Category Archives: legislation and legislatures
“The Filibuster and Reconciliation: The Future of Majoritarian Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate”
Tonja Jacobi and Jeff Van Dam have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The filibuster has effectively become a supermajority requirement for all lawmaking in the Senate, an effect worsened by ill-conceived attempts at its reform. Once… Continue reading
“On Filibuster, It’s Past Time to End ‘False Equivalence’”
“How the ban on earmarks killed the gun bill”
The Fix:
Washington used to be a place where lawmakers openly traded votes for both concrete and symbolic concessions from the executive branch, whether it was a project in a member’s district or simply the president’s presence at a… Continue reading
“US Senate Succumbs to NRA Protection Racket: Filibuster Assures Easy Access to Guns for Criminals, Mentally Ill People and Terrorists”
Richard Painter, President Bush’s ethics czar, has this post at the Legal Ethics Forum.
Quote of the Day
“Bribery isn’t what it once was,” said an official with one of the major gun-control groups. “The government has no money. Once upon a time you would throw somebody a post office or a research facility in times like this.… Continue reading
OFA, Which Won’t Take Lobbyist Money, Registers as Lobbyist
Free Beacon reports (via Eric Brown).
“Mitch McConnell is in No Mood for Bipartisanship”
Politico: “The Senate minority leader has signaled privately that he has no interest in sitting in the same room as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss a possible “grand bargain” on budget and tax issues, Senate insiders tell… Continue reading
‘Washington confronts still-divided America”
Dan Balz: “Bipartisanship and cross-party alliances are suddenly in vogue in the Senate this spring. The question is whether the Senate is a leading indicator of a change in politics or largely an aberration in a nation divided along… Continue reading
“America’s Problem is Not Political Gridlock”
Interesting perspective from Larry Summers.
“The Republican Advantage: The decline of swing districts and the rise of partisanship spells trouble for House Democrats.”
Charlie Cook:
By now, the trend lines are clear. In 1998, we found 164 swing seats—districts within 5 points of the national partisan average, with scores between R+5 and D+5 (a score of R+5 means the district’s vote for… Continue reading
“Does Boehner benefit from breaking the Hastert rule?”
“Statutory Interpretation from the Inside — An Empirical Study of Congressional Drafting, Delegation and the Canons: Part I”
Abbe Gluck and Lisa Schultz Bressman have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Stanford Law Review). This looks to be a top-of-the-pile must read. Here is the abstract:
What role should the realities of the legislative drafting process play in… Continue reading
“More BS About ‘Both Sides'”
Eric Alterman Nation column:
Believe me, I’m more annoyed at having to write this column again than you are at reading it. But dammit, nothing changes. The Republican Party has gone off the rails by virtually every available measure,… Continue reading