Alabama Voter Rights Act violation ruling [US SC] News
Alabama Voter Rights Act violation ruling [US SC]

Riley v. Kennedy, US Supreme Court, May 27, 2008 [holding that returning to a previous election law when a new one was struck down by the Supreme Court of Alabama was not a violation of the Voter Rights Act, which seeks to guard against racial discrimination, because there had been no change to the law in need of clearance by federal authorities]. Read the full text of the opinion [text, PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

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.