Legislative alchemy is a term used to describe procedural rules or codified law, or interpretation thereof, by a legislative body that runs counter to the established precedent of logic, tradition, or expectations of governance.
- ^ Taylor, Michael C. (1 January 1997). "Constitutional Crisis: How Reforms to the Legislature Have Doomed Mexico". Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos. 13 (2): 299–324. doi:10.2307/1052018. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ^ Wertz v. United States, 51 Federal Claims Reporter 00-418 (Fed. Cl. 2002) ("Indeed, endorsing such legislative alchemy would incentivize individuals to further delay filing their income tax returns – a result that Congress hardly could have intended.").
- ^ Oaks v. District Court of the State of Rhode Island, 613 F. Supp. 538, 546 (D.R.I 1986) ("If the competing concerns are genuine and the end-product of the legislative alchemy rationally responds to the problem, it is not for a federal district court to insist on a different ordering of priorities as a matter of governmental policy.").
- ^ Mckinley, Jesse (26 May 2015). "Governor Cuomo's Legislative Agenda Faces New and Familiar Obstacles". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ^ "The Senate: Legislative Alchemy". TIME. 91 (11): 27. 15 March 1968. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
In the Senate, however, the bill underwent almost alchemistic changes. All but assured of final passage this week in the upper chamber, the measure could become a legislative landmark in the Negro's progress toward genuinely equal citizenship in the U.S.
- ^ Maxey, George W. (1937). "The Problem in 1787 and How It Was Met". American Bar Association Journal. 23: 745–752. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
To found a nation in which neither tyranny nor lawlessness would be tolerated, nor legislative alchemy encouraged, was the supreme problem of 1787: the four great commandments of the Constitution: keep inviolate the rights of the states, entrust no official with autocratic power, let no majority have arbitrary power, and maintain guarantees to citizens and limitations on officials by a fearless and independent judiciary.
- ^ Bellamy, Jann J (2010). "Legislative alchemy: the US state chiropractic practice acts". Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies. 15 (3): 214–222. doi:10.1111/j.2042-7166.2010.01032.x. ISSN 2042-7166. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ^ Luconi, Stefano (2004). The Italian-American vote in Providence, Rhode Island, 1916-1948. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 32. ISBN 0838640478.
Aldrich himself was the main architect of the 1909 Tariff Act that resulted from remarkable legislative alchemy as it lowered duties on raw materials needed by U.S. manufacturers while elevating import taxes on products that might compete with the output of American industries.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Stern, Philip M. (1973). The rape of the taxpayer. New York: Random House. p. 104. ISBN 0394469984.
Well, when congress gave capital gains treatment to certain tree sales—another case of legislative alchemy, by the way—Internal Revenue ruled that Christmas trees were ineligible. Of course, the Christmas-tree growers complained of discrimination, so Congress changed the law.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Stern, Philip M. (1964). The great Treasury raid. New York: Random House. p. 85.
It's a king of "legislative alchemy," isn't it? You take a dollar that comes from a coal royalty or selling an invention: one day it's ordinary income and then Presto!
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Boliek, Brooks (2006). "As for copyright law, song remains the same". Hollywood Reporter. p. 72.
And that's the way the "new" fight over Section 115 feels. It's legislative alchemy. Frankly, I've given up on explaining the policies behind the fight. I'll just explain the fight. That's something everyone can understand.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Acland, F. A. (1917). "Canadian Legislation concerning Industrial Disputes. With Special Reference to the Disputes Investigation Act". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 69: 157–169. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
If the effectiveness of the two statutes under consideration can, in these important respects, be increased, Canada would seem to have come nearest among the nations to the discovery of that legislative alchemy which the industrial world has so long sought, and the reign of industrial peace would be at hand.
- ^ Walker, Amasa (1861). "Modern Alchemy". The Bankers' Magazine and Statistical Register. 11 (6): 407. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
An additional evidence of the universality of the idea that by some legislative alchemy paper may be good as gold is found in the fact, that no sooner had the new Confederacy of the Southern States been formed, than a project was brought forward in the Memphis Appeal for a "new min to coin paper money."
- ^ McGee, Gale (1974). "Are Judicial Salary Increases Coming?". American Bar Association Journal. 60: 1259. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
By some particular legislative alchemy, congressional and judicial salaries are linked, and when Congress lacks the will to allow itself a pay raise, federal judges are among those who most suffer.