that NY PML Sec 105 and Sec 109 are words that give lawyers, legislators and lawyer legislators a bad name. It is none of the business of the State of New YOrk, a bankrupt state, to pick and chose the particular Sunday to be called Easter Sunday or Palm Sunday.
Dear Mr. Tribe, please help the bettors of the State of New York bet at Nassau OTB whenver they want.
See also NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3. More empty words
Constitutional Scholars Parse Pay Measure
more in Politics & Policy
»
By JESS BRAVIN
WASHINGTON—A House measure that would tie lawmakers' pay to their passage of a budget—part of a bill passed Wednesday to suspend the federal debt ceiling—drew skepticism from constitutional scholars who said it might violate the 27th Amendment.The amendment states that "no law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." In other words, lawmakers can't raise—or, apparently, lower—their own pay, but only revise it for members of the succeeding Congress.
The House bill, which passed by a vote of 285-144, would withhold the pay of lawmakers in either chamber of Congress if that chamber fails to pass a budget by mid-April. The provision is considered more likely to apply to senators because the Senate hasn't passed a formal budget resolution since 2009.
Getty Images
Sens. Dean Heller (R., Nev.),
left, and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) speak about the 'No Budget No Pay'
legislation, swhich would require members of Congress to pass a budget
to receive their pay, Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
Whether that actually comports with the Constitution depends on how strictly courts—and, ultimately, the Supreme Court, if the case gets that far—choose to follow the text, scholars said.
"[Justice Antonin] Scalia would say, 'What part of 'vary' do you not understand? End of argument,' " said University of Texas law professor Sanford Levinson. "[Justice Stephen] Breyer would say, 'You have to look at the purpose of the amendment.' " On the current Supreme Court, those two justices most clearly espouse contrasting methods of constitutional interpretation, often called "textualism" and "purposivism."
Delaying senators' pay "does effectively reduce it a bit by denying them interest on money they would ordinarily be able to use sooner," said Kermit Roosevelt III, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "But if you think about it in terms of the purpose of the amendment, which is to prevent members of Congress from voting themselves a raise that takes effect before they can be held electorally accountable, this bill is not offensive."
Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said that when the text is clear, "speculation about the objectives of those who drafted or ratified the provision is beside the point." The House legislation "quite clearly falls afoul of the express language of the 27th Amendment," he said, because the term the framers chose—vary—covers any change in compensation, not simply a self-serving pay raise.
That includes delaying senators' pay. "The timing of payment—because of the time value of money—is indistinguishable in principle from the quantum of payment," said Prof. Tribe, whose students have included President Barack Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Legal experts said the dispute may never reach the courts because only someone injured by the legislation could sue to invalidate it—in other words, a senator whose pay is docked. Prof. Levinson said it was "implausible" a senator would sue because it might anger voters, and many senators are independently wealthy.
Although proposed by James Madison in 1789, there is little case law on the 27th Amendment. That is because it wasn't ratified by the required three-fourths of state legislatures until 1992.
Write to Jess Bravin at jess.bravin@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared January 24,
2013, on page A4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with
the headline: Constitutional Scholars Parse Pay Measure.
HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s
below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing
address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long Island Business
News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma,
NY 11779-7348
Home >
LI Confidential
> Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
No comments:
Post a Comment