Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 3 P51 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. | 488 DISQUALIFY International Longshore and Warehouse Union members rally in August 2002 in an attempt to keep the Bush administration out of their labor dispute with the Pacific Maritime Association. AP IMAGES DISQUALIFY To deprive of eligibility or render unfit to disable or incapacitate. To be disqualified is to be stripped of legal capacity. A wife would be disqualified as a juror in her husband s trial for murder due to the nature of their relationship. A person may be disqualified for employment at a certain job because of a physical disability. DISSENT An explicit disagreement by one or more judges with the decision of the majority on a case before them. A dissent is often accompanied by a written dissenting opinion and the terms dissent and dissenting opinion are used interchangeably. Dissents have several functions. In some cases they are a simple declaration of disagreement with the majority. In others they instruct prod scold or otherwise urge the majority to consider the dissenter s point of view. Dissents carry no precedential weight and are not relied on as authority in subsequent cases. However attorneys and judges sometimes consult them to understand the dissenter s analysis of the majority opinion. Attorneys and judges may also cite a dissent if they agree with its reasoning and conclusion and seek support for a change in the law. Although the majority opinion constitutes the judgment of the court its legal weight can be diminished if a sufficient number of judges dissent. On issues that divide the courts and the country there can be sharply divergent opinions on what the law is or should be. During the 1990s for example one divisive question before the . Supreme Court was whether affirmative action programs to redress the effects of past discrimination were constitutional. In Miller v. Johnson 515 . 900 115 S. Ct. 2475 132 L. Ed. 2d 762 1995 the . Supreme Court held that Georgia s congressional redistricting plan implemented to give .
