Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 2 P3 docx

landlord, who had ignored her requests for
months, that she refused to pay the rent unless
he fixed the stairs. A few days later, the landlord
fixed their steps—and all the other broken
steps on their road. Bell’s interpretation of the
event? “Good things happen when you push.”
Bell has also said that he carries his fathe r ’s
“dignified suspicion” of whites in hard-time
Pittsburgh and his mother’s homespun concep-
tion of a rights-based economy of self-respecting
agitation.
The eldest of four children, Bell earned a
bachelor of arts degree and an Air Force
commission when he graduated from Duquesne
University in 1952, and then he served in the
KOREAN WAR. While in the Air Force, Bell made
his first discreet push for racial equality: he
complained to the commanding officer at a base
in Louisiana about black soldiers having to sit in
the back of the bus whenever they left base.
After his military stint, he attended the University
of Pittsburgh School of Law, lived at home, and
kept the books for his father, Derrick Bell Sr., who
ran a trash-collection business. Bell was elected as
the associate editor-in-chief for the Pittsburgh
LAW
REVIEW
, a prestigious position for a student to hold
at any law school. He competed strenuously in law
school and has admitted to being “alittle
obnoxious” in his attempt to succeed in an

otherwise all-white class: in the yearbook, under-
neath his picture, the following description is
given: “Knows everything and wants others to
know he knows everything.”
After graduating fourth in his class and
being admitted to the District of Colum bia bar
in 1957, Bell applied to a top local law firm,
which had asked the law school to send over its
best students. “When I walked in, there were all
these gasps,” he said. “It was like a line of heart
attacks down the hall.” Bell did not get the job,
but he did go on to become one of only three
black attorneys at the U.S. Department of
Justice after being assigned to the Civil Rights
Division. His first professional act of defiance
came in 1959, when he quit his job at the
JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT
in protest after being told to give up
his membership in the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (
NAACP),
which the Justice Department considered a
CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
Bell returned to Pittsburgh and although he
had passed the Pennsylvania bar, he accepted
the position of executive secretary of the
NAACP’s Pittsburgh branch. A year later he
was recruited by its then-director,
THURGOOD

MARSHALL
, to join the staff of the NAACP LEGAL
DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND
to champion the
cause of racial equality. After starting as the
executive secretary for the Pittsburgh branch of
the Defense Fund, Bell was promoted to first
assistant counsel at the New York City branch,
where he remained from 1960 to 1966. While
working as a civil rights lawyer, he confronted
many difficult people and situations—from
judges predisposed to
RULING against his black
clients to segregated public buildings. During
this time, Bell spent a night in jail in Mississippi
for refusing to leave a train station’s “whites-
only” waiting room. He oversaw 300
SCHOOL
DESEGREGATION
cases and played a central role in
getting
JAMES MEREDITH, a black student, admitted
to the all-white University of Mississippi,
despite the resistance of Governor Ross Barnett.
“Down South, I learned a lot It just seems
that unless something’s pushed, unless you
litigate or protest, nothing happens,” Bell said.
In 1966 Bell was admitted to the New York
bar. From 1966 to 1968, he served as deputy
director of the U.S. Department of Health,

Education, and Welfare’s Office for Civil Rights.
In 1968 he moved to California and became the
executive director of the Western Center of Law
and Poverty, at the University of Southern
California (USC). He passed the California bar
in 1969 and taught law as an adjunct professor
at USC’s law center.
After the 1968
ASSASSINATION of Dr. MARTIN
LUTHER KING
Jr. and inner-city riots, Bell received
a number of offers to teach law, including one
from Harvard. He accepted Harvard’s offer
and lectured there from 1969 to 1971, after
telling the school that he was willing to be the
first black there but not the last. In 1971, after
Bell challenged the school to vote on his tenure,
he became the law school ’s first tenured
African American faculty member, a position
he kept until December 1980. During his
tenure, he wrote several articles and the text,
Race, Racism and American Law (1973; 4th ed.
in 2000).
Bell left Harvard in January 1981 to become
a professor and the dean of the University of
Oregon School of Law. He resigned from there
in 1985, when the school refused to back his
decision to offer a tenure-line position to an
Asian American woman. The same year, he
published the foreword in the Harvard Law

CIVIL RIGHTS CAM-
PAIGNS AIMED AT
CHANGING THE RULES
WITHOUT AFFECTING
THE UNDERLYING
STATUS QUO
.
—DERRICK BELL JR.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
8 BELL, DERRICK ALBERT, JR.
Review, “The Civil Rights Chronicles.” In 1996
the Society of American Law Teachers named
him Teacher of the Year.
After leaving Oregon, Bell spent a semester
the next year as a visiting professor at Stanford
Law School, where, once again, he found
himself mired in controversy—this time for
his revisionist teaching of
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.
Some Stanford law students, who disliked Bell’s
interpretation of the Constitution, pressured
the faculty into offering supplemental lectures
from other professors. Shortly before the first of
these additional lectures, Stanford’s Black Law
Student Association staged a protest, and the
administration made a formal apology to Bell.
In the fall of 1986 Bell returned to Harvard
to teach law. He soon was caught up—yet
again—in racial discord. During commencement
exercises in May of 1987, he staged a four-day

round-the-clock sit-in inside his office to
protest the denial of tenure to two members
of the
CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES movement, a leftist
movement that challenges the basic tenets of
LEGAL EDUCATION and scholarship. Also in 1987,
Bell’s alter ego, Geneva Crenshaw, who had
first come to life in his Harvard Law School
foreword, became the heroine in the pages of
his book And We Are Not Saved. At the fulcrum
of this collection of ten allegorical tales was
the contention that racism is an immutable,
permanent problem in U.S. society; Bell used
Socratic dialogues between himself, as narrator,
and Crenshaw, a black civil rights lawyer, to
measure the “progress” of blacks since
BROWN V.
BOARD OF EDUCATION, 349 U.S. 294, 75 S. Ct. 753,
99 L. Ed. 1083 (1955). Further, in 1987, Bell
spoke out in support of Justice Thurgood
Marshall, whose minority report that year had
criticized the Constitution and blacks’“token
presence” in the bicentennial celebrations: “We
need more candor about why the Constitu-
tion was written the way it was and what still
needs to be done to insure individual rights,”
said Bell.
The following year, Bell wrote Civil Rights
in Two Thousand Four: Where Will We Be? Also
in 1988, he wrote a scathing indictment of

Harvard Law’s
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION performance;
his article, published in 1989 by the Michigan
Law Review, gave a fictional account of how
Harvard came to hire more minorities only after
the school’s black faculty and the university
president were killed in a terrorist bomb ing.
Bell was privately criticized for having dared to
paint a grisly portrait of the president of
Harvard being blown to pieces. Robert C. Clark,
a professor at Harvard and a future dean of the
school, objected to Bell’s many protests, saying,
“This is a university, not a lunch co unter in the
Deep South.”“In its own way, this law school is
as much in need of reform as the lunch counters
of the South, although in a far more subtle
way,” said Bell. Clark later apologized and spoke
of sharing Bell’s goal of building a diverse
faculty.
Bell’s dissension at Harvard came to a head
in the spring of 1990, when Professor Regina
Austin was denied tenure at the law school. In
early April, students on 50 law campuses
boycotted classes in a call for more minority
teachers; later that month, Bell announced that
he would step down—and forgo his $100,000
annual salary—until a black or other minority
woman was considered for tenure. Of the
school’s sixty-five full-time professors at the
time, five were white women and five were

black men.
Bell’s position was that qualified persons of
color were not getting through an obsolete and
irrelevant tenure-granting process, despite their
qualifications and the valuable perspective they
could provide law students. He said the
traditional checklist for tenure—Was the can-
didate at the top of his or her law class? an
editor on law review? someone with prestigious
clerkships?—must be made more flexible when
considering minority professors. “The tradi-
tional way of doing legal scholarship doesn’t
do justice to our experience,” said Bell. “But
minorities who are trying to blaze new trails
in legal academia are meeting opposition and
silencing.” Comparing Bell to Rosa Parks—a
black woman who refused to sit in the back of
the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955—the
Reverend
JESSE JACKSON offered in May 1990 to
mediate between the school and Bell. Harvard
turned down the offer.
Many observers marveled at the public
attention attracted by Bell’s dramatic move at
Harvard—among them, Richard H. Chused,
professor of the Georgetown University Law
Center, who in 1989 published an empirical
study demonstrating the lack of diversity within
law school faculties, and Nathaniel R. Jones,
judge for the federal Ninth

CIRCUIT COURT of
Appeals and a part-time Harvard Law instructor.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
BELL, DERRICK ALBERT, JR. 9
Not all of Bell’s colleagues agreed with this form
of protest, however. Professor Charles Fried, of
Harvard Law, called Bell “off his head,” and
others termed him “counterproductive.” Dean
Clark continued to assert that Harvard should
make appointments based on merits and not
because of protests.
Bell’s struggle with Harvard may not have
been entirely for naught: in September 1992,
Dean Clark acknowledged bitter divisions within
the school and created a working group of
faculty, students, and staff to improve the level of
civility and community and to foster discussion
of issues that had shaken the institution. And in
June 1993, Harvard granted tenure to its seventh
black law professor, Charles Ogletree.
In the early 2000s, Bell continued to be a
prolific writer. In addition to publishing other
books, such as Confronting Authority: Reflections
of An Ardent Protestor (1994), Constitutional
Conflicts (1997), Afrolantica Legacies (1998), and
Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and
Worth (2002), he is also the author of a
foreword in Critical Race Feminism: A Reader.
Bell’s articles have appeared in The New York
Times Magazine,theBoston Globe,theLos

Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor,
as well as Essence and Mother Jones magazine.
Since 1991 Bell has been a visiting professor
at New York University Law School. He has
written commentary for a number of legal
journals including those of Harvard, Yale,
Columbia, and the University of Michigan. Bell
continues to lecture around the country and to
comment on legal issues on radio and television
programs. His book Silent Covenants: Brown V.
Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for
Racial Reform was published in 2004 by Oxford
University Press.
FURTHER READINGS
“Action of Harvard’s Prof. Bell Focuses Attention on
Diversity.” 1990. National Law Journal (May 7).
Association of American Law Schools. 1993. Directory of Law
Teachers. Association of American Law Schools.
“Bell, Harvard Agree to Disagree on His Departure.” 1992.
National Law Journal (July 20).
“Bell Still Teaching.” 1990. National Law Journal (November
12).
“Bell Wants Harvard.” 1992. National Law Journal (March
23).
Carter, Stephen L. 1991. Reflections of an Affirmative Action
Baby. New York: Basic Books.
Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic. 1999. Critical Race
Theory: The Cutting Edge. Philadelphia: Temple Univ.
Press.
Essed, Philomena, and Davie Goldberg. 2001 ed. Race

Critical Theories. New York: Blackwell.
“In Move to NYU, Derrick Bell Cites Friendship with Its
Dean.” 1991. National Law Journal (April 22).
“Prof. Moves.” 1991. National Law Journal (April 15).
CROSS REFEREN CES
Civil Rig hts; Discrimination; Legal Education.
v
BELL, GRIFFIN BOYETTE
Griffin Boyette Bell served as U.S. attorney
general from 1977 to 1979 under President
JIMMY CARTER and before that as a judge on the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from
1961 to 1976. He is also nationally recognized
for his skills as a corporate lawyer.
Bell was born October 31, 1918, in Americus,
Georgia, only 12 miles from Plains, Georgia,
the boyhood home of Carter. (In fact, Carter
and Bell knew each other as children.) Bell
served in the U.S. Army during
WORLD WAR II.
After the war, he studied at Mercer Univ ersity
Law School, graduating cum laude in 1948. He
gained admission to the Georgia bar in 1947.
Bell practiced law in Savannah, Georgia, and
Rome, Georgia, from 1947 to 1953, after which
he moved to Atlanta to work in the prestigious
firm of King and Spalding, where he eventually
earned the position of managing partner. Bell
also became involved in politics, serving from
1959 to 1961 as chief of staff to Governor S.

Ernest Vandiver, of Georgia.
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION was a heated issue at
the time. Governor Vandiver vigorously op-
posed desegregation, inventing the slogan “No,
Not One” to symbolize his goal of keeping
Georgia’s schools completely segregated. Bell
acted as a moderating influence on Vandiver,
working behind the scenes to ease tensions with
African American leaders. Eventually, Vandiver
and the Georgia legislature agreed to conditional
desegregation.
Bell served as cochairman of the Georgia
election campaign in 196 0 for
JOHN F. KENNEDY .
His success at that task won him an appoint-
ment as judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fifth Circuit in 1961, a position he held
through 1976. During his 15 years on the bench,
he took part in more than 3,000 cases, 141 of
them involving school desegregation.
Observers have categorized Bell’s judicial
decisions as moderate to conservative. He gen-
erally supported
CIVIL RIGHTS advocates in
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
10 BELL, GRIFFIN BOYETTE
employment and voting rights cases, but he
opposed busing as a means to achieve school
desegregation. At times, his decisions could have
been described as liberal, as when he supported

attempts to place more Af rican Americans on
juries and approved
AFFIRMATIVE A C TION hiring fo r
the Mississippi Highway Patrol. His most influen-
tial work was the initiation of a reform scheme that
improved the efficiency of the court system.
Bell also served as cochairman of the Atlanta
Commission on Crime and Delinquency from
1965 to 1966. He resigned from the appeals
court in 1976, resumed private practice, and
served as legal adviser to Carter during Carter’s
presidential campaign that year. Once elected as
president, Carter named Bell attorney general, a
move that disappointed those who had hoped
Carter would appoint an African American or a
woman to the office. Bell’s nomination ran into
trouble when it was revealed that he belonged to
three clubs that were in effect racially segregat-
ed. Bell agreed to quit the clubs and was
nominated to the post of attorney general on
January 25, 1977.
Upon taking office, Bell defused some of the
opposition to his appointment by naming
African Americans to the posts of solicitor
general and assistant attorney general. He also
appointed women to other key positions in the
department and to federal judgeships. Later,
Bell proudly pointed out that 41 women were
appointed and confirmed to the federal bench
during the Carter administration, producing an

eightfold increase in the number of federal
judgeships occupied by women. As attorney
general, Bell again championed court reform
and also pushed for greater
FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION
involvement in pursuing white-
collar, narcotics, and antitrust violations.
Bell resigned as attorney general in 1979 and
resumed his work in private practice as senior
partner at King and Spalding. Bell has been
called on frequently by Fortune 500 corpora-
tions for advice on difficult legal issues. He led
independent investigations of Exxon Corpora-
tion’s actions following a 1989 oil spill in Prince
William Sound, off the coast of Alaska, and, in
▼▼
▼▼
Griffin Boyette Bell 1918–2009
❖
◆
◆
1914–18
World
War I
1918 Born,
Americus, Ga.
1941–45 Served in U.S.
Army during World War II;
rose to rank of major

1950–53
Korean
War
1954 Brown v. Board of Education
decision held racial segregation in
public schools unconstitutional
1961–73
Vietnam War
◆
1959 Became
chief of staff
to Governor
Ernest Vandiver
of Ga.
1965–66 Served
as chair of
the Atlanta
Commission on
Crime and
Deliquency
1985–86 Served as president of the
American College of Trial Lawyers
◆
1979
Returned
to private
practice at
King and
Spalding
◆

1977
Appointed
U.S. attorney
general by
President
Carter
◆◆
1992 Served
as personal
attorney to
President
George H.
W. Bush
2001 Named to
President-elect
George W. Bush’s
transition
advisory team
◆
2000 Presidential election
result uncertain due to disputed
Florida vote count; recount
halted by U.S. Supreme
Court with 5-4 vote in
Bush v. Gore
❖
2009 Died, Atlanta, Ga.
1971 Public school
busing to achieve
integration began

in several states
◆
1961 Appointed to U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by
President Kennedy
◆
1948 Earned LL.B. cum laude from
Mercer University Law School
◆
2008 Footnotes to History published
1910
1950
1975
2000
1925
Griffin Boyette Bell.
AP IMAGES
IF YOU BELIEVE IN
EXALTING THE BILL OF
RIGHTS
YOU
HAVE TO BE FOR THE
INDIVIDUAL
, EVEN IF
IT MEANS BEING
AGAINST THE
GOVERNMENT
.
—GRIFFIN BELL
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION

BELL, GRIFFIN BOYETTE 11
1992, Dow Corning Corporation’s handling
of lawsuits resulting from its silicone breast
implants. In the early 2000s Bell continued to
focus on giving advice and counsel on matters
relating to corporate crime. His organization of
the firm’s Special Matters Group assembled
lawyers with a wide variety of experience in
representing corporations charged with civil or
corporate wrongdoing. He served as an arbitra-
tor on two internationa l
ARBITRATION panels as
well as an advisor on several major corporate
litigation cases.
Bell served as cochairman of the National
Task Force on Violent Crime in 1981 and
cochairman of the Committee on Federal
Ethics in 1989. He also served as president of
the American College of Trial Lawyers. Bell
received an honorary doctor o f laws degree
from Mercer University in 1967 and the
ORDER
OF THE COIF
from Vanderbilt Law School. In
1982 he published Taking Care of the Law,
which relates his experiences as attorney
general and sets forth his recommendations
for legal reform and the reduction of g overn-
ment bureaucracy.
After the

SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS of 2001,
Bell wrote an editorial for the Wall Street
Journal addressing the issue of the curtailment
of civil liberties. In November 2001 he testified
on the same issue before the
SENATE JUDICIARY
COMMITTEE
. In February 2003 the Washington
Post reported that the Pentagon, in response to
complaints from some lawmakers and civil
liberties groups, planned to create an oversight
board and outside adviso ry committee to track
the activity of a global data-surveillance research
program known as the Total Information Aware-
ness Project. Griffin Bell was named to the
advisory committee that would advise the secre-
tary of defense on the social and legal implications
of the new surveillance technology. In 2004 Bell
helped author a commissioned report on the
internal disciplinary practices of the FBI’sOffice
of Professional Responsibility, which he and his
colleague found in need of reform.
Bell died in January 2009 at the age of 90.
FURTHER READINGS
Baker, Nancy V. 1992. Conflicting Loyalties: Law and Politics
in the Attorney General’s Office, 1789–1990. Lawrence:
Univ. Press of Kansas.
Bell, Griffin B. 1978. “The Attorney General: The Federal
Government’s Chief Lawyer and Chief Litigator, or One
among Many?” Fordham Law Review 46 (May).

Bell, Griffin B., and John P. Cole, ed. 2008. Footnotes to
History: A Primer on the American Political Character.
Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press.
Bell, Griffin B., with Ronald J. Ostrow. 1982. Taking Care of
the Law. New York: Morrow. Reprint 1986. Macon,
Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press.
Blum, Andrew. 1993. “In Bell Probe for Dow, Bid Made for
Implant Papers.” National Law Journal (February 1).
———. 1989. “Valdez Captain Takes Offensive.” National
Law Journal (October 23).
Dillard, Stephen Louis A. 2003. “Griffin Bell” in Great
American Judges: An Encyclopedia. Edited by John R.
Vile. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio. Reprinted online
at <www.kslaw.com/library/pdf/griffinbell.pdf> (accessed
August 27, 2003).
Justice Department. 1991. 200th Anniversary of the Office of
the Attorney General, 1789–1989. Washington, D.C.:
Department of Justice, Office of Attorney General and
Justice Management Division.
Murphy, Reg. 1999. Uncommon Sense: The Achievement of
Griffin Bell. Atlanta, Ga.: Longstreet.
v
BELL, JOHN
John Bell was born February 15, 1797, near
Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from Cum-
berland College in Nashville in 1817 and was
admitted to the bar in the same year. He
practiced law in Franklin and Nashville, Ten-
nessee, before entering politics.
From 1827 to 1841, Bell served as a

congressman for Tennessee in the U.S. House
of Representatives. He voiced strong opposition
IT FOLLOWS THAT
POPULARITY IS NOT
ALWAYS THE BEST
TEST OF MERIT
, OR OF
GENERAL PROPRIETY
.
—JOHN BELL
John Bell 1797–1869
◆◆◆
◆
❖
❖
1796 Tennessee
became U.S. state
1797 Born,
Nashville, Tenn.
1817 Graduated
from Cumberland
College
1827–41 Served
in U.S. House of
Representatives
1834
Elected
speaker of
the House
1847–59

Served in U.S.
Senate
1860 Ran
unsuccessfully
for U.S.
president
1861–65
U.S. Civil War
1869 Died,
Stewart County,
Tenn.
▼▼
▼▼
18001800
18701870
18501850
18251825
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
12 BELL, JOHN
to Andrew Jackson’s program for the deposit of
federal funds into state banks and to the
elimination of the
BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.
Bell was secretary of war in 1841 and then
U.S. sena tor for Tennessee for twelve years
beginning in 1847.
In 1860 Bell was the unsuccessful presiden-
tial candidate of a small party known as the
Constitutional Union Party. He favored a
cautious policy concerning

SLAVERY and opposed
the South’s secession from the Union until the
battle of Fort Sumter signaled the outbreak of
the
CIVIL WAR; he then encouraged Tennessee to
join the Confederacy.
Bell died September 10, 1869, in Stewart
County, Tennessee.
BELOW
In an inferior, subordinate, or lower place in
regard to any entity.
A court below is a lower court through
which a case has passed. A case is removed for
review from the court below to the court above,
or a higher court. The forum where a lawsuit is
initially brought is called an
INFERIOR COURT,or
the court below.
BENCH
A forum of justice comprised of the judge or judges
of a court. The seat of the court occupied by the
judges.
The bench is used to refer to a group of
judges as a collective whole. It is a tribunal or
place where justice is administered. To appear
before the full bench means to appear before
the entire group of judges of the court.
BENCH TRIAL
A trial conducted before a judge presiding without
a jury.

BENCH WARRANT
A process that is initiated by the court pro se in
order to attach or arrest a person. An order that a
judge, or group of judges, issues directly to the police
with the purpose of directing a person’sarrest.
A bench warrant is used for attachment or
arrest in a case of contempt, which is the willful
disregard or disobedience of an authority such as
the court. A bench warrant is also issued when
an indictment, which is a written accusation of a
person’s guilt for an act or omission, is handed
down. A third instance where a bench warrant is
issued is to obtain a witness who disobeys a
SUBPOENA, which is a command to appear at a
specified time and place to present testimony
upon a certain matter.
BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION
An incorporated or voluntary nonprofit organiza-
tion that has been created primarily to protect and
aid its members and their dependents.
Beneficial association is an all-inclusive term
that refers to an organization that exists for the
mutual assistance of its members or its mem-
bers’ families, relatives, or designated benefici-
aries, during times of hardship, such as illness or
financial need. The assistance provided by a
beneficial association can take the form of life,
accident, health, or burial insurance. Beneficial
associations may also be called benevolent
associations, fraternal societies, fraternal orders,

or friendly associations or societies.
History
Early beneficial associations were similar to the
English friendly societies, which first appeared
in the 1500s. Working people organized these
clubs to provide sickness and death benefits for
John Bell.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION 13
A sample bench
warrant
ILLUSTRATION BY GGS
CREATIVE RESOURCES.
REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION OF GALE, A
PART OF CENGAGE
LEARNING.
Bench Warrant
STATE OF WISCONSIN, CIRCUIT COURT, COUNTY
Case Caption:
Bench Warrant
Civil
TO ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER:
Arrest and deliver to the sheriff the above named person because this person:
failed to appear in court as required:
Date of court appearance:
Type of
court appearance:
failed to:

Completing the attached Order for Financial Disclosure and Financial Disclosure Statement, SC-506.
Agreeing to appear at a future supplementary examination at a time and place to be determined by the judgment creditor.
Paying the amount owed on the judgment $
Paying the statutory sheriff’s fees.
Paying other costs $
Performing the following conditions as authorized by the court: (All conditions under this section must be specifically authorized by
the court.)
Other:
If the person posts the total amount due and is released, the law enforcement agency shall inform the court and district attorney of any
GF-165, 08/07 Bench Warrant Civil §§54.62(8), 785.04 and 857.09, Wisconsin Statutes
This form shall not be modified. It may be supplemented with additional material.
new court date.
For Official Use
BY THE COURT:
Geographic restriction:
Statewide Within county of ORI
Within adjacent counties of ORI
Other:
Circuit Court Judge/Court Commissioner
Name Printed or Typed
Date
Case No.
Name of Person Person’s Address
Person’s Phone Number
( )
Person’s Date of Birth Sex Race Driver’s License Number
Height Weight Eye Color Hair Color Other Identifying Characteristics
.
.
.

This person may be released upon completion of any all of the following conditions:
.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
14 BENCH WARRANT
members. Several fraternal societies established
branches in the United States and Canada in the
early 1800s.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen,
founded in 1868, was the first beneficial
association to pay substantial death benefits.
Other groups that followed its model were soon
created. These early associations and societies
furnished life insurance to members whose
income was so low they could not have
otherwise obtained insurance benefits. In addi-
tion, many of these associations provided
companionship and social activities for their
members.
The National Fraternal Congress was
formed in 1886 to provide state regulation and
uniform legislation for beneficial associations.
In 1901, a group of associations and societies
formed the Associated Fraternities of America.
In 1913 the two groups merged to form the
National Fraternal Congress of America.
Beneficial associations include the police
Benevolent Association, Loyal Order of the
Moose, Knights of Columbus, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and Benevolent and
PROTECTIVE ORDER of Elks. Many of these

associations are secret lodges, with passwords,
ceremonies, and initiation rites.
Organization and Incorporation
The common-law right of contract authorizes
the formation of a beneficial association
through the voluntary association of its mem-
bers. Incorporation of a beneficial association
may occur either by a specific legislative act or
under general statutes that expressly authorize
such incorporation. Some states codify laws
pertaining to the formation and incorporation
of beneficial associations in their nonprofit
corporation law; they do so because beneficial
associations may not be formed with the
purpose of bringing a financial benefit to their
founders.
A beneficial association is organized
through its charter, constitution, and bylaws.
Charter The charter of a benevolent associa-
tion is the basis of its legal existence and the
source of its power to carry out the objects of its
creation. A charter is analogous to
ARTICLES OF
INCORPORATION
and becomes part of the contract
of membership when one joins the beneficial
association. For beneficial associations that elect
to incorporate, the charter will be embodied in
the articles of incorporation. Regardless of
whether the association is incorporated, the

charter incorporates by reference the general
laws of the state in which the association is
formed.
Constitution and Bylaws The constitution of
a benevolent association defines the fundamen-
tal principles that will govern the duties of the
association and its officers and the regulation of
its membership. Unless the constitution is
expressly embodied in the charter, it is regarded
as a code of laws similar in effect to bylaws. A
constitutional provision will prevail over a
provision of a conflicting bylaw because it is
viewed as a fundamental rule for the govern-
ment of the association.
Beneficial associations may adopt bylaws
that will determine all questions of discipline,
doctrine, and internal policy and will regulate
the association’s general business activities. The
enactment of a bylaw is governed by provisions
contained in either the charter or the constitu-
tion. Bylaws must be in accordance with the law
and
PUBLIC POLICY, must be reasonable, and must
apply to all members uniformly. The constitu-
tion and the bylaws form a binding contract
between and upon all the organization’s mem-
bers. Finally, bylaws also provide for the
dissolution of a beneficial association.
Rights, Powers, and Liabilities
The authority and powers of beneficial associa-

tions are subject to the statutes under which the
associations are formed and organized. An
incorporated association may not enlarge the
powers granted to it by the statute under which
it was created. Certain powers, such as the
power to enter into contractual relations, may
be implied when they are essential to the
accomplishment of the association’s objectives.
Contracts are binding upon the association
when they have been executed by the appropri-
ate officers of the association. Through its
proper committees or officers, a beneficial
association may enter in to a lease.
Generally, a beneficial association has no
power to borrow money. However, some states
permit proper officers or committees to
execute bonds and mortgages in order to
secure bu ilding loans. Ordinarily, beneficial
associations can transact business in places
other than the state within which they have
been organized.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION 15
Because beneficial associations are founded
on the principle of mutuality, in which each
member shares all the benefits as well as all the
burdens, they do not have
CAPITAL STOCK, nor do
all associations maintain a fund for paying
benefits. If a fund is not maintained, each

member promises to contribute an equal share
with every other member as the association’s
need for funds arises.
Unless a statute makes a distinction, courts
generally recognize a beneficial association
certificate containing insurance features to be
the same as any other similar insurance
contract. If the certificate indemnifies a member
in case of disability or death, the association will
be regarded as a mutual insurance company.
However, beneficial associations are not the
same as insurance companies. First, beneficial
associations do not have as a purpose the goal of
indemnifying or securing against loss; rather,
they create a trust fund with their members’
dues, from which they may provide relief to
their members. Second, beneficial associations
are not created for profit. Third, these associa-
tions do not advertise for business but limit
their clientele to their members. Finally,
whereas an insurance company fixes a bene-
ficiary’s rights with the terms of the insurance
policy, a beneficial association me mber’s rights
to receive benefits depend on both the certifi-
cate and the constitution and bylaws of the
association.
Power to Acquire Funds and Property A
beneficial association may acquire and dispose
of property in a proper manner and for proper
purposes, whether by sale, deed, lease, mortgage,

or other document. A valid bequest of property
for charitable purposes may be made to an
association that has been incorporated and
authorized by its charter to hold property for
such purposes. The funds of a beneficial
association should be spent according to the
association’s purpose a s defined by its charter,
articles of incorporation, constitution, or bylaws.
Benefits A beneficial association’s bylaws and
controlling statutes specifically designate which
benefits are payable to its members, and the
types of benefits provided are restricted to those
specified.
Beneficial associations may make payments
in two ways. The first is based on the
contractual agreement between the association
and its members. As with an insurance policy,
the members’ dues are a contribution to a fund
from which specified benefits are paid upon a
proper claim. Disputes arising from this con-
tractual relationship may ultimately be resolved
in a court of law.
The second way a beneficial association
confers payments is through an act of benevo-
lence. The term benevolence means the doing of
a kind or helpful action towards ano ther, under
no obligation except possibly an ethical one. A
beneficial association may appoint a board to
review applications for benefits not based on the
contractual relationship. This board could, for

example, extend additional financial benefits to
a disabled member who has exhausted the
benefits specified in the bylaws. If such a benefit
is given as a matter of benevolence, it may not
be claimed as a right, and it is not enforceable in
court. Likewise, a beneficial association could
donate money to a civic activity as an act of
benevolence.
An association may set forth certain condi-
tions precedent to the receipt of benefits by its
members. Such conditions must be met before
the right to receive benefits may be enforced.
If a member of a beneficial association
defaults on the payment of dues, the member
might lose the right to receive benefits. In
general, one claiming benefits from an associa-
tion must exhaust all remedies within the
organization before seeking judicial relief.
Liabili tie s A beneficial association may not
ordinarily be held liable in tort or contract for
unauthorized acts of its members or agents. A
voluntary unincorporated beneficial association
is considered to be a joint enterprise, and no
liability for tort exists between those engaged
therein. An unincorporated association, may,
however, be held responsible for damages
resulting from the
NEGLIGENCE of its employees
in work of a noncharitable character.
FURTHER READINGS

“Fraternal Orders and Benefit Societies.” American Jurispru-
dence 36, vol. 2.
Owens, Bill. 1975. Our Kind of People: American Groups and
Rituals. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Whalen, William J. 1967. Handbook of Secret Organizations.
Milwaukee, WI: Bruce.
CROSS REFEREN CES
Bylaws; Insurance.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
16 BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION
BENEFICIAL INTEREST
Profits or advantages from property derived from
the terms of a trust agreement.
A beneficiary of a trust has a beneficial
interest in the trust property, the
LEGAL TITLE of
which is held by the trustee. The beneficiary
receives the advantages of ownership of the
property which the trustee holds and distributes
according to the terms of the trust agreement.
BENEFICIAL USE
A right to utilize real property, including light, air,
and access to it, in any lawful manner to gain a
profit, advantage, or enjoyment from it. A right to
enjoy real or personal property held by a person
who has equitable title to it while legal title is held
by another.
A beneficial use involves greater rights
than a mere right to possession of land, because
it extends to the light and air over the land and

access to it, which can be infringed by the
beneficial use of other property by another
owner. If a dispute arises from the conflicting
ways in which two
ADJOINING LANDOWNERS
exercise their respective beneficial uses of their
property, a court, exercising its discretion, may
adjudicate those rights. A beneficiary of a trust
has beneficial use of the trust property, the
LEGAL
TITLE
to which is held by the trustee.
BENEFICIARY
An organization or a person for whom a trust is
created and who thereby receives the benefits of the
trust. One who inherits under a will. A person
entitled to a beneficial interest or a right to profi ts,
benefit, or advantage from a contract.
BENEFIT OF CLERGY
In old England, the privilege of clergy that allowed
them to avoid trial by all courts of the civil
government.
Originally members of the clergy were
exempted from
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT upon con-
viction of particular crimes based on this
privilege, but it did not encompass crimes of
either high treason or misdemeanors.
Benefit of clergy existed to alleviate the
severity of criminal laws as applied to the clergy.

It was, however, found to promote such exten-
sive abuses that it was ultimately eliminated.
Benefit of clergy does not exist in the United
States today.
The phrase “without the benefit of clergy” is
used colloquially to describe a couple living
together outside a legal
MARRIAGE.
v
BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP
Judah Philip Benjamin was attorney general of
the
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA under Presi-
dent Jefferson Davis. Though described by many
as a brilliant, self-made man, he was also
characterized as the “dark prince of the Confed-
eracy” in Robert W. Service’s poem “John
Brown’s Body.”
Benjamin was born August 6, 1811, on St.
Croix Island, in the British West Indies. His
parents, Philip Benjamin and Rebecca de Mendes
Benjamin, were Sephardic Jews who had immi-
grated to the West Indies from Spain. Hearing that
Jews were tolerated and allowed to prosper in the
U.S. Carolinas, the family moved to the United
States in 1813, settling in Charleston, South
Carolina. Young Benjamin attended the Fayette-
ville Academy, in Fayetteville, North Carolina,
and entered Yale in 1825 at the age of fourteen.
He was the top student in his class when he was

expelled in 1827. He was charged with stealing
from a fellow student, but the allegations were
never proved. Though Benjamin was not an
observant Jew, historians acknowledge that anti-
Semitism was probably at the heart of the charges
and his dismissal from school.
Following his expulsion, Benjamin moved to
New Orleans, where he clerked in a commercial
house and studied law until he was admitted to
the bar in 1832. (A commercial house of the early
1800s was usually involved in the financial trans-
actions around the movement of goods, i.e.,
lending, bonding, insuring, fees for transport, rent
for storage, and contracts of sales.) While
studying, he supplemented his income by giving
English lessons to the French Creole aristocracy.
One of his pupils, Natalie St. Martin, became his
wife in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1833.
Though his wife was extravagant and notoriously
promiscuous, Benjamin indulged her. Many of
his peers commented that Benjamin’s wealth
could be attributed more to the demands of his
wife than to his personal ambitions. For her, he
acquired the Belle Chase sugar plantation and an
elegant townhouse on Bourbon Street in New
Orleans.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP 17