JUSTICE administration, DUE process of law, COURTS-martial & courts of inquiry, JUDICIAL power, and SEXUAL assault -- Lawsuits & claims

In Ortiz v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2165 (2018), the majority described the military court-martial system (a commander-controlled process for adjudicating criminal complaints) as judicial in character. It reached this conclusion over Justice Alito’s dissent, which took a diametrically opposed view by describing the system as an Executive Branch entity that could not exercise judicial power. The conflict between these two views is nothing new as they have been at the center o f a debate about the fundamental nature o f courts-martial for more than a century. Since Congress legislates consistent with Justice Alito’s executive view, a rift between the Legislative and Judicial Branches is now apparent. This gives rise to a question about the constitutionality o f the court-martial framework under the Uniform Code o f Military Justice (UCMJ): does the current commander-controlled process comply with the requirements o f due process? The answer to this question is especially relevant in today’s political environment where members o f Congress, operating under an executive view o f courts-martial, pressure senior military leaders to produce convictions in sexual assault cases. Therefore, this Article examines the due-process question, concluding that there is an argument that the UCMJ’s court-marital framework may not meet constitutional muster. In reaching this conclusion this Article highlights the type o f structural reform that is necessary to ensure due-process compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SEXUAL harassment -- Law & legislation -- United States and METOO movement

The article explores how the U.S. Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA) contributed to the underreporting of the sexual harassment occurring in Congress and ‘me too' Movement and the specific allegations of harassment against individuals in Congress.

NEIGHBORHOODS and COASTAL surveillance

The article offers the information on the Amagansett as New York as an attractive East Hampton neighborhood. The article mentions about the many mansions that populate Amagansett is a historic Coast Guard station that sits just off Atlantic Avenue beach.

In contrast to the thesis that the War Powers of the U.S. Congress are defective and dysfunctional, congressional behavior can be understood as rational and strategic: First, members of Congress evaluate electoral interests when choosing to support or criticize presidential war policies. Second, congressional members assess whether the use of force abroad is aimed at preventing threats to US security interests. Such "wars of necessity" are likely to summon congressional support, whereas Congress is more skeptical towards humanitarian interventions ("wars of choice"). The thesis will be illustrated by comparing the two most recent cases of military interventions (Libya 2011, ISIS 2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LAW teachers -- United States, UNITED States tax laws, TAX cuts, TAX reform, and FISCAL policy -- United States

The article focuses on the role of legal academics in understanding the tax legislative process of the U.S. Topics discussed include need of disposing expiring tax cuts that were enacted during the presidential term of George W. Bush, the need of reforming the tax cut and other fiscal policies implemented by the House of Representatives of the Congress on low and middle income tax payers under the Tax Reform Act of 1969, and the refusal of the President Barack Obama for increasing tax cuts.

ADMINISTRATIVE law -- United States

Congress currently operates in the shadow of the administrative state. This Article provides a modem reconsideration of why Congress still matters by examining the "collective Congress" within the text, structure, and history of the Constitution. Like the unitary executive, the collective Congress is a structural feature of the Constitution's separation of powers. With deep roots in political theory, the Framers created a representative and collective legislature that would provide a legitimate mechanism for bringing together the nation's diverse interests to most effectively pursue the common good. To fully realize the benefits of collective lawmaking, the Constitution insists on the double exclusivity of the legislative power: only Congress can exercise legislative power, and Congress possesses only legislative power. The Constitution ties the ambitions of representatives and senators to Congress as an institution by prohibiting members of Congress from exercising the executive or judicial powers. This structure supports the members' fiduciary responsibilities to the people, minimizes corruption, and reinforces the independence and integrity of the lawmaking power. Understanding the principles of a collective Congress provides a framework for analyzing a range of separation of powers questions, particularly those arising from the delegation of legislative power to administrative agencies. Quite simply, presidential control of administration cannot replace congressional control of legislation. Congress remains relevant in our complex modem society because it provides a unique form of accountability for ascertaining and pursuing the public good, preserving the rule of law, and protecting individual liberty. The collective Congress provides a powerful conceptual framework for understanding the scope of the Constitution's "legislative power" and how Congress may exercise it. The administrative state blurs the line between the executive and legislative powers. The collective Congress sharpens that line and helps explain why Congress still matters in our system of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIAL movements, ENVIRONMENTALISM, LEGISLATORS, and LOBBYISTS

This article considers the role of social movement allies in Congress in advancing proenvironmental legislation. We argue that compared to sponsors of legislation who hold moderate views, sponsors with extreme ideological positions will be less likely to produce legislation desired by the environmental movement. We also argue that protest and organizational advocacy by constituents will increase the rate at which sponsors enact environmental legislation. Using event history techniques that follow over 12,000 environmental bills from 1973-1996, we find support for the argument that environmental bills are more successful when sponsored by legislators who have environmental voting records closer to the median voter in Congress, compared to bills sponsored by representatives holding more extreme positions. We also find that the number of environmental lobbyist organizations has a positive effect on the speed of enactment of environmental legislation, but that protest by constituents does not affect the speed of the bill's passage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have characterized the U.S. Congress as uniformly weak in carrying out its constitutional responsibility in the politics of military interventions vis-a-vis the president. The picture, however, has more nuances when not only legislative activism prior to the use of force but also the efforts of Congress to control and provide oversight to ongoing military interventions is evaluated. This differentiated perspective on the various tools of democratic control is applied to a structured-focused comparison of U.S. military interventions between 1973 and 2013. Indeed, there is a considerable variance in executive-legislative relations concerning the war powers question, which contradicts the traditional finding of a consistently weak Congress. While in some cases Congress is indeed deferential towards the executive, there is also evidence of legislative assertiveness, when members of the legislative branch perceive a military intervention as not serving U.S. national security interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DATA security failures, CLAPPER v. Amnesty International USA (Supreme Court case), INTERNET security, DATA protection laws, GOOD faith (Law), and DAMAGES (Law)

The article focuses on comprehensive scheme, whereby legislature and judiciary collaborate to minimize security breach and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case Clapper v. Amnesty International. It mentions companies will implement cybersecurity policies which ensure the adequate protection of their information and internal control as an integral part of companies' compliance programs. It also mentions company has made a reasonable good faith effort to comply and mitigate its damages.

COMMERCIAL trusts -- United States, JURISDICTION, and ACTIONS & defenses (Law)

Commercial trusts are one of the United States' most important types of business organizations, holding trillions of dollars of assets and operating nationally and internationally as a "mirror image" of the corporation. However, commercial trusts remain underappreciated and undertheorized in comparison to corporations, often as a result of the popular but mistaken belief that commercial trusts are analogous to traditional intergenerational trusts or that corporations reflect the primary or paradigmatic form of business association. The treatment of commercial trusts reached its nadir in early 2016, when the U.S. Supreme Court held in Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods, Inc. that the citizenship of a commercial trust should be equated with that of its shareholder-beneficiaries for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the sheer number of shareholderbeneficiaries in most commercial trusts (often amounting to hundreds if not thousands of individuals) typically precludes the parties' ability to establish complete diversity and thus eliminates the possibility of federal jurisdiction over most commercial trust disputes. As a result, virtually all commercial trust disputes will now be heard in state court, despite their complexity, their impact on matters of national public policy, and their effect on the domestic and global economies. Americold will also result in differential treatment of commercial trusts and corporations for purposes of federal jurisdiction, even though courts and commentators have long recognized the functional equivalence of the two types of business associations. Furthermore, as this research shows, there is no theoretical justification for this type of unequal treatment. This Article therefore suggests, as a normative proposition, that Congress override Americold and provide commercial trusts with access to federal courts in a manner similar to that enjoyed by corporations. This recommendation is the result of a rigorous interdisciplinary analysis of both the jurisprudential and practical problems created by Americold as a matter of trust law, procedural law, and the law of incorporated and unincorporated business associations. This Article identifies two possible Congressional responses to Americold, one involving reliance on minimal diversity, as in cases falling under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332(d) and 1369, and the other involving a statutory definition of the citizenship of commercial trusts similar to that used for corporations under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c). In so doing, this Article hopes to place commercial trusts and corporations on an equal footing and avoid the numerous negative externalities generated by the Supreme Court's decision in Americold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DECISION making in prosecution, OBSTRUCTION of justice, and EXECUTIVE power -- United States

LAW libraries -- Law & legislation and LAW schools

Ms. Hallows investigates the widespread use of the Library of Congress Classification system in U.S. law libraries and the difficulties it can present in some circumstances. To address these problems, she proposes that smaller law libraries that do not par-ticipate in a bibliographic utility may benefit from an in-house classification scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIBRARIES, DIGITIZATION of library materials, DIGITIZATION of art, LIBRARIES -- Germany, and ELECTRONIC book laws

News briefs pertaining to libraries are presented. Information is provided on a court case in the U.S. regarding digitization of books by the search engine company Google, cooperation between the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek library and Bavarian colleges to archive digital texts, images, and audio recordings, and the launch of the Lesestart – Drei Meilensteine für das Lesen reading promotion project at German libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]