According to federal CASE LAW, an overt act performed by any one conspirator is deemed to be an overt act committed by all conspirators, even in the absence of proof of any agreement dir
Trang 1vOTTO, WILLIAM TOD William Tod Otto served as the reporter of decisions for the U.S Supreme Court from 1875
to 1883 A distinguished lawyer, judge, and government administrator before his appoint-ment as reporter, Otto is also noted for successfully arguing before the Supreme Court the case of Murdock v City of Memphis, 87 U.S
(20 Wall.) 590, 22 L Ed 429 (1875), which resolved issues concerning the jurisdiction of the Court
Otto was born on January 19, 1816, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania He earned a bache-lor’s degree in 1833 and a master’s degree in
1836 from the University of Pennsylvania Otto studied law in Philadelphia and then moved to
Brownstown, Indiana, to open a private practice
In 1844 he was elected a judge of Indiana’s Second Circuit court, a position he held until his defeat in the election of 1852 From 1847 to
1852, Otto also taught law at Indiana University Despite his election defeat, Otto remained interested in public office Although he lost an election in 1858 for Indiana attorney general, he had the good fortune of supporting ABRAHAM LINCOLN for president at the 1860 Republican convention President Lincoln named Otto assistant secretary of the interior in 1863 In this post Otto administered Indian affairs He left the department in 1871 to serve as arbitrator for claims against Spain from U.S citizens living
in its colony of Cuba
In 1875 Otto argued Murdock v Memphis,
20 Wall 590 (1875), before the Supreme Court The case concerned congressional changes to section 25 of the JUDICIARY ACT OF 1789, which granted appellate authority to the Supreme Court over federal question cases from the state courts (those cases involving federal constitu-tional or statutory issues) but excluded ques-tions of state law from review by the Court This meant that state courts had the final and unreviewable authority over the interpretation
of the state constitution and laws However, in the 1867 reenactment of section 25, Congress omitted the provision containing this exclusion Murdock raised the question of whether the U.S Supreme Court could now review questions of state law The Court agreed with Otto, conclud-ing that Congress’s failure to clearly state its intent to radically change the scope of federal jurisdiction prevented the Court from inferring intent
William Tod Otto.
COLLECTION OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF
THE UNITED STATES
1914–18 World War I
William Tod Otto 1816–1905
❖
1905 Died, Philadelphia, Pa.
1914–18 World War I
1885 Served as U.S.
representative to the Universal Postal Congress in Lisbon, Portugal
1871 Served as arbitrator for claims against Spain by U.S citizens living in Cuba
1875 Argued
Murdock v.
Memphis
before the Supreme Court
1861–65 U.S Civil War
◆
1858 Lost election for Indiana attorney general
1863 Appointed assistant secretary of the interior 1847–52 Taught law at Indiana University
1844–52 Served as judge on Indiana's Second Circuit Court
1836 Earned M.A.
from University of Pa.
1816 Born, Philadelphia, Pa.
◆
1875–83 Worked as reporter/editor of decisions for the U.S Supreme Court
378 OTTO, WILLIAM TOD
Trang 2Shortly after the Murdock decision, Otto was
appointed reporter of decisions, succeedingJOHN
WILLIAM WALLACE He was the first reporter to
issue Supreme Court reports without his name
appearing on the spine of each volume Previous
reporters had acted as their own publishers and
distributors; thus they were entitled to use their
names in marketing the volumes of court
decisions In 1874, however, Congress
appropri-ated money for publishing the Court’s opinions
under government auspices Otto, though hardly
anonymous, assembled the reports for
publica-tion by the government
Between 1875 and 1883, Otto edited 17
volumes (91–107 United States Reports) He left
the position to resume a private law practice and
served as U.S representative to the Universal
Postal Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1885
Otto died on November 7, 1905, in
Philadelphia
OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT
An agreement reached between the parties in a
pending lawsuit that resolves the dispute to their
mutual satisfaction and occurs without judicial
intervention, supervision, or approval
An out-of-court settlement provides that the
parties relinquish their rights to pursue judicial
remedies
OUTLAWRY
A declaration under old English law by which a
person found in CONTEMPT on a civil or criminal
process was considered an outlaw—that is, someone
who is beyond the protection or assistance of the law
During the Anglo-Saxon period of English
history, a person who committed certain crimes
lost whatever protection he or she had under the
law, forfeited whatever property he or she
owned, and could be killed by anyone If the
crime committed was TREASON or a felony, a
declaration of outlawry was tantamount to a
conviction and attainder Outlawry for a
misde-meanor did not, however, amount to a
convic-tion for the offense The Norman Conquest led
to significant changes in the law governing
outlawry, eventually leading to its abolition
OUTPUT CONTRACT
In the law of sales, an agreement in which one
party assents to sell his or her total production to
another party, who agrees to purchase it The quantity is measured by the seller’s output, and this type of contract assures the seller of an purchaser for his/her goods for the length of the contract
This type of contract does not entail an ILLUSORY PROMISE, a purported agreement that actually means nothing because it leaves to one party the choice of performance or nonperfor-mance, even if the quantity of goods that are the subject of the contract is indefinite It is also known as an entire output contract, and it is subject to theUNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, a body
of law adopted by the states that governs commercial transactions
CROSS REFERENCE Requirements Contract.
OUTSTANDING WARRANT
An order that has not yet been carried out; an order for which the action commanded has not been taken A well-known example is an outstanding arrest warrant
When the action ordered has been done, the warrant is said to have been executed
CROSS REFERENCE Arrest Warrant.
OVERBREADTH DOCTRINE
A principle ofJUDICIAL REVIEWthat holds that a law
is invalid if it punishes constitutionally protected speech or conduct along with speech or conduct that the government may limit to further a compelling government interest
Legislatures sometimes pass laws that infringe on the FIRST AMENDMENT freedoms of religion, speech, press, and peaceable assembly
When a legislature passes such a law, a person with a sufficient interest affected by the legislation may challenge its constitutionality
by bringing suit against the federal, state, or local sovereignty that passed it One common argument in First Amendment challenges is that the statute is overbroad
Under the overbreadth doctrine, a statute that affects First Amendment rights is uncon-stitutional if it prohibits more protected speech
or activity than is necessary to achieve a compelling government interest The excessive intrusion on First Amendment rights, beyond what the government had a compelling interest
to restrict, renders the law unconstitutional
OVERBREADTH DOCTRINE 379
Trang 3If a statute is overbroad, the court may be able to save the statute by striking only the section that is overbroad If the court cannot sever the statute and save the constitutional provisions, it may invalidate the entire statute
The case of Brockett v Spokane Arcades, Inc.,
472 U.S 491, 105 S Ct 2794, 86 L Ed 2d 394 (1985), illustrates how the overbreadth doctrine works At issue in Brockett was an OBSCENITY statute passed by the state of Washington The statute declared to be a moral NUISANCE any place where lewd films were shown as a regular course of business and any place where lewd publications constituted a principal part of the stock in trade Lewd matter was defined as being obscene matter, or any matter that appeals to the prurient interest Under the statute the term prurient was defined as tending to incite lasciviousness or lust
The Supreme Court in Brockett ruled that the Washington statute was overbroad because
it prohibited lust-inciting materials According
to the Court, because lust is a normal sexual appetite, materials that include an appeal to lust enjoy First Amendment protection Therefore, a statute that prohibits any material arousing lust
is constitutionally overbroad
The remedy in the Brockett case was not complete invalidation of the moral nuisance law
The Court directed that the reference to lust be excised from the statute and stated that the rest
of the statute was valid The statute, though originally overbroad, was still valid because it contained a severability clause and was still effective after its overbroad portion was struck
CROSS REFERENCES Compelling State Interest; Freedom of Speech; Freedom of the Press.
OVERDRAFT
A check that is drawn on an account containing less money than the amount stated on the check
Terms of various accounts may provide for potentially high fees for excess expenditures
The term overdraft is also used in reference
to the condition that exists when VOUCHERS or purchase orders are drawn in amounts exceed-ing the amount that has been appropriated or budgeted
As of late 2009, Congress was considering reform legislation that would offer consumers stronger overdraft protection at a time when
many are finding banks’ overdraft fees to be excessive or even unknown to account holders For exmaple, Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) sponsored a bill and called for measures that would require banks to disclose overdraft fees at the time when new accounts are opened and also keep fees proportional to the amount of the overdraft
CROSS REFERENCE Commercial Paper.
OVERHEAD
A sum total of the administrative or executive costs that relate to the management, conduct, or supervision of a business that are not attributable
to any one particular product or department Some of these outlays may be deductible as business expenses Certain overhead also may figure in the funds paid to court-appointed lawyers as a matter of reimbursement for render-ing public legal services
Expenses such as rent, taxes, insurance, lighting, heating, and other miscellaneous office expenses all fall under the category of overhead FURTHER READINGS
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers “Victory! Overhead Payments Restored in Alabama! ” http:// www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/defenseupdates/alabama004 (accessed September 29, 2009).
OVERREACHING Exploiting a situation throughFRAUDor UNCONSCIO-NABLE conduct Prosecutorial overreaching takes place when the government, through either gross negligence or deliberate action, causes heightened circumstances that prejudice a defendant, leading
to the reasonable conclusion that the further continuance of the now-tainted case would result
in a conviction
OVERRIDE Money, in the form of a commission, paid to a manager from a sale that is made by a subordinate
Also, a commission paid to a REAL ESTATE agent who lists a property that, after the expiration of the listing, is sold directly by the owner to a buyer with whom the agent had previously negotiated
Override also means to prevail over, nullify,
or set aside, as in a presidential VETO
380 OVERDRAFT
Trang 4The refusal by a judge to sustain an objection set
forth by an attorney during a trial, such as an
objection to a particular question posed to a
witness To make void, annul, supersede, or reject
through a subsequent decision or action
A judicial decision is overruled when a later
decision, made by the same tribunal or a higher
court in the same system, hands down a
decision concerning the identical QUESTION OF
LAW, which is in direct opposition to the earlier
decision The earlier decision is thereby
over-ruled and deprived of its authority as precedent
OVERSTREET V UNITED
BROTHERHOOD
SeeSECONDARY BOYCOTT
OVERT
Public; open; manifest
The term overt is used in CRIMINAL LAW in
reference to conduct that moves more directly
toward the commission of an offense than do
acts of planning and preparation that may
ultimately lead to such conduct
OVERT ACT
An open, manifest act from which criminality may
be implied An outward act done in pursuance
and manifestation of an intent or design
An overt act is essential to establish an
attempt to commit a crime It is also a key
element in the crime ofTREASONand has become
a component of federal and some state criminal
CONSPIRACYlaws It also plays a role in the right
ofSELF-DEFENSE
An attempt to commit a crime is an offense
when the accused makes a substantial but
unsuccessful effort to commit a crime The
elements of attempt include an intent to commit
a crime, an apparent ability to complete the crime,
and an overt act An overt act is an act that is
performed to execute the criminal intention and
will naturally achieve that result unless prevented
by some external cause The act must directly
move toward commission of the crime and must
be more than acts of planning or preparation
Defining when an act is more than
prepara-tory has proved difficult Two tests have been
most frequently applied to determine when
an overt act has been committed The
“unequivocal” test states that a defendant’s act, standing alone, constitutes an “overt act” only when that act is unequivocally consistent only with her or his intent to commit the allegedly attempted crime This test has been criticized as too lenient on criminals because no act is truly unequivocal A person who shoots someone several times can argue that she was only trying
to injure the victim and that it was her skilled shooting and not luck that prevented the victim’s death
Some jurisdictions favor the “substantial act” test Under this test, an overt act is committed when aDEFENDANTwith the requisite criminal intent performs a substantial act toward the commission of the crime Under this test, for example, a prospective burglar can
be convicted of attempted BURGLARY if appre-hended in an alley with burglar’s tools, even though he had not determined which building
he was going to burglarize
The need for an overt act is also required in federal and in some state criminal conspiracy prosecutions A conspiracy is a voluntary agreement by two or more persons to commit
an unlawful act or to use unlawful means to accomplish an act that is not in itself unlawful
Under federal law, the overt act must be an independent act that comes after the agreement
or conspiracy and is performed to effect the objective of the conspiracy The overt act itself need not be a criminal act, because its sole function is to demonstrate that the conspiracy is operative If, for example, two persons conspire
to rob a bank and rent a getaway car, the rental
is an overt act that in itself is perfectly legal
According to federal CASE LAW, an overt act performed by any one conspirator is deemed to
be an overt act committed by all conspirators, even in the absence of proof of any agreement directing the overt act (United States v McKee,
506 F.3d 225 [3d Cir 2007])
Proof of an overt act may also be required in criminal cases where a defendant asserts self-defense againstHOMICIDEorASSAULTcharges To justify use of a deadly weapon in self-defense under the law in most states, there must have been an overt act by the victim that led the defendant to reasonably believe that he was in imminent danger of losing his life or suffering serious bodily injury; words and a“threatening attitude” are not, by themselves, enough
Threatening words or a threatening attitude must be accompanied with or followed by some
OVERT ACT 381
Trang 5overt act or demonstration of an immediate intention to execute the threats
The federal crime of treason contains a requirement of an overt act Article III, Section
3, Clause 1, of the U.S Constitution provides,
“No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless
on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act.” In such a case, an overt act means a step taken to execute a treasonable purpose, as distinguished from mere words or a treasonable sentiment or design not resulting in action It is
an act in furtherance of the crime According to the U.S.SUPREME COURT,“It is the nature of the overt act that is important The act may be unnecessary to a successful completion of the enemy’s project; it may be an abortive attempt;
it may in the sum total of the enemy’s effort be a casual and unimportant step But if it gives aid and comfort to the enemy at the immediate moment of its performance, it qualifies as an overt act within the constitutional standard of treason” (Tomoya Kawakita v United States, 343 U.S 717, 72 S Ct 950, 96 L Ed 1249 [1952])
FURTHER READINGS Burkoff, John M 2009 Acing Criminal Law: A Checklist Approach to Criminal Law St Paul, Minn.: Thomson/
West.
Pillsbury, Samuel H 2009 How Criminal Law Works:
A Conceptual and Practical Guide Durham, N.C.:
Carolina Academic Press.
CROSS REFERENCES Conspiracy; Criminal Law; Overt; Treason.
OWNER The person or other entity the law recognizes as having the ultimate control over, and right to use, property as long as the law permits and no agreement or covenant limits his or her or its rights An owner could even be a public entity, for example, as in the case of public land or structures
The subject of ownership could be a piece of land, aCHATTEL, a business interest (such as aSOLE PROPRIETORSHIP or a stake in a PARTNERSHIP or CORPORATION), or anyINTELLECTUAL PROPERTY(such
as aCOPYRIGHT,PATENT,TRADEMARK, orTRADE SECRET)
An owner, whose position is per se manifested
in a set of property rights, will haveSTANDINGto sue
in the event that another party somehow contra-venes any such rights in question, such as through TRESSPASS or INFRINGEMENT Just as ownership implies rights on the part of the owner, it may
also imply particular duties, such as the prompt payment of property taxes associated with the ownership of real property
FURTHER READINGS Bernhardt, Roger and Burkhart, Ann M 2005 Real Property
in a Nutshell 5th ed St Paul, Minn.: West.
Burke, Barlow 2003 Personal Property in a Nutshell 3d ed.
St Paul, Minn.: West.
OYER AND TERMINER [French, To hear and decide.] The designation
“court of oyer and terminer” is frequently used as the actual title, or a portion of the title, of a state court that has criminal jurisdiction over felonious offenses
By the commission of oyer and terminer, the commissioners (in practice the judges, though other persons are named with them in the commission) are commanded to make diligent inquiry into all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanours committed in the counties specified in the commission, and to hear and determine the same according to law The inquiry is by means of theGRAND JURY; after the grand jury has found the bills submitted to it, the commissioners proceed to hear and deter-mine by means of the PETIT JURY The words
“oyer and terminer” are also used to denote the court which has jurisdiction to try offences within the limits to which the commission of oyer and terminer extends
In the United States, oyer and terminer is the name either currently or formerly given to courts of criminal jurisdiction in some states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia New York had courts of oyer and terminer for much of the nineteenth century, but these courts were abolished by a change in the state constitution, effective in 1896
Governor William Phips created a court of oyer and terminer for the SALEM WITCH TRIALS, which was dissolved in 1693 when the trials were reflected upon and disapproved One of the courtmen, Increase Mather, stated that“It is better that 10 suspected witches escape than that one innocent person killed.”
OYEZ [French, Hear ye.] A word used in some courts by the public crier to indicate that a proclamation is about to be made and to command attention to it
382 OWNER
Trang 6PACIFIC RAILROAD ACT
The Pacific Railroad Act was passed by Congress
in 1862 to facilitate the construction of a railway
that would stretch from the one coast of the
United States to the other
The need for a transcontinental railway to
facilitate transportation of persons and products
across the United States became increasingly
clear as the western half of the United States
grew rapidly during the middle part of the
nineteenth Century Texas was annexed in
1845, whereas present-day states of California,
Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Colorado,
Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming were
acquired following the Mexican-American War
(1846–1848) Congress responded to this
growth by granting rights of way to railroads
through PUBLIC LANDS, a logical outgrowth of
rights of way granted for canals in the earlier
years of the republic In 1850 STEPHEN A
DOUGLASchampioned land grants beyond
tradi-tional rights of way as an added incentive to the
construction of railroads on public lands Those
land grants provided readily available resources
such as timber and stone for the construction of
the rail lines themselves
The opening of the West as an adjunct to
railway development, however, came to full
fruition with the passage of the Pacific Railroad
Act of 1862 (12STATUTES AT LARGE, 489), which
was signed into law by President ABRAHAM
LINCOLNon July 1, 1862 Officially entitled “AN
ACT to aid in the construction of a railroad and
telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,” some provisions of the original act were subsequently modified, expanded, or repealed by four additional amending acts passed
in 1862, 1864, 1865, and 1866
Also known as the Pacific Railway Act, it provided incentives for the creation of a rail line beginning at the 100th meridian, near Fort Kearney, Nebraska, and working westward across the High Plains east of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean The act offered the Union Pacific Railway and the Central Pacific Railroad ten sections (6,400 acres) on alternating sides of the track and a 30-year loan of government bonds, scaled at $16,000, $32,000, and $48,000 per mile of road built, depending upon the difficulty of the terrain The railroads would receive every alternate section of land—the odd numbered sections—for ten sections in width on either side of the track Two years later, Congress amended the act to make it more generous still, doubling theLAND GRANTto 12,800 acres per mile
of rail laid
The Union Pacific Railway laid track west from Omaha, while the Central Pacific Railroad built east from Sacramento The Union Pacific Railway was granted 12 million acres of land and was issued $27 million in bonds The Central Pacific Railroad was given 9 million acres of land and was issued
$24 million in bonds On May 10, 1869, the
P
Trang 7nation commemorated the completion of the project, as the Union Pacific Railway and the Central Pacific Railroad joined together at a ceremony where a golden spike was driven into the tie at Promontory Point, Utah In reality, however, it was not until 1870 that a seamless transcontinental track was completed, con-necting at a place called Comanche Crossing, Colorado, subsequently renamed Strasburg in honor of John Strasburg of the Kansas Pacific Railway
In all, Congress granted nearly 94 million acres of public lands to the railroads themselves and nearly an additional 224 million acres to states for development of lands served by railroad expansion Of the approximately 320 million acres of total land grants, 30 percent or
97 million acres were located in those western states that became chiefly associated with coal mining: Arizona (18.3 million acres); Colorado (8.2 million acres); Montana (20.7 million acres); New Mexico (16.2 million acres); North Dakota (13.9 million acres); Utah (9.7 million acres); and Wyoming (10.1 million acres)
The Union Pacific Railway and the Central Pacific Railroad were merged into the Union Pacific Railroad in 1900 by Edward Harriman
CROSS REFERENCE Railroad.
PACIFISM Pacifism is a belief or policy in opposition to war
or violence as a means of settling disputes Pacifists maintain that unswerving nonviolence can bestow upon people a power greater than that achieved through the use of violent aggression
Over time, pacifism has acquired different meanings As a consequence, it is practiced in a variety of ways For example, pacifists may make an individual vow of nonviolence They may also organize and actively pursue nonvio-lence and peace between nations They may even assert that some form of support for selective violence is sometimes necessary to achieve worldwide peace
History
An early record of pacifism appears in the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who came to
be known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One
Siddhartha left his family at a young age and spent his life searching for a release from the
human condition Before dying in northeast India between 500 and 350 B.C., the Buddha taught the paths to elevated existence and inspired a new religion Buddhism eventually spread from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and the United States The teachings of Jesus continued the attachment of nonviolence to organized reli-gion Jesus taught, in part, that an appropriate response to violence is to“turn the other cheek” and offer no resistance
As civilization expanded and distinct states were formed, this Christianity was carried to developing areas It became popularized as the official religion of entire states, the leaders of which sought to retain both Christianity and a stronghold on power In the third century, the nonresistance aspect of Christianity was recon-sidered, and certain passages in the Gospel were interpreted to mean that resistance is an acceptable reaction to evil forces
Saint Augustine solidified Christianity’s break with pure pacifism in the fifth century with a warmly received religious treatise In The City of God, he maintained, in part, that peace could be realized only through the acceptance of Christianity and that followers should defend the Church
More than a millennium passed before the next great pacifist movement was seen In the fifteenth century, Martin Luther led the Protes-tant Reformation, a movement of new religious fervor Europeans who were disenchanted with Catholicism broke away from the Church in Rome, experimented with observations and practices, and founded their own religions The most pacific of these was Anabaptism Anabaptists practiced nonviolence and actively supported those suffering from violence
In the seventeenth century, still more pacific religious groups were established, such as the Mennonites, the Brethren, and the Religious Society of Friends Of these, the Friends have gathered the largest following in the United States
Religious Society of Friends
In 1652 George Fox founded the Religious Society of Friends in England Initially, Friends were known as Children of the Light, Publishers
of Truth, or Friends of Truth They believed that there exists in all persons a light, which can
be understood as the presence of God With
384 PACIFISM
Trang 8this reverence for other people, nonviolence
came naturally Because God exists in all people,
violence can be avoided by finding and revealing
the Light in others
Friends were also called Quakers, perhaps
from the trembling some experience as they
find the Inner Light during meetings The
nickname was originally coined by antagonists
and intended as derisive, but many Friends
began to use it in their own speech Quaker
soon lost its derogative connotation, and it
remains the most recognized name for Friends
A Friends’ commitment to pacifism often
came with no small dose of activism Friends
interrupted church services and refused to take
oaths in seventeenth-century England, arguing
that if one always tells the truth, one need not
promise to do so Friends ignored social niceties;
they refused, for example, to remove their hats in
the presence of royalty Friends also used the
informal thee and thy in place of the more
respectful you and your Within four years of
the creation of the Society, Friends in England
were being imprisoned by the thousands, and
they began to seek refuge in the New World
Ann Austin and Mary Fisher were the
first Friends to reach colonial America from
England After their arrival in 1656, Austin and
Fisher were imprisoned and deported Friends
who came after them suffered a similar fate
Many of those who stayed moved to Rhode
Island, which Roger Williams founded on
religious freedom principles
In 1681 Charles II gave to William Penn, a
longtime Friend, the charter to colonial land in
America as repayment for a debt owed to Penn’s
father In 1682 Penn founded Pennsylvania as a
“holy experiment,” and many English and
European Friends found permanent sanctuary
there
Friends continued their activism in colonial
America by obstructing the business ofSLAVERY
Many Friends published their opposition to
slavery and assisted fugitive slaves Friends also
addressed other social issues, such as the
treatment of mentally ill persons and the rights
of women With the onset of the Civil War,
many Friends reconsidered their absolute
re-fusal to participate in war and helped the Union
forces and slaves In World Wars I and II, many
Friends took an active part in medical and relief
work
Mohandas K Gandhi
MOHANDAS K.GANDHIwas the first great modern pacifist Born October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, Gandhi led a high-profile life dedicated
to political and social reform through nonvio-lence
During the 1900s Gandhi experimented with various means of resolving conflict Passive resistance, according to Gandhi, had to be supplemented by an active effort to understand and respect adversaries In an atmosphere of respect, people could find peaceful, creative solutions This active campaign for equality is called satyagraha, or “grasping for the truth.”
Gandhi led a well-orchestrated political campaign for Indians in South Africa through the early 1900s The movement reached its pinnacle in November 1913, when Gandhi led Indian miners on the Great March into Transvaal The march was a profound show of determination, and the South African govern-ment opened negotiations with Gandhi shortly thereafter
By promoting a variety of nonviolent activities designed to dramatize and call atten-tion to social injustice, Gandhi won new rights for laborers, members of minorities, and poor people in South Africa and India In many cases, however, Gandhi was working against centuries
of hatred, and success was never absolute
During an early 1970s anti-war rally
in New York City, members of the Religious Society of Friends (aka Quakers) read the names of people killed
in the Vietnam War.
HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS.
PACIFISM 385
Trang 9Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement
Gandhi’s campaigns became the inspiration and model for the U.S CIVIL RIGHTS and political movements in the 1950s and 1960s Among those inspired by Gandhi was MARTIN LUTHER KING JR King was born in Atlanta on January 15,
1929, the son of a Baptist preacher His Baptist upbringing was supplemented by the study of theology at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was introduced
to the nonviolent teachings of Gandhi
In 1955 King became involved with the first great pacifist movement in the United States, the African AmericanCIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT He eventually spearheaded that movement On December 1, 1955, ROSA PARKS, a black Mont-gomery resident, refused to surrender her seat
on a bus to a white man Her subsequent arrest
for violatingSEGREGATIONlaws sparked a boycott
of the Montgomery transit system led by King and the black activists of the Montgomery Improvement Association The boycott lasted over one year, until the Montgomery city government abolished segregation on buses King’s leadership had helped effect political change without the use of violence, and he resolved to build on the success
In the late 1950s King organized the SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE (SCLC) The SCLC operated as a network for civil rights work and a platform from which to address the nation and the world Armed only with fortitude, the moral rightness of a cause, and an exceptional gift for public speaking, King was able to garner widespread support for
a series of popular campaigns that led to the end of official DISCRIMINATION and segregation
in the southern United States
The influence of Gandhi on King was apparent At the core of King’s philosophy was nonviolence, but this pacifism was buttressed by action Like Gandhi, King directed much of his energy toward the organization of nonviolent campaigns designed to call attention to social injustice The campaigns did not always win the hearts and minds of other U.S citizens Occa-sionally, King and fellow civil rights activists suffered from the violence of their opponents
Conscientious Objector Status
When the United States becomes involved in war, military service may become mandatory, and the status ofCONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR(CO) is sought by pacifists to avoid military service To qualify as a CO, one need only show“a sincere and meaningful” objection to all war (Reiser v Stone, 791 F Supp 1072 [E.D Pa 1992] [quoting Shaffer v Schlesinger, 531 F.2d 124 (3d Cir 1976)]) This objection need not be grounded in religion It is legitimate if it results from an
“intensely personal” conviction that some might find “incomprehensible; or “incorrect” (Reiser [quoting United States v Seeger, 380 U.S 163, 85
S Ct 850, 13 L Ed 2d 733 (1965)])
In Reiser, Dr Lynda Dianne Reiser sought discharge from military service on the grounds
of a conscientious objection to war Reiser had entered the Army in 1983 in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at Washington and Jefferson College After gradu-ating in 1986, she sought and received a
Though better known
for challenging
injustices in
British-ruled India, Gandhi
also spent many years
working for the rights
of Indian residents of
South Africa.
AP IMAGES
386 PACIFISM
Trang 10deferment of military service in order to attend
Temple University Medical School Upon
graduation from medical school in 1990, Reiser
sought and received another deferment in order
to perform a one-year medical internship In
August 1990, Reiser informed the Army that she
was a conscientious objector and that she would
refuse the four years of military service required
of her in return for the ROTC scholarship
Although Reiser had possessed moral
con-victions approaching pacifism before entering the
ROTC program, she had envisioned a career in
medicine and expected her participation in
military service to be minimal In 1985 serious
misgivings over military service began to take hold
in Reiser By 1989 her opposition to military
service was firm After treating a 16-year-old
shooting victim, Reiser experienced nightmares
and attempted to avoid all contact with violence
In April 1990 her beliefs crystallized into complete
opposition to violence, war, and military service
Four months later, she applied for CO status
The Department of the Army Conscientious
Objector Review Board (DACORB) denied
Reiser’s application in September 1990 Despite
supporting testimony from Army chaplain
Colonel Ronald Miller and Army investigator
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Nester, DACORB
concluded that Reiser’s belief in pacifism was
not sincerely held
Reiser appealed the DACORB decision to
the U.S District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania After reciting the chronology
of the case and the legal standards for CO status,
the court conducted a complete review of the
record, which included an in-depth
examina-tion of Reiser’s evolution to pacifism
In addition to possessing a predisposition to
nonviolence, Reiser had undergone a pacific
metamorphosis that had not been disproved
Reiser had been deeply affected by the Kurt
Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969) and
had had her growing pacifism affirmed by
roommates She had also experienced a
strengthening of her nonviolent convictions as
a result of her medical training
DACORB had ruled that Reiser had failed to
prove that she would have “no rest or inner
peace” if she were not discharged This standard
had been rejected by the court in an earlier case,
which held that conscientious objectors need
only show sincerity in their opposition to war
(Masser v Connolly, 514 F Supp 734, 740 [E.D
Pa 1981]) According to the Reiser court, the
“no rest or inner peace” standard was valid, but nothing in the record supported the DACORB conclusion that Reiser would lose no sleep over forced military service
Because the timing of a CO application alone cannot be used to deny CO status, DACORB took pains to deemphasize the timing of Reiser’s application However, Reiser’s application came less than one year before she was scheduled to begin military service, and DACORB was unable
to let the issue go untouched The timing of the application, admitted DACORB, called Reiser’s sincerity into question
DACORB use of application timing did call Reiser’s sincerity into question What DACORB failed to do, according to the court, was answer the question of Reiser’s sincerity Without additional support for its skepticism, DACORB use of application timing as a basis for rejecting
CO status for Reiser carried no weight The court ultimately reversed the DACORB decision and relieved Reiser of her obligation to work four years for the U.S Army
FURTHER READINGS Beck, Sanderson 2003 Guides to Peace and Justice: Great Peacemakers, Philosophers of Peace, and World Peace Advocates Ojai, Calif.: World Peace Communications.
Martin Luther King Jr.
at the August 1963 March on Washington Gandhi’s campaigns became the inspiration and models used by King and other civil rights leaders during the 1950s and 1960s.
AP IMAGES
PACIFISM 387