Missouri Law and the American Conscience

Until recently, many of Missouris legal records were inaccessible and the existence of many influential, historic cases was unknown. The ten essays in this volume showcase Missouri as both maker and microcosm of American history. Some of the topics are famous: Dred Scotts slave freedom suit, Virginia Minors womens suffrage case, Curt Floods suit against professional baseball, and the Nancy Cruzan right to die case. Other essays cover court cases concerning the uneasy incorporation of ethnic and cultural populations into the United States; political loyalty tests during the Civil War; the alleviation of cruelty to poor and criminally institutionalized children; the barring of women to serve on juries decades after they could vote; and the creation of the Missouri Court Plan, a national model for judicial selection.