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It’s been said that there’s no time like the present. But where we are now is often the result of where we’ve been in the past. With that in mind, Briefly Legal invites you to travel back in time to take a look at what happened during this week in legal history:

June 29 marks the 40^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court declaring capital punishment as cruel and unusual punishment and, therefore, unconstitutional. In its first-ever ruling on the controversial issue, the court determined that the death penalty was meted out without consistency, particularly when it came to minorities. Over the next four years, a set of guidelines was developed for juries so the sentence would be applied more consistently. Capital punishment was legalized again in 1976, and Gary Gilmore was the first inmate to be put to death in 1977 when he was shot by a firing squad.

On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, making racial discrimination illegal, paving the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and igniting a series of equal rights movements to follow. The civil rights legislation survived contentious debate in both the House and Senate before finally being passed. Johnson used 75 pens to sign the bill during a televised ceremony at the White House. Among the recipients of the ceremonial pens was civil rights activist and spiritual leader Martin Luther King Jr.

And then, of course, there is July 4. It’s not only the anniversary of the Continental Congress’s adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It’s also the day Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passed away within hours of each other 50 years later.

Our thanks to History.com for this week’s legal tidbits.