The media frequently report the Speaker’s opinions, transform-ing the office into a political bully pulpit much like that of the Senate majority leader, and the Speaker often campaigns f
Trang 1Congressional investigations can be held to obtain information in connection with Con-gress’s power to legislate and to appropriate funds, in addition to other express powers it possesses Congress has wide discretion to determine the subject matter it studies as well
as the scope and extent of its inquiry An investigation must, however, be based on direct statements made to Congress, its mem-bers, or its committees Congress or its committees may not indiscriminately examine private citizens in order to learn valuable information or to inhibit the exercise of
constitutionally protected rights, such as FREE-DOM OF SPEECH
Individuals summoned, or subpoenaed, in a proper manner by Congress or a committee must comply with the summoner’s procedure
Howev-er, witnesses are legally entitled to refuse to answer questions that are beyond the power of the investigating body or that are irrelevant to the matter under inquiry A witness who has not been given a grant of immunity can refuse to answer questions that tend to be incriminating under the protection afforded by the SELF-INCRIMINATION
clause of theFIFTH AMENDMENTto the Constitution
Speaker of the House
A
B
s the presiding officer of the House of
Representatives, the Speaker of the House
holds one of the highest positions in Congress The
position is filled at the start of each two-year term in
a vote by the full House membership The selection
of the Speaker is generally determined by the
majority party, and thus the Speaker is always a
leading member of that party The Speaker’s broad
powers and privileges allow the majority to control
the House’s legislative agenda
The significance of the office cannot be
under-estimated The Speaker is in a position to set the
rules of the House and to adjudicate when
procedural conflicts arise The Speaker’s rulings
can be challenged, but rarely are; traditionally, they
are final Behind the scenes, the office’s power is
even broader because of its influence on how the
House of Representatives does its work Voting is a
relatively small part of the House business: Its
essential legislative work is done in committees
The Speaker plays a vital role in appointing
committee chairs, influences the referral of bills to
the committees, and effectively decides the
time-tables of the bills Bills favored by the Speaker will
leave committee more quickly and come to an early
vote The minority party’s concerns will wait
Outside Congress, the Speaker customarily
enjoys high visibility in U.S politics The media
frequently report the Speaker’s opinions,
transform-ing the office into a political bully pulpit much like
that of the Senate majority leader, and the Speaker
often campaigns for party loyalists in election years
Depending on which party occupies the White House, the Speaker can be either a strategically placed ally or powerful foe of the president The relationship between the two branches of govern-ment does not end there: Under the rules of succession, the Speaker is second in line after the vice president to assume the presidency
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as the Speaker of the House found herself in the national spotlight Pelosi was elected the first female Speaker in 2007, a milestone that by itself would have gained her national attention However, Pelosi is an adroit politician and her liberal political positions soon made her the target of attacks by conservative commentators and the Republican Party
However, not every Speaker is like Pelosi In
1999, the House elected J Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to serve as Speaker Hastert served as a high school teacher for 16 years until he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served for six years He was elected to Congress in 1986
Hastert retained a relatively low profile during his tenure as Speaker, which ended in 2006
FURTHER READINGS Loomis, Burdett A 2000 The Contemporary Congress Boston:
Bedford/St Martin ’s Press.
Mayhew, David R 2000 America ’s Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere, James Madison through Newt Gingrich.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ Press.
98 CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
Trang 2Committees and Staff
The work of preparing and considering
legisla-tion is done largely by committees of both
houses of Congress The membership of the
standing committees of each house is chosen by the political parties in Congress Committee seats are generally distributed to members of different political parties in a ratio equivalent to
Senate Majority Leader
T
B
he Senate majority leader has somewhat less
official power than the Speaker of the House
because the vice president is technically the
Senate’s presiding officer, a ceremonial position
that calls chiefly for casting a vote in the event of
a tie The Senate majority leader’s official duties
include helping make committee appointments,
helping establish a legislative timetable, and
directing debate Notably, in the Senate, these
duties usually involve consultation with the
leader-ship of the minority party The comparatively
diminished procedural powers of the majority leader
hardly reduce the position’s significance As chief
strategist and spokesperson for the majority party,
the majority leader exercises considerable
influ-ence over political debate, and certain unique
duties of the Senate itself lend extra influence to the
role
Differences between the House and Senate
account for the contrasts in leadership duties The
House sends bills to the Senate, where they are
debated extensively at a slower, more deliberate
pace For this reason, the majority leader is chosen
from within the party’s caucus less for the senator’s
bureaucratic efficiency than for his or her
knowl-edge, experience, and persuasive abilities The
Senate leader does not have the House Speaker’s
extensive authority over the legislative agenda:
Instead, bills are called up for debate depending on
when the committees report them and on when both
parties’ leaders have agreed to schedule them The
majority leader can speed up the process for
certain bills but requires the unanimous consent
of the Senate to do so
However, the majority leader exercises
influ-ence in important areas not open to the House
Speaker Only the Senate can approve treaties with
foreign governments, and the Senate alone has the
authority to confirm presidential nominations to the
cabinet and federal courts The majority leader,
assisted by a lieutenant known as the majority whip,
seeks to marshal the votes of the party’s members
on these matters The responsiveness of the majority leader to the president’s wishes thus plays
a crucial role in shaping domestic and foreign policy as well as the composition of the federal judiciary
The national importance of the majority leader was highlighted in December 2002 when Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) was engulfed in a firestorm of public criticism that forced him to give up his position as majority leader in the Congress begin-ning in January 2003 Lott, who had served as majority leader from 1996 until 2001, ignited the controversy at a one hundredth-birthday tribute to former senator Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) Lott said
he was proud Mississippi had voted for Thurmond for president in 1948, when the South Carolinian ran
on the segregationist“Dixiecrat” platform Lott then said: “If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years.” Once this statement was picked up by the press, Lott tried several times to explain that his statement did not mean to imply he supported segregation or was a racist However, the damage was done, and Lott resigned three weeks later
Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took center stage in 2009 with the enactment of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package and then became a focal point for the Senate’s deliberations over a proposed healthcare reform act
FURTHER READINGS Dinan, Stephen 2002 “White House Turns Up the Heat When Lott Support Deteriorates ” Washington Times (December 21).
Redman, Eric, and Richard E Neustadt 2001 The Dance of Legislation Seattle: Univ of Washington.
CROSS REFERENCES Congress of the United States; Senate.
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 99
Trang 3party membership in the larger House or Senate.
Thus, if a party has two-thirds of the seats in the House, it will have approximately two-thirds of the seats in each House committee
Each bill and resolution is usually referred
to the appropriate committee, which may report it out (send it to the floor of the House
or Senate) in its original form, favorably or unfavorably; recommend amendments; or allow
it to die in committee without action
A growing workload and the increasingly complex nature of the legislation it passes have caused Congress to hire an increasing number
of staff Thousands of staff workers support the Congressional members in their work
FURTHER READINGS Corwin, Edward S 1978 The Constitution and What It Means Today 14th ed Rev Harold W Chase and Craig
R Ducat Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ Press.
Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J Oleszek 1996 Congress and Its Members 5th ed Washington, D.C.: Congres-sional Quarterly.
Egan, Tracie 2004 How a Bill Becomes a Law New York:
Rosen.
Felten, Eric 1992 The Ruling Class: Inside the Imperial Congress Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation.
“Gingrich Puts More Power into Speaker’s Hands.” 1995.
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (October 7).
“Glossary of Congressional Terms.” Congressional Quar-terly’s Washington Alert (February).
Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay 1787–
1788 The Federalist Papers Ed Clinton Rossiter Rep.
New York: New American Library of World Literature, 1961.
Harrigan, John J 1984 Politics and the American Future.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
“How a Bill Becomes Law.” 1994 Congressional Quarterly’s Washington Alert.
Jones, Gordon S., and John A Marini, eds 1989 The Imperial Congress: Crisis in the Separation of Powers.
Mahwah, N.J.: World Almanac Books.
Oleszek, Walter J 1989 Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process 3d ed Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.
Riddick, Floyd M 1985 Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate Washington, D.C.: U.S Government Printing Office, April 3 S Doc 99-3.
CROSS REFERENCES Constitution of the United States; President of the United States
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is responsible for economic forecasting and fiscal policy analysis, scorekeeeping, cost projections, and an annual report on theFEDERAL BUDGET The office also underdakes special budget-related
studies at the request of Congress The CBO enables Congress to have an overview of the federal budget and to make overall decisions regarding spending, TAXATION levels, and any federal deficit or surplus Congress is thus provided with a mechanism through which it can weigh the priorities for national resource allocation and explicitly address issues of fiscal policy
The Congressional Budget Office provides Congress with basic budget data and with analyses
of alternative fiscal, budgetary, and programmatic policy issues The agency employs more than 200 full-time employees Seventy percent of these employees hold advanced degrees in economics
or public policy CBO also retains a panel of economic advisors, including a number of scholars from top universities in the United States It has specific responsibility for the following:
Economic Forecasting and Fiscal Policy Analysis
The federal budget both affects and is affected
by the national economy Congress considers the federal budget in the context of the current and projected state of the national economy CBO provides periodic forecasts and analyses of economic trends and alternative fiscal policies
Scorekeeping
Under the new budget process, Congress establishes, by CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, targets (also known as ceilings) for overall expenditures for budget authority and budget outlays and for broad functional categories It also establishes targets for the levels of revenues, the deficit, and the public debt CBO “keeps score” for Congress by monitoring the results of congres-sional action on individual authorization, ap-propriation, and revenue bills against the targets that are specified in theCONCURRENTresolutions
Cost Projections
The Congressional Budget Office is required to develop five-year cost estimates for carrying out any public bill or resolution reported by congressional committees At the start of each fiscal year, CBO also provides five-year projec-tions on the costs of continuing current federal spending and taxation policies
An Annual Report on the Budget
The Congressional Budget Office is responsible for furnishing the House and Senate Budget
100 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
Trang 4Committees (by April 1 of each year) with a
report that includes a discussion of alternative
spending and revenue levels and alternative
allocations among major programs and
func-tional categories, all in light of major nafunc-tional
needs and the effect on the balanced growth and
development of the United States
Special Studies
The Congressional Budget Office undertakes
studies that Congress requests on
budget-related areas As the establishing statute requires,
such service is provided, in the following order
of priority, to the House and Senate Budget
Committees; the House and Senate
Appropria-tions Committees; the Senate Finance and the
House Ways and Means Committees; and all
other congressional committees
Web site: http://www.cbo.gov/
CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE
AGREEMENT
An accord made by joint authority of the Congress
and the president covering areas of international
law that are not within the ambit of treaties
A congressional-executive agreement comes
about in different ways Congress may authorize
the president to conclude a particular
agree-ment already negotiated, as when a multilateral
agreement establishes an international
organi-zation such as theINTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Congress sometimes has approved presidential
agreements by legislation or appropriation of
funds to carry out its obligations
It is now widely accepted that a
congressional-executive agreement is a complete alternative
to a treaty: the president can seek approval of
any agreement by JOINT RESOLUTION of both
Houses of Congress instead of by a two-thirds
vote of the Senate alone Like a treaty, such an
agreement is the LAW OF THE LAND, superseding
inconsistent state laws as well as inconsistent
provisions in earlier treaties, other international
agreements, or acts of Congress
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
A daily publication of the federal government that
details the legislative proceedings of Congress
The Congressional Record began in 1873
and in 1947 a feature called The Daily Digest
was added to briefly highlight the daily
legislative activities of each House, committee, and subcommittee
The text of the Congressional Record is not
a verbatim transcript of the statements made
on the floor of the Senate or the House of Representatives After obtaining permission from their respective Houses to do so, members
of Congress can revise their speeches prior to publication in the Record and are permitted to extend their comments to include remarks not made on the floor of Congress
CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE
The Congressional Research Service is a branch
of the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS that provides objective, nonpartisan research, analysis, and information to assist Congress in its legislative, oversight, and representative functions U.S
senators and representatives, and their staffs consult the CRS for timely and accurate information regarding major issues and policies
The CRS researches and advises on questions and concerns related to many subject areas It is organized into six interdisciplinary research divisions: American Law; Domestic Social Policy;
Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade; Government and Finance; Information Research; and Resources, Science and Industry Each division
is organized into smaller sections, which focus
on specific areas of public policy The work of these divisions is supported by five offices:
Congressional Affairs and Counselor to the Director; Finance and Administration; Informa-tion Resources Management; Legislative Infor-mation; and Workforce Development
The Congressional Research Service (CRS)
is the public policy research arm of the U.S
Congress Known as the “think tank” of Congress, CRS is a legislative agency within the Library of Congress It works exclusively for members of Congress, congressional commit-tees, and congressional staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis The CRS is made up of two reference divisions: the Congressional Reference Division and the Library Services Division
These provide reference, bibliographic, and other information services using advanced methods of computerized searching
The CRS conducts a host of other support activities for Congress It develops specialized reading lists for members of Congress and their staffs It operates the Library of Congress’s CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE 101
Trang 5automated legislative information systems, in-cluding digests of all public bills and briefing papers on major legislative issues It also attempts to anticipate congressional research needs, and it develops seminars that allow members of Congress, their staffs, CRS research-ers, and outside experts to exchange ideas on timely issues The CRS has produced programs
on the congressionalCABLE TELEVISIONsystem, and
it provides language service support and transla-tions for members of Congress
The CRS is governed by a director, a deputy director, and a management team The highest-level researchers are called “senior specialists.”
They are often nationally and internationally recognized experts in their field of study CRS offices include Special Programs, Operations, Policy, and Research Coordination
The Congressional Research Service evolved from the Legislative Reference Service, which was created by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (codified as amended at Act of Aug
2, 1946, ch 753, 60 Stat 812), and the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (codified as amended at Act of Oct 26, 1970, Pub L No
91-510, 84 Stat 1140) In the beginning of the twenty-first century, the CRS experienced tre-mendous growth as Congress sought to respond
to the increasing scope and complexity of public policy issues Specifically, the service expanded its Web site to enhance online research In 2001, over 540,000 users accessed the CRS site to obtain reports and briefs The CRS anticipates expanding web services as Congress demands 24-hour access to its research data
In 2009 CRS boasted a staff of approxi-mately 700 employees that included lawyers, economists, reference librarians, and social, natural, and physical scientists In fiscal year
2007 CRS was appropriated a budget of roughly
$100,786,000 by Congress and received addi-tional grants from charitable foundations of approximately $129,000
CONJUGAL Pertaining or relating to marriage; suitable or applicable to married people
Conjugal rights are those that are consid-ered to be part and parcel of the state of matrimony, such as love, sex, companionship, and support Loss of consortium is a loss of any
or all conjugal rights
vCONKLING, ROSCOE
ROSCOE CONKLINGwas for many years in the late nineteenth century the most powerful politician
in the most powerful state in the Union, New York Conkling served in both the U.S House (1859–63 and 1865–67) and the U.S Senate (1867–81) During his years in Congress, he became an influential Republican leader Con-kling was a close friend of President ULYSSES S
GRANT and an avowed enemy of other promi-nent Republicans of the day, namely, James G Blaine,RUTHERFORD B.HAYES, andJAMES GARFIELD Conkling twice turned down nominations to the U.S Supreme Court, including a confirmed nomination in 1882 In the Senate, he fought ferociously for the continuation of political patronage—the system whereby elected officials appoint individuals to positions in the civil service and other areas of governments—and against the civil service reform efforts that would have ended it His political machine in New York State was, according to his principal biographer, “one of the wonders of the age.” Conkling himself, it might be said, was one of the wonders of the age—the Gilded Age, that is, the late-nineteenth-century era following the Civil War when business and moneymaking were the foremost concerns in the United States
Conkling was born October 30, 1829, in Albany, New York After attending Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, in New York City, he moved to Utica, New York, where he studied law with a local firm He was admitted
to the bar in 1850 and was immediately appointed district attorney of Albany In subse-quent years, and while still in his twenties, Conkling made a reputation for himself as an orator and aspiring politician at the Whig party’s county and state conventions In 1855
he married Julia Seymour—sister of Horatio Seymour, who was elected governor of New York in 1853 and 1863
In 1858 Conkling was elected both mayor
of Utica and representative to the U.S Con-gress He won the latter office as a Republican and served three terms He became a Free-Soil Republican, strongly opposing the introduction
ofSLAVERYinto the territories and new states of the U.S West After the Civil War was over in
1865, Conkling served on the Committee of Reconstruction, and on the Committee of
102 CONJUGAL
Trang 6Fifteen, where he helped draft the FOURTEENTH
AMENDMENT
At about the same time, one of the principal
rivalries of Conkling’s political career began to
heat up In 1866, while skirmishing over issues
of Reconstruction in the House, fellow
Repub-lican Blaine, of Maine, in a famous speech
before Congress, criticized Conkling’s “haughty
disdain, his grandiloquent swell, his majestic,
supereminent, overpowering, turkey-gobbler
strut”—words that became associated with
Conkling for the rest of his career Blaine
became Speaker of the House from 1869 to
1875 Conkling never forgave him, and
when Blaine ran for the Republican
pre-sidential nomination in 1876 and 1880,
Con-kling helped frustrate his candidacies The
rivalry between these two politicians was a
defining feature of Republican politics in the
1870s and 1880s
In 1866 Conkling was elected to the U.S
Senate from New York, winning a seat he would
hold through two reelections, until his
resigna-tion in 1881 These were the years of Conkling’s
greatest political ascendancy, when he became
the most powerful politician in New York Most
notoriously, Conkling gained control over
appointments to the New York Custom House,
the large administrative body that oversaw
business at the nation’s most important
com-mercial hub The Custom House’s payroll was
the plum of the patronage system, and Conkling
appointed dozens of people to it These people,
in turn, became political allies, able to use their
time and energy to aid the politician who gave
them their jobs
Conkling’s power was solidified when Grant entered the office of president in 1869, a post he held to 1877 Conkling and Grant became strong political allies, and in 1873 Grant offered Conkling the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court, after Salmon P Chase’s death
Conkling refused the offer, believing his talents
to be suited more to the role of politician than
to that of judge
In 1877 Conkling made important contri-butions to the electoral commission bill that resolved the contested election between
Roscoe Conkling LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
❖
◆
◆
◆
◆
◆
1829 Born,
Albany, N.Y.
1850 Admitted to New York bar, appointed district attorney of Albany
1859–63 Served in U.S House of Representatives
1861–65 U.S.
Civil War
1865–67 Served in U.S.
House of Representatives 1867–81 Served in U.S Senate
1873 Turned down President Grant's offer to be chief justice of the Supreme Court
1882 Turned down President Arthur's confirmed nomination to Supreme Court
1883 Pendleton Act passed, reformed federal civil service and outlawed most patronage jobs
1886 Santa Clara Co v Southern Pacific R.R extended Equal Protection Clause
to corporations
1868 Fourteenth Amendment ratified
1900
1888 Died, New York City
CONKLING, ROSCOE 103
Trang 7presidential candidates SAMUEL J TILDEN, a Democrat, and Hayes, a Republican He also became a strong opponent of Hayes, who sought to end patronage by separating civil service officials from party control Conkling asserted that a senator had the right to control the federal administration in his own state, and
he opposed the idea that the president should make such appointments In 1879 Hayes ousted many of Conkling’s friends in the New York patronage system However, in 1880 Conkling won reelection to the Senate, and his friend Thomas C Platt was elected as a fellow U.S
senator from New York
In the events surrounding the presidential election of 1880, Conkling became the leader of
a group of Republicans known as the Stalwarts, who were fervent supporters of Grant Opposed
to the Stalwarts was the Half-Breed faction of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, which favored Blaine At the Republican National Convention in the summer of 1880, Conkling made a desperate bid for the nomination of Grant as the presidential candidate He failed, and his political machine quickly crumbled, though he did succeed in blocking the nomination of Blaine Garfield andCHESTER A.ARTHUR, an ally of Conkling’s, became the Republican nominees, and Conkling reluctantly supported them during the election Conkling provided crucial campaign support to Garfield and believed that he would be rewarded for his help, but those hopes were dashed when Garfield nomi-nated Conkling’s enemy Blaine as SECRETARY
OF STATE Conkling opposed the Garfield administration after it assumed office, again over the issue of the right to control jobs in the New York Custom House When he failed to prevent the confirmation of Garfield’s appoin-tees, Conkling resigned his Senate seat in disgust, on May 16, 1881, and persuaded Platt
to join him Conkling’s defeat was an important gain for the presidency at a time when congressional powers were stronger than ever before or since
Strangely enough, when the psychotic Charles Julius Guiteau assassinated President Garfield on July 2, 1881, he claimed to be a Stalwart who sought to remove Garfield and make way for Vice President Arthur Much of the public outrage over Garfield’sASSASSINATION
was vented on Conkling, and, though Guiteau was only remotely associated with Conkling,
many considered the assassin to be one of Conkling’s followers
After failing in an attempt to induce the New York Legislature to reelect him as senator after his resignation, Conkling retired from politics and began a successful and lucrative corporate law practice in New York City He proved to be a highly effective trial lawyer His clients included the financier Jay Gould and other notorious figures of the Gilded Age On February 24, 1882, President Arthur, who had become Garfield’s vice president through Con-kling’s help, attempted to repay his political debt when he nominated Conkling to take the seat of U.S Supreme Court justice Ward Hunt, who was retiring Conkling turned the nomina-tion down, even after it had been confirmed by the Senate Conkling was later upset that Arthur—whom Conkling sneeringly called His Accidency—had not decided to run a Stalwart-dominated administration Indeed, in 1883, Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Act, also called the Civil Service Act (5 U.S.C.A § 1101 et seq.), which was the first comprehensive act of Congress toward civil service reform, further dismantling the system whereby Conkling and others had amassed tremendous political power
On December 19, 1882, Conkling appeared before the Court as a lawyer in San Mateo County v Southern Pacific R.R., 116 U.S 138, 6
S Ct 317, 29 L Ed 589 (1885) Arguing on behalf of the railroad, Conkling sought to persuade the Court that a county tax violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads, “… nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Previ-ously, in theSLAUGHTER-HOUSE CASES, 83 U.S (16 Wall.) 36, 21 L Ed 394 (1873), the Court had restricted application of the Due Process Clause
to freed African Americans Conkling, of course, had been involved in framing the Fourteenth Amendment, and now he argued that the clause was originally intended to protect corporations
as well as persons The Court did not make a decision regarding Conkling’s claims, declaring the case moot after the railroad honored some
of its tax requirements to the county
In the 1886 case Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific R.R., 118 U.S 394, 6 S Ct
1132, 30 L Ed 118, the Court agreed with Conkling’s claims that the term person as used
in the EQUAL PROTECTION Clause applies to
104 CONKLING, ROSCOE
Trang 8corporations as well as natural persons.
Conkling’s arguments therefore influenced the
later development of the doctrine ofSUBSTANTIVE
DUE PROCESS, which the Court used repeatedly to
strike down state and federal regulation of
business from the 1890s to the 1930s
On April 18, 1888, Conkling died at age 59,
in New York City, of complications
surround-ing a brain abscess Despite his political stature,
Conkling had sponsored relatively little
signifi-cant legislation during his career Though he
did help create the Fourteenth Amendment,
he played a fairly peripheral role in
Reconstruc-tion legislaReconstruc-tion He was a politician motivated
principally by personal rivalries rather than by
ideas He remains most well-known for his
tremendous New York political machine and
for his spirited political maneuvers that helped
define the political atmosphere during the post–
Civil War era in the United States
FURTHER READINGS
Chidsey, Donald Barr 1935 The Gentleman from New York:
A Life of Roscoe Conkling New Haven, Conn.: Yale.
Conkling, Alfred R 2004 The Life and Letters of Roscoe
Conkling: Orator, Statesman, Advocate Whitefish, Mont.:
Kessinger.
Jordan, David M 1971 Roscoe Conkling of New York: Voice
in the Senate Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ Press.
CONNECTICUT COMPROMISE
SeeSHERMAN COMPROMISE
CONNECTING UP DOCTRINE
A term relating to the admissibility of evidence
which means that a fact may be admitted into
evidence provided that its relevance will
subse-quently become apparent when it is linked to other
facts presented later
Proof that a witness was present at a certain
time and place may be connected up with later
evidence to show its significance to the case at
bar
CONNIVANCE
The furtive consent of one person to cooperate
with another in the commission of an unlawful act
or crime—such as an employer’s agreement not to
withhold taxes from the salary of an employee
who wants to evade federal income tax The false
consent that a plaintiff gave to a defendant’s past
conduct during their marriage which the plaintiff presently alleges as a ground for divorce
Connivance has been used as a defense primarily in an action for DIVORCE based upon
ADULTERY In situations where connivance is used, the facts must establish that the PLAINTIFF
either consented or knowingly acquiesced to the adulterous conduct of the spouse or created the opportunity for adultery by persuading some-one to seduce the spouse It is considered a logical extension of the equitable maxim of clean hands in that it would be unfair to permit
a plaintiff to obtain judicial relief for a situation which he or she created Practically speaking, however, connivance is rarely asserted as a defense The modern trend in divorce laws is that there is little benefit to continuing a marital relationship between partners so indifferent to each other that they consent to a serious violation of their marital vows
The defense of connivance cannot be asserted in an action based upon a state’s no-fault divorce laws
CONQUEST
A term used in feudal law to designate land acquisition by purchase; or any method other than descent or inheritance by which an individual obtains ownership of an estate A term used in international law for the process whereby a sovereign nation is, by force of arms, made to submit to another nation; the defeated country thus becomes part of the empire of the conqueror
CONSANGUINITY Blood relationship; the relation of people who descend from the same ancestor
Consanguinity is the basis of the laws that govern such matters as rules of DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION of property, the degree of relation between whichMARRIAGEis prohibited under the laws concerning INCEST, and a basis for the determination of who may serve as a witness
Lineal consanguinity is the relation in a direct line—such as between parent, child, and grandparent It may be determined either upward—as in the case of son, father, grandfather—or downward—as in son, grand-son, great-grandson
Collateral consanguinity is a more remote relationship describing people who are related
by a common ancestor but do not descend from
CONSANGUINITY 105
Trang 9each other—such as cousins who have the same grandparents
Consanguinity is not the same as AFFINITY, which is a close relation based on marriage rather than on common ancestry
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
A person who, because of principles of religious training and moral belief, is opposed to all war regardless of its cause
A conscientious objector may be released from the obligation to serve in the armed forces
or to participate in Selective Service registration
A conscientious objector must oppose war in any form, and not just a particular war, in order
to avoid military service He does not have to be
a member of a religious congregation that forbids participation in war Under the Military Selective Service Act (50 App U.S.C.A § 451 et seq.[1967]), a registrant needs only a conscien-tious scruple against war in all forms to obtain conscientious objector status A conscientious scruple against war is anOBJECTIONto war based
on moral beliefs A conviction that war is wrong, arrived at solely on intellectual and rational grounds, does not entitle one to exemption as a conscientious objector
Under prior draft laws, conscientious objec-tors were divided into two classes One class was composed of those who were opposed to all military service, regardless of whether it was combatant or noncombatant This class was required to serve in civilian work that contri-buted to the national welfare, such as the Red Cross, but was exempt from military service The other class was opposed to only combatant military service These conscientious objectors were drafted into the ARMED SERVICES for non-combatant duty, such as in the medical corps
In the early twenty-first century there is no draft law; however, males are required to register for the Selective Service at the age of
18 Registrants can obtain a discharge, or a release, from the armed services on the ground
of conscientious objection A person who seeks
a discharge on this basis must satisfy certain tests established by the federal courts He must oppose all forms of war and object to any type
of service in the armed forces Total pacifism, however, is not required Willingness to use force in SELF-DEFENSE to protect oneself and family does not defeat a claim of opposition to
all war Enlistment in the military service is also not inconsistent with a claim of conscientious objection
The objection must be founded on deeply held moral, ethical, and religious convictions about right or wrong Although this limits discharges to those persons who object to war for essentially religious reasons, which are individually held beliefs, it does not restrict discharges to only those who participate in organizedRELIGION The test of a religious belief
is not measured by traditional religious con-cepts but is based upon whether the belief is sincere and has an effect on the life of the nonconforming believer that is comparable with
or parallel to traditional religious beliefs held by persons who believe in God The objective or actual truth of the beliefs is not the standard used to measure the sincerity of the individual
in his beliefs; the test is completely subjective, determined by what the individual actually believes A military board’s skepticism as to the sincerity of an objector’s belief is not enough to deny a discharge; some objective evidence is required
Conscientious objectors can be ordered to report for civilian dutyIN LIEU OFmilitary service
CROSS REFERENCE Selective Service System.
CONSCRIPTION Compulsory enrollment and induction into the military service
Conscription is commonly known as the draft, but the concepts are not exactly the same Conscription is the compulsory induction of individuals into theARMED SERVICES, whereas the draft is the procedure by which individuals are chosen for conscription Men within a certain age group must register with the Selective Service for possible conscription, but conscrip-tion itself was suspended in 1973
Conscription first came into use as a legal term in France in 1798 It derives from the Latin conscriptionem, which refers to the gathering of troops by written orders, and conscribere, which means“to put a name on a list or roll, especially
a list of soldiers.” A person who becomes a member of the armed forces through the process of conscription is called a conscript Conscription typically involves individuals who are deemed fit for military service At
106 CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
Trang 10times, however, governments have instituted
universal military service, in which all men or
all people of a certain age are conscripted
Most governments use conscription at some
time, usually when the voluntary enlistment of
soldiers fails to meet military needs
Conscrip-tion by naConscrip-tional governments became
wide-spread in Europe during the nineteenth century
Some of the American colonies employed
conscription During the Revolutionary War,
the American government used selective,
tem-porary conscription to fill the ranks of its
military
The United States used conscription again
briefly during the Civil War The Union
Enrollment Act of 1863 drafted all able-bodied
men between 20 and 45 years of age The act
provoked a hostile public response because it
excused from military service those who were
able to pay a fee of $300 The law incited
violent public disturbances, called the Draft
Riots, in New York City between July 13 and
16, 1863 One thousand people were injured
in the riots
In 1917, one month after the entry of the
United States intoWORLD WAR I, Congress passed
the Selective Draft Act (40 Stat 76) The act
created a government office to oversee
con-scription It also authorized local draft boards to
select eligible individuals for conscription The
following year, the Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of conscription, noting that
Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the
power to“raise and support Armies” (Selective
Draft cases, 245 U.S 366, 38 S Ct 159, 62 L Ed
349[1918])
Congress instituted the first peacetime use
of conscription in 1940 when it passed the
Selective Training and Service Act (54 Stat
885) This act, which expired in 1947, enrolled
those who served in U.S armed forces during
WORLD WAR II In 1948, Congress passed the
Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C.A app § 451 et
seq.), which was used to induct individuals for
service in the KOREAN WAR (1950–53) and the
VIETNAM WAR (1954–75) Presidential authority
to conscript individuals into the U.S armed
forces ended in 1973 No individual has been
conscripted into the military since then
In 1976 the SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM was
placed on a standby status, and local offices of
the agency were closed President JIMMY CARTER
issued a proclamation in 1980 requiring all males who were born after January 1, 1960, and who had attained age 18 to register with the Selective Service at their local post office or at a U.S embassy or consulate outside the United States (Presidential Proclamation No 4771, 3 C.F.R 82 [1981]) Those who fail to register are subject to prosecution by the federal government
In 1981 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of requiring only men, and not women, to register with the Selective Service (ROSTKER V GOLDBERG, 453 U.S 57, 101 S Ct
2646, 69 L Ed 2d 478) The United States has
ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL SERVING IN MAJOR U.S CONFLICTS, CIVIL WAR THROUGH VIETNAM
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0 Civil War a
Spanish-American War
World War I
World War II b
Korean Conflict c
Vietnam Conflict d
a Union forces only Estimates of Confederate forces range from 600,000 to 1.5 million.
b Covers Dec 1, 1941, to Dec 31, 1946.
c Covers June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953.
d Covers Aug 4, 1964 to Jan 27, 1973.
Personnel serving
Draftees inducted
2213
46 307 0
4735
2820
16,133
10,022
5720
1560
8744
1759
Conscription
ILLUSTRATION BY GGS CREATIVE RESOURCES REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF GALE,
A PART OF CENGAGE LEARNING.
CONSCRIPTION 107