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- The Federal Arbitration Act: Background and Recent Developments
- Enacted in 1925, the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) seeks to ensure the validity and enforcement of arbitration agreements in any “maritime transaction or a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce.” This report provides a brief legislative history of the FAA, as well as a review of selected cases that have interpreted the FAA. The report also discusses bills introduced during the 107th Congress that would amend the FAA for various purposes. Of the nine measures that have been introduced, five bills would amend the FAA to address arbitration and employment disputes. The remaining bills address arbitration in motor vehicle franchise contracts and arbitration and consumer credit contracts.
- Partial-Birth Abortion: Recent Developments in the Law
- No Description Available.
- The Constitutionality of Including the Phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance
- On October 14, 2003, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the appeal regarding the California statute, and on June 14, 2004, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s decision finding that Newdow lacked standing to challenge the school district’s policy in federal court. This report summarizes the facts of the case, the opinions that have been rendered, congressional action, and the appeal to the Supreme Court. It will be updated as circumstances warrant.
- Money Laundering: An Abridged Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1956 and Related Federal Criminal Law
- Money laundering is a federal crime, commonly understood as the process of cleansing the taint from the proceeds of crime. This report describes in detail the various aspects of money laundering in regards to federal criminal law.
- The Federal Arbitration Act: Background and Recent Developments
- Enacted in 1925, the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) seeks to ensure the validity and enforcement of arbitration agreements in any “maritime transaction or . . . contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce.” In general, the FAA evidences a national policy favoring arbitration. However, the application of the FAA to various types of arbitration agreements has been the subject of numerous lawsuits. This report provides a brief legislative history of the FAA, as well as a review of selected cases that have interpreted the FAA. The report also discusses bills introduced during the 108th Congress that would amend the FAA to address the use of arbitration to resolve employment and specific contract disputes.
- Employer Liability Provisions in Selected Patient Protection Bills
- In the various patient protection bills introduced in the 106th (H.R. 5628, S.Amdt. 3694, H.R. 2990) and to date in the 107th (H.R. 526, H.R. 2315, H.R. 2563, S. 889, S. 1052), Congress has attempted to address the issue of employer liability by limiting liability to certain persons or circumstances. This report provides an overview of the employer liability provisions of selected bills from the 106th and 107th Congress.
- Partial-Birth Abortion: Recent Developments in the Law
- No Description Available.
- Partial-Birth Abortion: Recent Developments in the Law
- No Description Available.
- Partial-Birth Abortion: Recent Developments in the Law
- No Description Available.
- Abortion Procedures
- The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1997, H.R. 1122 was vetoed by President Clinton on October 10, 1997. This legislation would have made it a federal crime, punishable by fine and/or incarceration, for a physician to perform a partial birth abortion unless it was necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury. The partial-birth abortion legislation has stimulated a great deal of controversy. This report provides a brief overview of the abortion methods currently in use for which data have been published and some positions on the partial birth abortion legislation.
- Partial-Birth Abortion: Recent Developments in the Law
- No Description Available.
- Telecommunications Act: Competition, Innovation, and Reform
- No Description Available.
- Iranian Nuclear Sites
- This report describes Iran's known nuclear sites listed in official International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports and includes a map with the location of the nuclear facilities. For further information and analysis of Iran's nuclear programs, see CRS Report RS21592, Iran's Nuclear Program: Recent Developments, by Sharon Squassoni; and CRS Report RL32048 Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses, by Kenneth Katzman.
- Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996: A Summary
- The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is the product of legislative efforts stretching back well over a decade and stimulated to passage in part by the tragedies in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center. This report summarizes the six titles of the Act, its sources, and related legislation.
- Iraq: Elections, Government, and Constitution
- This report is regarding the Elections, Government, and constitutions of Iraq.
- Energy and Water Development: FY2018 Appropriations
- This report discusses the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill that provides funding for civil works projects of the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps).
- Trends in Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Enforcement
- This report provides an overview of recent trends in the enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the principal U.S. anti-money laundering law regulating financial institutions. The report begins by providing general background information on BSA penalties and enforcement. The report concludes by discussing three recent trends that commentators have observed in BSA enforcement: (1) an increase in the frequency with which BSA enforcement actions involve an assessment of money penalties, and an increase in the size of those penalties, (2) an increased emphasis by regulators on the acceptance of responsibility by institutions entering into settlement agreements for BSA violations, and (3) an increased risk of individual liability for BSA violations.
- Conducting Foreign Relations Without Authority: The Logan Act
- This report discusses the Logan Act, which was intended to prohibit United States citizens without authority from interfering in relations between the United States and foreign governments.
- The congressional record including A list of proposed format changes
- This report presents the system of recording the proceedings of the house of representatives and the Senate of the slow evolution.
- Congressional Authority to Enact Criminal Law: An Examination of Selected Recent Cases
- The report discusses the Necessary and Proper Clause, Commerce Clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 10, spending Clause and Military Clause.
- Attempt To Commit A Federal Crime: S. 171, A Proposed General Statute
- There is no general federal statute proscribing criminal attempts; the federal criminal statutes are written in such a manner so as to include only the attempt to commit a specific substantive crime or substantive offense. Therefore, a specific in intent crime would require that the offender specifically intended to devise a scheme intended to commit the crime. The government, on the other hand, must present proof by inferences from the circumstances that the offender possessed the specific intent to commit the crime. This approach to the law has led to a patchwork of attempt statutes- leaving gaps in coverage, and failing to satisfactorily define exactly what constitutes an attempt in all circumstances an attempt in all circumstances. It is also the intent of the legislation to fill the gaps found in the current attempt statutes. This report will be updated if legislative activity warrant.
- Summary of the Department of Energy Organization Act
- This report briefly summarizes the major provisions of the law.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- No Description Available.
- Internet Gambling: An Abridged Overview of Federal Criminal Law
- No Description Available.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- No Description Available.
- Education Vouchers: The Constitutional Standards
- The Court’s decisions permit a limited degree of public aid to be provided directly and a broader range of assistance indirectly. This report sketches the constitutional standards that apply to public aid to sectarian schools and especially to programs of indirect assistance such as education vouchers. It also summarizes recent significant state court decisions involving vouchers.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- No Description Available.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- No Description Available.
- Central American Asylum Seekers: Impact of 1996 Immigration Law
- This report discuses issues related to the significant portion of the Central Americans affected by the IIRIRA revisions still have asylum cases pending and may obtain legal permanent residence by that avenue if they demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution. The Attorney General also has the discretionary authority to grant blanket relief from deportation, but the discretionary forms of relief do not entail legal permanent residence. There is considerable interest in this issue in the 105th Congress, and the Senate passed by a vote of 99 to 1 an amendment to provide relief for certain Central Americans to the D.C. appropriations bill (S.1156).
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- No Description Available.
- Citizen Control Over Records Held by Third Parties
- The United States has become an information society. Government at every level and private industry have been collecting and using more personal information about individuals in the last several years than ever before. The Congress has been aware of this trend, and of the potencia1 for misuse of the information so collected; it has enacted several laws that protect the personal privacy of individuals, and respect the confidentiality of the information maintained about individuals by third parties. In this report, several privacy laws are summarized, and key provisions of each are compared, in order to make individual citizens aware of their rights , responsibilities and remedies under the law.
- Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends
- The Supreme Court has expressed an interest "that Congress be able to legislate against a background of clear interpretive rules, so that it may know the effect of the language it adopts." This report identifies and describes some of the more important rules and conventions of interpretation that the Court applies. Because the Court has recently placed renewed emphasis on statutory text and somewhat reduced emphasis on legislative history and other interpretive sources "extrinsic" to the text, this report focuses primarily on the Court's methodology in construing statutory text. The Court's recent approaches to reliance on legislative history are also briefly described.
- Extraterritorial Application of American Criminal Law
- Crime is ordinarily proscribed, tried and punished according to the laws on the place where it occurs. American criminal law applies beyond the geographical confines of the United States, however, under some limited circumstances. The federal exceptions to the general rule usually involve crimes like drug trafficking, terrorism, or crimes committed aboard a ship or airplane. State prosecution for overseas misconduct is limited almost exclusively to multijurisdictional crimes, i.e., crimes where some elements of the offense are committed within the state and others are committed abroad. The Constitution, Congress, and state law define the circumstances under which American criminal law may be used against crimes occurring, in whole or in part, outside the United States
- The Immigration and Nationality Act: Questions and Answers
- The basic United States law governing immigration and naturalization is contained in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1101 -- et seq.). This report provides questions and answers to explain the way in which the Immigration and Nationality Act as amended through 1981 regulates the entry of aliens for permanent and temporary residence in the United States, and other major provisions of the law. Emphasis is placed on subjects which have been of particular interest to the Congress in recent years. This supersedes CRS Report No. 81-65 EPW.
- Terrorism: World Trade Center and the Pentagon – Applicable Federal Criminal Law
- The death and destruction associated with the hijacking of four commercial airliners constitute federal crimes that outlaw air piracy, murder, and kidnapping. Relevant statutes carry the death penalty and apply to any accomplices or coconspirators here or abroad.
- Proposed Change to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) under S. 113
- This report discusses S. 113, a bill to extend the coverage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA") to non-U.S. persons who engage in international terrorism or activities in preparation for terrorist acts, without a showing of membership in or affiliation with an international terrorist group.
- Advisory Bodies Created by the President and by Congress 1955 Through July 15, 1970
- This report addresses advisory bodies created by the president and by congress between 1955 and July 15, 1970.
- State and Local Sales Tax Deductibility: Legislation in the 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Legal Issues Related to Prescription Drug Sales on the Internet
- No Description Available.
- Comparison of California's Financial Information Privacy Act of 2003 with Federal Privacy Provisions
- The California Financial Information Privacy Act,1 enacted on August 28, 2003, and effective on July 1, 2004, governs the rights of California residents with respect to the dissemination of nonpublic personal information by financial institutions. In some respects, it diverges from two federal laws that impose restrictions on the dissemination of nonpublic personally identifiable customer information by financial information.
- The Bayh-Dole Act: Selected Issues in Patent Policy and the Commercialization of Technology
- Congressional interest in facilitating U.S. technological innovation led to the passage of P.L. 96-517, Amendments to the Patent and Trademark Act, commonly referred to as the "Bayh-Dole Act" after its two main sponsors former Senators Robert Dole and Birch Bayh. Under this 1980 law, as amended, title to inventions made with government support is provided to the contractor if that contractor is a small business, a university, or other non-profit institution. This report discusses the rationale behind the passage of P.L. 96-517, its provisions, and implementation of the law.
- The Bayh-Dole Act: Selected Issues in Patent Policy and the Commercialization of Technology
- Report that discusses the rationale behind the passage of P.L. 96-517, its provisions, and implementation of the law.
- Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends
- The Supreme Court has expressed an interest "that Congress be able to legislate against a background of clear interpretive rules, so that it may know the effect of the language it adopts." This report identifies and describes some of the more important rules and conventions of interpretation that the Court applies. Although this report focuses primarily on the Court's methodology in construing statutory text, the Court's approach to reliance on legislative history are also briefly described.
- Immigration: "Recalcitrant" Countries and the Use of Visa Sanctions to Encourage Cooperation with Alien Removals
- This report discusses the use of visa sanctions by the Trump Administration, past uses of visa sanctions, and alternatives to visa sanctions to encourage countries to comply with repatriation of their citizens.
- The Endangered Species Act and "Sound Science"
- This report provides a context for evaluating legislative proposals through examples of how science has been used in selected cases, a discussion of the nature and role of science in general, and its role in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) process in particular, together with general and agency information quality requirements and policies, and a review of how the courts have viewed agency use of science.
- Summary of Major Military Reserve Laws Historical Backgrounds: 1948-1968
- This report outlines certain laws that require military action within the United States. It also recalls on back wars to investigate how those actions effected the present time.
- Federal Conspiracy Law: A Brief Overview
- This report discusses Federal conspiracy law. It also discusses about sanctions, Relation of Conspiracy to Other Crimes and Procedural Attributes.
- The Budget Enforcement Act of 1997: A Fact Sheet
- This is a report n the Budget Enforcement Act of 1997: the fact sheet.
- Federal Conspiracy Law: A Sketch
- This report discusses about Conspiracies to Defraud the United States, Relation of Conspiracy to Other Crimes, Procedural Attributes etc.
- Racial Profiling: Legal and Constitutional Issues
- Racial profiling is the practice of targeting individuals for police or security detention based on their race or ethnicity in the belief that certain minority groups are more likely to engage in unlawful behavior. Examples of racial profiling by law enforcement agencies suggest that minorities are disproportionately the subject of security-related practices. The issue has periodically attracted congressional interest and several courts have considered the constitutional ramifications of the practice as an "unreasonable search and seizure" under the Fourth Amendment and, more recently, as a denial of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection guarantee. A variety of federal and state statutes provide potential relief to individuals who claim that their rights are violated by race-based law enforcement practices and policies.