Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 6 P2 ppsx

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GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION

XIV HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Contributors
Editorial Reviewers
Patricia B. Brecht
Matthew C. Cordon
Frederick K. Grittner
Halle Butler Hara
Scott D. Slick
Contributing Authors
Richard Abowitz
Paul Bard
Joanne Bergum
Michael Bernard
Gregory A. Borchard
Susan Buie
James Cahoy
Terry Carter
Stacey Chamberlin
Sally Chatelaine
Joanne Smestad Claussen
Matthew C. Cordon
Richard J. Cretan
Lynne Crist
Paul D. Daggett
Susan L. Dalhed
Lisa M. DelFiacco
Suzanne Paul Dell’Oro
Heidi Denler
Dan DeVoe
Joanne Engelking

Mark D. Engsberg
Karl Finley
Sharon Fischlowitz
Jonathan Flanders
Lisa Florey
Robert A. Frame
John E. Gisselquist
Russell L. Gray III
Frederick K. Grittner
Victoria L. Handler
Halle Butler Hara
Lauri R. Harding
Heidi L. Headlee
James Heidberg
Clifford P. Hooker
Marianne Ashley Jerpbak
David R. Johnstone
Andrew Kass
Margaret Anderson Kelliher
Christopher J. Kennedy
Anne E. Kevlin
John K. Krol
Lauren Kushkin
Ann T. Laughlin
Laura Ledsworth-Wang
Linda Lincoln
Theresa J. Lippert
Gregory Luce
David Luiken
Frances T. Lynch

Jennifer Marsh
George A. Milite
Melodie Monahan
Sandra M. Olson
Anne Larsen Olstad
William Ostrem
Lauren Pacelli
Randolph C. Park
Gary Peter
Michele A. Potts
Reinhard Priester
Christy Rain
Brian Roberts
Debra J. Rosenthal
Mary Lahr Schier
Mary Scarbrough
Stephanie Schmitt
Theresa L. Schulz
John Scobey
Kelle Sisung
James Slavicek
Scott D. Slick
David Strom
Linda Tashbook
Wendy Tien
M. Uri Toch
Douglas Tueting
Richard F. Tyson
Christine Ver Ploeg
George E. Warner

Anne Welsbacher
Eric P. Wind
Lindy T. Yokanovich
XV
v
JACKSON, ANDREW
Andrew Jackson achieved prominence as a
frontiersman, jurist, and military hero, and as
seventh
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.Histwo
administrations, famous for ideologies labeled
Jacksonian Democracy, encouraged participation
in government by the people, particularly the
middle class.
Jackson was born March 15, 1767, in
Waxhaw, South Carolina. In 1781 Jackso n
entered the military, fought in the Revolution-
ary War, and was subsequently taken prisoner
and incarcerated at Camden, South Carolina.
After his release he pursued legal studies in
North Carolina and was admitted to the bar of
that state in 1787.
Jackson relocated to Nashville in 1788 and
established a successful law practice. Three years
later, he married Rachel Donelson. When it w as
subsequently discovered that Mrs. Jackson was
not legally divorced from her previous husband,
Jackson remarried her in 1794 after her
DIVORCE
became final. His enemies, however, used the

scandal to their advantage.
Jackson began his public service career in
1791 and performed the duties of prosecuting
attorney for the Southwest Territory. He attended
the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796
and entered the federal government system in
that same year.
As a member of the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives, Jackson represented Tennessee for a
year before filling the vacant position of senator
from Tennessee in the U.S. Senate during 1797
and 1798.
Jackson embarked on the judicial phase of
his career in 1798, presiding as judge of the
Tennessee Superior Court until 1804.
During the
WAR OF 1812, Jackson returned
to the military and was victorious at the
Horseshoe Bend battle in 1814. He conquered
the British at New Orleans at the close of the
war, which resulted in national recog nition as a
war hero.
In 1818 Jackson was involved in a military
incident that almost catapulted the United
States into another war with Great Britain and
Spain. Dispatched to the Florida border to quell
Seminole Indian uprisings, Jackson misunder-
stood his orders, took control of the Spanish
possession of Pensacola, and killed two British
subjects responsible for inciting the Indians.

Spain and Great Britain were in an uproar over
the incident, but Secretary of State
JOHN QUINCY
ADAMS
supported Jackson. The incident added to
Jackson’s popularity as a rugged hero.
Jackson sought the office of president of the
United States in 1824 against
HENRY CLAY, John
Quincy Adams, and William Crawford. No
single candidate received a majority of electoral
votes, and the House of Representatives decided
the election in favor of Adams. Four years later,
Jackson defeated the incumbent Adams and
began the first of two terms as chief executive.
J
EVERY MAN WHO
HAS BEEN IN OFFICE A
FEW YEARS BELIEVES
HE HAS A LIFE ESTATE
IN IT
, A VESTED
RIGHT
.THIS IS NOT
THE PRINCIPLE OF
OUR GOVERNMENT
.IT
IS ROTATION OF
OFFICE THAT WILL
PERPETUATE OUR LIB-

ERTY
.
—ANDREW JACKSON
1
During his first administration, Jackson relied
on a group of informal advisers known as the
Kitchen Cabinet. The unofficial members includ-
ed journalists and politicians, as opposed to the
formal cabinet members traditionally involved in
policymaking. He also initiated the spoils system,
rewarding dutiful and faithful party members
with government appointments, regardless of
their qualifications for the positions. Many of
Jackson’s intimate associations did not include
members from the traditional families associated
with politics, and public dissatisfaction came to a
head with the marriage of his Secretary of War
John Eaton to the provincial Margaret O’Neill.
The social politics employed by cabinet members
and their wives, particularly
VICE PRESIDENT and
Mrs. JOHN C. CALHOUN, caused much upheaval in
the Jackson cabinet, and the eventual resignation
of Eaton.
Calhoun and Jackson disagreed again in 1832
over a protective tariff, which Calhoun believed
was not beneficial to the South. Calhoun initiated
the policy of nullification, by which a state could
judge a federal regulation null and void and,
therefore, refuse to comply with it if the state

believed the regulation to be adverse to the tenets
of the Constitution. Calhoun resigned from the
office of vice president after South Carolina
adopted the nullification policy against the tariff
act, and Jackson requested the enactment of the
Force Bill from Congress to authorize his use of
MILITIA, if necessary, to enforce federal law. The
Force Bill proved to be solely a strong threat,
because Jackson sympathized with the South and
advocated the drafting of a tariff compromise.
Henry Clay was instrumental in the creation of
this agreement, which appeased South Carolina.
The most significant issue during Jackson’s
term was the controversy over the
BANK OF THE
UNITED STATES
. The bank became a topic inthe 1832
presidential campaign and continued into the
second administration of the victorious Jackson.
The charter of the bank expired in 1836, but
Henry Clay encouraged the passage of a bill to
secure its recharter in 1832. Jackson was against
the powerful bank and overruled the recharter.
He proceeded to transfer federal funds from the
bank to selected state banks, called “pet banks,”
which significantly diminished the power of the
bank. Secretary of Treasury Louis McLane
refused to remove the funds and was dismissed;
similarly, the new treasury secretary, W. J. Duane,
Andrew Jackson.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Andrew Jackson 1767–1845
▼▼
▼▼
17501750
18001800
18251825
17751775
❖
◆◆◆
1767 Born,
Waxhaw, S.C.
❖
1775–83
American Revolution
1787 Admitted to
North Carolina bar
1796
Attended
Tennessee
constitutional
convention;
elected to
U.S. House
1836 Issued
Specie Circular
causing
economic
panic of 1837
1845 Died, at

the Hermitage,
near Nashville,
Tenn.
1788 Moved to Nashville
and began law practice
◆
1797–98 Served in U.S. Senate
1829–37 Served
as president
18501850
1799–1804
Presided as
judge on the
Tennessee
Superior
Court
1812–14
Served with
valor during the
War of 1812
1818 Sent to quell
Seminole Indian
uprisings in Florida,
almost started a third
war with Britain
◆◆
◆
1833 Congress passed
compromise tariff;
South Carolina

repealed its act
1832 South Carolina
passed Ordinance of
Nullification against
tariff act
▼▼
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
2 JACKSON, ANDREW
also refused. Jackson replaced him with ROGER B.
TANEY, who supported Jackson’s views and com-
plied with his wishes. In response to this loyalty,
Jackson subsequently nominated Taney as a U.S.
Supreme Court justice in 1836.
In 1836 Jackson faced another financial
crisis. He issued the Specie Circular of 1836,
which declared that all payments for public
property must be made in gold or silver, as
opposed to the previous use of paper currency.
This proclamation precipitated the economic
panic of 1837, which ended Jackson’s second
term and extended into the new presidential
administration of
MARTIN VAN BUREN.
Jackson spent his remaining years in retire-
ment at his estate in Tennessee, “The Hermit-
age,” where he died on June 8, 1845.
FURTHER READINGS
Ellis, Richard E. 2003. Andrew Jackson. Washington, D.C.:
CQ Press.
Magliocca, Gerard N. 1999. “Veto! The Jacksonian Revolu-

tion in Constitutional Law.” Nebraska Law Review 78
(spring). Available online at />sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=928147; website home
page: (accessed August 2, 2009).
Remini, Robert V. 2010. The Life of Andrew Jackson. New
York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
v
JACKSON, HOWELL EDMUNDS
Howell Edmunds Jackson was a U.S. senator,
federal judge on the U.S. Sixth
CIRCUIT COURT of
Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Jackson toiled diligently without fanfare for
many years before garnering widespread atten-
tion for the last case he heard while sitting on
the Supreme Court, Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan &
Trust Co., 158 U.S. 601, 15 S. Ct. 912, 39 L. Ed.
1108 (1895).
Jackson was born April 8, 1832, in Paris,
Tennessee. He graduated from West Tennessee
College in 1849, then studied for a time at the
University of Virginia. He read the law with a
Tennessee Supreme Court judge for a year,
and obtained his law degree from Cumberland
University in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1856.
Thereafter, he practiced law in Jackson and
Memphis. Although Jackson opposed Tennessee’s
secession in the Civil War, he served the
Confederacy as a receiver of confiscated property.
Following the Civil War he served for a short time
on the Court of Arbitration for West Tennessee, a

provisional court helping the regular Tennessee
Supreme Court dispose of a backlog of cases
caused by the war. He also made an unsuccessful
bid for a seat on the state supreme court.
A Whig before the war, Jackson was elected
to the Tennessee state legislature as a Democrat
Howell E. Jackson.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LANDY
CINCINNATI. COLLEC-
TION OF THE SUPREME
COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES
Howell Edmunds Jackson 1832–1895
❖
1832 Born,
Paris, Tenn.
1849
Graduated
from West
Tennessee
College
1895 Joined dissent
in Pollock v. Farmers'
Loan & Trust Co.; died,
West Meade, Tenn.
1861–65
U.S. Civil War
◆
1880 Elected to Tennessee
state legislature

1856 Earned
law degree
from
Cumberland
University
1893–95 Served as
associate justice on
U.S. Supreme Court
▼▼
▼▼
18751875
19001900
18251825
18501850
◆◆
1863 Ran
unsuccessful bid for
Tennessee state
supreme court seat
◆
1861–65 Served Confederacy
during U.S. Civil War
1875–79
Held
judgeship on
the Court of
Arbitration
for Western
Tennessee
❖

1886–93 Served
on the Sixth
Circuit Court of
Appeals
1881–86
Served
in U.S.
Senate
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JACKSON, HOWELL EDMUNDS 3
in 1880. The following year the legislature
assembled to choose a U.S. senator on a joint
ballot. No candidate, including the incumbent,
could muster enough votes in the divided
assembly. After a number of deadlocked days,
a Republican legislator cast his vote for Jackson,
who had not been a candidate, and Jackson was
quickly elected. In the Senate he gained a
reputation as a tireless worker. He was nonpar-
tisan in his friendships, becoming close with
Democrat president Grover Cleveland and
Republican Senate colleague
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Jackson resigned from the Senate in 1886
when President Cleveland appointed him to the
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and eventually
became that court’s presiding judge. In 1893
lame-duck president Harrison appointed Jackson
to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harrison appointed Jackson in part because

Cleveland was about to become president, and
Harrison doubted that any Republican could
garner confirmation by the Democratic Senate.
Harrison, a former Union general, saw in
Jackson, a former member of the Confederate
government, not another secessionist southern
Democrat but a man committed to serving his
entire nation.
In August 1894 Congress imposed a nation-
wide two percent income tax on all annual
incomes in excess of $4,000. The new law,
popular in the South and West but despised in
the North and East, was quickly challenged as
being unconstitutional. Soon, the Supreme Court
agreed to hear the case.
Tuberculosis struck Jackson, and shortly
after the October 1894 session began h is
deteriorating health kept him off the bench.
HewasabsentinApril1895whentheCourt
held in Pollock that part of the new tax law was
unconstitutional. The Court was evenly divid-
ed on whether the entire law must be declared
unconstitutional, and therefore did not express
an opinion on the matter. The absence of a
firm decision by the justices meant that the
courts could expect a flood of litigation from
unwilling taxpayers. The Supreme Court quickly
granted a rehearing to reexamine the issue.
To break the deadlock, it appeared essential
that Justice Jackson either resign so that a new

justice could be appointed, or agree to hear the
case. Jackson decided to hear the case. At Chief
Justice Me lville W. Fuller’s insistence, he
obtained his doctor’s permission to travel from
Tennessee, where he had been recuperating, to
Washington, D.C., to return to the bench.
The case was argued for three days in early
May, 1895. Strong passions about the income
tax law, widespread speculation about how
Jackson would vote, and the drama of the
obviously ailing justice made the case one of
keen
PUBLIC INTEREST. Reporters speculated that
the effort of participating in the hearing might
well shorten Jackson’s life.
The decision was rendered less than two
weeks after oral arguments. Ironically, Jackson’s
vote was not crucial, because one of his colleagues
changed his opinion. Jackson and three other
justices voted to uphold the constitutionality of
the tax; five justices, including the colleague who
had changed his opinion, voted to declare the
entire law void. Jackson, too weak to prepare a
formal, written opinion, spoke from notes as he
announced his dissent in the Supreme Court
chamber. Jackson declared that the decision was
“the most disastrous blow ever struck at the
constitutional power of Congress.” An income
tax was not resurrected until passage of the
SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT in 1913.

After the rehearing in Pollock, Jackson
returned to his home in West Meade, Tennes-
see. He died less than three months later, on
August 8, 1895.
FURTHER READINGS
Friedman, Leon, and Fred L. Israel, eds. 1995. The Justices of
the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major
Opinions, Volumes I–V. New York: Chelsea House.
Hudspeth, Harvey Gresham. “Howell Edmunds Jackson,
1832–1895. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and
Culture. Available online at />amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html; website home
page: (accessed September 5, 2009).
Jackson, Howell E., and Edward L. Symons, Jr. 1999.
Regulation of Financial Institutions. Eagan, MN: West.
CROSS REFERENCE
Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co.
v
JACKSON, JESSE LOUIS, SR.
Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. is a CIVIL RIGHTS
activist, clergyman, and prominent African
American leader in the United States.
Jackson was born October 8, 1941, in
Greenville, South Caroli na. His mother, Helen
Burns, was only 16 when Jackson was born. His
father, Noah Louis Robinson, acknowledged
Jackson as his son, but because he was married
[THE POLLOCK] DECI-
SION DISREGARDS
THE WELL
-ESTAB-

LISHED CANON
…
THAT AN ACT PASSED
BY A
CO
-ORDINATE
BRANCH OF THE GOV-
ERNMENT HAS EVERY
PRESUMPTION IN ITS
FAVOR
, AND SHOULD
NEVER BE DECLARED
INVALID BY THE
COURTS UNLESS ITS
REPUGNANCY TO THE
CONSTITUTION IS
CLEAR BEYOND ALL
REASONABLE DOUBT
.
—HOWELL JACKSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
4 JACKSON, JESSE LOUIS, SR.
to another woman and had several other
children, he was not involved in Jackson’s life.
When he was three, his mother married Charles
Jackson. The family eventually moved out of the
poor section of town to a new housing project,
where, for the first time, they enjoyed hot and
cold running water and an indoor bathroom.
Jackson was legally adopted by his stepfather

when he was 12. He has one brother, Charles
Jackson Jr.
Jackson attended the all-black Sterling High
School, in Greenville, where he was a star
football player. After graduation in 1959, he
went north to the University of Illinois on a
football scholarship. The following year he
transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical College (Nor th Carolina A&T), a
mostly black school in Greensboro. There he
met his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, a fellow
student who had also grown up in poverty. The
couple married December 31, 1962, and have
five children: Santita, Jesse Louis Jr. (Democrat-
ic representative, second congressional district
of Illinois), Jonathan Luther, Yusef DuBois, and
Jacqueline Lavinia.
While at North Carolina A&T, Jackson began
the work that would make him a widely rec-
ognized civil rights leader. He led a series of
protest demonstrations and sit-ins throughout
the South and joined one of the first organized
groups in the
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, the Congress
of Racial Equality (CORE).
After graduating from college in the fall of
1964, Jackson left the fledgling civil rights
movement and moved north again, to attend
Chicago Theological Seminary. He immersed
himself in his studies, determined to learn how he

could bring about change through the ministry.
Then in 1965, the civil rights movement began to
gain momentum, and Jackson wanted to be a part
of it. He joined the
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
CONFERENCE
(SCLC) of MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr, and
expanded its Operation Breadbasket, an econom-
ic campaign that used boycotts and negotiations
to secure jobs for minorities. Six months before
he was to graduate from the seminary, he left to
work full-time for the SCLC. Nevertheless, he was
ordained a Baptist minister in 1968.
Jackson saw King as his mentor and role
model, and he became King’s protégé. He
worked closely with King and the other SCLC
Jesse Jackson.
AP IMAGES
Jesse Louis Jackson 1941–
▼▼
▼▼
19501950
20002000
19751975
◆
◆◆◆
◆
◆
◆
◆

◆
◆◆◆
◆
❖
1941 Born,
Greenville,
S.C.
1939–45
World War II
1950–53
Korean War
1961–73
Vietnam War
1964 Graduated
from North Carolina
A & T
1965 Joined SCLC and its
Operation Breadbasket; became
Martin Luther King's protégé
1968 Ordained a Baptist minister; King assassinated
1971 Founded
Operation PUSH
1969 Left SCLC
after problems
with Black Expo
1984 Ran for president
and finished third in
Democratic primaries;
gave speech at
national convention

1985 Founded National
Rainbow Coalition
1990
Elected
"shadow
senator" for
Washington,
D.C.
1988 Ran for president and finished second
in primaries; moved to Washington, D.C.
1995
Helped
lead the
Million
Man
March
2002 Resigned
as president
of Rainbow/
PUSH
1997 Represented U.S.
as envoy to
Kenya elections
1999 Negotiated release of three U.S. POWs held in Kosovo
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JACKSON, JESSE LOUIS, SR. 5
leaders and was with King when King was
assassinated on April 4, 1968.
In 1969 Jackson organized the first Black
Expo, a promotional festival for the companies

involved in Operation Breadbasket. The expo was
intended to be an annual fundraiser for the
SCLC, but Jackson had quietly incorporated
the event independently. SCLC officials were
enraged, and Jackson finally left the organization.
In the early 1970s Jackson formed Operation
People United to Serve Humanity (Operation
PUSH), with the goal of economic empower-
ment for the “disadvantaged and people of
color.” He negotiated with such large corpora-
tions as the Coca-Cola Company, Heublein, and
Ford Motor Company to increase minority
employment and minority-owned dealerships
and franchises. He also began holding rallies at
high schools to raise the self-image of African
American students. He stressed the importance
of education, personal responsibility, and hard
work to achieve one’sgoals.Jackson’sworkwith
teenagers attracted the attention of President
JIMMY CARTER, whose administration rewarded
Jackson with grants and contracts to continue his
outreach. He named his school ministry PUSH
for Excellence, or PUSH-Excel.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jackson
emerged as a preeminent African American leader
in the United States. He deci d ed to make a bid
for the presidency. He mounted an ambitious
voter registration drive throughout the South, and
barnstormed through Western Europe enlisting
support among U.S. service personnel. In an

effort to enhance his image and prove that his
expertise extended beyond domestic matters,
Jackson traveled to trouble spots such as the
Middle East, Latin America, and Cuba to meet
with leaders there. In 1983 he negotiated the
release of Lieutenant Robert O. Goodman Jr ., a
U.S. citizen whose j e t had been shot down over
Syrian-held territory in Lebanon.
Critics dismissed these activities as oppor-
tunistic grandsta nding. Particularly troubling to
some was Jackson’s perceived anti-Semitic bias.
During a private conversation in 1984, Jackson
referred to Jews as Hymies and to New York as
Hymietown. He later apologized. A short time
later, Louis Farrakhan, head of the controversial
NATION OF ISLAM and a Jackson supporter,
threatened the reporter who had written about
Jackson’s remarks. Jackson later distanced
himself from Farrakhan and his organization
because of their perceived militant anti-white
and anti-Semitic stance.
Jackson placed third in the 1984 presidential
primaries, behind former
VICE PRESIDENT Walter
F. Mondale and Colorado senator Gary W.
Hart. His delegate votes did not give him the
clout he needed to compel the Democrats to
accept his controversial platform proposals.
Jackson gracefully conceded the nomination to
Mondale and gave a rousing speech at the

Democratic National Convention in San Fran-
cisco, which was in part a respo nse to his critics:
If in my low moments, in word, deed, or
attitude, through some error of temper, taste,
or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort,
created pain, or revived someone’s fears, that
was not my truest self.… I am not a perfect
servant. I am a public servant doing my best
against the odds. As I develop and serve, be
patient. God is not finished with me yet.
After the convention, Jackson resumed his
duties as head of Operation PUSH. He also
continued to be active in progressive causes,
leading what he called a counterinaugural
march and prayer vigil in January 1985, and
participating in a reenactment of the civil rights
march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery,
Alabama, in March 1985. That same year,
Jackson formed the National Rainbow Coali-
tion, his vision of a modern populist movement
comprising African Americans, working fami-
lies, liberal urbanites, Hispanics, women’s rights
groups, college faculty and students, environ-
mentalists, farmers, and labor unions—a cul-
tural as well as racial alliance searching for
alternatives within the
DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Jackson made another run for president in
1988 and finished second behind Michael
Dukakis in the primaries. However, much to

his disappointment, he was not chosen as the
vice presidential nominee.
After the 1988 election, Jackson moved from
Chicago to Washington, D.C., and was elected
one of the city’s “shadow senators.” In this
unpaid, nonvoting position, which was created
by the Washington City Council, Jackson
represents the district’s interests on Capitol Hill.
His main responsibility is to lobby Congress for
statehood for the nation’s capital.
In the 1990s and into the 2000s Jackson
continued to be the leading spokesman for civil
rights issues on both the domestic and interna-
tional fronts. He called on the African American
AMERICA IS…LIKE
A QUILT
—MANY
PATCHES
, MANY
PIECES
, MANY COL-
ORS
, MANY SIZES,
ALL WOVEN AND HELD
TOGETHER BY A
COMMON THREAD
.
—JESSE JACKSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
6 JACKSON, JESSE LOUIS, SR.

community to take action against the violence
that was claiming so many of its young people.
He advocated for such issues as universal health
care and equal administration of justice in all U.S.
cities. And in 1996, in an effort to maximize
efforts, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation
PUSH merged to form Rainbow/PUSH Coali-
tion, which remains devoted to education,
PUBLIC POLICY changes, and social and economic
empowerment.
In 1997 President
BILL CLINTON and Secretary
of State
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT named Jackson as
Special Envoy for the President and Secretary of
State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa.
He has met with many of the leaders of African
nations in support of this directive. He also has
served as an international diplomat on a number
of other occasions, and in 1999, negotiated the
release of U.S. soldiers held in Kosovo. In 2000,
President Clinton awarded Jackson the highest
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Free-
dom, for his national and international civil
rights efforts. That same year, Jackson received
his master of divinity degree from the Chicago
Theological Seminary on June 3. He had been
only three courses short of earning his degree
when he left the school to work with a minister
more than three decades ago.

Jackson disappointed many of his followers
when it came to light in 2001 that he had had an
extramarital affair that resulted in the birth of a
daughter, who was 20 months old at the time of
his announcement. “I fully accept responsibility,
and I am truly sorry for my actions,” he said in a
written state ment.
In July 2002 Jackson, without specifying a
timetable for his intention of stepping down,
announced that his successor as president of the
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would be the Rev.
James Meeks. Jackson said that he wanted to
have a successor in place so that the organiza-
tion would not be traumatized by his retire-
ment. But this announcement did not mean
that Jackson was slowing down. Over the next
two years he worked to defeat the recall of
California Governor Gray Davis, to support the
election of Democratic presidential candidate
John Kerry, to defeat a ballot measure that
would have banned the California government
from collecting data about people’s race in most
circumstances, to support striking Yale Univer-
sity service and clerical workers, and to stop a
Texas redistricting plan that would have been
favorable to Republicans. He was even arrested
for his part in the protests at Yale.
Jackson is often involved in issues dealing
with civil rights and political activism. In March
2005 Jackson met with Florida Governor Jeb

Bush and the state’s Senate President, Tom Lee,
to discuss the case of brain-damaged Terri
Schiavo. He was in favor of her parent’s wishes.
In June 2007 he and other demonstrators were
arrested for blocking the entrance to a gun shop
in Riverdale, Illinois.
A tireless activist, Jackson maintains a whirl-
wind schedule, traveling to schools and univer-
sities for speaking engagements, appearing on
news programs, and writing a weekly syndicated
column that provides political analysis. He has
received numerous awards and commendations
throughout his career, including the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal. He also has been the recipient
of more than 40 honorary degrees.
FURTHER READINGS
Frady, Marshall. 1996. Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse
Jackson. New York: Random House.
Hertzke, Allen D. 1993. Echoes of Discontent: Jesse Jackson,
Pat Robertson, and the Resurgence of Populism.
Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
v
JACKSON, ROBERT HOUGHWOUT
Robert Houghwout Jackson served as general
counsel for the Federal Bureau of Internal
Revenue, attorney general of the United States,
and justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. During his
service on the Court from 1941 to 1954 Jackson
delivered unconventional opinions that did not
always coincide with those of the president who

had appointed him,
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.Jackson
was nonetheless chosen to be chief counsel at
the
NUREMBERG TRIALS following WORLD WAR II.
Jackson’s straightforward style as a lawyer
and a justice stemmed from his rural upbring-
ing. The first Jacksons immigrated to the United
States from England in 1819. They settled in
Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, where Jackson was
born on February 13, 1892. His father, William
Eldred Jackson, provided for the family through
farming and lumbering.
In September 1911 Jackson entered Albany
Law School, passing the bar in 1913. He then
began a lengthy career with the establishment
of a law practice at Jamestown, New York, and
formed a friendship with fellow New Yorker
Roosevelt.
IT IS NOT THE FUNC-
TION OF OUR
GOV-
ERNMENT TO KEEP
THE CITIZEN FROM
FALLING INTO ERROR
;
IT IS THE FUNCTION
OF THE CITIZEN TO
KEEP THE
GOVERN-

MENT FROM FALLING
INTO ERROR
.
—ROBERT JACKSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JACKSON, ROBERT HOUGHWOUT 7