But Judge Milt Hirsch and his Constitutional Calendar. If you like the Constitutional Calendar, you'll love the Chicago Cubs Calendar. For example: September 9, 1969-- the infamous "Black Cat Game."
On August 19, 1969, after a half a century of futility, the Chicago Cubs were in first place with an eight game lead. By the time they arrived in New York in September for a two game series, the lead had dwindled to two and a half games. The Cubs lost the first game on September 8 and they badly needed to win the second game and get out of the Big Apple with a split. Both teams sent their aces to the mound- Fergie Jenkins for the Cubbies and Tom Seaver for the Metropolitans. In the fourth inning Glenn Beckert for the Cubs hit a double to center field. Billy Williams was at the plate and Ron Santos was on deck and the Cubs were in a good position to score a run to take the lead. Then a Black Cat sauntered out on the field and walked behind Santos in the on-deck circle. The cat then walked back and forth in front of the Cubs dugout and looked right at Cubs Manager Leo Durocher before running under the stands. Santos went on to single in Beckert for their sole run of the game. Seaver pitched a complete game and was never in trouble again. In the bottom of the Black Cat inning Donn Clendenon hit a two run homer and the Mets never looked back - at either the Cubs that night, or the NL East, clinching the dvision two weeks later as September 1969 documented yet again another Chicago late-season swoon.
That is our version of the Chicago Cubs calendar were it to exist- a documentation of a century plus of misery.
Anyway, here is Judge Hirsch's latest Constitutional Calendar missive:
The Enforcement Acts of 1870 were
intended to empower federal law enforcement and the federal courts to combat
the activities of the Ku-Klux Klan and like-kind organizations. They provided, in pertinent part, that:
[I]f two or more persons shall band or conspire
together, or go in disguise upon the public highway ... with intent ... to
injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen, with intent to prevent or
hinder his free exercise and enjoyment of any right or privilege granted or
secured to him by the constitution or laws of the United States, or because of
his having exercised the same, such persons shall be held guilty of felony.
On
April 13, 1873, a group of white supremacists slaughtered more than 100 unarmed
blacks in front of the Colfax, Louisiana, courthouse. This atrocity garnered national
attention. President Grant labeled it a
“butchery” that “in bloodthirstiness and barbarity is hardly surpassed by any
acts of savage warfare.”
Indictments
were returned and the matter prosecuted in U.S. district court. In due course the matter found its way to the
Supreme Court. See United States v.
Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (March 27, 1876).
The
Court’s treatment of the Enforcement Acts, and of the relevant constitutional
provisions, opened the door to a century of racism, segregation, and
abuse. The rights of which the
defendants were alleged to have deprived their victims – rights such as freedom
of speech and public assembly – were guaranteed by the Constitution as against
the federal government, not against state governments or private
individuals. Besides, the defendants
were private-sector actors; the Fourteenth Amendment could do no more than
empower the federal government to protect against the abuse of rights by the
state.
The
order of the court below arresting the judgment upon the verdict of conviction
was affirmed, and the case remanded with instructions to discharge the
defendants.
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