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Peckham, Rufus Wheeler

(Encyclopedia)Peckham, Rufus Wheeler pĕkˈəm [key], 1838–1909, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1895–1909), b. Albany, N.Y. Admitted (1859) to the bar, he became a leading Albany lawyer and was pr...

San Juan, river, Nicaragua

(Encyclopedia)San Juan sän hwän [key], river, c.110 mi (180 km) long, flowing from the southeast corner of Lake Nicaragua E to the Caribbean Sea, near the port of San Juan del Norte. The lower course of the deep ...

Jackson, Robert Houghwout

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Robert Houghwout houˈət [key], 1892–1954, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1941–54), b. Spring Creek, Pa. Despite the fact that he did not have a law degree, he was admitted...

Dartmouth College Case

(Encyclopedia)Dartmouth College Case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1819. The legislature of New Hampshire, in 1816, without the consent of the college trustees, amended the charter of 1769 to make Dartmouth...

Fuller, Melville Weston

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Melville Weston, 1833–1910, American jurist, 8th chief justice of the United States (1888–1910), b. Augusta, Maine. He studied at Harvard law school, and after 1856 he became a prominent l...

Cummings, Homer Stillé

(Encyclopedia)Cummings, Homer Stillé, 1870–1956, American lawyer, U.S. Attorney General (1933–39), b. Chicago. He practiced law in Stamford, Conn., where he was mayor three times. He served as chairman of the ...

Baldwin, Simeon Eben

(Encyclopedia)Baldwin, Simeon Eben, 1840–1927, American jurist and politician, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale, 1861. He taught at Yale from 1869 to 1919, serving as a professor of law after 1872. His teaching an...

Hopkins, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Stephen, 1707–85, colonial governor of Rhode Island and political leader in the American Revolution, b. Providence, R.I. A member of the colonial assembly for many years, he also served as ...

Ginsburg, Ruth Bader

(Encyclopedia)Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, 1933–2020, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1993–2020), b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Joan Ruth Bader. A graduate (1954) of Cornell, she attended Harvard Law School, then...

Miranda v. Arizona

(Encyclopedia)Miranda v. Arizona, U.S. Supreme Court case (1966) in the area of due process of law (see Fourteenth Amendment). The decision reversed an Arizona court's conviction of Ernesto Miranda on kidnapping an...