Ward Farnsworth Dustin Guzior and Anup Malani have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: What role do policy preferences play when a judge or any other reader decides what a statute or other legal text means? Most … Continue reading
Category Archives: legislation and legislatures
Interesting Politico report. … Continue reading
WaPo: “In the Senate, it takes 60 votes to do anything big. And neither party has them. So the huge tactical question is not whether big ideas will lose. It is who will own the failure politically.” … Continue reading
In These Times reports on the revolving door. … Continue reading
See here (via Jonathan Adler). … Continue reading
Download this PENNumbra debate here. … Continue reading
The NY Times editorializes on Sen. Reid’s use of the nuclear option. … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
This could have all kinds of implications for judicial nominations and the workings of the Senate across a range of issues if it is not quickly diffused. Either this gets dialed back quickly or it escalates, and it does so … Continue reading
D. Mark Renaud and Robert L. Walker have written this WaPo oped, which seems right to me, about the new proposed Obama administration ethics rules. … Continue reading
The LA Times on “gut and amend.” … Continue reading
Fascinating WSJ article. … Continue reading
Perdue suggests suspending Congressional elections for two years — was she serious?’ (via Byron Tau) … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
The NY Times reports. … Continue reading
Notice and comment period for proposed rules (h/t Mark Elias). … Continue reading
This item appears at the Open Secrets blog. … Continue reading
An important report from Politico. … Continue reading
WSJreports. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Politico reports. [Disclosure: I was a member of the task force discussed in this article.] … Continue reading
WaPo reports on this new study by Legistorm. … Continue reading
The Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest has issued this important report. From the executive summary: Many of President Barack Obama‘s ethics and transparency efforts have been justifiably praised. But his decisions to restrict who can serve in the … Continue reading
In this final post of the series on my forthcoming article The End of Campaign Finance Law, 98 Va. L. Rev. (2012), I argue that Citizens United signals the way forward to a new approach for the regulation of campaign … Continue reading
WaPo: “Just hours before the first organizational meeting of the budget-cutting ‘supercommittee,’ Republican member Dave Camp was scheduled to hold a fundraiser for his congressional campaign.” … Continue reading
The NYT reports. … Continue reading
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
The right to petition the White House (at least so long as you have a valid email address). … Continue reading
The National Law Journal offers this report. … Continue reading
Josh Gerstein of Politico offers this interesting report on the FCPA. … Continue reading
Great looking symposium in the Minnesota Law Review. … Continue reading
Interesting legislative maneuvering in CA. … Continue reading
Barbara Sinclair has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Although the House and Senate differ in membership composition and internal rules, they nevertheless almost always manage to resolve their differences on legislation that has passed both chambers. … Continue reading
Terry Turnipseed has posted this draft on SSRN., Here is the abstract: On May 26, 2011, only hours before three provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were scheduled to expire, Congress passed an extension. For days, the White House … Continue reading
Timm Herdt has written this column for the Ventura County Star. SacBee is polling the question of its online readers. … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
Lichtblau: Most wealthy members of Congress push their financial activities to the side, with many even placing them in blind trusts to avoid appearances of conflicts of interest. But Mr. Issa (pronounced EYE-suh), one of Washington’s richest lawmakers, may be … Continue reading
Roll Call: Lobbyists Tout Becerra’s Appointment to Deficit Panel. … Continue reading
BNA reports. … Continue reading
As I noted recently, the ABA passed a resolution calling for greater regulation of lobbyists. The resolution was based upon a Task Force report, and then modified through the comments of various ABA sections and at the meeting itself. [Disclosure: … Continue reading
WaPo (Lifestyle, again): “Cloning sheep. Cloning humans, even. Caning teen vandals. Believing that aliens have descended from space and abducted humans.” … Continue reading
Roll Call reports. … Continue reading
The Campaign Legal Center has issued this press release. … Continue reading
BNA reports here ($) that “[t]he Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced new legislation to close gaps in federal anti-corruption laws created by recent court decisions, and key Senate lawmakers said they now are working closely with their House colleagues to … Continue reading
Sunlight Foundation is calling for transparency by the debt-reduction supercommittee. Sunlight also has posted a debt ceiling legislative action calendar. Update: AP reports here on Public Campaign’s demand that supercommittee members refrain from all political fundraising. … Continue reading
This is at the outskirts of election law, but this Politico story on liberal and conservative bloggers’ shared wariness of the debt agreement got me thinking. As Rick Pildes has explained, extreme party polarization has made governance increasingly difficult. The (hopefully) about-to-be-concluded debate over the debt limit is an example. … Continue reading
Readers know I like to start my Legislation course with various versions of the Schoolhouse Rock song, “I’m Just a Bill.” Now comes this hilarious parody from “the Daily Show,” with John Oliver as a bloodied version of Dodd-Frank. Not … Continue reading
Another new article. The abstract: Does legislative staff become more powerful when state legislators are term limited? This article explores the impact of term limits on the power and duties of staff. Staff play an important role in today’s politics, … Continue reading
Bloomberg reports on Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil’s involvement in ALEC. Mike Allen yawns: “–PLAYBOOK TRANSLATION: The collusion turns out to be a think tank’s model legislation, called up on the web by like-minded legislators. The ‘seat at the legislative … Continue reading