Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), is a landmark case in the United States about access to contraception. The case involved a Connecticut "Comstock law" that prohibited any person from using "any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception." The court held that the statute was unconstitutional, and that "the clear effect of [the Connecticut law ...] is to deny disadvantaged citizens ... access to medical assistance and up-to-date information in respect to proper methods of birth control." By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy", establishing the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices. This and other cases view the right to privacy as a right to "protect[ion] from governmental intrusion."
Pierre Blais, is a Canadian jurist and former politician and Cabinet minister. He also served as the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal until his retirement in June, 2014.
Steven Murray Truscott is a Canadian man who was sentenced to death in 1959 for the rape and murder of classmate Lynne Harper. Truscott had been the last person to see her alive. He was scheduled to be hanged; however, the federal cabinet reprieved him and he was sentenced to life in prison and released on parole in 1969. Five decades later, in 2007, his conviction was overturned on the basis that key forensic evidence was weaker than had been portrayed at trial.
Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985), was a United States Supreme Court decision in which public interest in learning about a historical figure’s impressions of a historic event was held not to be sufficient to show fair use of material otherwise protected by copyright. Defendant, The Nation, had summarized and quoted substantially from A Time to Heal, President Gerald Ford's forthcoming memoir of his decision to pardon former president Richard Nixon. When Harper & Row, who held the rights to A Time to Heal, brought suit, The Nation asserted that its use of the book was protected under the doctrine of fair use, because of the great public interest in a historical figure’s account of a historic incident. The Court rejected this argument holding that the right of first publication was important enough to find in favor of Harper.
The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in Hartford, across the street from the Connecticut State Capitol. It generally holds eight sessions of two to three weeks per year, with one session each September through November and January through May. Justices are appointed by the governor and then approved by the Connecticut General Assembly.
Rocco Galati is an Italian-born Canadian lawyer who specializes in cases involving constitutional law and also suspects of terrorism.
Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), was a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that Virginia's poll tax was unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eleven southern states established poll taxes as part of their disenfranchisement of most blacks and many poor whites. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1964) prohibited poll taxes in federal elections; five states continued to require poll taxes for voters in state elections. By this ruling, the Supreme Court banned the use of poll taxes in state elections.
Marshall Rothstein is a former Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Michael Boudin is a Senior United States Circuit Judge and former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Warren Keith Winkler, is a Canadian jurist and a former Chief Justice of Ontario. Appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on June 1, 2007, Winkler was previously Regional Senior Judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for the Toronto Region. Winkler reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on December 10, 2013, and has since retired as the Chief Justice of Ontario. He served as Chair of the Order of Ontario Advisory Council. Mr. Winkler is now a Member Arbitrator at Arbitration Place in Toronto.
In England and Wales the Law Commission is an independent law commission set up by Parliament by the Law Commissions Act 1965 to keep the law of England and Wales under review and to recommend reforms. The organisation is headed by a Chairman and four Law Commissioners. It proposes changes to the law that will make the law simpler, more accessible, fairer, modern and more cost-effective. It consults widely on its proposals and in the light of the responses to public consultation, it presents recommendations to the UK Parliament that, if legislated upon, would implement its law reform recommendations. The commission is part of the Commonwealth Association of Law Reform Agencies.
During President Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, federal judicial appointments played a central role. Johnson appointed two individuals to the Supreme Court of the United States in just over five years as president.
The nominations made by Lyndon B. Johnson to the Supreme Court of the United States are unusual in that Johnson appeared to have had specific individuals in mind for his appointments and actively sought to engineer vacancies on the Court to place those individuals on the court.
David Milton Ebel is a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Richard R. Wagner, is a Canadian judge who serves as the 18th and current Chief Justice of Canada. He was sworn into office on December 18, 2017, having previously served as a Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. He previously sat on the Quebec Court of Appeal. He is the son of former Progressive Conservative MP and Senator Claude Wagner.
Clément Gascon is a Canadian judge, who was nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on June 3, 2014, and officially appointed the Court on June 9, 2014.
Russell S. Brown is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
With the advice and consent of the United States Senate, the President of the United States appoints the members of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the highest court of the federal judiciary of the United States. Following his victory in the 2016 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump took office as president on January 20, 2017, and faced an immediate vacancy on the Supreme Court due to the February 2016 death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. During the 2016 campaign, Trump had released two lists of potential nominees to the Supreme Court. After taking office, he nominated Neil Gorsuch to succeed Scalia, and Gorsuch was confirmed in April 2017. In November 2017, five more names were added to the previous lists of potential nominees. In June 2018, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, creating a second vacancy on the Supreme Court. In early July 2018, Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh as his replacement, Kavanaugh was confirmed on October 6, 2018.
David Kenani Maraga is a Kenyan lawyer and jurist. He is the Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya. He is the 14th Chief Justice of Kenya.
The Supreme Court of the Gambia is a superior court of record and the highest court in The Gambia. Established in 1851, it has appellate and original jurisdiction over any law exceeding the powers conferred by the Constitution or any law upon the National Assembly or any other person or authority.
