California marriage law ruling [CA Superior Ct.] News
California marriage law ruling [CA Superior Ct.]

Woo v. Lockyer, Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco, Judge Richard A. Kramer, March 14, 2005 [ruling that the California law that bars same-sex marriage by limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples is unconstitutional]. Excerpt:

The state's protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional…. Simply put, same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before.

Read the full text of the decision [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Congress approves first Patent Act

On April 10, 1790, Congress approved the US's first Patent Act. The Patent Act of 1790 allowed inventors to maintain "sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using and vending to others" a patented invention for fourteen years. The Act furthermore created the US Patent Board, the precursor to the modern US Patent Office. Read the current US Patent Law from the Cornell University Law School.

Hugo Grotius born

Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist, statesman and father of international law was born in Delft, Holland, on April 10, 1583. His best-known work is De Jure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), which he published in 1625.