The Legislative Privilege to Judge the Qualifications, Elections, and Returns of Members

In Stephenson v. Woodward, the Supreme Court of Kentucky functionally affirmed a quo warranto against a sitting member of the senate. Although a respectable argument can be made that the person in question was in fact not qualified to serve, the senate itself had deliberated on the issue and had reached its own respectable conclusion that she was qualified. More importantly, the Constitution of Kentucky, like the Constitution of the United States and that of virtually every other state, authorizes each house of the legislature to be the judge of its members\u27 qualifications, elections and returns. According to the Court, the senate\u27s authority did not apply because a lower court had found the person unqualified in a separate action litigated before the senate convened. What the Court never really explained was how this earlier ruling could supersede the senate\u27s authority without contradicting the language of the constitution. This extraordinary reasoning, which defies longstanding tradition and precedent, is inconsistent with legislative independence, which the Court itself has recognized as a critical facet of separation of powers. The decision is also a blow to textualism, which the Court has frequently identified as an important ground for interpreting the constitution. Because of these apparent defects, and because the opinion will quite likely produce uncertainty in the areas of elections and separation of powers, the Court should consider limiting or overruling it as precedent at the first opportunity. This Article proceeds in three parts. In Part I, we set forth the factual background for the case. In Part II, we discuss the various historical and legal principles that underlie the legilsative privilege at issue in Stephenson. In Part III, we examine the case in light of these principles, noting that the Court appears to have reached its holding in error. Our criticism of the Court\u27s analysis takes two specific forms. First, we criticize the Court\u27s implication that the general assembly could delegate to the judiciary irrevocable authority to resolve disputes over the qualifications of legislatives-elect. Second, we criticize the Court\u27s indication that the legislative privilege to judge the qualifications, elections, and returns of members applies only to individuals who have already been admitted to service

TECHNICAL PROGRESS IN THE SETE TRAWL FISHERY, 1985-1999

Fisheries throughout the world have long been subject to overfishing and excess capacity, which has generated substantial and increasing concern about biological and economic performance ramifications. These problems in part stem from substantial investment in technical improvements to boats and equipment in fishing fleets. Such technical change exacerbates the extent of excess fishing capacity, as well as low returns to fishing effort and investment due to catch limitations from both regulatory constraints and overfished stocks. However, economists have not yet attempted to quantify the extent or effects of technical change in fisheries. In this paper we use detailed data on innovation patterns for 19 vessels in the Sete trawl fleet of Southern France to evaluate the contributions of embodied and disembodied technical change to catch rates. We find that embodied technical change enhanced productivity by approximately 1 percent per year between 1985-99, but that external (disembodied) events counteracted this by causing a net output decline of about 3 percent per year. Neither efficiency nor output composition changes appear to have had a substantive effect on observed performance levels.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

On board sampling of the rockfish and lingcod commerical passenger fishing vessel industry in northern and central California, May 1987 to December 1991

From May 1987 to June 1990 and from August to December 1991 Fishery Technicians sampled catches on board 690 Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel (CPFV) trips targeting rockfish and lingcod from the general port areas of Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, and Morro Bay. Data are presented for species composition by port area, year, and month, for catch-per-unit-effort, mean length, and length frequency of lingcod and the 18 most frequently observed rockfish species, and for trends in fishing effort related to fishing time, depth, and distance from port. Total catch estimates are presented based on unadjusted logbook records, logbook records adjusted by sampling data and compliance rates, and effort data from a marine recreational fishing statistics survey. Average catch of kept fish per angler day was 11.8 and average catch of kept fish per angler hour was 3.7. A trend of an increasing frequency of trips to deep (>40 fm) locations was observed in the Bodega Bay, San Francisco, and Monterey areas from 1988 to 1990-91. No trend was evident relative to trip frequency and distance from port. A total of 74 species was observed caught during the study. Rockfishes comprised 88.5% to 97.9% by number of the observed catch by port area. The five most frequently observed species were chilipepper, blue, yellowtail, and widow rockfishes, and bocaccio, with lingcod ranking seventh. In general, mean length and catch-per-angler-hour of sport fishes caught by CPFV anglers varied considerably and did not show steady declines during the study period. However, port-specific areas of major concern were identified for chilipepper, lingcod, and black rockfish, and to a lesser extent brown, canary, vermilion, yelloweye, olive, and widow rockfish. These areas of concern included steadily declining catch rate, steadily declining mean length, and a high percentage of sexually immature fish in the sampled-catch. Recent sampling of the commercial hook-and-line fishery in northern and central California indicated that most species of rockfishes taken by CPFV anglers are also harvested commercially. (261pp.

Factors Related to Police Staffing

This study explores data related to police staffing through a convenience sample of 68 American police departments. The relationship between police officer staffing, and exogenous variables such as crime, population, calls for service, and endogenous variables such as workload, response time, patrol deployment and service times was explored. The results indicate that the percentage of officers assigned to patrol, violent crime, the rate of calls for service, and summer response time are significantly related to the size of a police department. In addition, the study introduces workload variables that could be useful in understanding service demands and staffing decisions in local police departments in the United States and explores factors related to police staffing