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  "description": "Inland Empire Law Weekly has joined a coalition asking the Supreme Court to unseal documents related to the Riverside Sheriff's investigation of the November election. Plus: election coverage and cold cases reopened.",
  "path": "/no-44/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-05T14:00:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://ielaw.news",
  "tags": [
    "Spotify",
    "Apple Podcasts",
    "Bianco told The Press-Enterprise by email",
    "Consider helping me pay my lawyers",
    "Kiel was biased",
    "Riv. Sheriff’s attorney accidentally released election investigation documentsOne spreadsheet indicates that REIT’s initial recount was wrong. REIT first said 45,000 ballots appeared in the final tally. A spreadsheet with the date Feb. 13, 2026, indicated they were off by 18,000, because they did not count ballots collected at the drop box at the Registrar of Votes.Inland Empire Law WeeklyAidan McGloin",
    "oral history I recommended last month",
    "Read about those cases, which underpin the petition, here",
    "$19 from Bookshop.org",
    "RSVP to judicial candidate interviews",
    "YouTube",
    "the website",
    "Register here",
    "If you support an informed electorate, considering supporting this publication",
    "the Raincross Gazette's website",
    "Judge rules against supervisor candidates’ effort to get names on ballot",
    "a petition filed by supervisor candidates Lisa Matus and Eric Stalter",
    "court documents",
    "Read it here",
    "Court rejects Riverside Ward 2 candidate’s legal challenge against opponent’s job description",
    "Read the story here",
    "Court sides with Riverside resident, orders city to update Measure Z ballot language",
    "voted unanimously March 3",
    "Auditor-controller/treasurer/tax collector candidate stays on ballot",
    "Read it at the San Bernardino Sun",
    "California governor’s race: See the candidates’ incomes and tax payments",
    "their federal tax returns",
    "Here are some highlights:",
    "https://mobile.catapultems.com/sbcsd/Sites",
    "The Press-Enterprise",
    "The Sun",
    "Community Forward Redlands",
    "KESQ",
    "here",
    "Federal judge: Continued Border Patrol sweeps in California violated court order",
    "unsealed Thursday morning",
    "The ruling by Judge Jennifer Thurston...",
    "Want government records? This California lawmaker wants you to pay more for them",
    "Assembly Bill 1821, authored by Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco...",
    "Resistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administrationThis story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Round 2 of California vs. Trump is well underway. President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders moments after being inaugurated president, and many of them could directly affect California. These orders include revoking licenses for offshoreInland Empire Law WeeklyCalMatters Staff",
    "US Supreme Court justices skeptical of Trump attempt to end birthright citizenship",
    "WASHINGTON",
    "struck down",
    "the executive order",
    "'Quirky' administration argument, says Chief Justice",
    "Listen to oral argument here",
    "Pam Bondi out as Trump’s attorney general",
    "Democratic states sue Trump over mail-in ballot order, joining rush to courts",
    "MASSACHUSETTS",
    "sued in federal court",
    "The lawsuit is only the latest challenging the order...",
    "Trump order to block NPR, PBS funding was unlawful, judge rules",
    "62-page order",
    "Moss wrote, \"The message is clear...\"",
    "Tennessee House approves bill to discipline judges who obstruct iCE",
    "HB1707/SB1952",
    "Scarbrough said the bill was intended to...",
    "Nashville journalist released from ICE detention details retaliation claims",
    "NASHVILLE",
    "In a declaration filed Monday...",
    "Politico",
    "PBS",
    "SCOTUSblog",
    "The Washington Post",
    "shut down the port of Boston",
    "Britannica",
    "Articles of Association",
    "Declaration of Independence",
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  "textContent": "Inland Empire Law Weekly has joined a coalition asking the Supreme Court to unseal documents related to the Riverside Sheriff's investigation of the November election. Plus: election coverage and cold cases reopened.\n\nPlease subscribe to our audio edition on either Spotify or Apple Podcasts.\n\n* * *\n\n## Riverside election recount\n\n* * *\n\n### Inland Empire Law Weekly asks Supreme Court to unseal Riv. Sheriff's ballot-seizing search warrants\n\nThe California Supreme Court should unseal court records related to Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco's investigation of the November election, a coalition of news publications, including Inland Empire Law Weekly, say in a petition filed April 3.\n\nPublic access to judicial information proves that justice is fair, promotes public confidence in the judiciary, provides a check against possible abuse of judicial power, and helps the litigants find the truth of events, the petition argues.\n\nBianco seized roughly 1,000 boxes of ballots from the Riverside Registrar of Voters with the intent to recount the number of ballots received. The Riverside Record first reported the seizure. His recount by Sheriff's Office employees was paused at the direction of Attorney General Rob Bonta. He then requested a recount under the authority of Riverside Superior Judge Jay Kiel. Kiel approved the recount, but Bonta filed to stop it in Riverside Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. Kiel paused executing the recount until Bonta's petition is resolved, according to a document filed by Robert Tyler, Bianco's attorney.\n\n\"The First Amendment to the United States Constitution demands that the judicial records relating to these disputes in this case be public. Indeed, the First Amendment right of access undoubtedly extends to petitions and related records filed in this Court. This is especially so considering the subject matter of this dispute: elections, which undergird our republican form of government and have long been subject to public inspection. Sealing here is directly contrary to this tradition, and no party has demonstrated that such sealing complies with strict constitutional requirements,\" the petition says.\n\nIn response to a different motion to unseal in Riverside Superior Court, Bianco told The Press-Enterprise that he would not oppose the petitions to unseal.\n\n\"My office will be recommending that the warrant be unsealed, as we no longer have a need for secrecy and certainly are not opposed,\" Bianco told The Press-Enterprise by email.\n\nPetitioning the Supreme Court isn't free.\n\n\n                            Consider helping me pay my lawyers\n                        \n\n### Absence of info\n\nWithout any authoritative explanation of the reason for the recount, members of the public can only exchange theories of election fraud or judicial bias.\n\nThe San Francisco Chronicle implied Kiel was biased, based on the facts that he and Bianco both associate with pastor Tim Thompson, and that Bianco endorsed Kiel for judge. Law enforcement officials typically endorse prosecutors for judge over former public defenders, as Kiel's opponent in the 2023 election, then-commissioner Laura Garcia was. (Garcia has since been appointed to a judgeship, and shares the Riverside Hall of Justice with Kiel.)\n\nFollowing Bonta's petition in the Court of Appeal to halt the ballot recount, Bianco called the Court of Appeal \"extremely politically biased,\" without offering any reason for the claim. The Court of Appeal denied the petition.\n\n### Some documents inadvertently released\n\nSome documents from the investigation were accidentally released by Tyler, the Sheriff's Office's attorney, Inland Empire Law Weekly reported April 2. The documents were shared by Tyler to the Attorney General's Office through a OneDrive link Tyler uploaded to court. The OneDrive included documents used by the Sheriff's Office in its ongoing investigation, uploaded from at least March 27 to April 2. After the publication of Inland Empire Law Weekly's story, Tyler removed access to the OneDrive through the link.\n\nThose documents included a tally of ballots counted vs received, and an investigator's interviews of county staff and the Registrar of Voters in 2023.\n\nRiv. Sheriff’s attorney accidentally released election investigation documentsOne spreadsheet indicates that REIT’s initial recount was wrong. REIT first said 45,000 ballots appeared in the final tally. A spreadsheet with the date Feb. 13, 2026, indicated they were off by 18,000, because they did not count ballots collected at the drop box at the Registrar of Votes.Inland Empire Law WeeklyAidan McGloin\n\n### The Press-Enterprise's past lawsuits central to petition's arguments\n\nThe petition cites precedent established by The Press-Enterprise in the 1980's, when publisher Howard Hays worked with attorney Jim Ward to bring cases ensuring the public's right of access to court proceedings. Their litigation would result in two cases before the United States Supreme Court in 1984 and 1986, and a third case before the California Supreme Court in 1999.\n\nChief Justice of California Ronald George, (whose oral history I recommended last month), wrote the unanimous opinion affirming the right of access to judicial proceedings in the 1999 case.\n\n\"The need to comply with the requirements of the First Amendment right of access may impose some burdens on trial courts. But courts can and should minimize such inconveniences by proposing to close proceedings only in the rarest of circumstances,\" George wrote.\n\nRead about those cases, which underpin the petition, here\n\n### Book recommendation: Justice in Plain Sight by Dan Bernstein\n\nEvery week, Inland Empire Law Weekly recommends a book. This normally happens at the bottom of the page. Due to this book's subject, it's better to share it now.\n\nJustice in Plain Sight is Bernstein's account of Hays, Ward and the legal arguments they brought to the Supreme Court. The book's prologue says it best:\n\n\"This is the story of a rather staid, some might say excruciatingly thorough, family-owned newspaper that set out to do its job: tell readers about shocking crimes in their own backyard. A deadly bank robbery, the brutal rape and murder of a high school girl, and a sinister series of at least a dozen drug-induced murders of elderly hospital patients. All three crimes occurred in Riverside County in less than a year. All three resulted in death penalty trials. But as judges kept slamming courtroom doors on the public and the press, it became impossible to tell the whole story. So the paper fought back.\"\n\n$19 from Bookshop.org\n\n* * *\n\n## Election news\n\nWe are exactly one month—and four editions of Inland Empire Law Weekly—from the start of mail-in-ballots being sent across the Inland Empire for the June 2 primary election. To best inform IE voters, Inland Empire Law Weekly is prioritizing election coverage for the next couple of months, increasing election-related cooperation with local press and lifting the paywall for election stories.\n\n* * *\n\n## Riverside county election news\n\n* * *\n\n### RSVP to judicial candidate interviews\n\nFrom left to right: Jennifer Loflin, Michelle Paradise, Andrea Garcia.\n\nThere is still space to attend Inland Empire Law Weekly's judicial candidate forums on April 9, 10 and 13. This publication is hosting a two-hour event with each of the three Riverside candidates running for a seat on the bench in the June election.\n\nEach event will feature an hour-long conversation with Inland Empire Law Weekly editor Aidan McGloin. The interview will be followed by audience questions and an informal meet and greet. All meetings will be held at the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce boardroom, at 3985 University Avenue, Riverside. Livestreams of the recordings can be viewed on Inland Empire Law Weekly's YouTube, and summaries of the interviews will be posted on the website. Tickets are free.\n\nRegister here\n\nPutting together the venue, promotion and video equipment for this has taken a lot of time and money.\n\n\n                            If you support an informed electorate, considering supporting this publication\n                        \n\n* * *\n\n### Raincross Gazette hosts city council candidate forums\n\nThe Raincross Gazette is also hosting candidate forums, for Riverside City Council candidates. Dan Bernstein, former Press-Enterprise columnist, will moderate. The forums will be held April 23 for Ward 2, April 29 for Ward 4 and April 30 for Ward 6. More information, including the registration link, can be found at the Raincross Gazette's website.\n\n* * *\n\n### Judge rules against supervisor candidates’ effort to get names on ballot\n\nJudge Daniel Ottolia Friday denied a petition filed by supervisor candidates Lisa Matus and Eric Stalter alleging the Riverside County Registrar of Voters (ROV) violated election code by disqualifying them from appearing on the June 2 primary ballot in the District 5 race.\n\nThe ROV disqualified Stalter from appearing on the ballot because he failed to include the required declaration of candidacy in his application packet, according to court documents. According to the ROV, Stalter was given the oath of office and signed the oath on the declaration of candidacy form.\n\nThe ROV said Matus submitted her application just 36 minutes before the deadline with 24 signatures on her nominating papers, according to court documents. Of the 24 signatures, the ROV said 10 were defective, putting her under the required 20 signatures.\n\nRead it here\n\n* * *\n\n### Court rejects Riverside Ward 2 candidate’s legal challenge against opponent’s job description\n\nA judge has rejected Riverside City Council Ward 2 candidate Gracie Torres’ challenge to the ballot designation submitted by competitor Aram Ayra, ruling it could remain on the ballot for the June 2 election.\n\nTorres submitted the petition March 20 challenging Ayra’s submitted designation of “Educator/City Commissioner,” alleging that he broke California Election Code by not accurately reflecting his primary occupation.\n\nRead the story here\n\n* * *\n\n### Court sides with Riverside resident, orders city to update Measure Z ballot language\n\nA superior court judge this week ordered the city of Riverside to change the title and summary for its June 2 sales tax increase ballot measure, ruling in favor of a resident who argued the language was biased and violated election code.\n\nThe Riverside City Council voted unanimously March 3 to add the ballot measure that, if passed, would increase the 1% Measure Z sales tax by a quarter-percent and extend it past the original 2036 expiration. City staff at the meeting said the additional revenue would mostly be used to cover the cost of improving the Riverside Fire Department.\n\nRead it here\n\n* * *\n\n## San Bernardino election news\n\n* * *\n\n### Auditor-controller/treasurer/tax collector candidate stays on ballot\n\nRancho Cucamonga City Councilmember Ryan Hutchison will remain on the ballot for San Bernardino Auditor-controller/treasurer/tax collector, San Bernardino Superior Judge Stephanie Tanada decided April 2.\n\nRead it at the San Bernardino Sun\n\n* * *\n\n## Statewide election news\n\n* * *\n\n### California governor’s race: See the candidates’ incomes and tax payments\n\nWe already knew that Democrat Tom Steyer, a billionaire running for California governor, is rich. But how rich?\n\nIn 2024, Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, reported a total income of $39 million, thanks to the duo’s massive investments in the global stock market. That’s more than all nine of his major opponents in the governor’s race and their partners made that year combined, according to their federal tax returns released this week.\n\nA 2019 state law, designed to better inform California voters, requires candidates for governor to release their federal tax returns to qualify for the June primary ballot. Among major candidates, only Chad Bianco, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter and Tony Thurmond have already filed their 2025 tax returns.\n\nHere are some highlights:\n\n* * *\n\n## Local news\n\n* * *\n\n### San Bernardino Sheriff's Department reopens 2007 murder case\n\nEliseo Salas | San Bernardino Sheriff's Department\n\nBased on newly found information, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department is reopening its investigation of the shooting of Eliseo Salas on July 15, 2007. Salas was shot at a party in Rancho Cucamonga, in the area of London Ave. and Jersey Blvd. People can submit information to the Specialized Investigations Division at 909-890-4904. Witnesses wanting to remain anonymous can call or text REPORT to We-Tip at 844-909-3006. Online reporting is also available at https://mobile.catapultems.com/sbcsd/Sites.\n\n* * *\n\n### Riverside District Attorney identifies 46-year-old cold case\n\nVictoria Jean Hargrove | District Attorney's Office\n\nInvestigators have used DNA evidence to identify a deceased Jane Doe. The body of Victoria Jean Hargrove was found in a ravine near Palm Desert on Feb. 18, 1980. Her identity could not be determined until March 20. Investigators exhumed her remains on Dec. 4, 2024, to take DNA samples. In January 2026, a relative to Hargrove uploaded their DNA to an ancestry database. Additional DNA tests of living members of Hargrove's family confirmed her identity. Her family said Hargrove had been missing from her home in Opelika, Alabama, since Jan. 28, 1980.\n\nThe Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team is investigating. Leads can be reported to Supervising Investigator Billy Hester at 951-955-0070, or by emailing  _coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org_.\n\n* * *\n\nMistrial declared in California School for the Deaf-Riverside sexual abuse case // The Press-Enterprise\n\nSan Bernardino police shoot and wound a man after disturbance at his wife’s home // The Sun\n\nRedlands to consider $3.5M in contracts for new police station project // Community Forward Redlands\n\nAttempted murder suspect arrested in Redlands after pursuit, standoff // Community Forward Redlands\n\nSteven Hernandez out as Supervisor Perez’s chief of staff after conviction // KESQ\n\n* * *\n\n## Local events\n\n### Joshua Tree CARE Court event\n\nSan Bernardino Superior Court is sending its mobile courtroom to the Joshua Tree Courthouse on May 8, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Attendees will have access to self-help services for document preparation and filing, an on-site judicial officer to determine eligibility for CARE Court, and Department of Behavioral Health representatives to answer questions. CARE Court provides treatment for people with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. No appointment is needed to attend.\n\n### Mock trial team start-up information to be shared at SB County session\n\nAttorneys and teachers who are interested in starting a high school mock trial team in San Bernardino County can attend a 30-minute informational session that starts at 4 p.m., April 23.\n\nAttorneys and teachers interested can sign up for the informational session through the Google form here.\n\n### Appellate mediation program\n\nThe Riverside Court of Appeal is asking for attorneys to participate in its mediation program. The volunteers can be experienced in all areas of law, and can be retired, but must have ten years of legal experience. One hundred and sixty-five attorneys over the years have participated in the 34-year-old program.\n\nMediations are scheduled at the convenience of the attorney, and can be remote. The program saves time for litigants as well as the Court of Appeals.\n\nInterested attorneys can call the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, and ask for Jackie Hoar.\n\n### Free legal aid clinics\n\nInland Empire Latino Lawyers Associations hosts free legal aid clinics at the 838 Alta St, Redlands, on the last Wednesday of every month. They also host clinics the first, second and fourth Monday of every month at Bordwell Park, 2008 Martin Luther King Blvd., Riverside. All clinics are held from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.\n\n* * *\n\n## State news\n\n* * *\n\n### Federal judge: Continued Border Patrol sweeps in California violated court order\n\nA federal judge ruled that Border Patrol agents continued making illegal stops and arrests after she ordered them to quit.\n\nIn a tersely worded decision unsealed Thursday morning, the judge wrote that agents had “again detained people without reasonable suspicion,” relying on broad assumptions about day laborers instead of specific evidence of immigration violations.\n\nThe ruling by Judge Jennifer Thurston...\n\n* * *\n\n### Want government records? This California lawmaker wants you to pay more for them\n\nWant to know what your government is up to? Be prepared to pay up.\n\nA California state lawmaker wants to let public agencies charge an unspecified, uncapped fee if it takes their workers more than two hours to search for records to fulfill a public records request. The proposal is raising concerns among transparency advocates that the fees could deter Californians from accessing records they are constitutionally entitled to.\n\nAssembly Bill 1821, authored by Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco...\n\n* * *\n\n## Resistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administration\n\nResistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administrationThis story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Round 2 of California vs. Trump is well underway. President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders moments after being inaugurated president, and many of them could directly affect California. These orders include revoking licenses for offshoreInland Empire Law WeeklyCalMatters Staff\n\n* * *\n\n## National news\n\n* * *\n\n### US Supreme Court justices skeptical of Trump attempt to end birthright citizenship\n\nWASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday seemed poised to reject the Trump administration's attempt to redefine the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, and instead uphold the country’s long understanding of citizenship by birth on American soil.\n\nIf a majority of Supreme Court justices strikes down President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children born to parents without legal status or temporary immigration statuses like visas, it will be the second recent major blow to the president via the high court. Earlier this year, a majority of justices struck down his use of sweeping tariffs.\n\nTrump, who signed the executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship as one of his first acts after his inauguration in 2025, came to the courtroom to hear the oral arguments, a first for a sitting president.\n\n'Quirky' administration argument, says Chief Justice\n\nListen to oral argument here\n\n* * *\n\n### Pam Bondi out as Trump’s attorney general\n\nWASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi is leaving the Department of Justice and will be replaced for now by President Donald Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, the president announced Thursday.\n\nBondi will depart for an “important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump added.\n\nDeputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, “a very talented and respected Legal Mind,” will move up in an acting role, he said.\n\nRead it here\n\n* * *\n\n### Democratic states sue Trump over mail-in ballot order, joining rush to courts\n\nMASSACHUSETTS — President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail ballots faced a fresh challenge on Friday, as a coalition of Democratic states filed a lawsuit seeking to block an order that experts say is an extraordinary attempt by the president to assert authority over elections.\n\nMore than 20 states — led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington — and the District of Columbia sued in federal court in Massachusetts. They argue the order violates the Constitution, which gives states the responsibility to run elections and allows Congress, not the president unilaterally, the power to override state regulations.\n\nThe lawsuit is only the latest challenging the order...\n\n* * *\n\n### Trump order to block NPR, PBS funding was unlawful, judge rules\n\nWASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority when he signed an executive order last year that blocked funding from going to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.\n\nU.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss wrote in a 62-page order that while many of the original issues in the case are no longer relevant after Congress rescinded funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the section of the executive order that called on agencies to end “any direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS” remains applicable.\n\nMoss wrote, \"The message is clear...\"\n\n* * *\n\n### Tennessee House approves bill to discipline judges who obstruct iCE\n\nThe Tennessee House on Thursday voted in favor of legislation aimed at disciplining judges who obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law.\n\nThe legislation (HB1707/SB1952) by Republicans Rep. Rick Scarbrough of Oak Ridge and Sen. Paul Rose of Shelby County does not define what judicial actions could add up to obstruction.\n\nScarbrough said the bill was intended to...\n\n* * *\n\n### Nashville journalist released from ICE detention details retaliation claims\n\nNASHVILLE — Nearly two weeks after her release from immigration detention, Nashville journalist Estefany Rodríguez has filed a first-person account in federal court that further details allegations her arrest was in retaliation for her reporting on local immigration enforcement actions.\n\nRodríguez, a reporter for the Spanish-language media outlet Nashville Noticias, was arrested March 4 and had limited contact with her attorneys or her husband until her release on $10,000 bond March 19.\n\nFederal prosecutors allege Rodríguez, an asylum-seeker married to a U.S. citizen who arrived on a tourist visa from Colombia five years ago, is illegally residing in the country after overstaying her visa. Her attorneys say she has followed the legal immigration process. Her pending political asylum application, filed before her visa expired, is based on threats Rodriguez received reporting on government corruption in Colombia, according to her attorneys.\n\nIn a declaration filed Monday...\n\n* * *\n\n### National news from around the web\n\nSupreme Court strikes down conversion therapy ban // Politico\n\nTrump's White House ballroom construction must halt unless Congress OKs it, judge orders // PBS\n\nSupreme Court issues statement that Justice Alito was hospitalized approximately two weeks ago // SCOTUSblog\n\nAmerican journalist Shelly Kittleson kidnapped in Baghdad // The Washington Post\n\n* * *\n\n## History\n\n* * *\n\n### The Declaration of Independence\n\nIn celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, Inland Empire Law Weekly is examining each of the 27 reasons for independence as explained in the Declaration of Independence. Grievance no. 16: \"For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world\"\n\nOn March 31, 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party of Dec. 16, 1773, the English government shut down the port of Boston with the Boston Port Act. No goods, wares or merchandise could be put in ships, and no goods, wares or merchandise could be taken off of ships. Anyone who tried to do so would forfeit that property to the government. Of course, there was an exception to the government's ships.\n\nThe port could reopen after the town would repay for the tea thrown into Boston Harbor. That's 342 chests, and the equivalent of $3 million in today's money, according to Britannica.\n\nThe colonies responded with a general boycott of trades from British merchants. The boycott was established Oct. 20, 1774, under the Articles of Association adopted by the First Continental Congress. These Articles were considered by Abraham Lincoln to be the real start of our country.\n\n\"In legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was \"to form a more perfect Union,' Lincoln said in his first Inaugural Address.\n\nThe British government repealed the Boston Port Act when it passed the Restraining Acts, which took place on Jan. 1, 1776. That wasn't to ease up on the colonists. The Restraining Acts completely banned colonial trade with other countries, and allowed the British government to seize American ships. (Trade with Great Britain, Ireland and the British West Indies was allowed, but the boycott was still in effect.) As a result, \"the prohibitions and restraints imposed by the said acts will be rendered unnecessary.\"\n\n* * *\n\n### Today in history\n\nOn April 5, 1792, President George Washington issued the first veto of a bill in American history. The bill would have granted more seats in Congress to northern States. He vetoed based on the idea that its passing would violate the Constitution. Here is his veto message:\n\n_United States [Philadelphia] April 5 1792._\n\n_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_\n\n _I have maturely considered the Act passed by the two Houses, intitled, “An Act for an apportionment of Representatives among the several States according to the first enumeration,” and I return it to your House, wherein it originated, with the following objections._\n\n_First—The Constitution has prescribed that representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers: and there is no one proportion or divisor which, applied to the respective numbers of the States will yield the number and allotment of representatives proposed by the Bill._\n\n_Second—The Constitution has also provided that the number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand; which restriction is, by the context, and by fair and obvious construction, to be applied to the seperate and respective numbers of the States: and the bill has allotted to eight of the States, more than one for thirty thousand._\n\n_George Washington._",
  "title": "No. 44",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-06T16:31:44.138Z"
}