Legislation
Class Notes
More on lobbying
We
finished last time by identifying the types of lobbying under the 1995
Act. This includes oral, written, or
electronic information and covers officials.
This is huge! Lobbying
registration is up!
Just
what kind of information must a lobbyist disclose? Do they have to register a lot of
information? There’s some stuff.
What’s
the difference between § 5(b)(3) and § 5(b)(4)?
For 20,000-25,000 registrants every six months, this is a lot of
information. The law attempts to make
the information user-friendly.
One
useful piece of information that it would be helpful to know is who was lobbied
by whom. Does the registrant have to
disclose that? What does the registrant
have to disclose?
What
is true about these kinds of contacts?
Will privacy be offended? Will
privacy be compromised?
There
will not be strict liability. It’s not
the fines that really influence the lobbyists, but rather the possibility of
public shaming.
There
was a pressure point, and then they gave in on it.
What
have we learned about these forms, other than that they’re long? Don’t learn the details of the forms.
What’s
the range of money being spent by the entities during the period? $100,000 or so to $5.2 million! That’s a lot of money! Wow!
Wow! That range is pretty steady.
We
are moving to something else!
Legisprudence
Should
a statute be narrowly or broadly construed?
Do statutes
build on each other? Does Congress
reason from one statute to another statute?
The
court can overrule precedent. We still
read Palsgraf. Did Judge Cardozo discover the unforeseeable consequences
rule? Is the law found? If you believe that,
it would legitimize common law.
Think
about whether there is some validity to Blackstone’s distinction. What makes common law principled or
discoverable if not the doctrine itself?