Category: Congress
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Fly Big or Stay Home?
By Nicholas Vickery — Whether it be for business, vacation, medical treatment, family matters, or something else, Americans are frequently flying. It is thus no surprise that the recent events surrounding the proposed JetBlue acquisition of Spirit Airlines are of great public interest. The two airlines reached a merger agreement on July 28, 2022, and…
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FISA and the USA PATRIOT Act: Reforms and Legal Implications
By Lizzie Evanko — Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, in an effort to establish a legal framework for the physical and electronic surveillance of foreign entities. FISA allowed the federal government to collect intelligence on any foreign power (or agent of a foreign power) suspected of terrorism or espionage. The…
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Steering Towards Safety: Analyzing the Constitutionality and Effectiveness of Alternative Regulatory Frameworks in the Production of Self-Driving Vehicles
By Clay Reiferson — How do we weigh the value of the lives of future generations against the people of today? In the United States, federal and state governments are left to ponder this question as they seek to regulate the burgeoning self-driving car industry. It is widely accepted that, by removing human error, self-driving…
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The Problems with Legislative Overrides of Judicial Rulings
By Beck Reiferson and Benjamin Edelson — In April 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order establishing the ‘Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States,’ a commission of legal scholars formed to discuss potential reforms to the Supreme Court. In October of that same year, the Commission released discussion materials prepared…
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National Popular Vote: Circumventing the United States Constitution
By Alexandra Orbuch — In 2016, Donald Trump became President of the United States after winning a majority of electors (he won 304 electoral votes, surpassing the necessary 270 votes) but losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. For reference, the national popular vote is the direct vote of individual citizens. The electoral vote, on the…
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Tyranny of the Minority: The Unconstitutionality of the Filibuster
By Madeleine Polubinski — In recent years, congressional gridlock has focused national attention on the Senate’s filibuster. The filibuster is the process by which a minority of senators delay or prevent a vote on legislation by speaking as long as possible on the Senate floor, until three-fifths of the Senate invoke cloture, which moves the…