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Massachusetts instituted death penalty for heresy
JURISTbot
November 4, 2009 05:00:00 am

On November 4, 1646, the Massachusetts General Court approved a law requiring all members of the colony to recognize the Bible as the Word of God, under penalty of death.

 

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SCOTUS dispatch: justices grapple with nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s birthright citizenship order

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Congress passed Roosevelt's New Deal legislation

On June 16, 1935, Congress passed President Roosevelt's "New Deal" legislation to start a recovery program from Great Depression. Learn more about FDR and the New Deal from the US Library of Congress.

U.K. repeals prohibition on non-conformists at its universities

On June 16, 1871, the United Kingdom passed the University Tests Act, repealing a prohibition on non-conformists at the British Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. The Tests Acts were a series of laws that started in 1673 and eventually required officeholders, university students, civil servants and other persons associated with the government to swear allegiance to the Anglican Church. The Tests Act was repealed by the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, but the university policy lasted until 1871.

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