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Questions tagged [legislature]

60 questions
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Are legislators ever asked to explain their intent in Supreme Court cases?

I recently started to listen to recordings of arguments before the Supreme Court. I am not a lawyer so I don't completely follow everything, but I noticed right away that a lot of arguments deal with the intent of this or that law. Given that this…
guero64
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Could the Senate abolish the Supreme Court?

As a follow up from this question, suppose the Senate got tired of the "pesky" Court overturning its laws. Or, suppose that additional elections produced Senate majorities of a different party than the President, such as a continuation of the 2016…
WBT
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Are US Senate/House rules legally enforcible?

Suppose, for example, that the Senate is considering the passage of a law. A Senator has decided to open a filibuster. After a half hour, the majority leader tires of hearing this Senator speak. He motions for an end to the filibuster, but is only…
moonman239
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Has the application of a law ever being appealed anywhere due to the lawmakers not knowing what they were voting/ruling?

Suppose a lawmaker presents a law project, with a highly technical vocabulary, and effectively most of the lawmakers don't really understand what they are voting, even though they think so or pretend to. Has the application of a law ever being…
Pablo
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Are policies automatically void if the politicians who enacted them were serving unlawfully?

Suppose that country X has law Y. A politician introduces bill Z, which is then voted on by the legislature. The legislature approves the bill by a 51 to 50 vote, and it becomes law, replacing and repealing law Y. Some time later, it comes to light…
Brian
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When did the American and British naming conventions for legislation diverge?

American laws seem to be named as, for example, the Trade Act of 2002, while British Acts of Parliament seem to use the same naming convention, except without the word "of" preceding the year? Did American legislation ever follow the British naming…
TylerDurden
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How can one go about amending the law?

If one feels that the law is not clear enough, or might have loopholes that should be fixed, how would one go about starting a process to possibly amend it? For example, in Texas, a lot of landlords charge exuberant fees for residential lease…
cnst
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What is the purpose of this "Rule of construction" in a bill (H.R. 720)?

I'm reading the text of bill "H.R. 720: Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2017" as it was introduced on Jan 30, 2017 at govtrack.us. Sec. 2. (b) reads Rule of construction.-- Nothing in this Act or an amendment made by this Act shall be construed to…
geofflittle
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How specific is the “republican form” clause of the US Constitution?

US Constitution article IV section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, . . . Every State's government is structurally similar to the United States, with one chief executive, elected…
Anton Sherwood
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What is meant by direct Taxes in Article 1 Section 2 in the US Constitution?

I am new when it comes to understanding the US Constitution and I am not comfortable with Section 2, Paragraph 3 of Article 1! [Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union,…
Gregory
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What does/did a Postmaster do?

Reading the list of officers of the 59th Congress, I see someone whose job I can't figure out: Postmaster: J.C. McElroy What did the Postmaster do? Was it his job to oversee the nation's postal service? There doesn't seem to be a corresponding…
Nick ODell
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What is the meaning of omission of a section from any act of legislature

I understand the meaning of repealed sections. Does the section identified as "omitted" mean that this particular section was not meant to be in the act? If so, why do official texts of the act mention its number and put the word omitted? Edit:…
ShivCK
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Nomenclature for two UK Parliament Acts in the same year

Short titles for UK Parliament Acts are generally formed with the title itself and the year, e.g. Parliament Act 1911, (or, in Yes, Minister terms) Import, Export and Custom Powers (Defence) Act 1939. Hypothetically, if there were two Parliament…
ifly6
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UK Spring Water Regulations

I just saw a post talking about how various brands of spring water in the UK are not meeting regulations because they are bottled at a different location to the spring. Looking online, most sites (including…
USD Matt
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What are the effects if a law changes while on trial?

Say you are on trial for crime A. Legislation on crime A is edited/updated/changed in some way during your trial... Does this start the trial over? Do you continue under old or new law? Is the trial thrown out due to technicality? Or does something…
hellyale
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