When Nixon appointed him to the post of special prosecutor on the case November 1, 1973, Jaworski expected to find wrongdoing and possible criminal activity by Nixon’s aides, but the pos
Trang 1it, was a war measure Therefore, the Court reasoned, power to detain a concededly loyal citizen could not be implied from a power to protect the war effort from espionage and sabotage; it afforded no basis for keeping loyal U.S citizens of Japanese ancestry in custody
on grounds of community hostility
Interestingly, the U.S government, appre-hending an unfavorable decision in Endo, announced the end of the exclusion order just the day before the Supreme Court issued its opinion The last of ten major detention camps, Tule Lake, closed in March 1946
The Movement to Redress Victims
Though the move to evacuate and detain Japanese Americans on the West Coast enjoyed substantial support from most U.S citizens, it incited significant protests as well Some critics, such as Eugene V Rostow, professor and later dean of the Yale Law School, contended that the evacuation program was a drastic blow to civil liberties and that it was in direct contradiction
to the constitutional principle that punishment should be inflicted only for individual behavior, not for membership in a particular demographic group Others, such as Lieutenant Commander Kenneth D Ringle, of the Office of Naval Intel-ligence, questioned the validity of De Witt’s assertions concerning the disloyalty of Japanese Americans
In a memorandum written in February 1942 that became known as the Ringle Report, Ringle estimated that the highest number of Japanese Americans “who would act as saboteurs or agents” of Japan was less than 3 percent of the total, or about 3500 in the United States; the most dangerous of these, he said, were already
in custodial detention or were well known to the Naval Intelligence service or the FBI In his summary Ringle concluded that the “Japanese Problem” had been distorted largely because of the physical characteristics of the people and should be handled based on the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on race
The Ringle Report was known to De Witt, who thus knew that Naval Intelligence estimated that at least 90 percent of the army’s evacuation
of Japanese Americans was unnecessary In addition, the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE knew of the Ringle Report’s conclusions when it filed its briefs in the Hirabayashi and Korematsu cases
A senior JUSTICE DEPARTMENT official, Edward
Ennis, had sent a memo to SOLICITOR GENERAL
Charles Fahy warning, “I think we should consider very carefully whether we do not have
a[legal] duty to advise the Court of the existence
of the Ringle memorandum … It occurs to
me that any other course of conduct might approximate the suppression of evidence.” But Fahy chose not to mention the Ringle Report in the government’s brief, instead asserting that Japanese Americans as an entire class had to be evacuated because “the identities of the poten-tially disloyal were not readily discoverable,” and it would be “virtually impossible” to determine loyalty on the basis of individualized hearings (205)
After the end of the war, some Japanese Americans began to seek financial redress for the losses they had suffered as a result of the government’s evacuation program In 1948 Congress passed the American Japanese Evacu-ation Claims Act (Pub L No 80-886, ch 814,
62 Stat 1231[codified as amended at 50 U.S.C.A app § 1981 (1982)]) to compensate evacuees for property damage The Justice Department re-ceived more than 26,500 claims, and the federal government ultimately paid out approximately
$37 million Because the act required elaborate proof of property losses, the amount paid out was much less than full compensation for losses sustained
By the 1970s and 1980s, the movement to achieve redress had won additional victories In
1976 PresidentGERALD R.FORDformally revoked Executive Order No 9066 and proclaimed,“We know now what we should have known then— not only was[the] evacuation wrong, but Japanese Americans were and are loyal Americans” (Proclamation No 4417, 3 C.F.R 8, 9 [1977])
In 1980 Congress established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, whose report, released in 1983, concluded that
9066 was not justified by military necessity and that the policies of detention and exclusion were the result of racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership The commission recommended several types of redress In 1988 Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C.A app § 1989[1988]), which provided for a national apology and $20,000 to each victim to compensate for losses suffered as a result of the evacuation program
A final major development in the redress movement has been the use ofCORAM NOBIS, the
Trang 2common-law writ of error, to reopen the
Korematsu, Yasui, and Hirabayashi convictions
A writ ofCORAMnobis allows one who has served
time for a criminal conviction to petition the
court for a vacation of that conviction
Vaca-tions are granted if there is evidence of
prosecutorial impropriety or if there are special
circumstances or errors that resulted in a
court judge Marilyn Hall Patel granted a
vacation in the Korematsu case Patel based
her decision on the newly discovered evidence
that “the Government knowingly withheld
information from the Courts when they were
considering the critical question of military
necessity in this case” (Korematsu, 584 F Supp
1406 [N.D Cal 1984]) Yasui’s and
Hirabaya-shi’s convictions were also vacated on this basis
(Yasui, No 83-151 [D Or Jan 26, 1984];
Hirabayashi, 828 F.2d 591 [9th Cir 1987])
FURTHER READINGS
Bettelheim, Adriel 2002 “The Camps Experience: End of
Exclusion.” Excerpted from Exploring Japanese
Intern-ment Available online at
http://www.asianamericanme-dia.org/jainternment/camps/end.html; website home
page: http://www.asianamericanmedia.org (accessed
August 2, 2009).
Executive Order No 9066 1942 Federal Register (February
19) Available online at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
d/5154; website home page: http://historymatters.gmu.
edu/ (accessed August 2, 2009).
Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth
Army, Office of the Commanding General, Presidio
of San Francisco, California 1942 Final Report: Japanese
Evacuation from the West Coast 1942 Washington, D.C.:
U.S Government Printing Office Available online at
http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/dewitt1.html; website
home page: http://www.sfmuseum.org (accessed
Au-gust 2, 2009).
Irons, Peter 1993 Justice at War: The Story of the
Japanese-American Internment Cases Berkeley: Univ of California
Press.
Morris, Arval A 1984 “Justice, War, and the Japanese
American Evacuation and Internment ” Washington
Law Review 59 (September).
Nash, Philip T 1985 “Moving for Redress.” Yale Law
Journal 94 (January).
Robinson, Greg 2003 By Order of the President: FDR and
the Internment of Japanese Americans Cambridge, MA:
Harvard Univ Press.
Tateishi, John 1999 And Justice for All: An Oral History of
the Japanese American Detention Camps Seattle: Univ.
of Washington Press.
Weglyn, Michi 1996 Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of
America’s Concentration Camps Rev ed Seattle: Univ.
of Washington Press.
CROSS REFERENCES
Coram Nobis; Discrimination; Prejudice; Vacate.
vJAWORSKI, LEON Leon Jaworski, likeRICHARD M.NIXON, came from
a poor, deeply religious background In the Watergate scandal, Jaworski’s rise to national prominence almost seemed to parallel Nixon’s descent Watergate is the name given to the scandal that began with the bungled BURGLARY
in June 1972 of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C., by seven employees of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) A lifelong Democrat who twice voted for the Republican Nixon, Jaworski was responsible for bringing to light many damaging facts of the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up, ultimately leading
to the only resignation ever by a U.S president
When Nixon appointed him to the post of special prosecutor on the case November 1,
1973, Jaworski expected to find wrongdoing and possible criminal activity by Nixon’s aides, but the possibility that the president was involved never occurred to him
Jaworski was born in Waco, Texas, on September 19, 1905, to an Austrian mother and a Polish father He was christened Leonidas, after a king of ancient Sparta who courageously gave his life for his beliefs Jaworski’s father, an evangelical minister, instilled in him from an early age a deep and abiding Christian faith and sense of duty By the time he was 14, he was the champion debater at Waco High School He graduated at age sixteen and enrolled in Baylor University After one year of undergraduate work, he was admitted to the law school He graduated at the top of his class in 1925, and became the youngest person ever admitted to the Texas bar
In 1926 Jaworski obtained a master of laws degree from GEORGE WASHINGTON University, in Washington, D.C., and then returned to Waco
to practice Prohibition was at its height, and Jaworski began his career defending moon-shiners and bootleggers His flair in the court-room developed early In one capital MURDER
case, he concealed a stiletto in his pocket
During the trial he whipped it out and tried to hand it to a juror, exhorting the jury to kill the
to the electric chair later In 1931 he joined the Houston firm of Fulbright, Crooker, Freeman, and Bates The firm, eventually known as Fulbright and Jaworski, grew to be one of the
ONE OF THE THINGS THAT THE NEXT GENERATION WILL LEARN FROM WATERGATE IS THAT THEPRESIDENT IS SUBJECT TO THE LAWS HE IS SWORN
TO ADMINISTER HIS POWERS ARE NOT ABSOLUTE
—L EON J AWORSKI JAWORSKI, LEON 19
Trang 3largest in the United States It was the first in Houston to hire black and Jewish staff
Jaworski enlisted in the Army in 1942, and was commissioned as a captain in the JUDGE
the Army One of the first prosecutors of WAR
action against a German civilian mob that stoned to death six U.S airmen, and employees
of a German sanatorium who participated in the “mercy killing” of more than 400 Poles and Russians He was also in charge of the war
crimes investigation of the Dachau concentra-tion camp, which led to proceedings in which all forty defendants were convicted and thirty-six were sentenced to death
The Colonel, as he became known after his Army stint, returned to Houston and quickly became enmeshed in representing bankers and big business.LYNDON B.JOHNSONbecame a client and friend In 1960 Jaworski handled litigation that challenged Johnson’s right to run simulta-neously for the Senate and the vice presidency The case was resolved in Johnson’s favor a few days before his inauguration as VICE PRESIDENT
In 1962 U.S attorney general ROBERT F.KENNEDY
appointed Jaworski special prosecutor in a contempt case against Mississippi governor Ross Barnett The segregationist Barnett had defied a federal order to admit the first black student, JAMES MEREDITH, to the University of Mississippi It was a volatile time of highly unpopular, court-ordered desegregation in the South, and Jaworski endured some vicious criticism by colleagues, clients, and southerners for prosecuting the case Following President John F Kennedy’s ASSASSINATION in Dallas in
1963, Jaworski worked with theWARREN COMMIS-SION, as the Commission investigated Kennedy’s assassination, acting as liaison between Texas agencies and the federal government
In October 1973 Watergate special
Saturday Night Massacre when he tried to force Nixon into supplying tapes pursuant to a
Nixon ordered Attorney GeneralELLIOT RICHARD-SONto fire Cox; Richardson refused because Cox and Congress had received assurances that the special prosecutor would not be fired except for
Leon Jaworski.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
1905 Born,
Waco, Texas
◆
1925 Became youngest person ever admitted to Texas bar
1960 Represented Lyndon Johnson in litigation that challenged his right to run for Senate and vice president simultaneously
1914–18 World War I
1982 Died near Wimberly, Texas
1926 Earned LL.M at George Washington University;
began private practice
1961–73 Vietnam War 1939–45
World War II
1950–53 Korean War
1942–46 Enlisted in U.S Army JAGC
1977 Served as special counsel in the Tongsun Park investigation
1979 Confession and Avoidance published
1963 Joined Warren Commission investigating Kennedy's assassination
1962 Appointed special prosecutor
in case against Miss Gov Ross Barnett
1973–74 Appointed special prosecutor in Watergate investigation
Trang 4gross improprieties Richardson resigned rather
than fire Cox Deputy Attorney General William
Ruckelshaus also resigned after refusing to fire
Cox Nixon’s order was finally carried out by
accept-ed Cox’s vacataccept-ed position, on the condition that
he would not be dismissed except for
extraor-dinary impropriety and that he would have the
right to take the president to court if necessary
His new office was in charge of collecting
evidence, presenting it to the Watergate grand
juries, and directing the prosecution in any
trials resulting from GRAND JURY indictments
His job was separate from, although in many
respects parallel to, that of the House Judiciary
Committee, which was conducting its own
investigation
Jaworski’s integrity was never questioned,
but his appointment was greeted with suspicion
Some felt he was too much in awe of the
presidency to execute the job whatever the
consequences Almost immediately, however,
he began showing his mettle He soon learned
of an eighteen-minute gap on a crucial tape that
had been subpoenaed but had not yet been
turned over to the special prosecutor’s office
The White House wangled for a delay in
informing federal judge John J Sirica of the
apparent erasure Jaworski pushed forward, and
Sirica ordered that all subpoenaed tapes be
turned over within days Shortly thereafter the
tapes were submitted, and Jaworski and his staff
listened in disbelief to one from March 21,
1973, in which the president and White House
counsel John W Dean III discussed BLACKMAIL,
payment of hush money, and PERJURY in
con-nection with the cover-up of Watergate
As Jaworski and his staff sifted through
evidence and presented it to the grand jury,
Jaworski was forced to decide whether a sitting
president could be indicted for offenses for
which the grand jury had heard evidence He
concluded that the Supreme Court might well
find such an action to be unconstitutional, that
the nation would suffer great trauma in the
interim, and that the impeachment inquiry by
the House of Representatives was the
appropri-ate forum for determining whether Nixon
should be removed from office Carefully
wield-ing a prosecutor’s influence with the grand jury,
he convinced the jurors to name Nixon as an
unindicted coconspirator This information was
not to be made public until the trial of the grand
jury’s other indictees At Jaworski’s prompting, and with Judge Sirica’s approval, evidence heard
by the grand jury regarding Nixon’s involvement was forwarded to the House Judiciary Commit-tee and was kept from the public until later
In the spring of 1974, Jaworski subpoenaed
64 more tapes The White House sought to quash the subpoena, and made a desperate attempt to curry public support by releasing edited transcripts of some tapes The White House claimed that as unsettling as the tran-scripts were, they contained no evidence of crime, and that they represented all the relevant tapes possessed by the White House The prosecutors found many important omissions from the transcripts Moreover, the White House claimed that a key tape from June 23, 1972 (six days after the Watergate break-in) was unac-countably missing When Judge Sirica ordered the White House to turn over the subpoenaed tapes, it immediately appealed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Jaworski then had
to decide whether to attempt to bypass the court
of appeals and ask the Supreme Court to review Sirica’s order A special rule permitted such a bypass in cases that required immediate settle-ment in matters of “imperative public impor-tance.” Jaworski’s decision would be crucial because it was unclear whether the Supreme Court would bypass the court of appeals, some-thing it had done only twice since the end of
accept the case, trials against defendants already indicted would be delayed and momentum in the investigation would be lost Jaworski decided
to seek review in the Supreme Court
Jaworski’s gambit paid off The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case On July 24, 1974,
it ruled 8–0, with Justice WILLIAM H REHNQUIST
abstaining, that the special prosecutor had the right and the power to sue the president, and that the president must comply with the subpoena Within days of the ruling, the tapes started trickling in to the special prosecutor’s office, including one of a conversation between President Nixon and H R Haldeman on June
23, 1972 This tape became known as the smoking gun, because it proved decisively that the president not only knew of the Watergate cover-up but also participated in it, only six days after the break-in This was contrary to earlier assertions that President Nixon first learned of the cover-up in March 1973
JAWORSKI, LEON 21
Trang 5On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee passed a first article of impeachment, charging that President Nixon had obstructed justice in attempting to cover up Watergate
Within days the Judiciary Committee passed two more ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT, charging abuse of PRESIDENTIAL POWERS and defiance of subpoenas The committee’s action, in conjunc-tion with Jaworski’s win in the Supreme Court and a concomitant public release of the tapes, finally left Nixon facing almost certain im-peachment On August 9, 1974, he resigned from the presidency
Nixon’s resignation did not end the matter for the special prosecutor Most of Jaworski’s staff pushed hard for an indictment of the former president Public sentiment seemed to favor indictment Jaworski studied the issue, but he considered the problem of getting the president a fair trial to be paramount and almost insurmountable
On September 9, 1974, President GERALD R
FORD pardoned Nixon of all possible federal crimes he may have committed while serving as president The special prosecutor’s office then examined whether the pardon could be attacked
in court, on the ground that it preceded any indictment or conviction Jaworski concluded that Ford was acting within hisCONSTITUTIONAL
powers in granting the pardon He declined to precipitate a court challenge by indicting Nixon after the pardon, as some called for him to do
Jaworski resigned as special prosecutor on October 25, 1974 Watergate prosecutions con-tinued for some time thereafter under a new special prosecutor
In 1977 Jaworski reluctantly agreed to serve
as special counsel to the House Ethics Commit-tee’s investigation to determine whether mem-bers of the House had indirectly or directly accepted anything of value from the govern-ment of the Republic of Korea The investiga-tion, known as Koreagate or the Tongsun Park investigation, potentially involved hundreds of members of Congress and their families and associates, and charges of bribery and influence peddling sought by way of envelopes stuffed with $100 bills Tongsun Park was a central figure in the Korean lobbying scandal, but exactly who he was remains unclear U.S.-educated, at times he may have posed as a South Korean ambassador and may have been employed by the Korean CIA or been an agent
of the Korean government He was found trying
to enter the United States with a list containing the names of dozens of members of Congress including information regarding contributions Jaworski’s work was thwarted by difficulties getting key Korean figures to testify under oath,
as well as the difficulties inherent when a body investigates itself Jaworski was disappointed with the fruits of his labor Only two former members of Congress faced criminal charges, two private citizens were indicted and con-victed, and three members of Congress were reprimanded
Jaworski died of a heart attack at his beloved Circle J Ranch, near Wimberly, Texas, on December 9, 1982, while chopping wood, a favorite pastime Married for fifty-one years,
he had three children and five grandsons
FURTHER READINGS Jaworski, Leon 1979 Confession and Avoidance: A Memoir Garden City, NY: Anchor Press.
——— 1982 Crossroads New York: Bantam.
——— 1979 The Right and the Power: The Prosecution of Watergate New York: Reader’s Digest Press.
Woodward, Bob, and Carl Bernstein 2005 The Final Days New York: Simon & Schuster.
CROSS REFERENCE Nixon, United States v.
vJAY, JOHN John Jay was a politician, statesman, and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court He was one of the authors of The Federalist, a collection of influential papers written with
the ratification of the Constitution
Jay was born in New York City on December
12, 1745 Unlike most of the colonists in the New World, who were English, Jay traced his ancestry to the French Huguenots, His grandfa-ther, August Jay, immigrated to New York in the late seventeenth century to escape the persecution of non-Catholics under Louis XIV Jay graduated from King’s College, now known
as Columbia University, in 1764 He was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1768 One of Jay’s earliest achievements was his participation in the settlement of the boundary line between New York and New Jersey in 1773 During the time preceding the Revolutionary War, Jay actively protested against British treatment of the colonies but did not fully
Trang 6advocate independence until 1776, when the
then supported independence wholeheartedly
He was a member of theCONTINENTAL CONGRESS
from 1774 to 1779, acting as its president from
1778 to 1779
In 1776 Jay was a member of the Provincial
Congress of New York and was instrumental
in the formation of the constitution of that
state From 1776 to 1778 he performed the
duties of New York chief justice
Jay next embarked on a foreign service
career His first appointment was to the post of
minister plenipotentiary to Spain in 1779, where
he succeeded in gaining financial assistance for
the colonies
In 1782 Jay joined BENJAMIN FRANKLIN in
Paris for a series of peace negotiations with
Great Britain In 1784, Jay became secretary of
foreign affairs and performed these duties until
1789 During his term, Jay participated in the
arbitration of various international disputes
Jay recognized the limitations of his powers
in foreign service under the existing
govern-ment of theARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, and this
made him a strong supporter of the
Constitu-tion He publicly displayed his views in the five
papers he composed for The Federalist in 1787
and 1788 Jay argued for ratification of the
Constitution and the creation of a strong federal
government
In 1789, Jay earned the distinction of
becoming the first chief justice of the United
States During his term, which lasted until 1795,
Jay rendered a decision inCHISHOLM V.GEORGIA,
2 U.S (2 Dall.) 419, 1 L.Ed 440 (1793), which
subsequently led to the enactment of the
1793 case involved the ability of inhabitants of one state to sue another state The Supreme Court recognized this right but, in response, Congress passed the Eleventh Amendment denying the right of a state to be prosecuted
or sued by a resident of another state in federal court
During Jay’s tenure on the Supreme Court,
he was again called upon to act in foreign service
In 1794 he negotiated a treaty with Great Britain known as Jay’s Treaty This agreement regulated commerce and navigation and settled many
John Jay.
PAINTING BY STUART GILBERT NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
1745 Born,
New York City
❖
1775–83 American Revolution
1764 Graduated from King's College (now Columbia University)
1768 Admitted
to New York bar
◆
1774 Served in First Continental Congress
1829 Died, Bedford, N.Y.
1778–79 Served as president of Second Continental Congress
1787–88 Wrote
Federalist Papers with
Hamilton and Madison
1798 Eleventh Amendment outlawed suits between states previously
permitted by Chisholm decision
1789–95 Presided as first chief justice of the Supreme Court
1795–1801 Served as governor of New York
1794 Negotiated Jay's Treaty, regulating commerce and navigation with Great Britain
1793 Wrote Chisholm v Georgia decision
JAY, JOHN 23
Trang 7outstanding disputes between the United States and Great Britain The treaty, under which disputes were resolved before an international commission, was the origin of modern inter-national arbitration
In 1795 Jay was elected governor of New York He served two terms, until 1801, at which time he retired He died May 17, 1829
FURTHER READINGS Jay, William 1833 The Life of John Jay: With Selections from His Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers 2 vols.
New York: Harper.
Monaghan, Frank 1935 John Jay: Defender of Liberty New York: Bobbs-Merrill.
Morris, Richard B 1975 John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary New York: Harper & Row.
Morris, Richard B., ed 1985 Witnesses at the Creation:
Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the Constitution New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Pellew, George 2009 John Jay—1898 Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ Library.
Rossiter, Clinton Lawrence 1964 Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Sirvet, Ene, and R.B Bernstein 1996 “Documentary Editing and the Jay Court: Opening New Lines of Inquiry.”
Journal of Supreme Court History 2 (annual).
——— 1996 “John Jay, Judicial Independence, and Advising Coordinate Branches ” Journal of Supreme Court History 2 (annual).
CROSS REFERENCES Constitution of the United States; Federalist Papers; New York Constitution of 1777.
J.D
An abbreviation for Juris Doctor, the degree awarded to an individual upon the successful completion of law school
vJEFFERSON, THOMAS Thomas Jefferson served as an American Revolutionary and political theorist and as the thirdPRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Jefferson, who was a talented architect, writer, and diplo-mat, played a profound role in shaping U.S
government and politics
Jefferson was born April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, in Albemarle County, Virginia His father was a plantation owner and his mother belonged to the Randolph family, whose mem-bers were leaders of colonial Virginia society
Jefferson graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1762, and worked as a surveyor
before studying law withGEORGE WYTHE He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767
His interest in colonial politics led to his election to the Virginia House of Burgesses in
1769 In the legislature he became closely aligned
Francis Lightfoot Lee, all of whom espoused the belief that the British Parliament had no control over the American colonies He helped form the Virginia Committee of Correspondence, which protested legislation imposed on the colonies by Great Britain
In 1774 Jefferson wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America, a pamphlet that denied the power of Parliament in the colonies and stated that any loyalty to England and the king was to be given by choice He attended the Second CONTINENTAL CONGRESS in 1775 and drafted the Reply to Lord North, in which Congress rejected the British prime minister’s proposal that Parliament would not tax the colonists if they agreed to tax themselves After the Revolutionary War began, Jeffer-son and four others were asked to draft a
wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, which stated the arguments justifying the posi-tion of the American Revoluposi-tionaries It also affirmed the natural rights of all people and affirmed the right of the colonists to“dissolve the political bands” with the British government Jefferson served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1776 to 1779 and became governor of Virginia in 1779 He was responsi-ble for many changes in Virginia law, including
end to entail (inheritance of land through a particular line of descent) and PRIMOGENITURE
(inheritance only by the eldest son) Jefferson also disestablished the Anglican Church as the state-endorsed RELIGION Jefferson’s term as governor expired in 1781, the same year the British invaded Virginia He was at first blamed for the state’s lack of resistance but later cleared after an official investigation
From 1783 to 1784 he was a member of the Continental Congress, where he contributed
a monetary program, and secured approval of
Revolu-tionary War As a member of that congress he also drafted a decree for a system of government for the Northwest Territory, which lay west of the Appalachian Mountains This decree was
ADISTINCTIVE
CHARACTER OF THE
NATIONAL
GOVERNMENT,THE
MARK OF ITS
LEGITIMACY,IS THAT
IT OWES ITS
EXISTENCE TO THE
ACT OF THE WHOLE
PEOPLE WHO
CREATED IT
—J OHN J AY
Trang 8later incorporated into theNORTHWEST ORDINANCE
of 1787
Jefferson served as minister to France from
1784 to 1789 In 1790 he reentered politics as
secretary of state in the cabinet of President
embroiled in conflict withALEXANDER HAMILTON,
the secretary of the treasury Jefferson did not
share Hamilton’s Federalist views, which he
believed favored the interests of business and
the upper class Jefferson, a proponent of
agri-cultural interests, disliked the Federalist’s desire
to expand the power of the federal government
The chief dispute between them was over
approved of and Jefferson attacked as
unconsti-tutional Hamilton won the issue, and Jefferson
and his supporters began to form a group
known as Republicans, which evolved into the
currentDEMOCRATIC PARTY In 1791 editor Philip
M Freneau published Republican views in the
National Gazette, which increased the agitation
between Jefferson and Hamilton Jefferson
resigned his position in 1793
After JOHN ADAMS was elected president in
1796, Jefferson served as hisVICE PRESIDENT and
presiding officer in the Senate In 1798 he
opposed Congress’s adoption of the ALIEN AND
for the deportation or imprisonment of any
citizen or alien judged dangerous to the U.S
government As a result Jefferson and JAMES
which denounced the constitutionality of these
acts These resolutions, which were adopted by
the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures, declared
that the federal government could not extend its
powers over the states unless the Constitution expressly granted authority The resolutions were the first affirmation of states’ rights and were central to Jefferson’s belief that state and local governments were the most democratic political institutions
The presidential election in 1800 ended in
a tie between Jefferson and AARON BURR The House of Representatives decided the election
Hamilton, who despised Burr even more than Jefferson, lobbied the Federalists in the House
Thomas Jefferson LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
1743 Born,
Shadwell, Va.
❖
1775–83 American Revolution
1762 Graduated from the College
of William and Mary
◆
1769 Elected
to Va House
of Burgesses
1826 Died, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Va.
1775 Attended the Second Continental Congress
1779–81 Served as governor
of Va.
1797–1801 Served as vice president under John Adams
1776 Wrote Declaration of Independence;
elected to Virginia House of Delegates 1819
Helped found the University
of Virginia;
designed the original campus
1790–93 Served as secretary of state under Washington
◆◆
1784–89 Served as minister to France
1801–09 Served as third president of the United States
1803 Approved Louisiana Purchase from France;
Supreme Court decided
Marbury v Madison
1812–14 War of 1812 JEFFERSON, THOMAS 25
Trang 9to elect Jefferson Jefferson won the election and became the first president to be sworn into office in Washington, D.C
As president, Jefferson reduced spending and appointed Republicans to assume former Federalist positions He made a lasting contri-bution to legislative procedure when he com-posed in 1801 A Manual of Parliamentary Practice, which is still used in the early twenty-first century He approved the LOUISIANA
Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the West from 1803 to 1806 He supported the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, which would have created federal courts of appeals and would have encouraged appeals from state courts
Jefferson also expressed concern about the decision in MARBURY V MADISON, 5 U.S 137,
2 L Ed 60 (1803), which declared that the Supreme Court could review the constitution-ality of acts of Congress The concept ofJUDICIAL
Constitu-tion, expanded the power of the judiciary
Jefferson and the Republicans worried that Federalist-appointed judges would use judicial review to strike down Republican legislation
After he was reelected in 1805, Jefferson encountered the problem of attacks on indepen-dent U.S ships by England and France, which were engaged in war To discourage these attacks, Congress passed the Nonimportation Act of
1806 (2 Stat 315), forbidding the importation of British goods, and theEMBARGO ACT of 1807 (2 Stat 451), prohibiting the exportation of U.S
goods to England and France These measures proved to be detrimental to U.S commerce
After the end of his second presidential term, Jefferson retired to his estate, Monticello He served as president of the American Philosophi-cal Society from 1797 to 1815 and helped found the University of Virginia in 1819
Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, published in 1784 and 1785, remain an impor-tant historical resource Written to a French correspondent, the book contains social, poli-tical, and economic reflections that show Jefferson to be a person committed to rational thought The book also reveals that Jefferson,
a slaveholder, believed that African Americans were inferior to whites Throughout his life Jefferson defended the institution of SLAVERY, casting a cloud over his professed belief in human dignity
Jefferson died July 4, 1826, at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia
FURTHER READINGS Bernstein, R.B 2003 “Wrestling with Jefferson: The Struggles of a Biographer ” New York Law School Review 46.
Bernstein, R.B 2005 Thomas Jefferson New York: Oxford Univ Press.
Dougherty, Richard J 2001 “Thomas Jefferson and the Rule of Law: Executive Power and American Constitu-tionalism ” Northern Kentucky Law Review 28, no 3 (summer).
Reiss, David 2002 “Jefferson and Madison as Icons in Judicial History: A Study of Religion Clause Jurispru-dence ” Maryland Law Review 6 (winter).
Schwartz, Bernard, with Barbara Wilcie Kern and R B Bernstein 1997 “Thomas Jefferson and Bolling v Bolling: Law and the Legal Profession in Pre-Revolutionary America ” San Marino, CA: Huntington Library CROSS REFERENCE
Marshall, John.
JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICAN PARTY See DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY
JEOPARDY Danger; hazard; peril In a criminal action, the danger of conviction and punishment confronting the defendant
A person is in jeopardy when he or she is placed on trial before a court of competent jurisdiction upon an indictment or information sufficient in form and substance to uphold a conviction, and a jury is charged or sworn Jeopardy attaches after a valid indictment is found and a PETIT JURYis sworn to try the case
CROSS REFERENCE Double Jeopardy.
JETSAM The casting overboard of goods from a vessel, by its owner, under exigent circumstances in order
to provide for the safety of the ship by lightening its cargo load
JIM CROW LAWS The Jim Crow Laws emerged in southern states after theU.S.CIVIL WAR First enacted in the 1880s
by lawmakers who were bitter about their loss
to the North and the end ofSLAVERY, the statutes separated the races in all walks of life The resulting legislative barrier to equal rights
THAT GOVERNMENT
IS THE STRONGEST OF
WHICH EVERY MAN
HIMSELF FEELS
A PART
—T HOMAS J EFFERSON
Trang 10created a system that favored whites and
repressed blacks, an institutionalized form of
inequality that grew in subsequent decades with
help from the U.S Supreme Court Although
the laws came under attack over the next half
century, real progress against them did not
begin until the Court began to dismantle
segregation in the 1950s The remnants of
the Jim Crow system were finally abolished in
the 1960s through the efforts of theCIVIL RIGHTS
The term “Jim Crow” laws evidently
ori-ginated from a minstrel show character
devel-oped during the mid-nineteenth century A
number of groups of white entertainers applied
black cork to their faces and imitated
Negro dancing and singing routines Such acts
became popular in several northern cities One
of the performers reportedly sang a song with
the lyrics,“Weel about and turn about and do
jis so, Eb’ry time I weel about I jump Jim
Crow.” The moniker Jim Crow later became
synonymous with the segregation laws
The origins of Jim Crow lie in the battered
South of the mid-nineteenth century The Civil
War had ended, but its antagonisms had not;
the war of values and political identity
contin-ued Many whites refused to welcome blacks
into civic life, believing them to be inferior and
resenting northern demands in the era of
Reconstruction, especially the requirement that
southern states ratify theTHIRTEENTH AMENDMENT,
which would abolish slavery Southern states
initially resisted by passing so-calledBLACK CODES,
which prohibited former slaves from carrying
firearms or joining militias More hostility
followed when Congress enacted theCIVIL RIGHTS
Act of 1875 (18 Stat 335), which guaranteed
blacks access to public facilities As the federal
government pressed the South to enfranchise
blacks, a backlash developed in the form of state
regulations that separated whites from blacks in
public facilities
In the late nineteenth century, southern
states took comfort from two U.S Supreme
Court decisions First, in 1883, the Court struck
down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as
unconsti-tutional, in the so-called CIVIL RIGHTS CASES, 109
U.S 3, 3 S Ct 18, 27 L Ed 835 It ruled that
Congress had exceeded its powers under the
Reconstruction amendments This decision
encouraged southern states to extend Jim Crow
restrictions, as in an 1890 Louisiana statute that
required white and “colored” persons to be furnished“separate but equal” accommodations
on railway passenger cars In fact, that law came under attack in the Court’s next significant decision, the 1896 case ofPLESSY V.FERGUSON, 163 U.S 537, 16 S Ct 1138, 41 L Ed 256 In Plessy, the Court upheld the Louisiana law, ruling that establishing separate-but-equal public accom-modations and facilities was a reasonable exercise of thePOLICE POWERof a state to promote the public good Plessy kept the principle of
SEPARATE BUT EQUALalive for the next 60 years
By the start of WORLD WAR I, every southern state had passed Jim Crow laws Becoming entrenched over the next few decades, the laws permeated nearly every part of public life, including railroads, hotels, hospitals, restau-rants, neighborhoods, and even cemeteries
Whites had their facilities; blacks had theirs
The white facilities were better built and equipped In particular, white schools were almost uniformly better in every respect, from buildings to educational materials States saw to
it that their black citizens were essentially powerless to overturn these laws, using poll taxes and literacy tests to deny them the right to vote
Jim Crow even extended to the federal govern-ment: Early in the twentieth century, discrimi-natory policies were rife throughout federal departments, and not until the KOREAN WAR
(1950–53) did the armed forces stop segregating personnel into black and white units
Opposition to the policy of Jim Crow came chiefly from African Americans Early leader-ship was provided by the Afro-American
In the southern states, Jim Crow laws permeated nearly every part of public life Dr Charles
N Atkins and family stand outside the Santa Fe Depot waiting rooms in Oklahoma City
in 1955.
AP IMAGES JIM CROW LAWS 27