Four Boston priests defrocked for abuse News
Four Boston priests defrocked for abuse

[JURIST] Four priests of the Roman Catholic Boston Archdiocese [official website] accused of sexually abusing minors have been defrocked by the Vatican. Robert D. Fay, Kelvin Iguabita, Bernard Lane, and Robert Ward are no longer permitted to perform as priests and will be denied diocesan benefits and financial support. The Boston Archdiocese has issued this statement. Several other priests from the Boston Archdiocese have been defrocked in recent years including Paul Shanley, defrocked last year and convicted of child rape and indecent assault earlier this week [JURIST report]. The Boston Herald has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UK parliament rejected J.S. Mill's proposal to give women the vote

On May 20, 1867, the British Parliament rejected by 196-73 an amendment to the 1867 Reform Act presented by John Stuart Mill that would have permitted women to vote. Review Mill's 1869 work The Subjection of Women.

Supreme Court applies Free Exercise Clause to state governments

On May 20, 1940, the United States Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment applied to state governments in Cantwell v. Connecticut under the incorporation doctrine, which applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Learn more about the Incorporation Doctrine from the Cornell Law Schools' Legal Information Institute.