His actions shaped the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, leading to Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhu-gashvili on December 21, 1879, in Gori, now in th
Trang 1area Such a practice can clash with a commu-nity’s established plan for land use
Spot zoning is usually invalid because it amounts to an arbitrary, capricious, and unrea-sonable treatment of a limited area within a particular district and is, therefore, a deviation from the comprehensive zoning plan
FURTHER READING Salkin, Patricia E 2009 American Law of Zoning 5th ed.
St Paul, Minn.: West.
CROSS REFERENCES Land-Use Control; Zoning.
SPOUSAL ABUSE SeeDOMESTIC VIOLENCE
SQUATTER
An individual who settles on the land of another person without any legal authority to do so, or without acquiring a legal title
In the past, the term squatter specifically applied to an individual who settled on public land Currently it is used interchangeably with intruder and trespasser Yet a squatter, or a person who enters premises without permission and has been in occupancy for at least 30 days, has a somewhat more murky status For example, New York law RPAPL § 713(3) authorizes summary EVICTION proceedings against squatters A squatter is defined as an occupant of the premises who intruded into (or “squatted upon”) the premises without the permission of either the owner, her or his predecessors in title, or someone else entitled to possession Robbins v De Lee, 34 A.D.2d 870,
310 N.Y.S.2d 804 (3d Dep’t 1970)
SS
An abbreviation used in the portion of an affidavit, pleading, or record known as the statement of venue
The abbreviation is read as “to wit” and is intended to be a contraction of the Latin term scilicet
In a caption at the top of a court filing, for example, the abbreviation tends to be used in the following format:“STATE OF ILLINOIS SS
COUNTY OF CHAMPAIGN.” This very stan-dard and straightforward notation, in this instance, would mean that a matter is before a state court in Illinois and, more particularly,
that the local subdivision is the County of Champaign, which is where the courthouse is located
vST CLAIR, JAMES DRAPER James Draper St Clair was a distinguished attorney who attained national prominence in
1974 as special counsel to PresidentRICHARD M
counsel, St Clair defended Nixon before the U.S House of Representatives Judiciary Com-mittee during its IMPEACHMENThearings against the president and argued before the U.S Supreme Court that Nixon did not have to turn over his secretly recorded White House tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor
St Clair was born on April 14, 1920, in Akron, Ohio He graduated from the University of Illinois
in 1941 and served in the U.S Navy duringWORLD
Harvard Law School, graduating in 1947 He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar that year and began work at Hale and Dorr, the most prominent law firm in Boston St Clair remained with the firm during his entire legal career
A skilled litigator, St Clair assistedJOSEPH N
at the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954 These hearings marked a turning point in Senator Joseph R McCarthy’s four-year quest to expose supposed Communist subversion in the federal government Welch, representing the U.S Army, skillfully rebuffed McCarthy’s charges during the televised hearings
St Clair returned to Washington, D.C., and political controversy in 1974, when Congress and a special criminal prosecutor moved aggres-sively to obtain information on Nixon’s role
in the Watergate scandal By early 1973, the botched 1972 BURGLARY of the Democratic Na-tional Committee’s offices in the Watergate building complex in Washington had been linked
to members of Nixon’s campaign and White House staff The revelation in the summer of 1973 that Nixon had secretly recorded all conversa-tions in the Oval Office led to demands by special prosecutorARCHIBALD COXthat Nixon surrender the tapes Nixon refused, firing Cox Cox’s repla-cement,LEON JAWORSKI, renewed the demand Nixon then hired St Clair to argue against disclosure of the tapes and to prevent the House
of Representatives from voting impeachment
318 SPOUSAL ABUSE
Trang 2charges against the president In the Judiciary
Committee proceedings, St Clair was permitted
to hear the evidence, question witnesses, and
present a defense He argued that Nixon could
be impeached only on hard proof that the
president had committed serious criminal acts
Most committee members believed that a
president might also be impeached for
wrong-doing that was not strictly criminal In July
1974, the committee approved impeachment
resolutions that charged Nixon with assisting in
the Watergate cover-up, abusing his powers,
and failing to honor committee subpoenas for
the White House tapes
As to the question of producing evidence,
St Clair argued that the doctrine of EXECUTIVE
tapes In UNITED STATES V NIXON, 418 U.S 683,
94 S Ct 3090, 41 L Ed 2d 1039 (1974), the
Supreme Court ruled that the EXECUTIVE BRANCH
was entitled to a presumptive, qualified privilege
against disclosure of presidential
communica-tions, but that the privilege was overcome by the
prosecutor’s need for disclosure of those
com-munications
Shortly after the Supreme Court decision, St
Clair learned that one of the 64 tapes in question
included a conversation between Nixon and his
chief of staff, H R (Harry Robbins) Haldeman,
in which Nixon sought to stop theFEDERAL BUREAU
Water-gate burglary The conversation, which took
place a few days after the 1972 burglary, was the
so-called smoking gun that proved Nixon had
obstructed justice St Clair insisted that Nixon
publish the tape After its disclosure, Nixon’s
political support vanished He resigned on
August 9, 1974, rather than face certain impeachment and removal from office
Following the Nixon debacle, St Clair returned to Boston, where he continued to practice law at Hale and Dorr for another decade before retiring He also was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and remained active in many civic and philanthropic organizations In the early 1990s, St Clair was again at the center
of controversy when he was asked by Mayor Raymond L Flynn to investigate Boston Police Department practices
St Clair died at the age of 80 in Westwood, Massachusetts, on March 10, 2001 After his death, the Boston Bar Foundation renamed
James Draper St Clair.
AP IMAGES
James Draper St Clair 1920–2001
❖
1961–73 Vietnam War
◆
1950–53 Korean War 1939–45
World War II
1920 Born,
Akron, Ohio
1969–74 Richard Nixon served as U.S president
1941 Graduated from University
of Illinois
1947 Graduated from Harvard University Law
School; joined Hale and Dorr in Boston
1954 Assisted Joseph Welch as counsel for the Army in the Army-McCarthy hearings
1956 Made senior partner at Hale and Dorr
1963–73 Served on the Town Meeting in Wellesley, Mass.
1974 Served as special counsel for Nixon during the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings; Nixon resigned
1985–94 Served
as president of Horizons for Youth, a nonprofit group dedicated to the needs of underprivileged children
1995 Retired from law practice at Hale and Dorr
2001 Died, Westwood, Mass.
[THESUPREME
COURT]HAS THE OBLIGATION TO DETERMINE THE LAW
[REGARDING EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE] THE
PRESIDENT ALSO HAS
AN OBLIGATION TO CARRY OUT HIS CONSTITUTIONAL DUTIES
—J AMES D RAPER S T
C LAIR
Trang 3their Federal Court Public Education Project the James D St Clair Court Education Project
The purpose of the program is to educate the general population, especially young people, about the workings of the justice system in the United States
FURTHER READINGS The James D St Clair Court Education Project Available online at www.discoveringjustice.org (accessed March
15, 2010).
STALE CHECK
A document that is a promise to pay money that
is held for too long a period of time before being presented for payment
A check is considered to be stale when it is outstanding for a period of six months or more
A bank is not obligated to pay a stale check
CROSS REFERENCE Commercial Paper.
STALIN, JOSEPH Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union and the Communist party from 1929 to 1953
He used ruthless methods to consolidate his power and ruled the Soviet Union by terror His actions shaped the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, leading to
Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhu-gashvili on December 21, 1879, in Gori, now in the Republic of Georgia He adopted the name Stalin, meaning “man of steel,” in 1910 The son of peasants, his academic prowess led to
a scholarship at a theological seminary While studying for the priesthood, he began reading the works of KARL MARX He soon left the seminary and joined the Social-Democratic party
in 1899 His revolutionary activities led to his arrest and exile to Siberia seven times between
1902 and 1913 He escaped six times
He aligned himself with the Bolshevik faction
of the party, which was under the leadership of
Bolshevik’s Central Committee in 1912 and in
1913 named him editor of the party newspaper, Pravda He spent from 1913 until early 1917 in Siberian exile, returning to St Petersburg to aid the Bolsheviks in overthrowing first the monar-chy and then the provisional government
The November 1917 Bolshevik revolution put
Lenin in charge Stalin became a top aid to Lenin and helped the regime in winning a civil war against those who opposed the Bolsheviks
In the early 1920s, Stalin began plotting
to gain power Before Lenin died in 1924, he expressed misgivings about Stalin’s use of power Nevertheless, Stalin joined in a three-man leadership group, called a troika, to govern the Soviet Union after Lenin’s death He quickly pushed aside all his rivals, including Leon Trotsky, and became the supreme ruler by 1929 During the 1930s Stalin collectivized all private farms in the Soviet Union and in the process sent a million farmers into exile He embarked on a process of“russification,” which put minority nationalities under strict control of the national government In 1939, in concert with the Nazi government ofADOLF HITLER, Stalin invaded eastern Poland In 1940 he conquered the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Stalin also encouraged the growth of COMMU-NISM throughout the world The Communist party of the United States grew rapidly during the Great Depression of the 1930s, in the process raising questions whether the party was a mere tool of Stalin and the international Communist movement As a result of concerns about Com-munist subversion, Congress enacted the SMITH ACT (54 Stat 670) in 1940 The legislation requiredALIENSto register and be fingerprinted
by the federal government More importantly, the act made it illegal not only to conspire to overthrow the government but to advocate or conspire to advocate its overthrow The U.S Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the act in Dennis v United States, 341 U.S 494,
71 S Ct 857, 95 L Ed 1137 (1951)
Stalin’s 1939 nonaggression pact with Hitler proved futile: Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
in 1941 Stalin then aligned the Soviet Union with the United States and Great Britain in World War II When the war in Europe ended
in 1945, the Soviet Army occupied Eastern Europe and a large part of Germany Stalin ignored agreements between the Allies and proceeded to impose Communist rule on these occupied countries
The United States and Great Britain per-ceived Stalin’s actions as attempts to force Communism on the world In the late 1940s, the Soviet Union was captioned by the United
320 STALE CHECK
Trang 4States as the Red Menace, seeking to subvert
democracy and capitalism Stalin pushed the
United States to the brink of a third world war
when he ordered the blockade of Berlin in 1948
and 1949
Fears about Communism were further
stirred by the arrest ofJULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBERG
in 1950 for providing the Soviet Union with
secrets about the atomic bomb To many people,
the Rosenbergs were tools of Stalin and the
Communist conspiracy Other people, however,
saw them as victims of political hysteria The
Rosenbergs were executed in 1953, yet several
generations of historians have argued over their
guilt or innocence
Stalin’s hard-line policies were met in kind
by the West In 1949 the United States created
committed U.S forces to the defense of Europe
The outbreak of theKOREAN WARin 1950, which
was started by Communists in North Korea, led
to the deployment of U.S troops to stave off
Communist aggression Stalin’s determination
to expand Soviet power and influence created
the climate for the Cold War The United States
practiced a policy of containment, with the goal
of preventing the spread of Communism
In his later years, Stalin literally rewrote the
Soviet history books, turning himself into a
heroic, godlike figure Those who opposed him
were exiled to Siberian labor camps or executed
Always suspicious of those around him, in 1953
he prepared to purge more party leaders His
plans were cut short, however, when he suffered
a brain hemorrhage and died on March 5, 1953,
in Moscow
Stalin’s methods were replicated by later
Soviet leaders The demise of European
Com-munist regimes in the 1980s and the collapse of
the Soviet Union in the 1990s signaled an end
to Stalinism
FURTHER READINGS
Gorlizki, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk 2003 Cold Peace:
Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945-1953 New
York: Oxford Univ Press.
Lee, Stephen J 1999 Stalin and the Soviet Union New York:
Routledge.
Mawdsley, Evan 2003 The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union
1929–1953 Manchester, N.Y.: Manchester Univ Press.
CROSS REFERENCES
Communism; Red Scare.
STALKING Criminal activity consisting of the repeated fol-lowing and harassing of another person
Stalking is a distinctive form of criminal activity composed of a series of actions that taken individually might constitute legal behavior
For example, sending flowers, writing love notes, and waiting for someone outside her place of work are actions that, on their own, are not criminal
When these actions are coupled with an intent to instill fear or injury, however, they may constitute
a pattern of behavior that is illegal Though anti-stalking laws are gender neutral, most stalkers are men and most victims are women
Stalking first attracted widespread public concern when a young actress named Rebecca Shaeffer, who was living in California, was shot
to death by an obsessed fan who had stalked her for two years The case drew extensive media coverage and revealed how widespread a problem stalking was to both celebrity and noncelebrity victims Until the enactment of anti-stalking laws, police had little power to arrest someone who behaved in a threatening but legal way Even when the suspect had followed his victim, sent her hate mail, or behaved in a threatening manner, the police were without legal recourse Law enforcement could not take action until the suspect acted on his threats and assaulted or injured the victim
In general, stalking victims are women from all walks of life Some are trying to end a
Joseph Stalin expanded the influence of the Soviet Union following World War II by refusing to withdraw Soviet forces from much of Germany and Eastern Europe.
AP IMAGES STALKING 321
Trang 5relationship with a man, often one who has been abusive The persons involved may be married or divorced or may have been sexual partners In other cases the stalker and the victim may know one another casually or be associated in an informal or formal way For example, they may have had one or two dates or talked briefly but were not sexual partners, or they may be coworkers or former coworkers
In a small number of situations, the stalker and the victim do not know one another Cases involving celebrities and other public figures usually fall into this category
Advocates of battered women have esti-mated that up to 80 percent of stalking cases occur in a domestic context, though there is little data on how many stalkers and victims are former intimates, how many murdered women were stalked beforehand, or how many stalking incidents overlap withDOMESTIC VIOLENCE Accord-ing to estimates provided by the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, more than one million women and approximately 350,000 men are victims of stalkers each year
Research also indicates that teenagers are subjected to stalking and that they have difficulty extricating themselves from such situations
Stalkers may include a high school classmate
or an older man with whom a teenager has developed a relationship When a teenage stalker
is involved, the victim may have difficulty convincing law enforcement and school officials that the behavior is more than adolescent“boys will be boys” conduct
The motivations for stalking are many They include the desire for contact and control, obsession, jealousy, and anger and stem from the real or imagined relationship between the victim and the stalker The stalker may feel intense attraction or extreme hatred Many stalkers stop their activity when confronted by police intervention, but some do not The more troublesome stalker may exhibit a personality disorder, such as obsessive-compulsive behavior, which leads him to devote an inordinate amount
of time to writing notes and letters to the intended target, tracking the victim’s movements, or traveling in an attempt to achieve an encounter The potentially dangerous consequences and the terrifying helplessness victims experi-enced led to calls for legislation criminalizing stalking California enacted the first anti-stalking law in 1990 Eventually, all 50 states and the District of Columbia passed legislation
ILLUSTRATION BY GGS
CREATIVE RESOURCES.
REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION OF GALE, A
PART OF CENGAGE
LEARNING.
Activities Engaged in by Stalkers in 2008
66.2%
30.6%
34.3%
12.2%
24.2%
21.0%
15.0%
Attacked victim's pet or person
other than victim Attacked victim Vandalized property Left unwanted presents Followed or spied on victim Sent unwanted letters or e-mail Made unwanted phone calls
Percentage of cases a
Total number of victims: 3,424,100
a Sum of percentages exceeds 100 because the questions allowed multiple responses.
2009.
322 STALKING
Trang 6that addresses the problem of stalking Initially
these laws varied widely, containing provisions
that made the laws virtually unenforceable due
to ambiguities and the dual requirements to
show specific criminal intent and a credible
threat Many states have amended these stalking
statutes to broaden definitions, refine wording,
stiffen penalties, and emphasize the suspect’s
pattern of activity
In most states, to charge and convict a
defendant of stalking, several elements must be
proved BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT These
ele-ments include a course of conduct or behavior,
the presence of threats, and the criminal intent
to cause fear in the victim
A course of conduct is a series of acts that,
viewed collectively, present a pattern of
behav-ior Some states stipulate the requisite number
of acts, with several requiring the stalker to
commit two or more acts States designate as
stalking a variety of acts, ranging from
specifi-cally defined actions, such as nonconsensual
communication or lying in wait, to more
general types of action, such as harassment
Most states require that the stalker pose a
threat or act in a way that causes a reasonable
person to feel fearful The threat does not have
to be written or verbal to instill fear For
example, a stalker can convey a threat by sending
the victim black roses, forming his hand into a
gun and pointing it at her, or delivering a dead
animal to her doorstep
To be convicted of stalking in most states,
the stalker must display a criminal intent to
cause fear in the victim Various statutes require
the conduct of the stalker to be “willful,”
“purposeful,” “intentional,” or “knowing.” Many
states do not require proof that the defendant
intended to cause fear as long as he intended to
commit the act that resulted in fear In these
states, if the victim is reasonably frightened by
the alleged perpetrator’s conduct, the intent
element of the crime has been met
Defendants have challenged the
constitu-tionality of anti-stalking statutes in many states
They alleged that the laws are so vague that they
violate DUE PROCESS OF LAWor are so broad that
they infringe upon constitutionally protected
speech or activity Generally the courts have
rejected these arguments and have upheld the
anti-stalking laws
Once a stalker is arrested, the prosecutor
will ask the court to impose strict pretrial
release conditions requiring the defendant to stay away from the victim Violation of these conditions can lead to the revocation of bail and enhanced penalties at sentencing
Before a stalker is arrested, a victim may obtain a civil protection, or restraining, order that directs the defendant not to contact or come within the vicinity of the victim If the defendant violates the protection order, a court may hold him in CONTEMPT, impose fines, or incarcerate him, depending on state law In some states a stalking penalty is enhanced if the stalker violates a protective order
Protective orders can serve as the first formal means of intervening in a stalking situation The order puts the stalker on notice that his behavior is unwanted and that if his behavior continues, police can take more severe action However, enforcement of a protection order has proved difficult, leaving the victim with not much more than a legal document
to try to restrain a violent stalker
Many states have both misdemeanor and felony classifications for stalking Misdemeanors generally carry a jail sentence of up to one year
Felony sentences range from three to five years, with the ability to enhance the penalty if one or more elements are present For example, if the defendant brandished a gun, violated a protec-tive order, committed a previous stalking offense,
or directed his conduct toward a child, the sentence may be increased In some states repeat offenses can result in incarceration for
as long as ten years
At the federal level, a number of statutes have been enacted to protect victims of stalkers
These include the Full Faith and Protection provisions of the VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT
(18 U.S.C.A § 2265–2266 [2000]), which mandate nationwide enforcement of orders of protection, including harassment and stalking, and the Interstate Stalking Act (18 U.S.C.A
§ 2261A [1996]), which makes it a criminal offense to travel across state lines to stalk another person The act also makes it a crime to stalk a person across state lines using mail,
E-MAIL, or theINTERNET Such crimes are punish-able from five years to life in prison
Despite the nationwide awareness of stalking and the response of the criminal justice system, many women do not report these crimes to police Failure to report stalking may be based
on the private nature of the events and the belief
STALKING 323
Trang 7that no purpose would be served by reporting the crime Police departments and prosecutors have been criticized for continuing to minimize the seriousness of stalking and failing to provide adequate protection for victims In addition, critics have claimed that courts are too lenient
in sentencing stalkers
RESOURCES Davis, Joseph A., ed 2001 Stalking Crimes and Victim Protection: Prevention, Intervention, Threat Assessment, and Case Management Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Dennison, Susan M., and Donald M Thomson 2002.
“Identifying Stalking: The Relevance of Intent in Commonsense Reasoning ” Law and Human Behavior
26 (October).
Justice Department, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice 1996 “Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Antistalking Legislation ” April 1996 Available online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/
160943.htm; website home page: http://www.ojp.
usdoj.gov (accessed August 26, 2009).
Lamplugh, Diana, and Paul Infield 2002 “Harmonising Anti-Stalking Laws ” George Washington International Law Review 34 (winter).
Miller, Neal, and Hugh Nugent 2002 Stalking Laws and Implementation Practices: A National Review for Policy-makers and Practioners (Executive Summary) Alexan-dria, Va.: Institute for Law and Justice Available online
at http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/ilj_stalk/
iljexecsummary.pdf; website home page: http://www.
mincava.umn.edu (accessed August 26, 2009).
CROSS REFERENCE Victims ’ Rights.
STAMP ACT The Stamp Act was the English act of 1765 requiring that revenue stamps be affixed to all official documents in the American colonies In
1765 the British Parliament, under the leader-ship of Prime Minister George Grenville, passed the Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the American colonies The revenue measure was intended to help pay the debt incurred by the British in fighting the French and Indian War (1754–63) and to pay for the continuing defense of the colonies Unexpectedly and to Parliament’s great surprise, the Stamp Act ignited colonial opposi-tion and outrage, leading to the first concerted effort by the colonists to resist Parliament and British authority Though the act was repealed the following year, the events surrounding the tax protest became the first steps towards revolution and independence from England
By the mid-eighteenth century, the econo-mies of the American colonies had matured
The colonies chafed under the rules of British mercantilism, which sought to exploit the colonies as a source of raw materials and a market for the mother country During the French and Indian War, the colonies asserted their economic independence by trading with the enemy, flagrantly defying customs laws, and evading trade regulations These actions con-vinced the British government to bring the colonies into proper subordination and to use them as a source of revenue
The colonists had become accustomed to a limited degree of British regulation of trade The Navigation Acts of 1660, for example, stipulated that no goods or commodities could be imported into or exported out of any British colony except
in British ships Later legislation stipulated that rice, molasses, beaver skins, furs, and naval stores could be shipped only to England Duties were also imposed on the shipment of certain articles, such as rum and spirits However, the Stamp Act was the first direct tax, a tax on domestically produced and consumed items, that Parliament ever levied upon the colonists
The Stamp Act was designed to raise almost one-third of the revenue to support the military establishment permanently stationed in the colonies at the end of the French and Indian War The act placed a tax on newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets and broadsides, legal docu-ments of all kinds, insurance policies, ship’s papers, licenses, and even playing cards and dice These documents and objects had to carry
a tax stamp The act was to be enforced by stamp agents, with penalties for violating the act to
be imposed by vice-admiralty courts, which sat without juries
Parliament passed the act without debate Similar stamp acts had become an accepted part
of raising revenues in England, leading parlia-mentary leaders to mistakenly believe that the measure would generate some grumbling but not defiance The colonies thought otherwise, interpreting the Stamp Act as a deliberate at-tempt to undercut their commercial strength and independence They were also concerned about the implicit assault on their rights to trial
by jury, the unprecedented use of a direct tax as
a means of raising imperial revenue, and the all-inclusive character of the law that applied to all
13 colonies
The colonists raised the issue of taxation without representation Some colonists drew a
324 STAMP ACT
Trang 8distinction between the English regulation of
trade, which was viewed as legal, and the English
imposition of internal taxes on the colonies,
which was perceived to be illegal Theories and
arguments against the Stamp Act were
distrib-uted from assembly to assembly in the form of
“circulars.” PATRICK HENRY introduced seven
resolutions against the Stamp Act in the
Virginia House of Burgesses, five of which were
passed All seven resolutions were reprinted in
newspapers such as the Virginia Resolves These
and other pamphlets pressed Parliament to
repeal the act
In October 1765 nine of the 13 colonies sent
delegates to New York to attend the Stamp Act
Congress The congress issued a“Declaration of
Rights and Grievances,” declaring that English
subjects in the colonies had the same “rights
and liberties” as the king’s subjects in England
The congress, noting that the colonies were not
represented in Parliament, concluded that no
taxes could be constitutionally imposed on them
except by their own legislatures Petitions
em-bracing these resolutions were prepared for
submission to the king, the House of Commons,
and the House of Lords
The Stamp Act also led to the formation of
formal opposition groups in the colonies The
Sons of Liberty, which remained active until
the American Revolution, grew directly out of
the Stamp Act controversy Often organized by
men of wealth and standing in the community,
Sons of Liberty groups were active in towns
throughout the colonies, and their members
often engaged in violent acts In Boston, for
example, an angry mob forced the stamp agent
to resign
Colonial merchants also organized an
effec-tive economic boycott, with merchants in New
York, Boston, and Philadelphia entering into
nonimportation agreements The drop in trade
was dramatic, leading to theBANKRUPTCYof some
London merchants In addition, businesses
flouted the act by carrying on their trade
without purchasing the required stamps
The virulence of the opposition to the
Stamp Act surprised the colonists as much as
the British government The costs of simply
maintaining order in the colonies threatened to
negate any economic advantages of the
legisla-tion.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, as the colonial agent for
Pennsylvania, testified before the House of
Commons in early 1766 that any attempt to
enforce the Stamp Act by the use of troops might bring on rebellion His call for repeal was joined by a committee of English merchants, which cited the dire economic consequences the act was producing When Grenville’s govern-ment fell from power, the new prime minister, Marquis of Rockingham, moved quickly to resolve the issue In February 1766 the repeal of the Stamp Act was approved by the House of Commons The House of Lords, under pressure from the king, approved the repeal as well, which became effective in May 1766 Neverthe-less, in the Declaratory Act of March 1766, Parliament ominously asserted that it had full authority to make laws that were legally binding
on the colonies
England’s need for revenue and Parlia-ment’s conviction that it alone, in the empire, was sovereign did not end with the repeal of the Stamp Act New and harsher laws were enacted in succeeding years, producing a pre-dictable reaction from the colonies The full significance of the Stamp Act crisis is that it served as the initial event unifying all the colonies
in their resistance to parliamentary authority
The opponents to the act laid a theoretical foundation for later revolutionary thought in their elaboration of the doctrine of consent by the governed The act led to the creation of enduring resistance groups, such as the Sons of Liberty, which were capable of springing into
Colonists protest the Stamp Act of 1765 by burning Stamp Act papers in Boston LIBRARY OF CONGRESS STAMP ACT 325
Trang 9action at the least provocation And it estab-lished precedents for later resistance, including the use of a congress, the issuance of circulars, the resort to legislative resolves, and the adoption
of economic sanctions Most importantly, the Stamp Act crisis made the colonists more aware
of the identity of their interests, which would ultimately lead them to think of themselves as
“Americans.”
FURTHER READINGS Morgan, Edmund S., and Helen M Morgan 1995 The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution Chapel Hill:
Univ of North Carolina Press.
Thomas, Peter David Garner 1975 British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis: The First Phase of the American Revolution 1763–1767 New York: Clarendon Press.
Worek, Michael and Jordan Worek 2008 An American History Album: The Story of the United States Told Through Stamps Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books.
CROSS REFERENCES Continental Congress; Declaration of Independence; Paine, Thomas; “Stamp Act” (Appendix, Primary Document);
Townshend Acts; War of Independence.
STAMP TAX
A pecuniary charge imposed upon certain trans-actions
A stamp tax is, for example, levied when ownership of real property is transferred The tax is paid either by purchasing stamps that are then glued to the deed or by the use of metering machines that imprint the stamps on the deed
vSTANBERY, HENRY Henry Stanbery served as attorney general of the United States from 1866 to 1868 under
Stanbery, the son of Jonas Stanbery, a physician, was born February 20, 1803, in New York He moved with his family from New York to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1814 An excellent student, Stanbery required greater academic challenge than early Zanesville schools could provide Recognizing his scholastic apti-tude, his father made arrangements for him to attend Washington College, in Pennsylvania
He graduated in 1819 at the age of 16
Stanbery studied law, and he was admitted
to the bar in 1824 when he came of age The same year, he entered into practice with Thomas Ewing, an attorney from Lancaster County, Ohio They worked together for more than twenty years and handled a wide variety of cases Stanbery’s growing prominence in the Ohio courts made him a natural candidate for public office He dissolved his longtime partnership with Ewing in 1846 and moved to Columbus to serve as Ohio’s first attorney general He also served as a delegate to the convention that framed the Ohio state constitution in 1851 After the constitutional convention, Stanbery reestablished his private practice—first in Cincinnati (1853) and later in northern Kentucky (1857) He maintained an active law practice throughout theU.S.CIVIL WAR
After the Civil War, Stanbery became emb-roiled in the conflict and controversy surround-ing Johnson’s presidency Johnson supported the policies of reconstruction and reconciliation favored by the late president ABRAHAM LINCOLN, but his efforts were met with strong opposition from Radical Republicans in the Senate John-son’s first attorney general,JAMES SPEED, resigned
in 1866 when he could no longer support presidential initiatives
Henry Stanbery 1803–1881
❖
1803 Born,
New York
City
◆
1814 Moved
to Zanesville, Ohio
◆
1819 Graduated from
Washington College (Pa.)
◆
◆
1824 Admitted
to the bar;
entered private practice
1846 Became Ohio's first attorney general
1861–65 U.S Civil War
◆ ◆
1851 Served as a delegate to the convention that framed the Ohio state constitution
1853 Established private law practice in Cincinnati
◆
1857 Moved law pratice to northern Kentucky
1881 Died, New York City
1868 Resigned as attorney general;
served as counsel for Johnson during impeachment proceedings
1866 Became U.S attorney general under President Johnson
THECONSTITUTION
IS NOT SILENT IT
PROVIDES FOR
INSURRECTION,
WHETHER SMALL OR
GREAT; WHETHER
IN ONESTATE OR
MANY
—H ENRY S TANBERY
326 STAMP TAX
Trang 10Amid this turmoil, Stanbery was asked to
step in, and accepted the post of attorney
general Almost immediately, he was
nomi-nated by Johnson to fill a U.S Supreme Court
vacancy left by the death of Justice JOHN
general and recognized him to be an able
lawyer, but Radical Republicans were
deter-mined to prevent the confirmation of any
nominee put forth by Johnson To ensure that
Johnson would not be able to fill the vacancy,
the Senate enacted legislation to reduce the
number of High Court justices from ten to
seven as vacancies occurred Accordingly, the
seat for which Stanbery had been considered in
April 1866 was abolished, and his nomination
was never considered
Although 63 years old and in failing health,
Stanbery served Johnson as a loyal and active
attorney general Prior to Stanbery’s
appoint-ment, the president had vetoed earlyCIVIL RIGHTS
legislation and was eager to restore full
jurisdiction to Southern state courts As
attor-ney general, Stanbery supported Johnson by
refusing to encourage enforcement of the CIVIL
attorneys seeking to implement them
When Johnson faced IMPEACHMENT by the
Senate in March 1868, Stanbery resigned his
office to serve as the president’s counsel So
poor was Stanbery’s physical health during
Johnson’s impeachment trial that he submitted
most of his arguments in writing Upon
ter-mination of the trial, Johnson sought to
re-appoint his friend and counsel as attorney
general, but the Senate rejected Stanbery’s
reinstatement
Stanbery remained in Washington, D.C., for
the next few years and continued to participate
in high-profile cases of the Reconstruction
Era—including a number of cases that tested
the constitutionality of the government’s
crimi-nal prosecutions of theKU KLUX KLAN
In the mid-1870s Stanbery returned to
Ohio and served a short term as president of
the Cincinnati Bar Association In retirement,
he wrote occasionally on political and legal
topics, but he devoted most of his time to the
management of his vast property holdings The
year before his death, a newspaper account
identified him as the largest property owner in
Campbell County, Kentucky Stanbery died in
New York on June 26, 1881
FURTHER READINGS Kaczorowski, Robert J 1990 “The Common-Law Back-ground of Nineteenth-Century Tort Law ” Ohio State Law Journal 51 (November).
Lane, Charles 2008 The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Lawlor, John M 1986 “Court Packing Revisited: A Proposal for Rationalizing the Timing of Appointments to the Supreme Court ” University of Pennsylvania Law Review
134 (April).
STAND
To stand is to appear in court or to submit to the jurisdiction of the court
To stand trial, for example, means to try, or
be tried on, a particular issue in a particular court To stand in recess, means the judge leaves the bench, and there is a break in the pro-ceedings To stand adjourned, means either the court ends proceedings for the day or that the particular proceeding is concluded
STAND MUTE The state of affairs that arises when a defendant in
a criminal action refuses to plead either guilty or not guilty
When a defendant stands mute, the court will generally order a not guilty plea to be entered
STANDARD DEDUCTION The name given to a fixed amount of money that may be subtracted from the adjusted gross income
of a taxpayer who does not itemize certain living expenses forINCOME TAXpurposes
STANDING Standing is the legally protectible stake or interest that an individual has in a dispute that entitles him to bring the controversy before the court to obtain judicial relief
Standing, sometimes referred to as standing
to sue, is the name of the federal law doctrine that focuses on whether a prospectivePLAINTIFF
can show that some personal legal interest has been invaded by theDEFENDANT It is not enough that a person is merely interested as a member
of the general public in the resolution of the dispute The person must have a personal stake
in the outcome of the controversy
STANDING 327