Legal News for Wed 5/20 - Trump IRS Slush Fund, Wells Fargo Union Retreat, Anthropic Fights Supply Chain Risk Label, Morgan and Morgan in Harvard Morgue Case
This Day in Legal History: Homestead Act
On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law, creating one of the most consequential land distribution systems in American history. The statute allowed eligible settlers to claim 160 acres of federal land, so long as they lived on it, improved it, and cultivated it for a required period of time. At a basic level, the law treated land ownership as something that could be earned through residence and labor rather than purchased outright. That idea made the act especially powerful for many farmers, immigrants, formerly…
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