Schwarzenegger vetoes gay marriage bill as promised News
Schwarzenegger vetoes gay marriage bill as promised

[JURIST] California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Thursday followed through on his promise to veto [JURIST report] the gay marriage bill [AB 849 text] passed by the California Assembly [JURIST report] earlier this month. In a veto statement [PDF] issued late Thursday in Sacramento Schwarzenegger said he supports the current rights and benefits extended to same-sex partners in the state, but that signing the current bill would have confused a constitutional issue already before the state courts. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.