Rights of Passage: Majority Rule in Congress

The United States government is a government not of rigorously separated powers, but of overlapping and concurrent powers: a government of checked and balanced powers. What strikes the balance? A few spare words of the Constitution. This is why the efforts of one body of government to alter the long-established understanding of those words are taken so seriously. In a complex structure, small changes in one body\u27s movements can result in systemic shifts. A case in point involves House Rule XXI(5)(c), adopted by the House of Representatives in January 1995. Under this rule, no bill proposing to raise federal income taxes shall be considered as passed by the House without a three-fifths approving vote. This three-fifths rule marks the first time in history that the House has purported to alter the number of votes required to make a bill law. Last year, seventeen law professors published an Open Letter (of which I was a signatory, but not an author) opining that the three-fifths rule is unconstitutional. A recent essay by Professors John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport criticizes the Open Letter. This Essay is not so much a response to their criticisms (some of which are well taken) as an attempt to move the debate beyond its current position. The three-fifths rule, narrowly tailored though it may seem, raises profound constitutional issues that the commentary so far has not grasped

Dynamics of the Orthoglide parallel robot

Recursive matrix relations for kinematics and dynamics of the Orthoglide parallel robot having three concurrent prismatic actuators are established in this paper. These are arranged according to the Cartesian coordinate system with fixed orientation, which means that the actuating directions are normal to each other. Three identical legs connecting to the moving platform are located on three planes being perpendicular to each other too. Knowing the position and the translation motion of the platform, we develop the inverse kinematics problem and determine the position, velocity and acceleration of each element of the robot. Further, the principle of virtual work is used in the inverse dynamic problem. Some matrix equations offer iterative expressions and graphs for the input forces and the powers of the three actuators

The Legislative Veto: Invalidated, It Survives

The Supreme Court\u27s decision in INS vs Chadha is examined, and the origins of the legislative veto and its traditional place in the lawmaking process is discussed

STATE AND REGIONAL LEGISLATION IN ITALY IN THE DECADE AFTER THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

This paper describes the evolution of the legislative powers in Italy after the constitutional reform of Title V and, in particular, in the decade that followed. Constitutional Law no. 3 of 2001 sought to amend the Constitution so as to provide greater legislative autonomy to the Italian regions; for this reason, it reversed the criteria for the distribution of legislative powers, and provided a residual clause whereby all matters not expressly provided for in Art. 117, par. 2 and 3, should be considered to belong to the full legislative competence of the Regions. In the next ten years the Constitutional Court was called to offer a reading of the new reach of legislative powers. The result is a structure of powers which is quite different from that envisaged by Art. 117 of the Constitution. The study outlines the characteristic features emerging from an analysis of the decisions of the Constitutional Court as to each type of legislative powers (exclusive, concurrent and residual) and the main legislative matters. It also describes the main models and tools used to harmonize the expressed purpose of legislation

Radio Jet Feedback and Star Formation in Heavily Obscured Quasars at Redshifts ~0.3-3, I: ALMA Observations

We present ALMA 870 micron (345 GHz) data for 49 high redshift (0.47<z<2.85), luminous (11.7 < log L(bol) (Lsun) < 14.2) radio-powerful AGN, obtained to constrain cool dust emission from starbursts concurrent with highly obscured radiative-mode black hole (BH) accretion in massive galaxies which possess a small radio jet. The sample was selected from WISE with extremely steep (red) mid-infrared (MIR) colors and with compact radio emission from NVSS/FIRST. Twenty-six sources are detected at 870 microns, and we find that the sample has large mid- to far-infrared luminosity ratios consistent with a dominant and highly obscured quasar. The rest-frame 3 GHz radio powers are 24.7 < log P3.0 GHz (W/Hz) < 27.3, and all sources are radio-intermediate or radio-loud. BH mass estimates are 7.7 < log M(BH) (Msun) < 10.2. The rest frame 1-5 um SEDs are very similar to the "Hot DOGs" (Hot Dust Obscured Galaxies), and steeper (redder) than almost any other known extragalactic sources. ISM masses estimated for the ALMA detected sources are 9.9 < log M(ISM) (Msun) < 11.75 assuming a dust temperature of 30K. The cool dust emission is consistent with star formation rates (SFRs) reaching several thousand Msun/yr, depending on the assumed dust temperature, however we cannot rule out the alternative that the AGN powers all the emission in some cases. Our best constrained source has radiative transfer solutions with ~ equal contributions from an obscured AGN and a young (10-15 Myr) compact starburst.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Astrophysical Journal. Update on Sept 14 to correct the ALMA proposal id. to ADS/JAO.ALMA#2011.0.00397.S and to add a missing acknowledgemen

Jurisdictional Issues: The EEC Merger Control Regulation, Member State Laws, and Articles 85 and 86

This Article deals with two main issues. One is the division of powers between the European Economic Community and the Member States with regard to merger control after September 21, 1990. The other is the possible application, by the Commission of the European Communities or by national authorities, of Article 85 and 86 of the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community to mergers covered by Regulation No. 4064/89. The Article casts a brief look at how the dividing line between merges and operations which do not qualify as mergers within the sense of article 3 of the Regulation will be treated in the future