The Michigan Legal Milestones program recognizes significant legal cases and personalities in Michigan's history. A new milestone is dedicated each year.
The county courthouse is an iconic symbol of the American legal system. Its importance in Michigan is established in the Michigan Constitution of 1835, which authorized county courts and the laws that followed, requiring counties to provide . . . — — Map (db m69920) HM
Beginning in 1829, Penn, Calvin, and Porter townships in Cass County were settled by Quakers who migrated there. Free Blacks also settled there, and both groups lived in harmony. Blacks in Cass County enjoyed many rights, such as the right to own . . . — — Map (db m79005) HM
To provide a refuge at Sault Ste. Marie for French traders and missionaries, King Louis XV in 1750 ordered Louis de Repentigny to build a fort near what later became Fort Brady. The king also granted 214,000 surrounding acres of land to de . . . — — Map (db m214148) HM
Otis Milton Smith was an outstanding lawyer and African-American trailblazer. Born in Tennessee in 1922, he overcame poverty and prejudice to reach positions of leadership in both the public and corporate spheres. An Army Air Corps journalist . . . — — Map (db m305643) HM
A hostile climate confronted Americans of Japanese descent following the attack on Pearl Harbor that led to United States' entry into World War II. Despite their loyalty and distinguished service in our armed forces, Japanese Americans were . . . — — Map (db m213218) HM
In 1858, the citizens of Kalamazoo extended free public education
beyond the elementary level when they used tax money to construct
Kalamazoo Union High School and to fund both elementary and
secondary studies.
In i873, several . . . — — Map (db m192982) HM
Organized baseball's player contract "reserve clause" was upheld in a federal court case decided in Grand Rapids in 1914. The reserve clause bound a player to his team for as long as the team chose to keep him. He could not play anywhere else . . . — — Map (db m245753) HM
The Michigan Legislature passed a bill in 1913 authorizing sterilization of mentally impaired persons confined in public institutions, even over the objections of a parent or guardian. The law was adopted to prevent those so confined from ever . . . — — Map (db m101533) HM
Here on the south side of Maumee Street in 1848, Thomas M. Cooley, a giant of the Michigan Law, established his first law office. He was a partner in the firm of Beaman, Beecher and Cooley and then established a law firm with Charles M. Croswell, . . . — — Map (db m102922) HM
Augustus Pond, a fisherman from nearby Seul Choix, was convicted in this building in 1859 of manslaughter. In 1860 the Michigan Supreme Court reversed Pond's conviction, clarifying a legal principle of self-defense that is followed to this day. . . . — — Map (db m278184) HM
Prentiss Marsh Brown dreamed of what it would take to bridge the Mackinac Straits. He grew up in St. Ignace at the dawn of the 20th century and often gazed south across the Straits, a daunting stretch of cold, deep water. He could not know then . . . — — Map (db m105711) HM
The Fair Labor Standards Act (the Act) was enacted by Congress in 1938 to regulate workers' hours and wages. The United States Supreme Court interpreted an important provision of the Act in 1946 in a case arising in Mount Clemens.
The Mount . . . — — Map (db m146845) HM
One lazy summer day in 1911, Manistee residents Herbert Harley and Charles Ruggles discussed reform of the American justice system while floating in a skiff on Lake Michigan near here. That conversation led to the birth of the American Judicature . . . — — Map (db m97436) HM
Marji-Gesick a Chippewa chief was hired in 1845 to locate a
valuable iron ore deposit about three miles from here. He was
paid with a Certificate of Interest entitling him to stock in the
company. That action led to a landmark Michigan supreme . . . — — Map (db m253997) HM
"It's not fair." These were the last anguished words whispered by Vincent Chin as he lay dying, the victim of a hate crime on June 19, 1982. His words became a rallying cry for the Asian American community outraged at the lenient sentences his . . . — — Map (db m108319) HM
August “Gus” Scholle then president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, was troubled by the fact that his Oakland County State Senate District in 1958 held more than 12 times the number of persons than an outstate district — yet each district elected one . . . — — Map (db m205909) HM
During the 1970s, the Pigeon River Country State Forest—home to the only substantial wild elk herd east of the Mississippi River—was the scene of one of the longest, most controversial environmental battles in Michigan history. As the . . . — — Map (db m116891) HM
Standing on this site since Andrew Jackson was president of the United States, the building where the White Pigeon Land Office conducted business from 1831 to 1834 is one of the historic treasures of Michigan. From this building, title to much of . . . — — Map (db m61725) HM
Harsh economic conditions and the need to attract high-paying manufacturing jobs to keep the automobile industry centered in the Motor City led the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck to join forces in 1980 to condemn a working-class neighborhood . . . — — Map (db m137534) HM
T.C. Sherwood, president of Plymouth National Bank, contracted in 1886 with Hiram Walker of Walkerville, Ontario for the purchase of a cow, Rose 2d of Aberlone. Both parties believed that Rose was barren and would not breed, and that mistake led to . . . — — Map (db m62359) HM
