Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 7 P41 ppt

Burkholder, J. R., and John Bender. 1982. Children of Peace.
Elgin, Ill.: Brethren.
Churchill, Ward, with Mike Ryan. 1998. Pacifism as
Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in
North America. Winnipeg, Canada: Arbeiter Ring.
Kellett, Christine Hunter. 1984. “Draft Registration and the
Conscientious Objector: A Proposal to Accommodate
Constitutional Values.” Columbia Human Rights Law
Review 15.
Randle, Michael, ed. 2002. Challenge to Nonviolence.
Bradford, U.K.: Univ. of Bradford, Dept. of Peace
Studies.
Todd, Jack. 2001. Desertion: In the Time of Vietnam. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Wallis, Jim, ed. 1982. Waging Peace: A Handbook for the
Struggle to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. New York: Harper
and Row.
CROSS REFERENCES
Civil Rights Movement; Conscientious Objector; Gandhi,
Mohandas Karamchand; King, Martin Luther Jr.; Thoreau,
Henry David.
PACKING
The exercise of unlawful, improper, or deceitful
means to obtain a jury composed of individuals
who are favorably disposed to render a desired
verdict.
“Court packing” is a form of unlawful
command influence that occurs when a con-
vening authority selects court members in order
to achieve desired verdicts or results; or when a
subordinate “packs” the list of nominees

presented to the convening authority.
Vote dilution in violation of the Voting
Rights Act can be a form of “packing.” It is
achieved by concentrating minority members
into a few districts in which they co nstitute an
excessive majority, thereby limiting the com-
munity’s representation to as few districts as
possible; similar results can be obtained by
“fracturing,” that is, dispersing the minority
community into many separate political dis-
tricts and thereby preventing the minority
community from constitutin g a majority within
any single district. A form of gerrymandering.
“Insurance packing” involves the use of
deceptive and unfair practices to induce bor-
rowers to purchase insurance in connection
with
CONSUMER CREDIT transactions.
“Loan packing” is a practice on the part of
commercial lenders that involves increasing the
principal amount of a loan by combining the
loan with loan-related services, such as credit
insurance, that the borrower does not want.
PACT
A bargain, compact, or agreement. An agreement
between two or more nations or states that is
similar to, but less complex than, a treaty.
PACT OF PARIS
See KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT.
PACTA SUNT SERVANDA

[Latin, Promises must be kept.] An expression
signifying that the agreements and stipulations of
the par ties to a contract must be observed.
PACTUM
[Latin, Pact.] A compact, bargain, or agreement.
v
PAGE, ALAN CEDRIC
Alan Cedric Page, former Minnesota Vikings
football star, has served as an associate justice of
the Minnesota Supreme Court since 1993. Page
gained athletic fame as one of the four “Purple
People Eaters” for the Vikings’ defense who
were essential to the team’s ten division titles
Alan Cedric Page 1945–
▼▼
▼▼
1925
2000
1975
1950
◆
❖
◆
◆
◆
◆
◆
1945 Born,
Canton, Ohio
1961–73

Vietnam War
1967 Thurgood Marshall became first
African American U.S. Supreme Court justice
1967 Earned B.A. from
University of Notre Dame
1967–81 Played
in the National
Football League
1978 Earned J.D. from University of Minnesota;
joined law firm of Lindquist & Vennum in Minneapolis
1988 Established
Page Education
Foundation
1993 Became first African
American appointed to
Minnesota Supreme Court
1987–93 Served as assistant
Minnesota attorney general
◆
2001 September 11
terrorist attacks
2004 Received NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
388 PACKING
and four Super Bowl appearances during the
1960s and 1970s. While still employed full-time
as a professional football player, Page attended
the University of Minnesota Law School full-
time and graduated in 1978. He is the first and
only African American supreme court justice in

the state of Minnesota.
One of four children of Georgianna Umbles
and Howard Felix Page, Alan Page was born on
August 7, 1945, in Canton, Ohio, the home of
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His mother, a
country club attendant, and his father, a bar
manager, always emphasized the importance of
learning. They instilled strong values in him, and
Page looked up to his parents as role models.
Page was an outstanding athlete in high
school, but even at a young age, his aspirations
went beyond the gridiron and into the
courtroom. Page admired U.S. Supreme Court
Justice
THURGOOD MARSHALL and was a fan of the
Perry Mason television sh ow. He told Parade
Magazine in 1990 that he viewed sports not as a
goal, but as a means to achieve an education.
“Even when I was playing p rofessionally,” he
said, “I never viewed myself as a football
player. There’s far more to life than being an
athlete.”
Page graduated from the University of Notre
Dame in 1967 with a B.A. in political science. At
Notre Dame, he was an All-American defensive
end and played on the school’s 1966 national
championship team. Chosen in 1967 by the
Vikings as their first-round draft choice, Page
went on to earn the Most Valuable Player award
in the National Football League in 1971. In the

NFL, he played the position of defensive tackle.
He logged fifteen seasons with the Vikings and
Chicago Bears, starting in each of the 236 games
he played during his career before retiring in
1981. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of
Fame in 1988 and to the College Football Hall
of Fame in 1993.
After graduating from law school in 1978,
he joined the law firm of Lindquist and
Vennum in Minneapolis, where he specialized
in labor and employment
LITIGATION from 1979
to 1984, overlapping with his final years in the
NFL. He served as assistant attorney general for
the state of Minnesota from 1987 to 1993.
Page established the Page Education Foun-
dation in 1988 to increase the participation
of minority youth in post-secondary educa-
tion. Scholarship recipients tutor kindergarten
through eighth-grade students for eight to ten
hours each month during the school year while
attending post-secondary school, thus creating a
pyramid influencing younger students of color as
mentors and role models.
Page regularly speaks to minority students
about the importance of education. He also
encourages adults to influence children to look at
the values and good examples of hard work that
decent Americans provide every day for “creating
and sustaining hope for the future.” He noted,

“These are not the heroes who offer hope with
promises of winning the lottery, becoming a rap
star, or pulling down backboards and endorse-
ment contracts in the NBA. These are simply
men and women who get up every morning and
do the things that citizens do.”
Page was elected to the Minnesota Supreme
Court in 1993. In his 1998 re-election cam-
paign, an opponent charged that Page’s foun-
dation activities violated canons regarding the
judicial appearance of impartiality. The ethics
complaint showed that donation s to the schol-
arship fund had soared in recent years and that
some of the contributors included companies
and law firms with cases pending befor e the
Minnesota Supreme Court. Page said that
he refused to help raise funds and that he
intentionally avoided any knowledge of his
contributors. The complaint also charged that
awarding sch olarships only to minorities vio-
lated the judicial canon prohibiting any expres-
sions of bias or prejudice. In February 1999 the
Alan Page.
AP IMAGES
AT THE VERY BEST,
ATHLETIC
ACHIEVEMENT MIGHT
OPEN A DOOR THAT
DISCRIMINATION
ONCE HELD SHUT

.
B
UT THE DOORS
SLAM QUICKLY ON
THE UNPREPARED
AND THE
UNDER
-EDUCATED.
—ALAN PAGE
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
PAGE, ALAN CEDRIC 389
Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards cleared
Page of any ethics violations in the ma tter.
Page has received a number of honors, both
for his playing days and for his activities after
retirement from the NFL. He was a recipient of
the Dick Enberg Award and became a member
of the Academic All-American Hall of Fame. He
was named by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis
and St. Paul as one of the 100 mos t influential
Minnesotans and one of the 100 most impor-
tant athletes in the twentieth century. In 2004,
Page received the NCAA’s
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Award, the association’s most esteemed honor,
and in 2005 he accepted the National Football
Foundation and College Hall of Fame’s Dis-
tingued American Award. Page also holds
honorary doctor of laws degrees from the
University of Notre Dame, St. John’s University,

Westfield State College, Luther College, and the
University of N ew Haven.
Page is married to Diane Sims and has four
children.
FURTHER READINGS
Page, Alan. 1993. “A Message You May Not Hear In Law
School” (lecture). Ohio Northern University Law Review
20 (fall-winter).
Starr, Cynthia, et al. 1994. “Home Court Advantage.” ABA
Journal 80 (February).
v
PAINE, ROBERT TREAT
Robert Treat Paine was born March 11, 1731, in
Boston, Massachusetts, a descendant of early
American settler Robert Treat. He attended the
Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard
College in 1749, and became a merchant and
traveled to the southern colonies, Spain, the
Azores, and England. He returned home and was
admitted to the bar of Massachusetts in 1757,
practicing in Portland (then part of Massachu-
setts but now in Maine), and later in Taunton,
Massachusetts. He also taught school and studied
theology. After a brief career in the ministry, he
became an eminent lawyer, politician, and judge.
Paine first won fame as an associate
prosecuting attor ney in the
BOSTON MASSACRE
trial (JOHN ADAMS was opposing counsel). The
Boston Massacre, which occurred in 1770, was a

violent response to the passing of the
TOWN-
SHEND ACTS
by Great Britain. These acts decreed
that CUSTOMS DUTIES would be imposed on the
▼▼
▼▼
Robert Treat Paine 1731–1814
1725
1775
1800
1825
1750
❖
❖
◆
1814 Died,
Boston,
Mass.
1812–14
War of 1812
1790–1804 Served
on the Mass.
Supreme Court
1777–90 Served
as first attorney
general of Mass.
1731 Born,
Boston, Mass.
◆

1749 Graduated
from Harvard
College
◆
1757
Admitted
to Mass.
bar
1773–75
& 1777–78
Served in Mass.
Provincial
Assembly
1774–78 Attended the Continental Congresses
1780 Helped establish the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1776 Signed Declaration of Independence
1775–83
American Revolution
◆
Robert Treat Paine.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
390 PAINE, ROBERT TREAT
importation of tea, lead, glass, paints, and
paper. When British troops were sent to Boston
to enforce payment of the duties, the colonists
harassed them to such an extent that they fired
into a crowd, killing five men.
Subsequently Paine served two terms as a
member of the Massachusetts Provincial As-
sembly, from 1773 to 1775 and from 1777 to

1778, acting as speaker during 1777 and 1778.
During the next four years, he was an active
member of two congresses: the Provincial
Congress, in 1774 and 1775, and the
CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
, from 1774 to 1778. In Congress
he signed the final appeal to the king (the Olive
Branch Petition of 1775), and helped frame the
rules of debate and acquire gunpowder for the
coming war. In 1776 he signed the
DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
.
Paine continued to be active in Massachu-
setts government after the American Revolu-
tion. In 1777 he became the first attorney
general of Massachusetts and held that office
until 1790. From 1778 to 1780, he was involved
in the enactment of the Massachusetts constitu-
tion and was instrumental in the establishment
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1780. In 1790 Paine became a justice of the
Massachusetts Supreme Court, where he
remained until 1804.
Paine died May 11, 1814, in Boston,
Massachusetts. His remains were interred at
Boston’s Granary Burying Ground. A com-
memorative statue in his honor stands in
Taunton’s Church Green area.

CROSS REFERENCES
Boston Massacre Soldiers; Massachusetts Constitution of
1780.
v
PAINE, THOMAS
Social agitator Thomas Paine was an influential
political writer whose support of revolution and
republican government em boldened the Amer-
ican colonists to declare independence from
England. In 1776 the corset-maker-turned-
pamphleteer published the first of a sixteen-
part series entitled The American Crisis. Paine’s
tract contained the stirring words “These are
the times that try men’s souls.” Paine wrote the
famous pamphlet to lift the spirits of the
beleaguered Continental Army.
The effect of Paine’s political writing was felt
not only in America but also in England and
France. After the American Revolution, Paine
returned to his native Europe, where he supported
the French Revolution. His political opinions
ignited a storm in England and landed him in jail
in France. During his lifetime, Paine’spolitical
views made him both tremendously popular and
almost universally despised. In particular, his later
writings about organized religion and deism
offended many Americans. Shunned and penni-
less at the end of his life, Paine has only recently
found his rightful place in history.
Paine was born into a poor English family

on January 29, 1737, in Thetford, Norfolk,
England. To help support his Quaker father and
Anglican mother, Paine quit school at age 13
and began training in corset making, his father’s
trade. Unhappy in his vocation, Paine left home
and enlisted as a seaman in the Seven Years’
War. Afterward, he traveled to London, where
he became interested in science and mechanics.
Paine held a variety of jobs, including customs
official, preacher, and schoolteacher. At the
urging of
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, while Franklin
served as a colonial official in England, Paine
immigrated to America. Arriving in Philadelphia
▼▼
▼▼
Thomas Paine 1737–1809
1725
1775
1800
1825
1750
❖
❖
◆
1809 Died,
New York
City
1812–14
War of 1812

1787 Returned
to England
1737 Born,
Thetford,
Norfolk,
England
◆
1792 Obtained French citizenship; elected to the National
Convention; imprisoned by Robespierre government
1776 Published The American Crisis and Common Sense
1775–83
American Revolution
◆
1791 Published The
Rights of Man
◆
◆
1794 Published first half of The Age of Reason
◆
1796 Wrote Letter to Washington; published
second half of The Age of Reason
1774 Immigrated to America;
became managing editor of
Pennsylvania Magazine
1777–79 Attended the Continental Congress
◆
1802 Returned
to the United States
◆
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION

PAINE, THOMAS 391
in 1774, Paine became the managing editor of
Pennsylvania Magazine.
In January 1776 Paine published his first
important pamphlet, Common Sense. A phe-
nomenal success, the publication sold more
than five hundred thousand copies. Paine urged
the American colonies not only to protest
English taxation but to go further and declare
independence. He also recommended calling a
constitutional convention to establish a new
government. Paine ’s tract was extremely influ-
ential in convincing the colonists to cut their
ties with England, embrace the Revolution,
and embark upon a new, republican form of
government.
Paine served in the Continental Army and
experienced firsthand the miserable conditions
of war. To boost the soldiers’ morale after a
retreat, he wrote the influent ial series The
American Crisis. Under orders from General
Washington, Paine’s pamphlet was read aloud
to encourage the troops. The American Crisis
has been given credit for inspiring the American
victory in the Battle of Trenton.
Paine was elected to the
CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
in 1777, as secretary of the Committee
of Foreign Affairs. He resigned under pressure

in 1779 after publishing confidential informa-
tion about treaty negotiations with France.
After the United States’ victory over England,
Paine devoted his time to perfecting his inven-
tions. In 1787 he returned to Europe to gather
financial support and interest in his ideas for
an iron bridge. While in England, Paine became
caught up in the debate over the French
Revolution. In 1791 he published the first part
of The Rights of Man. It was a response to Edmund
Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790), a vigorous denunciation of the events in
France. Paine’s The Rights of Man supported the
revolution and upheld the dignity and rights of
the common person. Controversial for its time,
The Rights of Man sold two 200,000 copies in
England but Paine was forced out of that country
under an
INDICTMENT for TREASON.
Paine moved to France. After obtaining
French citizenship, he was elected to the
National Convention in 1792. Because Paine
protested the execution of Louis XVI, he
was arrested and imprisoned by the radical
Robespierre government. Barely avoiding the
guillotine, he spent ten months in a Luxem-
bourg prison before his release was won by
JAMES MONROE, U.S. ambassador to France. Paine
wrote Letter to Washington in 1796, a critical
look at the U.S. president’s inability to quickly

obtain Paine’s freedom.
While in prison, Paine published in 1794 the
first half of his most controversial work, The Age
of Reason. The second half was printed in 1796,
after his release. In The Age of Reason, Paine
criticized organized religion and explained his
own deist beliefs. Deism is a religious and
philosophical belief that accepts the concept of
God but views reason as the key to moral truths.
Deism was confused by many of Paine’sreaders
with atheism, the rejection of a belief in God.
Because people mistook The Age of Reason for an
atheist tract, Paine came under attack for his
unorthodox religious views.
When Paine arrived in the United States in
1802, he was rejected by many of his former
associates. His reputation was damaged by
his misinterpreted deist beliefs an d by his
public criticism of the American hero
GEORGE
WASHINGTON
.
Paine died June 8, 1809, in New York City,
misunderstood and impoverished, with his role
in the Revolutionary War downplayed by his
detractors. He was buried on his farm in New
Thomas Paine.
PHOTOGRAPH OF
PAINTING BY ROMNEY.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES

AND RECORDS
ADMINISTRATION
SOCIETY IN EVERY
STATE IS A BLESSING
,
BUT GOVERNMENT,
EVEN IN ITS BEST
STATE
, IS BUT A
NECESSARY EVIL
; IN
ITS WORST STATE AN
INTOLERABLE ONE
.
—THOMAS PAINE
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
392 PAINE, THOMAS
Rochelle, New York. In 1819 political journalist
William Cobbett made arrangements to have
Paine reburied in England in a place of honor.
Somehow, en route to England, Paine’s remains
were lost. They were never retrieved.
Paine’s reputation as a political philosopher
has been largely restored. He is remembered
favorably for his rousing call to arms during the
American Revolution and for his defense of
republicanism and the rights of common
people. Many respected historical figures pro-
fessed their admiration for Payne, such as
JOHN

ADAMS
(with whom he was often in dispute):
“Without the pen of Paine, the sword of
Washington would have been wielded in vain. ”
In speaking of Payne, Thomas Alva Edison said,
“And I consider Paine our greatest political
thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps
never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and
Constitution, so Paine has had no successors
who extended his principles.”
FURTHER READINGS
Aldridge, Alfred Owen. 1959. Man of Reason: The Life of
Thomas Paine. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Ayer, A.J. 1988. Thomas Paine. New York: Atheneum.
Keane, John. 2003. Tom Paine: A Political Life. New York:
Grove Press.
PAIRING-OFF
In the practice of legislative bodies, a system by
which two members, who either belong to
opposing political parties or are on opposite sides
with respect to a certain issue, mutually agree that
they will both be absent from voting, either for a
specified period or when a vote is to be taken on a
particular issue.
As a result of pairing-o ff, a vote is neutral-
ized on each side of the question, and the
comparative division of the legislature remains
the same as if both members were present. The
practice is said to have originated in the English
House of Commons during the time of Oliver

Cromwell.
PAIS
[French, The country; the neighborhood.]A
trial per pais denotes a trial by the country; that
is, trial by jury.
An
ESTOPPEL in pais means that a party is
prevented by his or her own co nduct from
obtaining the enforcement of a right which
would operate to the detriment of another who
justifiably relied on such conduct. This type of
estoppel differs from an estoppel by deed or by
record which, as a result of the language set out
in a document, bars the enforcement of a claim
against a party who acted in reliance upon those
written terms.
PALIMONY
See ALIMONY; COHABITATION.
PALM OFF
To misrepresent the inferior goods of one producer
as the superior goods of a more reputable and
well-regarded competitor in order to gain com-
mercial advantage and promote sales.
The doctrine of palming off is applied to the
particular facts of a case in which the
DEFENDANT
is accused of engaging in UNFAIR COMPETITION
against the PLAINTIFF.
There is also a form of trademark
INFRINGE-

MENT
known as “reverse palming off” whereby
one falsely claims another’s product as one’s
own in order to deceive buyers: (1) The product
at issue originates with the plaintiff; (2) the
origin of the product is falsely designated by the
defendant; (3) the false designation of origin
causes consumer confusion; and (4) the plaintiff
is harmed by such confusion. Lanham Trade-
Mark Act, § 1 et seq., 15 U.S.C.A. § 1051 et seq.
v
PALMER, ALEXANDER MITCHELL
Alexander Mitchell Palmer served as U.S.
attorney general from 1919 to 1921. Palmer,
who also served as a congressman and federal
judge, became a controversial figure for round-
ing up thousands of
ALIENS in 1920 that he
considered to be politically subversive. These
“Palmer raids” violated basic civil liberties and
ultimately discredited Palmer.
Palmer was born May 4, 1872, in Moose-
hood, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Swarth-
more College in 1891 and then studied law at
Swarthmore, Lafayette College, and George
Washington University. Though he did not
earn a law degree, he passed the Pennsylvania
bar exam and was admitted to the bar in 1893.
He entered a small law firm in Stroudsberg,
Pennsylvania, and practiced there until 1901.

He then became a solo practitioner.
During the 1890s Palmer became active in
DEMOCRATIC PARTY politics. He was elected to the
FULLY 90 PERCENT
OF THE
COMMUNIST
AND ANARCHIST
AGITATION IS
TRACEABLE TO
ALIENS
.
—A. MITCHELL
PALMER
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
PALMER, ALEXANDER MITCHELL 393
U.S. House of Representatives in 1908 where he
served until 1915. In 1912 he played a key role in
securing the Democratic presidential nomin-
ation for New Jersey governor
WOODROW WILSON.
Following Wilson’svictorythatfall,Wilson
asked Palmer to join his cabinet as secretary of
war. Palmer’spacifistQuakerbeliefs,however,
precluded him from accepting the office.
In 1914 he ran for the U.S. Senate but lost.
In April 1915 Wilson appointed him a judge of
the United States Court of Claims. It was a brief
appointment. He resigned in September and
returned to his law practice. He continued his
political career, however, serving as a member

of the Demo cratic National Committee during
Wilson’s eight-year term.
In 1917, after the United States entered
WORLD WAR I, Wilson appointed Palmer custo-
dian of alien property. Palmer’s duties included
seizing and selling properties belonging to
aliens, primarily Germans, and his methods
often met with disapproval.
In March 1919 Wilson appointed Palmer
U.S. attorney general. Though World War I was
over, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia caused
political hysteria in western Europe and the
United States. The Communist movem ent
advocated world revolution, and U.S. leaders
suspected that left-wing radicals, who were
primarily aliens, were plotting to overthrow
the government.
Palmer used the
ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917 and
the
SEDITION Act of 1918 to begin a crusade
against this perceived threat. He deported the
anarchist
EMMA GOLDMAN and many other
radicals, but these actions were a prelude to
his unprecedented dragnets. On January 2,
1920, at Palmer’s direction, federal agents in
33 cities rounded up six thousand persons
suspected of subversive activities. Agents en-
tered and searched homes without warrants,

held persons without specific charges for long
periods of time, and denied them legal counsel.
Hundreds of aliens were deported. Palmer’s
actions were part of an anti-Communist “Red
Scare” that ignored civil liberties in the pursuit of
rooting out allegedly subversive activities. He
steadfastly defended the raids in the face of
widespread protests.
Alexander Mitchell Palmer 1872–1936
▼▼
▼▼
18751875
19501950
19251925
19001900
❖
1872 Born,
Moosehood,
Pa.
◆
1891
Graduated from
Swarthmore
College
◆◆
1901
Opened
solo law
practice
1914–18

World War I
1939–45
World War II
❖
1936 Died,
Washington,
D.C.
1917 Appointed custodian of alien property
1893
Admitted
to Pa. bar
◆
1912 Worked to secure Wilson's nomination for president
◆◆
1915 Appointed to U.S. Court of Claims
1909–15
Served in
U.S. House
1919 Anarchist Emma Goldman deported
1919–21 Served as
U.S. attorney general
under Wilson
◆
◆
1920 Palmer Raids conducted,
thousands of "subversives" arrested
A. Mitchell Palmer.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
394 PALMER, ALEXANDER MITCHELL

Palmer sought to succeed Wilson as presi-
dent but lost the Democratic Party nomination
in 1920. After leaving the office of attorney
general in March 1921, Palmer resumed his
private law practice and remained active in
Democratic Party politics, campaigning for
presidential candidate Alf red E. Smith in 1928
and
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT in 1932. Palmer died
May 11, 1936, in Washington, D.C.
FURTHER READING
Coben, Stanley. 1972. A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician. New
York: Da Capo Press.
PALPABLE
Easily perceptible, plain, obvious, readily visible,
noticeable, patent, distinct, manifest.
The term palpable usually refers to some
type of egregious wrong, such as a governmental
error or
ABUSE O F POWER.
A “palpable defect,” one that warrants
reconsideration of a district court’s order, is a
defect which is obvious, clear, unmistakable,
manifest, or plain. U.S. Dist. Ct. Rules E.D.
Mich., Rule 7.1(g).
A “palpable error” is one that affects the
substantial rights of a party and which has
resulted in manifest injustice.
PALSGRAF V. LONG ISLAND
RAILROAD COMPANY

Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Company, 248
N.Y. 339, 162 N.E. 99, decided by the New York
Court of Appeals in 1928, established the
principle in
TORT LAW that one who is negligent
is liable only for the harm or the injury that is
foreseeable and not for every injury that follows
from his or her
NEGLIGENCE.
The unique facts of the case created a need
for a new application of the generally accepted
theory that negligence is the absence of care,
according to the circumstances. Mrs. Palsgraf
was standing on a railroad platform when she
was injured by falling scales. The scales toppled
as the result of a shock of an explosion caused
by an accident that occurred at the other end of
the platform, “many feet away” from Palsgraf.
The accident involved a passenger with a
package who was running to catch a departing
train. As the passenger jumped to board the train,
two railroad employees, one on the train and the
other on the platform, reached for and pushed
(respectively) him so he would not fall off it. The
employees’ help caused the passenger to drop the
package. The package wrapped in newspaper
contained fireworks that exploded upon hitting
the tracks. The resulting explosion caused the
scales to fall, striking Palsgraf. She sued the
railroad for the conduct of its employees that led

the passenger to drop his package of fireworks.
Both the trial court and the intermediate
appellate court awarded judgment to the
plaintiff, Palsgraf. The Court of Appeals deci-
sion, written by
BENJAMIN CARDOZO, reversed the
judgment. Cardozo stated that negligence is
wrongful “because the eye of vigilance perceives
the risk of danger The risk reasonably to be
perceived defines the duty to be obeyed, and
risk imports relation; it is to another or others
within the range of apprehension.” Given this
principle, Cardozo reasoned that “Here, by
concession, there was nothing in the situation to
suggest to the most cautious mind that the
parcel wrapped in newspaper would spread
wreckage throughout the station.”
The dissenting opinion offered that “Every
one owes to the world at large the duty of
refraining from those acts that may unreason-
ably threaten the safety of others Unrea-
sonable risk being taken, its consequences are
not confined to those who might probably be
hurt.” It viewed the concept of proximate cause
as “practical politics,” not based on logic.
Although it must be “ something without
which the event would not happen,” proximate
cause means “that, because of convenience, of
public policy, of a ro ugh sense of justice, the law
arbitrarily declines to trace a series of events

beyond a certain point.” The foreseeable or
natural results of a negligent act affect a
determination of whether the act is a proximate
cause of the injuries. The dissenters, therefore,
reasoned “given such an explosion as here, it
needed no great foresight to predict that the
natural result would be to injure one on the
platform at no greater distance from its scene
than was the plaintiff. ”
FURTHER READINGS
Beatty, Jeffrey F., and Susan S. Samuelson. 2008. Business
Law and the Legal Environment, Standard Edition.
5th ed. Mason, OH: South-Western.
Manz, William H. 2003. “Palsgraf: Cardozo’s Urban
Legend?” Dickinson Law Review 107 (spring).
Weinrib, Ernest J. 2001. “The Passing of Palsgraf.”
Vanderbilt Law Review 54 (April).
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
PALSGRAF V. LONG ISLAND RAILROAD COMPANY 395
PANDER
To pimp; to cater to the gratification of the lust of
another. To entice or procure a person, by
promises, threats, fraud, or deception to enter
any place in which prostitution is practiced for the
purpose of prostitution.
Pandering is established when the evidence
shows that the accused succeeded in inducing a
victim to become an inmate of a house of
PROSTITUTION. One who solicits for a prostitu te is
a panderer. A case that discusses the concept of

pandering is Edwards v. Com. 218 Va. 994, 243
S.E.2d 834 Va., 1978.
The pandering of obscenity refers to the
business of purveying, by some form of
advertising, pictorial or graphic mat erial that
appeals to the prurient interest of customers or
potential customers.
CROSS REFERENCE
Obscene.
PANEL
A list of jurors to serve in a particular court or for
the trial of a designated action. A group of judges
of a lesser number than the entire court convened
to decide a case, such as when a nine-member
appellate court divides into three, three-member
groups, and each group hears and decides cases. A
plan in reference to prepaid legal services.
The term open-panel legal services refers to a
plan in which legal services are paid for in
advance, usually by insurance, but in which
members can select their own lawyers. Under a
closed panel, all legal services are rendered by a
group of attorneys previously chosen by the
insurer, the union, or another entity.
PAPER
A document that is filed or introduced in evidence
in a lawsuit, as in the phrases papers in the case
and papers on appeal.
Any written or printed statement, including
letters, memoranda, legal or business documents,

and books of account, in the context of the
FOURTH
AMENDMENT
to the U.S. Constitution, which
protects the people from unreasonable
SEARCHES
AND SEIZURES
with respect to their “papers” as well
as their persons and houses.
In the context of accommodation paper and
COMMERCIAL PAPER , a written or printed evidence of
debt.
PAR
In commercial law, equal; equality.
The term par refers to an equality that
exists between the nominal or face value of a
document—such as a
BILL OF EXCHANGE or a share
of stock—and its actual selling value. When the
values are equal, the share is said to be at par; if it
can be sold for more than its face value, it is above
par; if it is sold for less than its nominal value, it is
below par. On a bond, the “par value” is the stated
amount that the bondholder can receive as of the
bond’s maturity. The par value of a stock is the
amount that an issuing corporation’scharter
initially assigns (often one cent). It is generally
unrelated to the stock’smarketprice.
FURTHER READING
Hazen, Thomas Lee. 2009. Securities Regulation in a Nutshell.

St. Paul, Minn.: West.
PARALEGAL
See LEGAL ASSISTANT.
PARALLEL CITATION
A reference to the same case or statute published in
two or more sources.
For example,
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF
TOPEKA
, KANSAS, a landmark decision by the
Supreme Court in 1954, can be located in 347
U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, and 98 L. Ed. 873. These
references are parallel citations to reporters in
which Supreme Court decisions are publis hed.
PARAMOUNT TITLE
In the law of real property, ownership that is
superior to the ownership with which it is
compared, in the sense that the former is the
source or the origin of the latter.
The term paramount title is, however,
frequently used to signify a title that is merely
better or stronger than another or will prevail
over it. This usage is rarely correct, unless the
superiority consists of the seniority of the title
referred to as paramount.
PARCENER
A joint heir.
Also called a coparcener. Someone who
becomes a joint owner, co-heir, of an estate
through descent. Collectively the joint heirs are

called coparceners.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
396 PANDER
PARDON
A pardon in the action of an executive official of
the government that mitigates or sets aside the
punishment for a crime.
The granting of a pardon to a person who has
committed a crime or who has been convicted of
a crime is an act of
CLEMENCY, which forgives the
wrongdoer and restores the person’s
CIVIL RIGHTS.
At the federal level, the president has the power to
grant a pardon, and at the state level the governor
or a pardon board made up of high-ranking state
officials may grant it.
The power to grant a pardon derives from the
English system in which the king had, as one of
his royal prerogatives, the right to forgive virtually
all forms of crimes against the crown. The
Framers of the U.S. Constitution, in Article II,
Section 2, Clause 1, provided that the president
“shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons
for Offences against the United States, except in
Cases of Impeachment.” Throughout U.S. history
the courts have interpreted this clause to give the
president virtually unlimited power to issue
pardons to individuals or groups and to impose
conditions on the forgiveness.

The first major court case involving th e
pardon power, Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. (4
Wall.) 333, 18 L. Ed. 366 (1866), established
both the scope of the pardon power and the legal
effect on a person who was pardoned. President
ANDREW JOHNSON pardoned Arkansas attorney
and Confederate sympathizer
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
Garland, who had not been tried, for any offenses
he might have committed during the Civil War.
Garland sought to practice in federal court, but
federal law required that he swear an oath that he
never aided the
CONFEDERACY. Garland argued that
the pardon absolved him of the need to take the
oath. The
SUPREME COURT agreed with Garland. It
held that the scope of the pardon power
“is unlimited, with the exception stated
[impeachment.] It extends to every offence
known to the law and may be exercised at any
time after its commission, either before legal
proceedings are taken, or during their pendency,
or after conviction and judgment.”
The power to pardon applies only to offenses
against the laws of the jurisdiction of which the
pardoning official is the chief executive. Thus the
president may only pardon for violations of
federal law, and governors may only pardon for
violations of the laws of their states.

A president or governor may grant a full
(unconditional) pardon or a conditional pardon.
The granting of an unconditional pardon fully
restores an individual’s civil rights forfeited upon
conviction of a crime and restores the person ’s
innocence as though he or she had never
committed a crime, which means that a recipient
of a pardon may regain the right to vote and to
hold various positions of public trust.
A conditional pardon imposes a condition
on the offender before it becomes effective.
Typically this means the commutation of a
sentence. For example, the president has the
power under the pardon clause to commute a
death sentence on the condition that the
accused serve the rest of his or her life in
prison without eligibility for
PAROLE,even
though a life sentence imposed directly by a
court would otherwise be subject to parole. In
upholding this type of conditional pardon, the
Supreme Court in Schick v. Reed, 419 U.S. 256,
95 S. Ct. 379, 42 L. Ed. 2d 430 (1974), reasoned
that “considerations of
PUBLIC POLICY and
humanitarian impulses support an interpreta-
tion of that [pardon] power so as to permit the
attachment of any condition which does not
otherwise offend the Constitution.”
Unless the pardon expressly states that it is

issued because of a determination that the
recipient was innocent, a pardon does not imply
innocence. It is merely a forgiveness of the
offense. It is generally assumed that acceptan ce
of a pardon is an implicit acknowledgment of
guilt, for one cannot be pardoned unless one has
committed an offense. Generally speaking, a
commutation of sentence usually reduces the
length of a sentence, but does not erase the
consequences of conviction, such as voting bars,
prohibitions from office-holding, and restric-
tions on future gun ownership. Pardons typically
remove the consequences of criminal conviction.
The Constitution allows two other pardon
powers besides the power of commutation. It
expressly speaks about the president’s power to
grant “reprieves.” A reprieve differs from a
pardon in that it establishes a temporary delay
in the enforcement of the sentence imposed by
the court, without changing the sentence or
forgiving the crime. A reprieve might be issued
for the execution of a prisoner to give the
prisoner time to prove his or her innocence.
A related power is the power to grant
“amnesty,” which is also implicit in the pardo n
power.
AMNESTY is applied to whole classes or
communities, instead of individuals. The power
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
PARDON 397