1.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
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United States Reports
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The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a prepared by the Reporter of Decisions. For lawyers, citations to United States Reports are the reference for Supreme Court decisions. Following Bluebook, a commonly accepted citation protocol, the case Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, for example, would be cited as, Brown v. Bd. of Educ. The early volumes of the United States Reports were originally published privately by the individual Supreme Court Reporters, as was the practice in England, the reports were designated by the names of the reporters who compiled them, Dallass Reports, Cranchs Reports, etc. The decisions appearing in the entire first volume and most of the volume of United States Reports are not decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Instead, they are decisions from various Pennsylvania courts, dating from the colonial period, alexander Dallas, a lawyer and journalist, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had been in the business of reporting these cases for newspapers and periodicals. He subsequently began compiling his case reports in a bound volume and this would come to be known as the first volume of Dallas Reports. Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania decisions in a volume of his Reports. When the Supreme Court began hearing cases, he added those cases to his reports, starting towards the end of the volume,2 Dallas Reports. Dallas went on to publish a total of four volumes of decisions during his tenure as Reporter, when the Supreme Court moved to Washington, D. C. in 1800, Dallas remained in Philadelphia, and William Cranch took over as unofficial reporter of decisions. In 1817, Congress made the Reporter of Decisions an official, salaried position, in 1874, the U. S. government began to fund the reports publication, creating the United States Reports. The earlier, private reports were retroactively numbered volumes 1–90 of the United States Reports, therefore, decisions appearing in these early reports have dual citation forms, one for the volume number of the United States Reports, and one for the set of nominate reports. For example, the citation to McCulloch v. Maryland is 17 U. S.316
3.
Morrison Waite
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Morrison Remick Mott Waite was an attorney and politician in Ohio. He served as the seventh Chief Justice of the United States from 1874 to his death in 1888, Morrison Remick Waite was born in 1816 at Lyme, Connecticut, the son of Henry Matson Waite, an attorney, and his wife Maria Selden. Morrison had a brother Richard, with whom he practiced law. Waite attended Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut, where one of his classmates was Lyman Trumbull and he graduated from Yale University in 1837 in a class with Samuel J. Tilden, who later was the 1876 Democratic presidential nominee. As a student at Yale, Waite became a member of the Skull and Bones, soon afterward Waite moved to Maumee, Ohio, where he studied law as an apprentice in the office of Samuel L. Young. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, and went into practice with his mentor and he was elected to one term as mayor of Maumee. He married Amelia Champlin Warner on September 21,1840 in Hartford and they had three sons together, Henry Seldon, Christopher Champlin, and Edward Tinker, and a daughter Mary Frances Waite. In 1850, Waite and his moved to Toledo, where he set up a branch office of his law firm with Young. He soon came to be recognized as a leader of the state bar, when Young retired in 1856, Waite built a prosperous new firm with his brother Richard Waite. An active member of the Whig Party, Waite was elected to a term in the Ohio Senate in 1849–1850 and he made two unsuccessful bids for the United States Senate, and was offered a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court. In the mid-1850s, because of his opposition to slavery, Waite joined the fledgling Republican Party, in 1871, Waite received a surprise invitation to represent the United States as counsel before the Alabama Tribunal at Geneva. In his first national role, he gained acclaim when he won a $15 million award from the tribunal, in 1872, he was selected to preside over the Ohio 1873 constitutional convention. President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Waite as Chief Justice on January 19,1874, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase died in May 1873, and Grant waited six months before first offering the seat in November to the powerful Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, who declined. He finally submitted his nomination of Attorney General George H. Williams to the Senate on December 1, a month later, however, Grant withdrew the nomination, at Williams request, after charges of corruption made his confirmation all but certain to fail. Finally, after persistent lobbying from Ohioans, including Interior Secretary Columbus Delano, on January 19,1874 and he was notified of his nomination by a telegram. The nomination was not well received in political circles, Waite took the oaths of office on March 4,1874. Chief Justice Waite never became a significant intellectual force on the Supreme Court, but his managerial and social skill, especially his good humor and sensitivity to others, helped him to maintain a remarkably harmonious and productive court. During Waites tenure, the Court decided some 3,470 cases, in part, the large number of cases decided and the variety of issues confronted reflected the lack of discretion the Court had at the time in hearing appeals from lower federal and state courts
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Nathan Clifford
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Nathan Clifford was an American statesman, diplomat and jurist, whose career culminated in a lengthy period of service as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Clifford was born of old Yankee stock in Rumney, New Hampshire, to Deacon Nathaniel Clifford and Lydia Simpson Clifford and he attended the public schools of that town, then the Haverhill Academy in New Hampshire, and finally the New Hampton Literary Institute. After teaching school for a time, he studied law in the offices of Josiah Quincy III and was admitted to the bar in Maine in 1827, establishing his first practice in Newfield and it was in Newfield where he met his wife, Hannah Ayer. He served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1830 to 1834 and he was then Maine Attorney General from 1834 until 1838, when he entered national politics. Initially, Clifford ran for the Senate and lost, then, Clifford was elected as a Democrat to the 26th and 27th Congresses, serving March 4,1839, through March 3,1843, and representing the Second and then the Third District. In Washington D. C. he followed the Democratic party line on policies, Clifford was opposed to a high tariff, supported internal improvements, endorsed state banking, and was in favor of federal retrenchment. He also criticized abolition, saying that its supporters were well intentioned but denounced the “mean and incendiary schemes of political Abolitionists. ”Due to re-redistricting and political infighting, Clifford was not a candidate for re-election in 1842. In 1846, President James K. Polk appointed him 20th Attorney General of the United States after his predecessor, mason, returned to being Naval Secretary. Clifford served in Polks Cabinet from October 17,1846, to March 17,1848, Clifford resigned his post with the Justice Department to become the U. S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico, serving from March 18,1848 to September 6,1849 and it was through Clifford that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was arranged with Mexico, by which California became a part of the United States. A Whig Presidential victory meant that Clifford was recalled to the United States, following his service in the diplomatic corps, Clifford resumed the practice of law in Portland, Maine. Cliffords was a contested nomination. A perennial partisan Democrat, to the opposition Clifford seemed to be a political hack, Clifford was labeled a “doughface, ” a Northern man with Southern sympathies. Especially due to his position, anti-slavery representatives in the Senate fiercely opposed Clifford. Rather, they delayed his confirmation for thirty four days, and Clifford was confirmed on January 12,1858, by a narrow margin of 26 votes to 23 in the United States Senate. If not for the Democratic Party rallying around their candidate, the absence of two of his opponents, and the last minute change in stance by a Democratic Senator and his specialties were commercial and maritime law, Mexican land grants, and procedure and practice. Though he rarely declared any legal philosophy about the Constitution, Justice Clifford believed in a dividing line between federal and state authority. ”Clifford supported a mechanical jurisprudence adhering to the strict text of the Constitution. Clifford was a Unionist, but distrusted federal authority and this meant that during the American Civil War he generally supported the government’s policies, although he opposed the use of arbitrary powers
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Samuel Freeman Miller
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Samuel Freeman Miller was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court who served from 1862 to 1890. He was a physician and lawyer, born in Richmond, Kentucky, Miller was the son of yeoman farmers. He earned a degree in 1838 from Transylvania University in Lexington. While practicing medicine for a decade, he studied the law on his own and was admitted to the bar in 1847, favoring the abolition of slavery, which was prevalent in Kentucky, he supported the Whigs in Kentucky. Miller moved to Keokuk, in Iowa, a more amenable to his views on slavery. Active in Hawkeye politics, he supported Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election, Lincoln nominated Miller to the Supreme Court on July 16,1862, after the beginning of the American Civil War. His reputation was so high that Miller was confirmed half an hour after the Senate received notice of his nomination and his opinions strongly favored Lincolns positions, and he upheld his wartime suspension of habeas corpus and trials by military commission. After the war, his reading of the Fourteenth Amendment—he wrote the opinion in the Slaughterhouse Cases—limited the effectiveness of the amendment. In Ex Parte Yarbrough,110 U. S.651, however, Miller held that the government had broad authority to act to protect black voters from violence by the Ku Klux Klan. Miller also supported the use of federal power under the Commerce Clause to trump state regulations. Justice Miller wrote more opinions than any other Supreme Court Justice, after the 1876 presidential election between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden, Miller served on the electoral commission that awarded the disputed electoral votes to the Republican Hayes. In the 1880s, his name was floated as a Republican candidate for president, Miller, a religious liberal, belonged to the Unitarian Church and served as President of the Unitarians National Conference. Following his death, his funeral was held at Keokuks First Unitarian Church and he died in Washington, D. C. while still a member of the court. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Keokuk, Iowa, the Slaughter-House Cases,83 U. S.36 Murdock v. Memphis,87 U. S.20 Wall. 590590 United States v. Kagama,118 U. S.375 In re Burrus,136 U. S.586 Justice Samuel Freeman Miller House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Ross, Michael A. Hill Country Doctor, The Early Life and Career of Supreme Court Justice Samuel F. Miller in Kentucky, 1816-1849, The Filson History Quarterly, Vol.71, 430–446. Ross, Michael A. Justice of Shattered Dreams, Samuel Freeman Miller, baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press. Justice Millers Reconstruction, The Slaughter-House Cases, Health Codes, and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1861-1873
6.
Stephen Johnson Field
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Stephen Johnson Field was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from March 10,1863, prior to this appointment, he was the fifth Chief Justice of California. Born in Haddam, Connecticut, he was the sixth of the nine children of David Dudley Field I, a Congregationalist minister, henry Martyn Field a prominent clergyman and travel writer. He grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and went to Turkey at thirteen with his sister Emilia and her missionary husband and he received a BA from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1837. While attending Williams College he was one of the original Founders of Delta Upsilon Fraternity, in California, Fields legal practice boomed and he was elected alcalde, a form of mayor and justice of the peace under the old Mexican rule of law, of Marysville. The voters sent him to the California State Assembly in 1850 to represent Yuba County and his successful legal practice led to his election to the California Supreme Court in 1857, serving six years. During his time on the Supreme Court of California, Field had a coat made with pockets large enough to hold two pistols so that he could shoot at his various enemies through the pockets. In 1858 he was challenged to a duel by a fellow Judge but at the dueling ground, neither man fired his gun. In 1859 Field replaced the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, David S. Terry because Judge Terry killed a United States Senator from California in a duel. Oddly, Field and Terrys paths crossed again 30 years later when Field, acting in his capacity as a judge of the 9th Federal Circuit Court, ruled against Terry in a convoluted divorce case. Seeking revenge, Terry attempted to kill Field in 1889 near Stockton, California but was shot dead by Justice Fields bodyguard. Ironically, legal issues arising from the killing of Mr. Terry came before the Supreme Court in the 1890 habeas corpus case of In re Neagle. On March 6,1863, Abraham Lincoln appointed Field to the newly created tenth Supreme Court seat, the appointment would also give the Court someone familiar with real estate and mining issues. Field was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 10,1863, Fields vocal advocacy of substantive due process was illustrated in his dissents to the Slaughterhouse Cases and Munn v. Illinois. In the Slaughter-House Cases, Justice Fields dissent focused on the Privileges or Immunities clause, in both Munn v Illinois and Mugler v Kansas, Justice Field based his dissent on the protection of property interests by the Due Process clause. One of Fields most notable opinions was his majority opinion in Pennoyer v. Neff and his views on due process were eventually adopted by the courts majority after he left the Supreme Court. In other cases he helped end the tax, limited antitrust law. On racial issues, Justice Field is regarded to have had a poor record
7.
Joseph P. Bradley
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Joseph Philo Bradley was an American jurist best known for his service on the United States Supreme Court, and on the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed 1876 presidential election. The son of Philo Bradley and Mercy Gardner Bradley, Bradley was born to humble beginnings in Berne, New York and he attended local schools and began teaching at the age of 16. In 1833, the Dutch Reformed Church of Berne advanced young Joseph Bradley $250 to study for the ministry at Rutgers University, while at Rutgers, he decided to study law instead, graduating in 1836. After graduation, he was made Principal of the Millstone Academy, not long afterward, he was persuaded by his Rutgers classmate Frederick T. Frelinghuysen to join him in Newark and pursue legal studies at the Office of the Collector of the Port of Newark. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, Bradley began in private practice in New Jersey, specializing in patent and railroad law, and he became very prominent in these fields and quite wealthy. Bradley remained dedicated to self-study throughout his life and collected an extensive library and he married Mary Hornblower in Newark in 1844. As a commercial litigator, Bradley argued many cases before various federal courts, Bradley was nominated on February 7 and was confirmed by the Senate on March 21, taking his seat on the court as an Associate Justice that same day. On moving to Washington, Bradley purchased the home that had belonged to Stephen A. Douglas. Bradley remained on the bench until 1891, when he became greatly weakened by disease and he took his seat on the bench in October of that year, but was forced to retire a few weeks later by failing health. He died a few months later, Bradley took a broad view of the national governments powers under the Commerce Clause but interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment somewhat narrowly, as did much of the rest of the court at the time. He authored the majority opinion in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 but was among the four dissenters in the Slaughter-House Cases in 1873 and his interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in both cases remained the basis for subsequent rulings through the modern era. This is the law of the Creator and this resulted in the federal governments bringing the case on appeal to the Supreme Court as United States v. Cruikshank. The courts ruling on this case meant that the government would not intervene on paramilitary. Bradley dissented in Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota, bradleys opinion in this case is echoed in modern arguments regarding judicial activism. Bradley also wrote the opinion in Hans v. Louisiana, holding that a state could not be sued in a court by one of its own citizens. As an individual Supreme Court Justice, Bradley decided In re Guiteau, a petition for habeas corpus filed on behalf of Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James A. Garfield. Guiteaus lawyers argued that he had been tried in the District of Columbia because, although Guiteau shot Garfield in Washington. Bradley denied the petition in an opinion and Guiteau was executed
8.
Ward Hunt
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Ward Hunt, was an American jurist and politician. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1868 to 1869, and he was the son of Montgomery Hunt, long-time Cashier of the Bank of Utica. He was a classmate of Horatio Seymour at the Oxford and Geneva Academies, and graduated from Union College in 1828, where he was an early member of the Kappa Alpha Society. Then he studied law with Juge James Gould at Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut and with Hiram Denio in Utica and he was a Democratic member from Oneida County of the New York State Assembly in 1839, and was Mayor of Utica in 1844. In 1848, he joined the Free Soil Party, and in 1855 he was among the founders of the New York Republican Party, Hunt became Chief Judge in 1868 after the sudden death of Chief Judge William B. Wright. In 1870, he was legislated out of office, but was appointed one of the Commissioners of Appeals, Hunt was a friend and patron of political boss Roscoe Conkling, who was an associate of President Ulysses S. Grant. When Samuel Nelson retired from the Supreme Court, Conkling asked Grant to nominate Hunt for the vacancy, Hunt was nominated on December 3,1872, confirmed by the U. S. Senate on December 11, and took his seat in January 1873. Hunt had little impact on the court, siding with the majority in all but 22 cases in his ten years on the job and his most notable contribution came while riding circuit in New York, where he presided over The United States v. Susan B. Citing the 14th Amendment, Anthony argued that she was guaranteed the right to vote and had not broken the law when she voted in the 1872 election. Hunt found that Anthony had indeed broken the law and fined Anthony $100, in 1878, Hunt suffered a severe paralyzing stroke, which prevented him from attending court sessions or rendering opinions. Nonetheless he did not retire, because at the time in order to retire with a pension a person had to put in at least ten years of government service. To encourage him to retire, Congress passed a provision under which he could receive a pension if he would retire within 30 days. Hunt did so on January 27,1882, and enjoyed his pension until his death in Washington and he was buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica
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John Marshall Harlan
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John Marshall Harlan was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served as an associate justice on the U. S. Supreme Court. Harlan was born at Harlans Station,5 miles west of Danville, Kentucky on Salt River Road and he attended school in Frankfort and then graduated from Centre College. Harlan entered Kentucky politics in 1851, and served a variety of positions, most notably Attorney General of Kentucky, when the American Civil War broke out, Harlan strongly supported the Union, although he opposed the Emancipation Proclamation and supported slavery. However, after the election of Ulysses S. Grant as President in 1868, he reversed his views, in 1877, Harlan was appointed a member of the Supreme Court. A Christian fundamentalist, Harlans Christian beliefs strongly shaped his views during his tenure as Supreme Court justice and these dissents, among others, led to his nickname of The Great Dissenter. Harlan died in 1911, at the age of 78, John had several older brothers, possibly including a mulatto half-brother, Robert James Harlan, born in 1816 into slavery. His father raised him in his own household and had the boy tutored by Richard and James Harlan, According to historian Allyson Hobbs, Robert became highly successful, making a fortune in the California Gold Rush before returning east and settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. He remained close to the other Harlans, she suggests this might have influenced his half-brother John Marshall Harlan, after attending school in Frankfort, John Harlan enrolled at Centre College. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and graduated with honors, though his mother wanted Harlan to become a merchant, James insisted that his son follow him into the legal profession, and Harlan joined his fathers law practice in 1852. Harlan finished his education in his fathers law office. A member of the Whig Party like his father, Harlan got a start in politics. He served in the post for the eight years, which gave him a statewide presence. With the Whig Partys dissolution in the early 1850s, Harlan shifted his affiliation to the Know Nothings, during the 1860 presidential election, Harlan supported the Constitutional Union candidate, John Bell. In the secession crisis that followed Abraham Lincolns victory, Harlan sought to prevent Kentucky from seceding. When the state voted to create a new militia, Harlan organized and led a company of zouaves before recruiting a company that was mustered into the service as the 10th Kentucky Infantry. Harlan served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War until the death of his father James in February 1863, at that time, Harlan resigned his commission as colonel and returned to Frankfort to support his family. Three weeks after leaving the army, Harlan was nominated by the Union Party as their nominee to become the Attorney General of Kentucky, campaigning on a platform of vigorous prosecution of the war, he won the election by a considerable margin. As attorney general for the state, Harlan issued legal opinions, after losing a bid for re-election as attorney general, Harlan joined the Republican Party in 1868
10.
William Burnham Woods
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William Burnham Woods was a United States Circuit Judge and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court as well as an Ohio politician and soldier in the Civil War. Woods was born on August 3,1824, in Newark and he was the older brother of Charles R. Woods, another future Civil War general. He attended college at both Western Reserve University in Hudson, Ohio, before transferring to Yale University, from which he received an Artium Baccalaureus in 1845 with honors. After graduating he returned home to Newark, Ohio, and read law by clerking for S. D. King, Woods ended up partnering with his mentor, King, and entered into a legal practice together in Newark, from 1847 to 1862. Woods, a loyal Democrat, was elected Mayor of Newark in 1856, although Woods opposed the Civil War, because he opposed slavery, he came to accept a Union victory as a necessity. Thus in 1862 he left the Ohio state house to join the Union Army and he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 76th Ohio Infantry, which served in the Western Theater. He fought at the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg, and was breveted brigadier general, Woods commanded his regiment under William T. Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign and the Shermans March to the Sea. During the Carolinas Campaign he fought with distinction at the Battle of Bentonville and he was appointed a brevet major general and was promoted to full Brigadier General in early 1865. He was a Chancellor, Middle Chancery Division of Alabama, Montgomery, Woods was a United States Circuit Judge for the United States Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit. Woods was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant on December 8,1869 and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 22,1869, and received commission the same day. His service was terminated on December 23,1880, due to elevation to the United States Supreme Court, the Slaughter-House Cases, which tested the issue of the reach and breadth of the 14th Amendment, were the most important cases he adjudicated on in the lower courts. At this point, Woods was willing to read the provisions of the 14th Amendment broadly. Woods was nominated to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Rutherford B. Hayes on December 15,1880, to a seat vacated by William Strong. He was confirmed by the United States Senate, by a vote of 39 to 8, on December 21,1880, Woods was not a major contributor to the Court and spent only six years on the bench. He served on the court until his death in Washington, D. C. on May 14,1887, list of American Civil War generals Slaughter-House Cases William Burnham Woods at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center
11.
Stanley Matthews (lawyer)
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Thomas Stanley Matthews, known as Stanley Matthews, was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from May 1881 to his death in 1889. Matthews was the Courts 46th justice, before his appointment to the Court by President James A. Garfield, Matthews served as a senator from his home state of Ohio. Matthews was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and studied at Kenyon College and he practiced law in Cincinnati before moving to Maury County, Tennessee, where he practiced from 1840 to 1845. After editing the Cincinnati Herald for two years from 1846 to 1848, Matthews was selected to serve as the clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives and he was then elected to the Ohio State Senate for the 1st district, where he served from 1856 to 1858. He was then appointed as the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, in 1861, Matthews resigned as United States Attorney to serve as a lieutenant colonel with the 23rd Ohio Infantry regiment of the Union Army during the American Civil War. His superior officer was Rutherford B, Hayes, William McKinley also served in the regiment. With the 23rd Ohio Regiment, Matthews fought at the battle of Carnifex Ferry, on October 26,1861 he was appointed colonel of the 51st Ohio Infantry Regiment. and on April 11,1862 he was nominated as brigadier general of U. S. Volunteers. However, the nomination was tabled and never confirmed, nevertheless, Colonel Matthews commanded a brigade in the Army of the Ohio and later the Army of the Cumberland. Colonel Matthews resigned from the Union Army on April 11,1863, Matthews ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1876, but was defeated. A year later, he won an election to the Senate to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of John Sherman. On January 26,1881, President Rutherford B. Hayes nominated Matthews for a position as an Associate Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court. Matthews was a nominee, and as the nomination came near the end of Hayess term. He served on the Court until his death in 1889 and his funeral was attended by many people. His remains are interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio Also interred there is John McLean, a collection of Justice Matthewss correspondence and other papers are located at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center library in Fremont, Ohio and open for research. Additional papers and collections are at, Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio, Library of Congress, Manuscript and Prints & Photographs Divisions, Washington, among these was Yick Wo v. Hopkins. In 1880, the officials of city of San Francisco. They passed an ordinance that persons could not operate a laundry in a building without a permit from the Board of Supervisors. The ordinance conferred upon the Board of Supervisors the discretion to grant or withhold the permits, at the time, about 95% of the citys 320 laundries were operated in wooden buildings
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United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
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Testimony
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In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. The words testimony and testify both have a roots in the Latin testis, referring to the notion of a third person, in the law, testimony is a form of evidence that is obtained from a witness who makes a solemn statement or declaration of fact. Testimony may be oral or written, and it is made by oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury. To be admissible in court and for reliability and validity. Legitimate expert witnesses with an understanding of legal process and the inherent dangers of false or misleading testimony refrain from making statements of fact. They also recognize that they are in fact not witnesses to a crime or other event in any way. Their expertise is in the examination of evidence or relevant facts in the case and they should make no firm judgement or claim or accusation about any aspect of the case outside their narrow range of expertise. They also should not allege any fact they cant immediately and credibly prove scientifically, a wide range of factors make it physically impossible to prove for certain that two hair or tissue samples came from a common source. If an attorney failed to take an exception immediately after the ruling on the objection. Exceptions have since been abolished, due to the recognition that forcing lawyers to take them was a waste of time. When a party uses the testimony of a witness to show proof and this may be done using cross-examination, calling into question the witnesss competence, or by attacking the character or habit of the witness. Christians in general, especially within the Evangelical tradition, use the term testify or to give testimony to mean the story of how one became a Christian. Commonly it may refer to an event in a Christians life in which they believe God has done something deemed particularly worth sharing. Christians often give their testimony at their own baptism or at evangelistic events, in the current age of the Internet, many Christians have also placed their testimonies on the internet. Many holiness churches devote a portion of their service to allow members to give a personal testimony about their faith. In the Religious Society of Friends, the testimony is used to refer to the ways in which Friends testify or bear witness to their beliefs in their everyday lives. In this context, the word testimony refers not to the belief, but the committed action which arises out of their beliefs. Common areas which modern Friends are said to testify are testimony towards peace, testimony to simplicity, testimony to truth and integrity, in some religions many adherents testify as a profession of their faith, often to a congregation of believers
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Jay Cooke & Company
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Jay Cooke & Company was a U. S. bank that operated from 1861 to 1873. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with branches in New York City and Washington and it was the first wire brokerage house, pioneering the use of telegraph messages to confirm securities transactions with clients. The bank became overextended in the building of the Northern Pacific Railway and failed, Jay Cooke founded the bank in 1861 with William E. C. Moorhead, the ownership split two-thirds to one-third, later partners included Cookes brothers, Henry and Pitt, then H. C. Fahnestock and Edward Dodge, who would hold the seat on the New York Stock Exchange after 1870. During the Civil War, Cooke & Company sold hundreds of millions of dollars in Union government bonds and its reputation among investors around the world enabled the bank to sell these bonds when other brokerages could not. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase asked Cooke to try to sell the governments new $500 million issue of 5-20 bonds and these paid six percent interest and matured in 20 years, but were callable in five years. Cooke used numerous agents from a variety of bankers, insurance agents. Cooke & Companys innovative use of the telegraph to confirm sales allowed selling throughout the country to be coordinated in Philadelphia, after the war, Cooke & Company continued to fund its investments through the sale of US treasuries. After the Black Friday scare, however, it became apparent that Cooke & Company would have to find sources of capital. The firm turned to investing in railroads, in 1870, the Northern Pacific Railroad made Cooke & Company its exclusive bond agent. But Cooke had difficulty marketing the bonds to investors, wound up owning 75 percent of the company, as this liability became public, investors began withdrawing money from Cooke & Company. Cooke & Company wrote liabilities against expected returns from the sale of its Northern Pacific Railroad bonds, a run on the bank ensued, and its operations were suspended. Bankruptcy commenced soon after the collapse, many of the junior partners at Cooke did not suffer when the bank collapsed because they anticipated the failure and had divested from assets that would crumble if Cooke became insolvent. The government seized most of Cookes larger estates while Cooke moved to one of his smaller properties, many of Cookes allies in the banking business soon collapsed, including Livermore, Clews & Co. and Fisk & Hatch. In 1880, an executive of Jay Cooke refused to testify before Congress and was found in contempt. The U. S. Supreme Court declined to release him in Kilbourn v. Thompson, Jay Cooke & Company Records at Baker Library Historical Society, Harvard Business School
15.
Calder v. Bull
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Calder v. Bull,3 U. S.386, is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court decided four important points of constitutional law. First, the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution only applies to laws that have at least one of four effects. Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal, every law that aggravates a crime, makes it greater than it was, when committed. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed. Every law that alters the rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offence. The decision restates this later as laws that create, or aggregate, second, the Supreme Court said it had no authority to decide if an act of a state legislature violated that states constitution. The Supreme Court decision says, this court has no jurisdiction to determine that any law of any state Legislature, third, the Supreme Court said that no man should be compelled to do what the laws do not require, nor to refrain from acts which the laws permit. The Connecticut legislature ordered a new trial in a case about the contents of a will. The holding in this still remains good law, the ex post facto provision of the Constitution applies solely to criminal cases. In this case, the participating Supreme Court judges were, William Cushing, James Iredell, William Paterson, justice Samuel Chase argued that the government has no authority to interfere with an individuals rights, and the general principles of law and reason forbid the legislature from interfering. These acts were legislative judgments, and an exercise of judicial power, with very few exceptions, the advocates of such laws were stimulated by ambition, or personal resentment, and vindictive malice. To prevent such, and similar, acts of violence and injustice, I believe and this case explained the difference between ex post facto laws and retrospective laws, In my opinion, the true distinction is between ex post facto laws, and retrospective laws. Every ex post facto law must necessarily be retrospective, but every retrospective law is not an ex post facto law, The former, only, are prohibited. It should be noted that while this case is good law, nor are challenges made to some retrospective law based on a separation of powers dispute. List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 3 Rule according to law ^ Full text of decision from Findlaw. com
16.
Ex parte Milligan
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Ex parte Milligan,71 U. S.2, was a U. S. Supreme Court case that ruled the application of military tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating is unconstitutional. The landmark case stemmed from a trial by a commission of Lambdin P. Milligan, Stephen Horsey, William A. Bowles. The charges against the men included, among others, conspiracy against the U. S. government, offering aid and comfort to the Confederates, on December 10,1864, Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey were found guilty on all charges and sentenced to hang. Humphreys was found guilty and sentenced to labor for the remainder of the war. A similar petition was filed on behalf of Bowles and Horsey, the two judges who reviewed Milligans petition disagreed about the issue of whether the U. S. Constitution prohibited civilians from being tried by a commission and passed the case to the U. S. Supreme Court. The case was argued before the Court on March 5 and March 13,1866, Lincoln believed his administrations plan would suppress anti-government agitators, but he was also optimistic that it would be rescinded after the war ended. The first test of Lincolns thesis for silencing dissenters occurred in the spring of 1863, clement Vallandigham, an Ohio politician and anti-war Democrat, was placed under arrest on May 5,1863, taken to Cincinnati for a trial before a military commission, and jailed. Vallandigham was found guilty and sentenced to prison for the remainder of the war, vallandighams petition to the U. S. Supreme Court, known as Ex parte Vallandigham, was denied. The next test began with trials by a commission that led to the landmark U. S. Supreme Court case known as Ex parte Milligan. Dodd, grand commander of the Sons of Liberty in Indiana, two other men, James B. Wilson and David T. Yeakel, were also seized. Dodd, who was the first to be tried, escaped from jail before his trial was completed, on October 10,1864, he was found guilty, convicted in absentia, and sentenced to hang. Charges against Bingham, Harrison, Yeakel, and Wilson were dismissed, heffren was released before the proceedings against Milligan began. The military commission for the trial of Milligan, Horsey, Bowles, the military commissions decision on December 10,1864, found Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey guilty. The men were sentenced to hang on May 19,1865, Humphreys was found guilty and sentenced to hard labor for the remainder of the war. Efforts were made to secure pardons for Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey, with the decision passing to President Johnson following Lincolns assassination. On May 10,1865, Jonathan W. Gorden, Milligans legal counsel, a similar one was filed on behalf of Bowles and Horsey. The petitions were based on an act of the Congress titled An Act Relating to Habeas Corpus and Regulation Judicial Proceedings in Certain Cases that went into effect on March 3,1863
17.
United States v. Cruikshank
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United States v. Cruikshank,92 U. S. At Colfax, Louisiana, tensions climaxed in the Colfax massacre, a federal judge ruled that the Republican-majority legislature be seated, but the Democrats did not accept this. Convictions were appealed to the Supreme Court, among these charges including hindering the freedmens First Amendment right to freely assemble and their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. It said that the plaintiffs had to rely on state courts for protection, although at the time, the Justices stated The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution, neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendment means no more than that it not be infringed by Congress. Federal troops were withdrawn from the South in 1877, and elections afterward were often fraught with fraud and this status of political exclusion lasted until after passage of federal civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Although some of the people were armed and initially defended themselves, estimates were that 100–280 were killed, most of them following surrender. This was in the aftermath of months of uncertainty following the disputed gubernatorial election of November 1872. Federal troops reinforced the election of the Republican governor, William Pitt Kellogg, some members of the white mob were indicted and charged under the Enforcement Act of 1870. Among other provisions, the law made it a felony for two or more people to conspire to deprive anyone of his constitutional rights, the white defendants were charged with sixteen counts, divided into two sets of eight each. Among the charges included violating the rights to lawfully assemble, to vote. The Supreme Court ruled on March 27,1876, on a range of issues and it overturned the convictions of the white defendants in the case. Chief Justice Morrison Waite authored the majority opinion, in its ruling, the Court did not incorporate the Bill of Rights to the states. The Court opined about the nature of the U. S. political system, There is in our political system a government of each of the several States. Each is distinct from the others, and has citizens of its own who owe it allegiance, the ruling also stated that all U. S. All that cannot be so granted or secured are left to the protection of the States. The people must look to the States, the power for that purpose was originally placed there, and it has never been surrendered to the United States. Their ruling was that citizens must look to municipal legislation when other citizens deprive them of rights rather than the Constitution
18.
International Standard Serial Number
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An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
19.
JSTOR
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JSTOR is a digital library founded in 1995. Originally containing digitized back issues of journals, it now also includes books and primary sources. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals, more than 8,000 institutions in more than 160 countries have access to JSTOR, most access is by subscription, but some older public domain content is freely available to anyone. William G. Bowen, president of Princeton University from 1972 to 1988, JSTOR originally was conceived as a solution to one of the problems faced by libraries, especially research and university libraries, due to the increasing number of academic journals in existence. Most libraries found it prohibitively expensive in terms of cost and space to maintain a collection of journals. By digitizing many journal titles, JSTOR allowed libraries to outsource the storage of journals with the confidence that they would remain available long-term, online access and full-text search ability improved access dramatically. Bowen initially considered using CD-ROMs for distribution, JSTOR was initiated in 1995 at seven different library sites, and originally encompassed ten economics and history journals. JSTOR access improved based on feedback from its sites. Special software was put in place to make pictures and graphs clear, with the success of this limited project, Bowen and Kevin Guthrie, then-president of JSTOR, wanted to expand the number of participating journals. They met with representatives of the Royal Society of London and an agreement was made to digitize the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society dating from its beginning in 1665, the work of adding these volumes to JSTOR was completed by December 2000. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded JSTOR initially, until January 2009 JSTOR operated as an independent, self-sustaining nonprofit organization with offices in New York City and in Ann Arbor, Michigan. JSTOR content is provided by more than 900 publishers, the database contains more than 1,900 journal titles, in more than 50 disciplines. Each object is identified by an integer value, starting at 1. In addition to the site, the JSTOR labs group operates an open service that allows access to the contents of the archives for the purposes of corpus analysis at its Data for Research service. This site offers a facility with graphical indication of the article coverage. Users may create focused sets of articles and then request a dataset containing word and n-gram frequencies and they are notified when the dataset is ready and may download it in either XML or CSV formats. The service does not offer full-text, although academics may request that from JSTOR, JSTOR Plant Science is available in addition to the main site. The materials on JSTOR Plant Science are contributed through the Global Plants Initiative and are only to JSTOR
20.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
21.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
22.
114th United States Congress
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It met in Washington, D. C. from January 3,2015, to January 3,2017, during the final two full years of Barack Obamas presidency. The 2014 elections gave the Republicans control of the Senate for the first time since the 109th Congress, with 247 seats in the House of Representatives and 54 seats in the Senate, this Congress began with the largest Republican majority since the 71st Congress of 1929–1931. January 6,2015, Incumbent Speaker of the House John Boehner was re-elected despite the defections of 25 members from his own Republican caucus, twice the number from the previous Congress. January 20,2015,2015 State of the Union Address March 3,2015, Netanyahu was invited by Speaker John Boehner without consulting President Obama. March 9,2015, U. S. March 25,2015, April 29,2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe addressed a joint session of Congress, becoming the first Japanese leader to do so. September 24,2015, Pope Francis addressed a joint session of Congress, September 25,2015, House Speaker John Boehner announced that he would resign as Speaker and from the House at the end of October 2015. Subsequently, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the favorite to succeed John Boehner. October 29,2015, Paul Ryan was elected to succeed John Boehner as Speaker of the House with 236 votes of the House in favor and he is the youngest Speaker since James G. Blaine in 1875. January 12,2016,2016 State of the Union Address June 8,2016, June 22–23,2016, In the wake of the 2016 Orlando attacks, Congress debated gun control reform. The U. S. House recessed for the July 4 holiday during a sit-in protest held by Democrats that halted business in the chamber for more than 24 hours. November 8,2016, Donald Trump and Mike Pence elected as president and vice-president in presidential elections, January 12,2015, Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, Pub. L. 114–1 April 16,2015, Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, 114–10 May 22,2015, Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, Pub. L. 114–17 June 2,2015, USA FREEDOM Act, Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015, 114–23 June 29,2015, Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015, Pub. L. 114–27 July 6,2015, Department of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Act, 114–29 November 5,2015, Librarian of Congress Succession Modernization Act of 2015, Pub. L. 114–86 November 25,2015, SPACE Act of 2015, Pub. L, 114–90 December 4,2015, Fixing Americas Surface Transportation Act, Pub. L. 114–94 December 10,2015, Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub. L, 114–95 December 18,2015, Consolidated Appropriations Act,2016, Pub. L. 114–113 February 8,2016, Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015, 114–120 February 24,2016, Internet Tax Freedom Act contained in Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, Pub. L. 114–125 July 20,2016, Global Food Security Act of 2016, 114–195 September 28,2016, Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, Pub. L
23.
115th United States Congress
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It is scheduled to meet in Washington, D. C. from January 3,2017, to January 3,2019, during the final weeks of the Obama presidency and the first two years of the Trump presidency. The elections of November 2016 maintained Republican control of both the House and Senate, January 5,2017, House of Representatives condemned United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. The final vote was 51 to 48 to approve a resolution to allow broad swaths of the Affordable Care Act to be repealed through a process known as budget reconciliation. January 20,2017, Inauguration of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, february 7,2017, The Vice President cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. This was the first time in United States history that a cabinet confirmation was tied in the Senate, february 28,2017, Presidents speech to a Joint Session Resignations and new members are discussed in the Changes in membership section, below. All 435 seats were filled by election on November 8,2016, listed alphabetically by chamber, including Chairman and Ranking Member
24.
Classes of United States Senators
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The three classes of United States Senators are made up of 33 or 34 Senate seats each. The purpose of the classes is to determine which Senate seats will be up for election in a given year, the three groups are staggered so that one of them is up for election every two years, rather than having all 100 seats up for election at once. For example, the 33 Senate seats of Class 1 were elected in 2012, the 33 seats of Class 2 were up for election in 2014, the three classes were established by Article I, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U. S. Constitution. The actual division was performed by the Senate in May 1789 by lot. A senators description as junior or senior senator is not related to his or her class, rather, a states senior senator is the one with the greater seniority in the Senate. This is mostly based on length of service, when the Founding Fathers agreed to give six-year terms to Senators, they also decided to stagger the elections, so that a third of the Senate was up for election every two years. At the same time, they wanted more frequent elections, as opposed to waiting every six years and this was achieved in May 1789, several weeks after the first Senate assembled. To decide on how to implement this, on May 11 the Senate appointed a committee consisting of Senators Ellsworth, Carroll, in accordance with their recommendation, on May 14 the Senate divided the members into three classes, Thursday, May 14,1789. That three papers of a size, numbered 1,2, and 3, be, by the Secretary, rolled up and put into a box, and drawn by Mr. Langdon, Mr. Wingate. On the following day, May 15, the expiration of each class was determined by drawing lots. Upon the expiration of a term of any length, someone starts a new six-year term as senator. Because each state is represented by two Senators, regardless of population, each Senate class collectively represents a different number of people than each other Senate class. When a new state is admitted to the Union, its two senators have terms that correspond to those of two different classes, among the three classes defined below, a coin toss determines which new senator enters which of the classes selected to be expanded. This means at least one of any new states first pair of senators has a term of less than six years, when the last state, Hawaii, was admitted in 1959, candidates for the Senate ran either for seat A or seat B. The new Senators, in a process managed by the Secretary of the Senate, should a 51st state be admitted, it would receive senators in Classes 1 and 2, at which point all three Classes would have 34 senators. US Senate class page Current Class 1, Current Class 2, Current Class 3, A2013 analysis of the partisan leanings of each class
25.
Dean of the United States House of Representatives
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The Dean of the United States House of Representatives is the longest continuously serving member of the House. The current Dean is John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan who has served in the House since January 3,1965, the Dean is a symbolic post whose only customary duty is to swear in a Speaker of the House when he or she is elected. The Dean comes forward on the House Floor to administer the oath to the Speaker-elect before the new Speaker then administers the oath to the other members. The Dean does not preside over the election of the Speaker, unlike the Father of the House in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the Dean of the Canadian House of Commons. It is unclear when the position first achieved concrete recognition, though the seniority system, as late as 1924, Frederick H. Gillett was Dean, and also Speaker, before becoming a Senator. Modern Deans move into their positions so late in their careers that a move to the Senate is highly unlikely, when Ed Markey broke Gilletts record for time in the House before moving to the Senate in 2013 he was still decades junior to the sitting Dean. The Deanship can change hands unexpectedly, claude Pepper, who died early in his final term in 1989, held the record for oldest winner of a House election until Hall broke it in 2012. However, Sabath died before the new term began and Doughton was Dean for the old terms final months before Speaker Sam Rayburn became Dean in the new Congress. In 1994, Texas Democrat Jack Brooks was defeated by Steve Stockman in the year he was expected to succeed Jamie L. Whitten as Dean, years as Dean are followed by name, party, state, and start of service in Congress. All the members of the First Congress had equal seniority, Muhlenberg, Hartley and Thatcher were among the 13 members who attended the initial meeting of the House on March 4,1789. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some state delegations to the House were often not elected until after the term had begun, to avoid confusion, this fact is ignored in the list below
26.
Vice President of the United States
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The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters
27.
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
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The president pro tempore of the United States Senate, also president pro tem, is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. Unlike the vice president, the president pro tempore is a member of the Senate. Selected by the Senate at large, the president pro tempore has enjoyed many privileges, during the vice presidents absence, the president pro tempore is empowered to preside over Senate sessions. Since 1890, the most senior senator in the majority party has generally chosen to be president pro tempore. This tradition has been observed without interruption since 1949, the current President pro tempore of the Senate is Utah Republican Orrin Hatch. Elected on January 6,2015, he is the 90th person to serve in this office, although the position is in some ways analogous to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the powers of the president pro tempore are far more limited. The president pro tempore is third in the line of succession, following the vice president. Additional duties include appointment of various officers, certain commissions, advisory boards. The officeholder is an ex member of various boards and commissions. With the secretary and sergeant at arms, the president pro tempore maintains order in Senate portions of the Capitol, the office of president pro tempore was established by the Constitution of the United States in 1789. The first president pro tempore, John Langdon, was elected on April 6 the same year, originally, the president pro tempore was appointed on an intermittent basis when the vice president was not present to preside over the Senate. Until the 1960s, it was practice for the vice president to preside over daily Senate sessions. Until 1891, the president pro tempore only served until the return of the president to the chair or the adjournment of a session of Congress. Between 1792 and 1886, the president pro tempore was second in the line of succession following the vice president. When President Andrew Johnson, who had no president, was impeached and tried in 1868. Wades radicalism is thought by historians to be a major reason why the Senate. The President pro tempore and the Speaker of the House were removed from the line of succession in 1886. Both were restored to it in 1947, though this time with the president pro tempore following the speaker, William P. Frye served as President pro tempore from 1896 to 1911 (54th–62nd Congress, a tenure longer than anyone else
28.
Party leaders of the United States Senate
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The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders are two United States Senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They are elected to their positions in the Senate by their party caucuses, the Senate Democratic Caucus. By rule, the Presiding Officer gives the Majority Leader priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate, the Assistant Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate are the second-ranking members of each partys leadership. The main function of the Majority and Minority Whips is to gather votes on major issues, because they are the second ranking member of the Senate, if there is no floor leader present, the whip may become acting floor leader. Before 1969, the titles were Majority Whip and Minority Whip. The Senate is currently composed of 52 Republicans,46 Democrats, the current leaders are Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. The current Assistant Majority Leader is Republican John Cornyn of Texas, the current Assistant Minority Leader/Whip is Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois. The Democrats began the practice of electing floor leaders in 1920 while they were in the minority, John W. Kern was a Democratic Senator from Indiana. While the title was not official, he is considered to be the first Senate party leader from 1913 through 1917, the Constitution designates the Vice President of the United States as President of the United States Senate. The Constitution also calls for a President pro tempore to serve as the leader of the body when the President of the Senate is absent, for these reasons, it is the Majority Leader who, in practice, manages the Senate. This is in contrast to the House of Representatives where the elected Speaker of the House has a deal of discretionary power. The Democratic Party first selected a leader in 1920, the Republican Party first formally designated a leader in 1925. gov Republican Majority Democratic Minority
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