Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 2 P8 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 58 BLACKMAIL CROSS REFERENCES Communism House Un-American Activities Committee In Focus Entertainment Law Freedom of Association and Assembly Freedom of Speech. BLACKMAIL The crime involving a threat for purposes of compelling a person to do an act against his or her will or for purposes of taking the person s money or property. The term blackmail originally denoted a payment made by English persons residing along the border of Scotland to influential Scottish chieftains in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders. In blackmail the threat might consist of physical injury to the threatened person or to someone loved by that person or injury to a person s reputation. In some cases the victim is told that an illegal act he or she had previously committed will be exposed if the victim fails to comply with the demand. Although blackmail is generally synonymous with extortion some states distinguish the offenses by requiring that the former be in writing. Blackmail is punishable by a fine imprisonment or both. CROSS REFERENCE Threats. ABORTION RAISES MORAL AND SPIRITUAL QUESTIONS OVER WHICH HONORABLE PERSONS CAN DISAGREE SINCERELY AND PROFOUNDLY. BUT THOSE DISAGREEMENTS . . . DO NOT NOW RELIEVE US OF OUR DUTY TO APPLY THE CONSTITUTION FAITHFULLY. Harry Blackmun v BLACKMUN HARRY ANDREW Harry Andrew Blackmun associate justice of the . Supreme Court from 1970 to 1994 stepped into a political maelstrom when he authored the much-lauded much-reviled 1973 opinion roe v. wade 410 . 113 93 S. Ct. 705 35 L. Ed. 2d 147. Roe guaranteed access to safe legal abortions for women in the first trimester of pregnancy. Depending on one s viewpoint Blackmun was considered either a public hero or a Supreme Court villain for authoring the opinion upholding a woman s right to privacy in the matter of abortion. An unassuming and highly intelligent man Blackmun seemed an unlikely symbol for an explosive social and political issue. Born November 12 1908 in Nashville Illinois he .
