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Today in History (1862) - The U.S. government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. On the same day in 1865, the Confederate Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black troops, granting them freedom with the consent of their owners. Lee surrendered a few weeks later. |
Today in History (1989) - The Supreme Court rules in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services that Missouri's declaration that life begins at conception and its restrictions on the use of public facilities and public employees in abortion do not conflict with the holding in Roe v. Wade. See O'Connor's concurrence here. Also of interest is her Akron dissent (1982), which challenged Roe's trimester system.