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The Vacancies Act and an Acting Attorney General

The President’s November 2018 designation of Matthew Whitaker to be the Acting Attorney General was unprecedented and calls into question several legal issues. Though many are based on questions of constitutionality, there is a strong and novel argument that the statute used by the President to designate Mr. Whitaker,

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The Limits and Possibilities of Data-Driven Antitrafficking Efforts

An examination of technology in the countertrafficking space reveals recurring tensions between law enforcement and rights-based approaches. It also illuminates assumptions, such as the one that posits more law enforcement-focused, nonstate-actor-supported data-driven efforts are necessary to securing justice for people in trafficking situations. However, a closer look at how technology

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Using Empirical Data to Investigate the Original Meaning of "Emolument" in the Constitution.

The United States Constitution prohibits federal officials from receiving any “present, Emolument, Office or Title” from a foreign state without the consent of Congress. In interpreting the Constitution’s text, we are to be guided “by the principle that ‘[t]he Constitution was written to be understood by the voters;

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"We the Citizens?": A Corpus Linguistic Inquiry into the Use of "People" and "Citizens" in the Founding Era

The last Amendment included in the Bill of Rights, the Tenth Amendment, states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”1 Employed as a tool to invalidate statutes2 and

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Effective but Limited: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of the Original Public Meaning of Executive Power

This paper will engage linguistic and historical analysis in an effort to discern the original public meaning of the phrase executive power as used in Article II of the United States Constitution. In light of significant modern controversy surrounding the proper limits of executive authority, an original meaning interpretation of

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"Questions Involving National Peace and Harmony" or "Injured Plaintiff Litigation"? The Original Meaning of "Cases" in Article III of the Constitution

If a federal official is deliberately violating the Constitution, is it possible no federal court has the power to halt that conduct? Federal judges have been answering “yes” for more than a century— dismissing certain kinds of lawsuits alleging unconstitutional conduct by ruling the lawsuits were not “cases” as meant

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Cryptocurrency Meets Bankruptcy Law: A Call for Creditor Status for Investors in Initial Coin Offerings

In 1973, experts Homer Kripke and John J. Slain published a seminal study titled The Interface Between Securities Regulation and Bankruptcy—Allocating the Risk of Illegal Securities Issuance between Securityholders and the Issuer’s Creditors. That lengthy analysis, contributed by, respectively, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official and a

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HB 217 - Needle Exchange Program

The Act authorizes certain nonprofit organizations and hospitals to operate clean needle exchange programs. These programs allow individuals who inject drugs to exchange their needles for clean, unused needles. The purpose of these programs is to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases associated with the

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SB 106 - Patients First Act

The Patients First Act amends both Title 49 and Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, which allows the state to apply for two federal waivers. One being the Section 1115 waiver to the Social Security Act. The second being the Section 1332 waiver to the Affordable Care

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HB 346 - Tenant Retaliation Protection

The Act prohibits landlords from taking retaliatory action when tenants exercise their rights or express habitability concerns. The Act provides for several authorized tenant actions that notify and hold landlords responsible for fixable property defects. If the landlord attempts to deprive the tenant of the use or enjoyment of the

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HB 481 - Heartbeat Bill

The Act adds an unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat to the definition of a natural person and includes such unborn child in state population counts. The Act defines abortion, prescribes when abortions may be performed, provides exceptions to abortion performance limitations, establishes requirements for performing an abortion, and

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SB 1 - C.J.'s Law

The Act primarily functions to increase the penalty for drivers who cause death or serious bodily injury as a result of a vehicular accident and then flee the scene. Also known as C.J.’s Law, the Act establishes a maximum prison sentence of ten years for such a hit-and-run

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SB 18 - Direct Primary Care

This legislation allows physicians to offer specified care for a specific time pursuant to a fixed fee. The physician cannot require more than one year’s payment upfront, and the agreement has to be terminable by either party with thirty days’ notice. Physicians do not have to provide care if

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HB 316 - Voting System

The Act authorizes and requires a new voting system be used in all elections, provides for auditing procedures, provides for updates to the voter list maintenance laws, and specifies additional revisions to election processes. Download PDF

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SB 77 - Protection for Monuments

The Act prohibits persons and entities from destroying, concealing, or relocating any publicly or privately owned monument. Monuments may only be relocated when necessary for construction, expansion, or alteration to a site of equal prominence within the same municipality. Violators of this legislation are subject to treble the amount of

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