Working with Statutes Flashcards
bill
A proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become a law until
it is passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate and either approved by
the President or a Presidential veto is overcome.
joint resolution
A legislative measure that requires approval by the Senate and House of
Representatives and is presented to the President for approval. It is like a Bill except it cannot be used to propose a constitutional amendment.
concurrent resolution
A legislative measure adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives that does not require the approval of the President. A concurrent resolution does not have the force of law
simple resolution
A legislative measure passed by either the Senate or the House of
Representatives (but not the other body) and does not require the approval of the President. A simple resolution does not have the force of law.
tabling
To postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion or piece of legislation.
conference committee
A committee made up of members from both the Senate and House of Representatives that meets, negotiates, and agrees to a new, compromised
version of a particular bill when each house passes a different version
pocket veto
A legislative maneuver that allows a president to exercise veto power. When
Congress is no longer in session, the president can perform a pocket veto by taking no action on a bill for ten days.
US Code
A compendium of federal laws.
Title
Each large part of the U.S. Code, divided by subject matter
slip law
The statute by itself on a single sheet or in pamphlet form before it is included into session laws.
public law number
The number assigned to a published slip law; the first number represents the number of the Congress that passed the law and the second represents the
chronological order in which the law was passed.
session laws
The booklet containing published statutes, bound chronologically by
Congressional session.
Statutes at large
The official U.S. government compilation of federal session laws; the official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States
Congress.
“Stat” citation
Citation for the Statutes at Large.
cross-references
When statutes reference one another.
statutory interpretation
The principles courts use in reading a statute and relating it to a
particular issue or question.
legislative supremacy
The doctrine that when Congress passes a statute, a judge in the
U.S. constitutional system has a duty to try to figure out Congress’s policy instructions for it
legislative intent
Congress’s policy instructions that the judiciary tries to ascertain.
ordinary meaning
The first step in statutory interpretation which involves giving the words
in a statute their ordinary sense; dictionaries are useful starting points.
purpose of policy of the statute
What Congress is trying to get at in a statute. Since
Congress uses words to express a policy decision or set of policy instructions, this method of statutory interpretation involves looking at which interpretation better serves the policy of
the statute.
the canons (maxims) of construction
The legal system’s set of rules that judges use to
help sort out what a statute means or what to do when a statute is ambiguous or doesn’t
make sense.
linguistic canons
Common-sense presumptions about the way people use language used to help find the meaning of words and phrases in statutes.
expressio unius est exclusio alterius
A linguistic canon of construction that means that if you specify one thing, you impliedly exclude the things you don’t specify.
substantive canons
Canons of construction that put a thumb on the scale of one interpretation or another in order to serve some broad, general policy that the legal system
wants to promote.
