Gay marriage law [Canada] News
Gay marriage law [Canada]

Bill C-38, An Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes, signed into law July 20, 2005 [bill authorizing same-sex marraige across Canada, introduced after courts in seven provinces ruled that the country's traditional definition of marriage violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms]. Read the full text of the law here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Johnson signed law against burning draft cards

On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

Gdansk Agreement reached

On August 31, 1980, the communist government of Poland and labor leaders settled the Gdansk Agreement. The accord settled a summer of labor strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. With the Agreement, Poland became the first communist country to allow the creation of an independent labor union, which was called Solidarity. Solidarity then became the driving force that ended communism in Poland. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.