidential nomination, de-cided to create an organization of evangelical Christians that would exert influence over the

Rufus Choate 1799–1859

1799 Born, Ipswich, Mass.

1808 His father, David Choate, died

1826 Elected to Mass Senate

1819 Graduated from Dartmouth College

1823 Admitted to Mass bar

1831–34 Served in U.S House

1855 Injured his leg in accident; never fully recovered

1859 Already ill, left for Europe; died, Halifax, Nova Scotia

1861–65 U.S Civil War

1775–83

American Revolution

1825 Elected to lower house of Mass General Court

1841–45 Served in U.S Senate

1851 Turned down nomination

to U.S Supreme Court

394 CHOATE, RUFUS

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party The coalition’s central goals have been to

gain working control of the Republican Party

through grassroots organizing and to elect

Christian candidates to office The coalition

soon became a potent political force By 1997, it

claimed control of several Republican state

central committees and had elected to public

office numerous Christian Coalition members

and other candidates it endorsed Prior to the

congressional elections of 2002, the Christian

Coalition distributed 70 million voter guides

throughout the 50 states, an effort that has been

credited with helping the Republican Party gain

control of Congress

The Christian Coalition has focused on

family and moral issues It strongly opposes

legalizedABORTION, and in 1998 it began an effort

to require all endorsed Republican candidates to

oppose partial-birth abortions The coalition has

also campaigned against gay rights, and through

its legal arm, the American Center for Law and

Justice, it has filed many church-state lawsuits

Robertson, who served as president until

1997 (and hand-picked his replacement,

Roberta Combs), appears on the 700 Club, a

television program that, as of 2008, was watched

by a few million viewers each week Robertson

has characterized politics as a struggle pitting

militant leftists, secular humanists, and atheists

against conservative, evangelical Christians The

success of the coalition’s grassroots organizing,

however, can be attributed to Ralph Reed, who

served as executive director until 1997 Reed

encouraged coalition members to run for school

boards, city councils, and legislatures without

revealing their affiliation This strategy also

proved effective within the Republican Party

The Christian Coalition has over 1,500

chapters in the United States with over one

million members The coalition’s staff is

head-quartered in Chesapeake, Virginia; it also

main-tains a legislative office in Washington, D.C

With a budget in the tens of millions, the

coalition has the resources to mount nationwide

campaigns on PUBLIC POLICY issues The

organi-zation also actively lobbies Congress on

numer-ous issues, sponsors grassroots training schools

across the United States, and organizes activists

around the country who are involved in federal

and local politics Regarding prospective

candi-dates for public offices, the Christian Coalition

of Alabama sued the Alabama Judicial Inquiry

Commission in 2003, after it advised prospec-tive judicial candidates against responding to a questionnaire from the coalition regarding their political positions on various public issues In

2004 the Eleventh CIRCUIT COURT of Appeals dismissed the case as moot, Christian Coalition

of Alabama v Cole (355 F.3d 1288), following the U.S Supreme Court’s decision in Republi-can Party of Minnesota v White (536 U.S 765), finding aFIRST AMENDMENT protection at stake

Other notable LITIGATION involving the coalition includes a decades-old battle with the IRS for tax-exempt status (granted in 2005); the settlement in 2002 of a racial discrimination lawsuit by ten black employees in the Washing-ton office; and the Virginia lawsuit of Comb’s ex-son-in-law, Tracy Ammons, seeking unpaid compensation (at the rate of $6,000 a month) for his LOBBYING work as a coalition official

Combs had hired both her daughter, Michelle, and her husband, Tracy Ammons, in high-paying positions, evoking much criticism for the nepotism The nepotism issue came to a head (with coalition members) after Ammons

DIVORCE papers filed in court revealed that Combs had filed an AFFIDAVIT on coalition letterhead on behalf of Michelle’s claim for

ALIMONY andCHILD SUPPORT Other lawsuits for unpaid bills included one from the coalition’s longtime law firm for nearly $70,000; one for $87,000 from Global Direct, a fundraising firm in Oklahoma; and a

2002 bill from a Washington, D.C., moving

Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson (right) and the group’s former executive director Ralph Reed built the organization into a powerful political force whose grassroots organizing is credited with helping the Republicans gain control of Congress

in 1994.

AP IMAGES

CHRISTIAN COALITION 395

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company As the coalition’s legal problems and unpaid bills mounted, both Iowa and Ohio chapters severed their associations in 2006 and reorganized independently under new names, e.g., the Iowa Christian Alliance and Ohio Christian Alliance

FURTHER READINGS American Center for Law and Justice Available online at www.aclj.org (accessed June 17, 2003).

Cooperman, Alan and Thomas B Edsall 2006 “Christian Coalition Shrinks as Debt Grows ” Washington Post, May 1, 2006.

Christian Coalition Available online at www.cc.org (accessed June 17, 2003).

Vaughan, Joel D 2009 The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition: The Inside Story Eugene, OR: Resource Publications.

CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY The Christian Legal Society (CLS), founded in

1961, is a NONPROFIT organization of lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students The group’s missions are to promote high ethical standards within the legal profession, to support its members’ commitment to Christian profes-sional lives, and to advance religious freedom for all U.S citizens regardless of affiliation CLS provides resources for research into law and theology; maintains a data bank of commentar-ies on legal issues; and provides a speakers’

bureau, a lawyer-referral service, and mediation and arbitration services It also publishes Christian Legal Society—Briefly, a quarterly newsletter for its members Christian Legal Society—Quarterly, a magazine that covered issues in line with the society’s goals is no longer published CLS’s legal-advocacy arm, the Center for Law and Religious Freedom, pro-motes freedom of religion and challenges government interference with the free exercise

of religion

In 1993 CLS backed passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C.A

§§ 2000bb, et seq., a response to the 1990 U.S

Supreme Court decision in Employment Divi-sion, Department of Human Resources v Smith,

494 U.S 872, 110 S Ct 1595, 108 L Ed 2d 876

The court in Smith upheld a denial of unemployment benefits to Native Americans who had been fired from their jobs for using peyote, a hallucinogenic drug, as part of a religious ceremony CLS and numerous other groups representing a wide range of religious and political persuasions lobbied for RFRA,

which requires the government to show a

“compelling state interest,” such as public health or safety, before interfering with religious practices

CLS members successfully argued two important religious-freedom cases before the U.S Supreme Court in 1993 In Zobrest v Catalina Foothills School District, 509 U.S 1, 113

S Ct 2462, 125 L Ed 2d 1, the court held that the Establishment Clause did not prohibit a public school district from paying for a sign language interpreter for a deaf student who attended a Catholic high school In Lamb’s Chapel v Center Moriches Union Free School District, 508 U.S 384, 113 S Ct 2141, 124 L Ed 2d 352, the court held that a school district’s denial of a religious organization’s application

to use school facilities to show a film on Christian values in family relationships violated the church’s FIRST AMENDMENT right to FREEDOM

OF SPEECH

In Rosenberger v Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 515 U.S 819, 115 S Ct

2510, 132 L Ed 2d 700 (1995), CLS supported the PLAINTIFF, who sued the University of Virginia for denying his request for financial support for publication of a Christian magazine Although the university subsidized a wide range

of publications from its Student Activities Fund (SAF), it denied Ronald W Rosenberger’s request on the grounds that his magazine violated SAF guidelines Rosenberger argued that the guidelines, which prohibited the university from subsidizing a publication that

“primarily promotes or manifests a particular belie[f] in or about a deity or an ultimate reality,” violated his free speech rights A brief filed by CLS maintained that the guidelines discriminated on the basis of religious belief and that a decision against the plaintiff would be a step toward“a relentlessly secular society” that

is intolerant of religious persons and their views The U.S Supreme Court decided in favor of the plaintiff but rested its holding on free speech grounds, stating that the SAF guidelines dis-criminated on the basis of viewpoint and violated the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights The position taken by CLS in its amicus brief filed in the U.S Supreme Court case of Boy Scouts of America v Dale, 530 U.S 640, 120 S

Ct 2446, 147 L Ed 2d 554 (2000) also raised arguments considered by the high court in its final ruling The court held that New Jersey’s

396 CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY

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public-accommodations law violated the Boy

Scouts’ First Amendment right of association

when the law required the Boy Scouts of

America to admit James Dale, an avowed

homosexual and gay-rights activist, as a member

of its organization The Boy Scouts, a private,

not-for-profit organization, had asserted that

homosexual conduct was inconsistent with the

values it sought to instill in its members

In the early part of the 2000s, CLS filed

amicus briefs in numerous cases involving

religious, ethical, or moral issues, including

Newdow v U.S Congress, 292 F.3d 597 (9th Cir

2002)(opposing a challenge to the“under God”

phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance) and Gonzales

v Oregon, 546 U.S 243, 126 S.Ct 904, 163

L.Ed.2d 748 (2006) (holding that federal law did

not authorize the Attorney General to prohibit

doctors from prescribing drugs for use in

physician-assisted suicide) In 2002 CLS also

published a scholarly position paper opposing

human cloning for any purpose It argued that

the scientific distinction between human

repro-ductive cloning and therapeutic (stem cell)

cloning was specious and not supported by

scientific data, in that both forms of cloning

required killing a living human embryo

Individual chapters of CLS have been

involved in LITIGATION during the early 2000s

In Christian Legal Society v Walker, 453 F.3d

853 (7th Cir 2006), the CLS chapter at

Southern Illinois University School of Law

challenged a decision by the school’s

adminis-tration to derecognize the CLS chapter when

CLS refused to admit gay and lesbian members

After a federal district court denied a motion for

a PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, the Seventh Circuit

reviewed the case and reversed According to

the court, the school had interfered with the

CLS’ free speech rights

CLS members are committed to the biblical

INJUNCTION to“not leave justice and the love of

God undone” (Luke 11:42, Matt 23:23) They

are dedicated to ending injustice, limiting or

eliminating legalABORTION, outlawing

PORNOGRA-PHY, and bringing religious thought and

pre-cepts into public education They also are

committed to the evangelization of the legal

profession and plan to increase the society’s

membership by 10-12 percent each year

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