US Law Archives - Page 4 of 71

Do Filibusters Violate The Constitution?

ABA Journal: “A suit filed on Monday by Common Cause claims the Senate filibuster is anti-democratic and unconstitutional.

“The principle of majority rule was so basic to the concept of a democratically elected legislative body that it did not need to be expressly stated in the Constitution,” the suit (PDF) says. Other plaintiffs include several Democratic lawmakers and three immigrants who would be aided by passage of the Dream Act, according to Politico, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a press release.”

Will More People Denouce Their US Citizenship If Taxes Are Raised?

New York Times: “On April 30, the Treasury Department announced that 461 Americans had renounced their citizenship in the first quarter of 2012. A 1996 law requires that every person doing so be named, with their names published in the Federal Register. The idea is to shame those who may be renouncing their citizenship solely to escape taxation.

The extreme step of renouncing one’s citizenship is necessary to escape taxation by the United States, because the United States, alone among the major nations of the world, taxes its citizens wherever on earth they live.

Other countries tax only those who live and work within their borders; if their citizens live and work in another country, they are liable only for taxes incurred in that country.

Americans living abroad, however, must not only pay taxes in the country in which they are living, but United States taxes as well, although there is an exemption of $93,000 that is adjusted for inflation annually. The only legal way for American citizens to avoid American taxes is to renounce their citizenship and live their lives permanently in another country.”

The Protection Against Unreasonable Search And Seizure And The US Supreme Court

Law.com: “I long have believed that the best predictor of whether the U.S. Supreme Court finds a violation of the Fourth Amendment is whether the justices could imagine it happening to them. For example, the Supreme Court upheld drug-testing requirements in every case until it considered a Georgia law that required that high-level government officials be subjected to it. The two Fourth Amendment decisions this term, U.S. v. Jones and Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of Burlington County, powerfully illustrate that the justices only seem to care if it could happen to them.”

Supreme Court May Uphold Key Provision of Arizona’s Illegal Immigrant Law

Legal Insurrection: The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments today about Arizona’s controversial illegal immigratio law, SB 1070. Based on the initial reports, it appears that the Court may uphold at least one key provision of the law, which allows state law enforcement to inquire about a person’s immigration status. Even some of the Court’s liberal Justices seemed skeptical about prohibiting state law enforcement from checking the immigration status of a person within the state’s borders. What remains unclear is how the Court will view the provisions of the law that make it a state crime to violate federal immigration law.

An Analysis of SB 1070 Arguments Before the Supreme Court

ABA Journal: “Oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court’s October Term 2011 will end April 25 with one of the most important and politically controversial cases of the year: Arizona v. United States. The issue before the court is whether key provisions of Arizona’s statute SB 1070—which calls on state and local law enforcement to aggressively enforce federal immigration laws—are preempted by federal law. The case poses basic questions about the allocation of power between federal and state governments and does so in a context that arouses deep emotion on both sides.

In 2010, Arizona adopted SB 1070, titled, “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.” It sought to use the resources of Arizona state and local governments to help control illegal immigration. Its preamble states that its purpose is to make “attrition

[of undocumented aliens] through enforcement the public policy of all state and local governments in Arizona.””