From Law Office to Oval Office

Every four years, Americans go to the polls to elect the individual who will serve as our chief executive officer, commander in chief of the armed forces, head of state, and who, since the Truman administration, is known by the acronym, POTUS – President of the United States.  These individuals have brought numerous skills and diverse experiences to our highest office.  These experiences have included: architect, soldier, diplomat, Secretary of State, governor, postmaster, ordained Minister, school teacher, sheriff, journalist, U.S. Solicitor General, judge and vice president of the United States.

Significantly, of our 44 presidents (if one counts Grover Cleveland twice), there have been 25 individuals who were lawyers before becoming presidents, including William Howard Taft who became Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after he served as President.  In addition to Taft, who argued before justices he had appointed, seven other lawyer-presidents have appeared before the United States Supreme Court.  The most recent lawyer-president to do so was Richard Nixon when he argued the case of Time v. Hill in 1966.

Some individuals actively practiced law.  John Adams combined a lengthy career as an attorney with major contributions to the founding of a new nation.  His son, John Quincy Adams, successfully argued that the kidnapped and sold-as-slaves Africans should be treated as free men and released in Amistad [Part of our audio/visual collection available on display].   Rutherford Hayes and Benjamin Harrison handled several high profile cases, including sensational murder trials.   Abraham Lincoln was involved in more than 5000 cases, spanning his 25 year career.   He was also a postmaster and a captain in the Black Hawk war.  Lincoln was a skilled draftsman.  He utilized this skill in crafting a legally binding executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation.

Some presidents studied the law to further political aspirations.  Some, such as Lincoln and James Garfield, set their own course of study and read the law before being admitted to the bar.  Garfield is better known as a teacher, college professor and president, soldier, congressman and a Minister of the Disciples of Christ.  Others took the more traditional approach and attended law schools.  President Gerald Ford, in fact, attended three including a summer spent at the University of North Carolina School of Law.  Norman Gross has profiled the men who were both lawyers and president of the United States in his treatise,  America’s Lawyer-Presidents: From Law Office to Oval Office [Available at on display - Call No. KF353 .A46 2004 ]. 

Test your knowledge of America’s Lawyer-Presidents by taking the quiz sponsored by the American Bar Association.

 - Susan Catterall -

Parading through history

Did you know that the first St. Patrick’s Day parade did not take place in Ireland, but was held in New York City on March 17, 1762.  According to History.com, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through NYC proudly playing their music in order to show pride and reconnect with their Irish heritage, and other Irishman serving in the United States Army.  Then, “in 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world’s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly three million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Savannah also celebrate the day with parades involving between 10,000 and 20,000 participants.” 

With tens of thousands of people attending, participating, drinking green beer, and generally having a good time at St. Patrick’s Day celebrations world-wide, inevitably something gets broken, damaged, destroyed, or just plain ol’ creamed.  However, in some states, such as Louisiana, the state legislatures specifically limit the liability for property losses connected with St. Patrick’s Day parades. For example, § 2796.1. Limitation of liability for loss connected with St. Patrick’s Day parades or any ethnic parade of the Louisiana code states, “Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no person shall have a cause of action against any organization which presents St. Patrick’s Day parades or other street parades connected with any ethnic celebration … for any loss or damage caused by any member thereof or related to the parades presented by such organization, unless said loss or damage was caused by the deliberate and wanton act or gross negligence of the organization.”

Louisiana courts further define the scope of gross negligence in Tauzier v. St. Patrick Parade Committee of Jefferson, Inc., App. 5 Cir.2002, 807 So.2d 1106, 01-1138 (La.App. 5 Cir. 1/29/02) by summarizing that a  “sponsor of St. Patrick’s Day parade, in which float rider was injured when struck on head by speaker knocked from its mooring atop float by overhanging tree branch, was not guilty of gross negligence such as required to hold parade sponsor liable for loss or damages related to such parade, despite evidence that similar accident occurred on same float in preceding year; sponsor was aware of need for care and attempted to ensure that float complied with height restriction.” For more case law on this subject, run a search in your jurisdiction with this topic and key number: Public Amusement And Entertainment 79

Not only are there tort issues surrounding St. Patrick’s Day parades, but the Supreme Court has considered historical constitutional concerns raised in regards to the First Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech as well.  In an article for the New England Law Review, Gretchen Van Ness wrote,

On June 19, 1995, in the case of Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Group of Boston, 115 S. Ct. 2338 (1995), the United States Supreme Court handed down this unremarkable ruling: under the First Amendment, the state may not require private citizens who organize a parade to include in that parade a group imparting a message the organizers do not wish to convey. The Court’s unanimous pronouncement, presented in fewer than twelve pages of text, sidestepped the most compelling issues raised by the case and brought to an end a historic, even epic, three-year civil rights struggle that had occupied the attention of numerous courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts commission Against Discrimination (MCAD),   the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and, of course, the court of public opinion. In the course of over three years of litigation, two different stories were told about this Evacuation Day/St. Patrick’s Day Parade (Parade). The state court decisions tell one story, about an annual civic celebration, open to the public generally, that fell within the reach of the Massachusetts public accommodations law. Unwilling to give effect to the state’s anti-discrimination law, however, the United States Supreme Court decision tells a different story, about a private event and private actors fighting off gay extremists and government-imposed speech. What is the truth about this Parade? Perhaps it no longer matters, as the Supreme Court has spoken, and its words now tell the official history of this Parade. The incredible true story of Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the United States Supreme Court, Gretchen Van Ness, 30 New Eng.L.Rev. 625 (1996).

Dwight G. Duncan supplements and adds to Van Ness’s sentiments with his own article, Parading the First Amendment through the streets of South Boston, 30 New Eng.L.Rev. 663 (1996).

Can you think of any other legal issues surrounding St. Patrick’s Day parades?

-Liz McCurry-

No-Hoax Ballooning

I know midterms are over, and you’re ready to kick back and relax, but I have one more question for you (don’t worry it’s not graded) – what do magician Eric Dobell, the Part-Time Blues Band, and Hot Air Balloons all have in common?  That’s right, the Carolina BalloonFest.

This will be my third year at the festival, and I love it.  You just bring your lawn chairs (and blankets) and sit back and enjoy the beautiful Carolina autumn weather.   The balloons fly on Friday at 4:30, and twice on Saturday & Sunday (8:00 & 4:30).  On both Saturday and Sunday mornings, the balloonists launch and compete in various challenges. Every time I see the balloons take off, I have to catch my breath, but my favorite part of the whole weekend is Saturday evening when all the balloons return to the air field, and glow.

Not only can you come and watch the balloons fly, you can enjoy some of the best North Carolina wines at the wine tasting on Saturday.  This year, the Carolina BalloonFest will host the Chatham Hill Winery, Daveste’ Vineyards, Southern Charm Winery, Stephens Vineyard & Winery, Weathervane Winery, Woodmill Winery, and The Wine Maestro.  Make sure you do your homework and learn the Five S’s to Wine Tasting.

Plus, there are plenty of fun and exciting activities for kids of all ages. The “KIDS FUN ZONE” has a number of free inflatable rides like the Giant Slide, Excalibur Bounce and Crayola Obstacle Course. For older children, there are games of Monster Soccer, Football Toss and Homerun Baseball. All Kids Zone activities are free except the Bungee Trampolino which costs $7.   By the way, they let the “big kids” on the Bungee Trampolino, feel free to ask me how I know.

Families can sit back, relax and enjoy great live entertainment, such as Clay Lunsford, The Part-Time Blues Band, The Reach Band, and The Mike Hager Group on the festival’s main stage.  Hot air balloons have a long history, especially in Statesville, so come and be part of the experience of the beauty and wonder of 50 magical hot air balloons decorating the sky!

Nuts and Bolts of the BalloonFest:  Here are directions, information on scheduling a hot air balloon ride, and the site to pre-order your ticket today.  I hope to see you out there!

-Liz McCurry-