Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 5 P3 pps

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Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 5 P3 pps

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case. Fries chose to proceed to trial witho ut benefit of LEGAL REPRESENTATION. He was again found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. However, after studying the case, President Adams pardoned him and the other insurgents. Soon after his pardon, Fries was promoted from captain to lieutenant colonel in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, militia. Justice Chase’s conduct in Fries’s second trial was harshly criticized as indirectly depriv- ing Fries of counsel. The justice’s actions were used against him in 1805, in an unsuccessful IMPEACHMENT proceeding. FURTHER READINGS Adams, Charles. 1998. Those Dirty Rotten Taxes: The Tax Revolts That Built America. New York: Free Press. Elsmere, Jane Shaffer. 1979. “The Trials of John Fries.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 103 (October). Presser, Stephen. 1978. “A Tale of Two Judges ” Northwestern Univ. Law Review 73 (March/April). CROSS REFERENCE Whiskey Rebellion. FRISK A term used in criminal law to refer to the superficial running of the hands over the body of an individual by a law enforcement agent or official in order to determine whether such individual is holding an illegal object, such as a weapon or narcotics. A frisk is distinguishable from a search, which is a more extensive examination of an individual. CROSS REFERENCE Stop and Frisk. FRIVOLOUS Of minimal importance; legally worthless. A FRIVOLOUS suit is one without any legal merit. In some cases, such an action might be brought in BAD FAITH for the purpose of harrassing the DEFENDANT. In such a case, the individual bringing the frivolous suit might be liable for DAMAGES for MALICIOUS PROSECUTION. A frivolous appeal is one that is completely lacking merit, since no reviewable question has been raised therein. FROLIC Activities performed by an employee during working hours that are not considered to be in the course of his or her employment, because they are for the employee ’s personal purposes only. The doctrine of RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR makes a principal liable for the torts of his or her agent occurring during the COURSE OF EMPLOYMENT. This is based on the concept that a principal has control over his or her agent’s behavior. If an agent was hired to drive from point A to point B, and, throu gh reckless driving, hit a pedestri- an along the way, the principal would ordinarily be held liable. If, however, the agent was engaged in FROLIC, the principal would not be liable. This might occur, for example, if an employee were hired to transport goods from point A to poi nt B and made severa l detours along the way for personal reasons. If the employee became involved in an accident while on a frolic, the employer would not be liable unless it could be established that he or she was negligent in the hiring or supervision of the employee. FRONTIERO V. RICHARDSON The fight to end gender DISCRIMINATION in the U.S. began in the nineteenth century with the women’s SUFFRAGE movement and the enact- ment of laws that protected the property that women brought into marriages. By the 1960s the focus had shifted to ending pay and benefit discrimination based on gender. By the early 1970s, Congress had passed the EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT (ERA) of the U.S. Constitut ion, which proclaimed equality between the genders. RATIFICATION appeared close by 1973, as 38 states had ratified the ERA. The court system also became an arena for the issue of gender discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court began to consider cases of gender discrimination but hesitated to place gender in the same category as race or ethnicity as a SUSPECT CLASSIFICATION inviting the most rigorous CONSTITUTIONAL review. However, a plurality of the court endorsed gender as a suspect classification in Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677, 93 S. Ct. 1764, 36 L. Ed.2d 583 (1973). This important case pushed the Court, and society in general, to recognize the legal disabilities that women had lived with for centuries. Though not a LANDMARK decision, Frontiero signaled the willingness of the high court to take gender issues seriously. The facts of the case illustrated the disparate treatment built into U.S. society concerning the role of women. Sharron Frontiero was a GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 8FRISK U.S. Air Force officer who was married to Joseph Frontiero, a full-time studen t at a college near the Alabama base where Sharron was stationed. Congress had passed a law that provided fringe benefits to members of the armed forces in the hopes that they would re- enlist and pursue a military career. Under this law, a member of the armed forces with dependents was entitled to an increased housing allowance and comprehensive dependent medi- cal and dental care. However, the law made a distinction between male and female members. A serviceman could claim his wife as a dependent simply by certifying that they were married. A servicewomen such as Frontiero, however, could not claim her husband as a dependent unless she proved that he was dependent upon her for more than one-half of his support. Joseph Frontiero’s living expenses totaled $354 per month, but he received $250 per month in veteran’s benefits. Therefore, he was not dependent on his wife for more than one-half of his support. Based on these calcula- tions, the Air Force denied Sharron Fronteiro the additional benefits. Frontiero sued the Air Force, alleging that the difference in treatment was unconstitutional discrimination under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Alabama rejected this claim, with one judge dissenting. Frontiero, with the help of the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (ACLU) and its ATTORNEY, RUTH BADER GINSBURG , took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court, in an 8–1 decision, overturned the lower RULING and held that the salary supplement law violated the Due Process Clause. However, the justices could not agree on the constitutional standard of review that should be applied to allegations of gender discrimination. In a plurali- ty opinion for four justices, Justice William Brennan concluded that gender, like race, was a suspect classification. The suspect classification standard holds that laws which classify people according to race, ethnicity, or RELIGION are inherently suspect and that they are subject to the STRICT SCRUTINY test of JUDICIAL REVIEW. Strict scrutiny requires the state to provide a compelling interest for the challenged law and to demon- strate that the law has been narrowly tailored to achieve its purpose. If a suspect classification is not involved, the Court will apply the RATIONAL BASIS TEST , which requires the state to provide any type of reasonable ground for the legislation. Under strict scrutiny, the government has a difficult burden to meet, while under the rational basis test, most laws will be upheld. In 1971, the Court, in Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71, 92 S. Ct. 251, 30 L. Ed.2d 225, extended the application of the EQUAL PROTECTION clause of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT to gender-based dis- crimination. However, the Court had used the rational basis test. Nevertheless, Justice Brennan argued that Reed IMPLIED that gender was a suspect classification and that strict scrutiny should apply. There were four reasons in his view for making gender a suspect class. First, gender was, like race, an “immutable” accident of birth that was IRRELEVANT to the purpose of the FEDERAL law. Second, Brennan pointed to the long history in the U.S. of discrimination based on gender. He noted that statute books had been filled with “gross, stereotyped distinctions between the sexes.” Although women had seen their lot improve in modern America, they still faced “pervasive, although at times more subtle, discrimination in our educational institutions, in the job market and, perhaps most conspicu- ously, in the political arena.” In addition, gender, like race, was a highly visible trait. Finally, Brennan acknowledged the ERA, which made clear that gender classifications were “inherently invidious.” Based on these factors, Brennan had no trouble ruling the law unconstitutional. The government could not show a compelling interest for the benefit discrimination. It claimed that administrative efficiency justified the law, as most members of the armed forces were men. It would have cost more to process applications required from Frontiero and the small percentage of women in uniform. This was not a compelling interest for Brennan and the plurality. Justice LEWIS POWELL, in a concurring opinion joined by Chief Justice WARREN BURGER and Justice HARRY BLACKMUN, agreed that the law was uncon- stitutional. Powell disagreed with the plurality’s conclusion that strict scrutiny was warranted. He contended that the Court should not make that conclusion while the ratification of the ERA was pending. By declaring gender a suspect clarifica- tion, the judicial branch would, in effect, trump the ERA. In his view, it was better to allow the states to determine whether gender should be GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION FRONTIERO V. RICHARDSON 9 regarded as a suspect class. The seven-year ratification period had run for just one year, so the Court should refrain from ruling. Powell concluded that the rational basis test applied in Reed worked in this case as well. The government did not have a reasonable justification for unequal treatment of service members. Justice WILLIAM REHNQUIST dissented, citing the reasoning of the lower court to show that the administrative savings from not requiring men to justify dependent benefit eligibility provided a rational basis for the law. By failing to gain a majority, the court did not ESTABLISH gender as a suspect classification requiring strict scrutiny. By the end of the decade, the ERA was losing support. The time period for ratification was extended until 1982, but that deadline passed and the ERA died. The Court, in Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 97 S. Ct. 451, 50 L. Ed.2d 397 (197 6), settled on an “intermediate scrutiny” standar d for gender discrimination. Ther efore, classifications by gender must serve important governmental objectives and must be substantially related to the achievement of those objectives. FURTHER READINGS Cole, David 1984. “Strategies of Difference: Litigating for Women’s Rights in a Man’s World.” Law & Inequality 2 (February). Matthews, Donna Meredith. 1998. “Avoiding Gender Equality.” Women’s Rights Law Reporter 19 (winter). Stephens, Otis H., Jr., and John M. Scheb II. 2002. American Constitutional Law. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. CROSS REFERENCE Women’s Rights. FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE The fruit of the poisonous tree is a doctrine that prohibits the use of secondary evidence in trial that was culled directly from primary evidence derived from an illegal search and seizure. The FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE doctrine is an offspring of the EXCLUSIONARY RULE. The exclusionary rule mandates that EVIDENCE obtained as a direct result from an illegal arrest, an unreasonable search, or a coercive interro- gation must be excluded from trial. Under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, evidence that is derived as an indirect result from an illegal arrest, unreasonable search, or coercive interrogation may also be excluded from trial. Like the exclusionary rule, the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine was established primar- ily to deter law enforcement from violating rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The name fruit of the poisonous tree is thus a metaphor: the poisonous tree is evidence obtained during an illegal arrest, search, or interrogation by law enforcement. The fruit of this poisonous tree is evidence later discovered because of knowledge gained from the prior illegal search, arrest, or interrogation. The poisonous tree and the poisonous fruit are both excluded from a criminal trial. Example Assume that a police officer searches the automobile of a person stopped for a minor traffic violation. This violation is the only reason the officer conducts the search; nothing indicates that the driver is impaired by drugs or alcohol, and no other circumstances would lead a reasonable officer to believe that the car contains evidence of a crime. This is an unreasonable search under the FOURTH AMEND- MENT to the U.S. Constitution. Assume further that the officer finds a small amount of marijuana in the vehicle. The driver is subsequently charged with possession of a controlled substance and chooses to go to trial. The marijuana evidence culled from this search is excluded from trial under the exclusionary rule, and the criminal charges are dropped for lack of evidence. Also suppose that before the original charges are dismissed, the police officers ask a magistrate or judge for a warrant to search the home of the driver. The only evidence used as a basis, or probable cause, for the warrant is the small amount of marijuana fo und in the vehicle search. The magistrate, unaware that the marijuana was uncovered in an illegal search, approves the warrant for the home search. The officers search the driver’s home and find a lawn mower stolen from a local park facility. Under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, the la wn mower must be excluded from any trial on theft charges because the search of the house was based on evidence gathered in a previous illegal search. History and Development of the Doctrine Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States: The Supreme Court Lays the Foundation for GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 10 FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE Later Development The Supreme Court first hinted at the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine in Silverthorne Lumber CO. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 40 S. Ct. 182, 64 L. Ed. 319 (1920). In Silverthorne, DEFENDANT Frederick W. Silver- thorne was arrested on suspicion of FEDERAL violations in connection with his lum ber business. Government agents then conducted a warrantless, illegal search of the Silverthorne offices. Based on the evidence discovered in the search, the prosecution requested more docu- ments, and the court ordered Silverthorne to produce the documents. Silverthorne refused and was jailed fo r CONTEMPT of court. On APPEAL, the Supreme Court reversed the contempt judgment. In its argument to the Court, the government conceded that the search was illegal and that the prosecution was not entitled to keep the documents obtained in it. However, the government held that it was entitled to copy the documents and use knowledge gained from the documents for future prosecution. The Court rejected this argument. According to the Court, “[T]he essence of forbidding the acquisition of evi- dence in a certain way is that it shall not be used at all.” Silverthorne concerned only evi- dence gained in the first illegal search or seizure, but the w ording of the opinion paved the way for the exclusion of evidence gained in subse- quent searches and seizures. Nardone v. United States: The Supreme Court First Invokes the Doctrine The term fruit of the poisonous tree was first used in Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 60 S. Ct. 266, 84 L. Ed. 307 (1939). In Nardone, Frank C. Nardone appealed his convictions for smuggling and concealing alcohol and for CONSPIRACY to do the same. In an earlier decision, the Supreme Court had ruled that an interception of Nardone’s telephone conversations by government agents violated the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.A. § 605). The issue before the Court was whether the trial court erred in refusing to allow Nardone’s lawyer to question the prosecution on whether, and in what way, it had used information obtained in the illegal wire tapping. In reversing Nardone’s convictions, the Court stated that once a defendant has estab- lished that evidence was illegally seized, the trial court “must give opportunity, however closely confined, to the ACCUSED to prove that a substantial portion of the case against him was a fruit of the poisonous tree.” The Nardone opinion established that evidence obtained in violation of a statute was subject to exclusion if it was obtained in violation of a statutory right. Wong Sun v. United States: The Doctrine I s Held Applicable to Fourth Amendment Violations The fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine was first held applicable to Fourth Amendment violations in the LANDMARK case Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S. Ct. 407, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441 (1963). The Court in Wong Sun also set forth the test for determining how closely DERIVATIVE EVIDENCE must be related to illegally obtained evidence to warrant exclusion. In Wong Sun, a number of federal narcotics agents had arrested Hom Way in San Francisco at 2:00 a.m. on June 4, 1959, on suspicion of narcotics activity. Although the agents had been watching Way for six weeks, they did not have a warrant for his arrest. Way was searched, and the agents found heroin in his possession. After his arrest, Way stated that he had bough t an ounce of heroin the night before from someone known to him as “Blackie Toy,” the proprietor of Oye’s Laundry on Leavenworth Street. Though Way had never been an informant for the police, the agents cruised Leavenworth Street. At 6:00 a.m., they stopped at Oye’s Laundry. The rest of the agents remained out of sight while Agent Alton Wong rang the bell. When James Wah Toy answered the door, Wong said he was there for laundry and dry cleaning. Toy answered that he did not open until 8:00 a.m. and started to close the door. Wong then identified himself as a federal narcotics agent. Toy slammed the door and began to run down the hallway, through the laundry, and to his bedroom, where his wife and child were sleeping. Again without a warrant, Wong and the other agents broke open the door, followed Toy, and arrested him. A search of the premise s uncovered no illegal drugs. While Toy was in handcuffs, one of the agents told him that Way had said Toy sold Way narcotics. Toy denied selling narcotics, but then said he knew someone who had. When asked who, Toy answered that he knew the man only as “Johnny.” Toy told the officers that “Johnny” lived on Eleventh Avenue, and then he described the house. Toy also volunteered that “Johnny” kept about an ounce of heroin in his bedroom and that he and “Johnny” had smoked some heroin the night before. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE 11 The agents left and located the house on Eleventh Avenue. Without a search or an ARREST WARRANT , they entered the home, went to the bedroom, and found Johnny Yee. After a “discussion” with the agents, Yee surrendered a little less than one ounce of heroin. The same morning, Yee and Toy were taken to the office of the Bureau of Narcotics. While in custody there, Yee stated that he had gotten the heroin about four days earlier from Toy and another person he knew as “Sea Dog.” The agents then asked Toy about “Sea Dog,” and Toy identified “Sea Dog” as Wong Sun. Some of the agents took Toy to Sun’s neighborhood, where Toy pointed out Sun’s house. The agents walked past Sun’s wife and arrested Sun, who had been sleeping in his bedroom. A search of the premises turned up no illegal drugs. Toy and Yee were arraigned in federal court on June 4, 1959, and Sun was arraigned the next day. All were released without BAIL. A few days later, Toy, Yee, and Sun were interrogated separately at the Narcotics Bureau by Agent William Wong. Sun and Toy made written statements but refused to sign them. Sun and Toy were tried jointly on charges of transporting and concealing narcotics in viola- tion of 21 U.S.C.A. § 174. Way did not testify at the trial. The government offered Yee as its principal witness, but Yee recanted his state- ment to Agent William Wong and invoked his FIFTH AMENDMENT right against SELF-INCRIMINA- TION . With only four items IN EVIDENC E , Sun and Toy were convicted by the court in a BENCH TRIAL . The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions (Wong Sun, 288 F.2d 366 [9th Cir. 1961]). Sun and Toy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court accepted the case and reversed the convictions. The Court began its analysis by noting that the court of appeals had held that the arrests of both Sun and Toy were illegal. The question was whether the four items in evidence against Sun and Toy were ADMISSIBLE despite the illegality of the arrests. The four pieces of evidence were the oral statements made by Toy in his bedroom at the time of his arrest, the heroin surrendered to the agents by Yee, Toy’s unsigned statement to Agent William Wong, and Sun’s unsigned statement to Agent William Wong. The government submitted several theories to support the proposition that the statements made by Toy in his bedroom were properly admitted at trial. The Court rejected all the arguments. According to the Court, the arrest was illegal because the agents had no evidence supporting it other than the word of Way, an arrestee who had never been an informer for law enforcement. The officers did not even know whether Toy was the person they were looking for. Furthermore, Toy’s flight did not give the officers probable cause to arrest Toy: Agent Alton Wong had first posed as a customer, and this made Toy’s flight ambiguous and not necessarily the product of a GUILTY mind. Thus, under the exclusionary rule, the oral statements made by Toy in his bedroom should not have been allowed at trial. The Court then turned to the actual drug evidence seized from Yee. The Court, in deference to Nardone, stated, “We need not hold that all evidence is ‘fruit of the poisonous tree.’” Instead, the question in such a situation was “‘whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.’” According to the Court, the narcotics in Wong Sun were indeed “come at” by use of Toy’s statements. Toy’s statements were, in fact, the only evidence used to justify entrance to Yee’s bedroom. Since the statements by Toy were INADMISSIBLE, the narcotics in Yee ’s posses- sion were also inadmissible, as fruit of the poisonous tree. The Court went on to hold that Sun’s written statements about Toy should also have been excluded as HEARSAY, and the Court ultimately overturned Toy’s CONVICTION. The Court did not reverse Sun’s conviction. The heroin in Yee’s possession was admissible at trial, as was Sun’s own statement. According to the Court, “The exclusion of narcotics as to Toy was required solely by their tainted relationship to information unlawfully obtained from Toy, and not by any official impropriety connected with their surrender by Yee. ” The Court did, however, grant Sun a new trial, because it was unable to conclude that Toy’s statements, erroneously admitted at trial as evidence against Sun, had not affected the verdict. The Court advised that on REMAND and in similar cases, “particular care ought to be taken . when the crucial element of the accused’s possession is proved solely by his own admissions.” GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 12 FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE Exceptions There are three main exceptions to the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine: (1) the indepen- dent source exception; (2) the inevitable discovery exception; and (3) the attenuation exception. Under the independent source ex- ception, the prosecution may use evidence that was derived from an illegally tainted source, if the police could also have obtained the evidenc e from an untainte d source. For example, a warrant to obtain a defendant’s cellular tele- phone records was properly issued, notwith- standing that those records had already been examined PURSUANT to an improperly issued SUBPOENA, since the AFFIDAVIT of probable cause for the warrant was not based on any informa- tion obtained through the subpoena and there was a sufficient probability that the defendant’s telephone records would reveal information useful to solving the crime at issue (Commis- sioner v. McEnany, 446 Pa. Super. 609, 667 A.2d 1143 [1995]). The inevitable discovery exception to the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine is a variation on the independent source exception. But it differs in that the question is not whether the police did in fact acquire certain evidence by reliance upon an untainted source but instead whether the illegally obtained evidence would have been inevitably discovered in a lawful manner. For example, suppose federal agents visit a suspect’s house and interview the suspect’s wife about his whereabouts. After the interview, the police conduct an illegal search of the house and seize some evidence. After completing the search, the police leave the defendant’spremises only to catch the defendant outside his house with drug-making equipment in his possession. The defendant cannot exclude the drug-making equipment as a fruit of the illegal search of his home because the police would have inevitably discovered the defendant carrying the equipment outside his home anyway. The attenuation exception to the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine permits the introduc- tion of incriminating evidence against the defendant when that evidence itself is seized lawfully and the seizure occurs after a significant passage of time and events from the time of an earlier police illegality. For example, evidence obtained from a defendant who is being illegally detained at his house may not be excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree when the defendant voluntarily gives the police an incriminating item almost an hour after the DETENTION begins, and the detention is congenial in nature and not marked by threats or violence. In Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 126 S. Ct. 2159, 165 L. Ed. 2d 56 (2006), the Supreme Court further clarified the attenuation excep- tion to the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine and the exclusionary rule as a whole. In Hudson, the state of Michigan admitted to violating the knock-and-announce rule governing the length of time police must wait after knocking on a suspect’s door before breaking in to preserve incriminating evidence for trial. However, the state argued that the evidence seized after the illegal ENTRY should still be admissible at trial because the REMEDY of exclusion would not adequately balance the policy justification underlying the exclusionary rule, namely the DETERRENCE of police misconduct, with the interests of society in crime prevention and punishment. In a 5–4 decision, the Court agreed. The Court first identified the interests protected by the knock-and-announce rule: (1) protection of human life and limb, because an unannounced entry may provoke violence in the form of self- defense by a surprised resident; (2) protection of property by AVOIDANCE of forcible entry; and (3) protection of the privacy and dignity of those inside the house. The Court next assumed that exclusion of the evidence seized following the illegal entry would advance the interests underlying the knock-and-announce rule. But “what the knock-and-announce rule has never protected, ” the Court said, “is one’s interest in preventing the government from seeing or taking evidence described in a warrant, [and] since the interests that were violated in this case have nothing to do with the seizure of the evidence, the exclusionary rule is inapplicable.” But quite apart from the requirement of unattenuated causation, the Court continued, the exclusionary rule has never been applied except where its “deterrence benefits outweigh its substantial social costs.” The costs of applying the exclusionary rule in Hudson, the Court said, were considerable. In addition to the grave adverse consequence that exclusion of relevant incriminating evidence always entails (i.e., the risk of releasing dangerous criminals into society), the Court opined, imposing such a GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE 13 massive remedy for knock-and-announce viola- tions would generate a constant flood of litigation, with defendants claiming law enforce- ment failed to observe the rule. Allowing defendants to follow this path would overwhelm the criminal justice system with knock-and- announce complaints, the Court concluded, and result in a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for untold numbers of defendants. The Court refused to let this happen. Legal scholars anticipated the Court to revisit the exclusionary rule, the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, and exceptions to that doctrine as the court’s personnel continued to change in the following years. FURTHER READINGS Bloom, Robert M., and Mark S. Brodin. 2006. Criminal Procedure: The Constitution and The Police. 5th ed. New York, NY: Aspen Publishers. Fauver, Deborah. 2003. “Evidence not Suppressed Despite Failure to Give Miranda Warning.” Daily Record (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis Countian) (October 14). Hurley, Lawrence. 2003. “Reversal Leaves Federal Case Intact, Prosecutor Says.” Daily Record (Baltimore, MD) (June 2). McCrackin, Sidney M., 1985. “New York v. Quarles: The Public Safety Exception to Miranda.” Tulane Law Review 59 (March). CROSS REFERENCES Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure. FRUSTRATION In the law of contracts, the destruction of the value of the performance that has been bargained for by the promisor as a result of a supervening event. FRUSTRATION of purpose has the effect of discharging the promisor from his or her obligation t o perform, in spite of the fact that performance by the promisee is possible, since the purpose for which the contract was entered into has been destroyed. For example, an individual reserves a hall for a wedding. In the event that the wedding is called off, the value of the agreement would be destroyed. Even though the promisee could still literally perform the obligation by reserving and providing the hall for the wedding, the purpose for which the contract was entered into was defeated. Apart from a nonrefundable deposit fee, the promisor is ordinarily discharged from any contractual duty to rent the hall. In order for frustration to be use d as a DEFENSE for nonperformance, the value of the anticipated counterperformance must have been substantially destroyed and the frustrating occurrence must have been beyond the con- templation of the parties at the time the agreement was made. FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE An individual who, after having committed a criminal offense, leaves the jurisdiction of the court where such crime has taken place or hides within such jurisdiction to escape prosecution. A FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE who flees from one state to another may be subjected to EXTRADITION in the state to which he or she has fled. FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850 The FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850 mandated that states to which escaped slaves fled were obligated to return them to their masters upon their discovery and subjected persons who helped runaway slaves to criminal sanctions. The first The Compromise of 1850 included the Fugitive Slave Act, which mandated that citizens assist in the capture of runaway slaves. Pictured here is a handbill warning African Americans in Boston to avoid law enforcement agents empowered to enforce the act. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION 14 FRUSTRATION Fugitive Slave Act was enacted by Congress in 1793 but as the northern states abolished SLAVERY, the act was rarely enforced. The southern states bitterly resented the northern attitude toward slavery, which was ultimately demonstrated by the existence of the Underground Railroad, an arrangement by which abolitionists helped run- away slaves obtain freedom. To placate the South, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (9 Stat. 462) was enacted by Congress as part of the COMPROMISE OF 1850. It imposed a duty on all citizens to assist FEDERAL marshals to enforce the law or be prosecuted for their failure to do so. The act also required that when a slave was captured, he or she was to be brought before a federal court or COMMISSIONER, but the slave would not be tried by a jury no r would his or her testimony be given much weight. The statements of the slave’s alleged owner were the main EVIDENCE, and the alleged owner was not even required to appear in court. Northern reaction against the Fugitive Slave Act was strong, and many states enacted laws that nullified its effect, making it worthless. In cases where the law was enforced, threats or acts of mob violence often required the dispatch of federal troops. Pers ons convicted of violating the act were often heavily fined, imprisoned, or both. The refusal of northern states to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act was alleged by South Carolina as one reason for its secession from the Union prior to the onset of the Civil War. The acts of 1793 and 1850 remained legally operative until their REPEAL by Congress on June 28, 1864 (13 Stat. 200). v FULBRIGHT, JAMES WILLIAM James William Fulbright served as a U.S. senator from Arkansas from 1945 to 1974. Fulbright played an important role in shaping U.S. foreign policy as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His opposition to the VIETNAM WAR and to unbridled presidential power in foreign affairs contributed to major shifts in the conduct of U.S. foreign relations. Fulbright was born in Sumner, Missouri, on April 9, 1905, the son of a prosperous Arkansas businessman. Fulbright was the youngest of four children born to Jay and Roberta Waugh Fulbright. His father was a banker, farmer, and businessman. His mother wrote a column for the family-owned Fayetteville newspaper. He entered the University of Arkansas at the age of 16, and graduated in 1925. From 1925 to 1928 Fulbright attended Oxford University, in England, as a Rhodes Scholar. This educational experience deepened his intellectual interests and provided a strong background for public life. He graduated from GEORGE WASHINGTON University Law School in 1934, and then taught at that school for two years. In 1936 he accepted a teaching position at the University of Arkansas. In 1939 he was appointed president of the University of Arkansas. At age 34 he was the youngest colleg e president in the United States. His tenure was short, however, as a new governor dismissed him in 1941. Fulbright then turned his focus to politics. As a Democrat he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1942. In 1945 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. His previous time as a Rhodes Scholar led him to sponsor the Fulb- right Act of 1946, 22 U.S.C.A. § 245 et seq., which awards scholarships to U.S. citizens for study and research abroad and to citizens from other nations for study in the United States. The establishment of the Fulbright Scholarship exchange program has proved to be an enduring legacy. Fulbright, although personally a moderate on matters of race, believed in the 1950s that he needed to move to the right on race issues to protect his political future in Arkansas. This led James W. Fulbright. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS POWER TENDS TO CONFUSE ITSELF WITH VIRTUE AND A GREAT NATION IS PECULIARLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO THE IDEA THAT ITS POWER IS A SIGN OF GOD’S FAVOR. —JAMES W. F ULBRIGHT GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION FULBRIGHT, JAMES WILLIAM 15 him to sign the Southern Manifesto, a 1956 DOCUMENT signed by southern senators and representatives that expressed their displeasure at the Supreme Court’s decision in BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION (Brown I), 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954), which struck down state-sponsored racially segregated public school systems, and Brown v. Board of Education (Brown II), 349 U.S. 294, 75 S. Ct. 753, 99 L. Ed. 1083 (1955), in which the Court directed that schools be desegregated with “all DELIBERATE speed.” The manifesto condemned these deci- sions as abuses of judicial power and approved of Southern resistance, by all legal means, to the demand for desegregation. Fulbright doomed his national political prospects by signing the manifesto. In the 1950s Fulbright became a close friend and colleague of Senate Majority Leader LYNDON B . JOHNSON , a Democrat from Texas. In 1959 Johnson engineered Fulbright’s elevation to chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Following the election of JOHN F. KENNEDY as president in 1960, Johnson, now VICE PRESIDENT , urged Kennedy to appoint Fulbright SECRETARY OF STATE. Johnson’s efforts failed, in large part because Fulbright had supported the Southern Manifesto and racial segregation. During the Kennedy administration, Fulbright opposed the United States’sindirect involvement in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban exiles made a futile attempt to overthrow the premier of Cuba, Fidel Castro. When the Vietnam War escalated under President Johnson, Fulbright became a consistent critic of presidential foreign policy. Fulbright had sup- ported Johnson’s Vietnam policy in the early part of the conflict, sponsoring the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-408, 78 Stat. 384, which allowed Johnson to wage war without seeking a congressional declaration. Within a year, however, Fulbright had become convinced that Johnson had misled him about events that had brought about the 1964 resolution. Fulbright used the Foreign Relations Com- mittee as a platform to criticize Vietnam policy. In January 1966, he held televised hearings on Vietnam. Leading opponents of the war testified that the conflict was going badly and that the United States did not have a legitimat e role to play in Vietnam. Fulbright called Secretary of State Dean Rusk to appear three times during the hearings, repeatedly asking hard questions about U.S Asian policy. These hearings and additional ones in 1967 gave credibility to the antiwar movement and damaged the Johnson administration’s credibility. Skeptical about U.S. foreign policy and the attitudes of those who conduct it, Fulbright criticized policy makers in his books, Old Myths and New Realities (1964) and The Arrogance of Power (1967). His opposition continued during the Nixon administration. In 1974 Fulbright was defeated by Dale L. Bumpers in the Democratic primary election. He served as a Washington lobbyist following his defeat and remained active in the Fulbright Scholarship program. In 1993 President BILL CLINTON awarded to Fulbright the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to a ▼▼ ▼▼ James William Fulbright 1905–1995 19001900 19501950 19751975 20002000 19251925 ❖❖ 1905 Born, Sumner, Mo. 1914–18 World War I 1939–45 Workd War II 1950–53 Korean War 1961–73 Vietnam War 1925–28 Attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar 1939–41 Served as president of University of Arkansas 1942–45 Represented Arkansas in U.S. House of Representatives 1946 Sponsored the Fulbright Act of 1946, which funded the Fulbright scholarship program 1956 Signed the Southern Manifesto 1959 Appointed chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee ◆ ◆ ◆ 1945–74 Represented Arkansas in U.S. Senate 1966–67 Became vocal critic of Johnson's Vietnam policy ◆ 1967 The Arrogance of Power published 1974 Defeated in Democratic primary by Dale Bumpers 1975–93 Worked as lobbyist for law firm of Hogan and Hartson 1995 Died, Washington, D.C. ◆ GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 16 FULBRIGHT, JAMES WILLIAM civilian by the FEDERAL government, in honor of Fulbright’s dedication to public service. Fulb- right died of a stroke in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1995. FURTHER READINGS Halberstam, David. 1993. The Best and the Brightest. New York: Ballantine. O’Neill, William L. 2005. Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s. Chicago: Dee. Woods, Randall Bennett. 2006. J. William Fulbright: A Biography. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univ. CROSS REFERENCES Cuban Missile Crisis; Vietnam War. FULL FAITH AND CREDIT CLAUSE The Full Faith and Credit Clause—Article IV, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution—provides that the various states must recognize LEGISLATIVE ACTS , public records, and judicial decisions of the other states within the United States. It states that “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.” The statute that implements the clause, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1738, further specifies that “a state’s preclu- sion rules should control matters originally litigated in that state.” The FULL FAITH AND CREDIT CLAUSE ensures that judicial decisions rendered by the courts in one state are recognized and honored in every other state. It also prevents parties from moving to another state to escape enforcement of a judgment or to relitigate a controversy already decided elsewhere, a prac- tice known as forum shopping. In drafting the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the Framers of the Constitution were motivated by a desire to unify their new country while preserving the autonomy of the states. To that end, they sought to guarantee that judgments rendered by the courts of one state would not be ignored by the courts of other states. The Supreme Court reiterated the Framers’ INTENT when it held that the Full Faith and Credit Clause precluded any further litigation of a question previously decided by an Illinois court in Milwaukee County v. M. E. White Co., 296 U.S. 268, 56 S. Ct. 229, 80 L. Ed. 220 (1935). The Court held that by including the clause in the Constitution, the Framers intended to make the states “integral parts of a single nation throughout which a remedy upon a just obligation might be demanded as of right, irrespective of the state of its origin.” The Full Faith and Credit Clause is invoked primarily to enforce judgments. When a valid judgment is rendered by a court that has JURISDICTION over the parties, and the parties receive proper notice of the action and a reasonable opportunity to be heard, the Full Faith and Credit Clau se requires that the judgment receive the same effect in other states as in the state where it is entered. A party who obtains a judgment in one state may petition the court in another state to enforce the judgment. When this is done, the parties do not relitigate the issues, and the court in the second state is obliged to fully recognize and honor the judgment of the first court in determining the enforceability of the judgment and the proce- dure for its execution. The Full Faith and Credit Clause has also been invoked to recognize the validity of a MARRIAGE. Traditionally, every state honored a marriage legally contracted in any other state. However, in 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court held that Hawaii’s statute restricting legal marriage to parties of the opposite sex estab- lishes a sex-based classification, which is subject to STRICT SCRUTINY if challenged on EQUAL PROTECTION grounds (Baehr v. Lewin, 852 P.2d 44, 74 Haw. 530). Although the court did not recognize a CONSTITUTIONAL right to same-sex marriage, it raised the poss ibility that a successful equal protection challenge to the state’s marriage laws could eventually lead to state-sanctioned same-sex marriages. In response to the Baehr case, Congress in 1996 passed the DEFENSE of Marriage Act (110 Stat. § 2419), which defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman for FEDERAL purposes and expressly grants states the right to refuse to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Full Faith and Credit Clause was applied to new matters. CHILD CUSTODY determinations had historically fallen under the jurisdiction of state courts, and before the 1970s, other states did not accord them full faith and credit enforcement. As a result, a divorced parent who was unhappy with one state’s custody decision could sometimes obtain a more favorable RULING from another state. This was an incentive for a dissatisfied parent to kidnap a child and move to another state in order to petition for custody. In response to this situation, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) was adopted GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION FULL FAITH AND CREDIT CLAUSE 17 . Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to a ▼▼ ▼▼ James William Fulbright 19 05 19 95 19001900 1 950 1 950 19 751 9 75 20002000 19 251 9 25 ❖❖ 19 05 Born, Sumner, Mo. 1914–18 World War I 1939– 45 Workd. taken . when the crucial element of the accused’s possession is proved solely by his own admissions.” GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 12 FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE Exceptions There. always entails (i.e., the risk of releasing dangerous criminals into society), the Court opined, imposing such a GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE 13 massive

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