On January 6

On this day in ...
... 1941 (70 years ago today), President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress. Today his State of the Union speech is perhaps best known for its concluding paragraphs, setting forth the 4 Freedoms still recognized as a keystone of human rights, at home and abroad. That aspect was not wholly lost -- a commentator hailed the speech as providing a "Magna Charta of Democracy." But many paid particular attention to the call for war matériel and monetary aid for Britain and other countries already waging the conflict against aggression, as Roosevelt repeatedly called it, that the United States would not join formally for another 11 months. The dual nature of the address is evident in these newsreel clips (the 4 Freedoms segment begins at about 5:26).





(Prior January 6 posts are here, here, and here.)

On May 14

On this day in ...
... 1943, the head of the British delegation set to take part in an upcoming U.N. conference on food and agriculture, spoke to reporters of Britain's hope that the conference would result in a postwar structure for food security throughout the world. He said he hoped to make "Freedom from want," 1 of the 4 Freedoms articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a 1941 speech, a reality; specifically, the diplomat said,

'to insure to all mankind a supply of food which is secure, adequate, and suitable, and an adequate supply of those other things, clothing, shelter, and so on, which are essential to a civilized life.'

Although the conference in Hot Springs, Virginia, would eventually lead to establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization (logo above right), goals of global security of food and other aspects of human security remain unrealized.

... 2005, in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected the claim of a California medical marijuana distribution group that it was exempted, by reason of medical necessity, from federal drug laws. The Court held that the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, which makes manufacture and distribution of marijuana of crime, applied without exception.

(Prior May 14 posts are here and here.)

A most interesting trope at the DNC

Lots said and seen on opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, as Marjorie so eloquently posts above. One phrase resounded in this IntLawyer's ear.
Heard it 1st from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

America needs a president who knows that health care is a right, not a privilege. ...

Later, from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy:

[B]reak the gridlock and guarantee that every American -- North, South, East and West, young and old -- will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

It's a phrase Kennedy's used for years, as the video tribute to him demonstrated. But Pelosi's call shows that it's reached the mainstream, at least within the Democratic Party. The preamble to the party's platform declares:

We believe that quality and affordable health care is a basic right.

It's a moment to mark, in this country where one President's proclamation of 4 Freedoms helped to spur a social, economic, and cultural rights movement, yet other Presidents' words pushed back as that movement grew elsewhere in the world.
In the United States, perhaps, as elsewhere, a right to health.

On this day

On February 20, ...
... 1969, the International Court of Justice issued its judgment in North Sea Continental Shelf Case (Federal Republic of Germany v. Denmark; Federal Republic of Germany v. Netherlands). In deciding the dispute over boundaries in the region depicted at right the Court, by a vote of 11-6, the Court ruled that the equidistance principle set forth in Article 6 of the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf did not apply, for the reasons that Germany had not ratified that treaty and that the principle did not constitute customary international law. It preferred an equitable apportionment of the territory, and called upon the parties to negotiate in accordance with that guideline. (map credit)
... 1943, the 1st of Norman Rockwell's 4 paintings depicting the 4 Freedoms, which U.S. President Frankin D. Roosevelt had proclaimed in the January 1941 and about which we've posted, was published in the magazine Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" soon was followed by "Freedom of Worship," "Freedom from Want," and "Freedom from Fear." The artists' offer to donate the paintings to the U.S. War Department had been rebuffed.