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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Considerations Of History And Purpose In Constitutional Borrowing, Robert Tsai
Considerations Of History And Purpose In Constitutional Borrowing, Robert Tsai
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
This essay is part of a symposium issue dedicated to "Constitutional Rights: Intersections, Synergies, and Conflicts" at William and Mary School of Law. I make four points. First, perfect harmony among rights might not always be normatively desirable. In fact, in some instances, such as when First Amendment and Second Amendment rights clash, we might wish to have expressive rights consistently trump gun rights. Second, we can't resolve clashes between rights in the abstract but instead must consult history in a broadly relevant rather than a narrowly "originalist" fashion. When we do so, we learn that armed expression and white …
Overcoming Legislative Gridlock In The U.S. Congress: How Procedural Rules Affect Legislative Obstructionism, Molly Jackman
Overcoming Legislative Gridlock In The U.S. Congress: How Procedural Rules Affect Legislative Obstructionism, Molly Jackman
Brookings Scholar Lecture Series
More than 90 percent of bills introduced in the U.S. House never make it to a floor vote, and far fewer are enacted into law. Since legislative gridlock is much more common than legislative action, in order to understand policy outcomes, it is critical to know why bills are obstructed. Gridlock occurs when a legislator (or group of legislators) wants to block a bill, and has the procedural right to do so. Using new data on the procedural rules in the U.S. states, this presentation will identify the chambers in which legislators can block bills from the legislative agenda. Then, …