Model act

In the United States, model act, also referred to as model law, model legislation or model bill, is a draft of legislation that is meant to serve as a guide for subsequent legislation. Organizations such as the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), the American Bar Association (ABA), the National Association of Civil-Law Notaries (NACLN), and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have produced draft model laws. Since 2010, as hundreds of ALEC's model laws have been enacted in states' legislatures, the practice has been under media scrutiny. Model laws have been called "copycat laws" and "fill-in-the-blanks" laws by their critics—which includes a coalition of thirty investigative journalists who published a series called "Copy, Paste, Legislate" in 2019.

Background

Uniform Law Commission
Main article: Uniform Law Commission

In 1892, the non-profit Chicago, Illinois-based Uniform Law Commission (ULC), which was also known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws,[1] was established to provide U.S. states (plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) with well-researched and drafted legislation to bring clarity and stability to critical areas of statutory law across jurisdictions. The ULC was created by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) to harmonize various local laws that often conflict or contradict each other from state to state. The ULC promotes enactment of uniform acts in areas of state law where uniformity is desirable and practical.[2] Model acts produced by the ULC, are not usually meant to be enacted exactly as it is written, but is provided by the ULC as a suggestion to the various state and territorial legislatures from which they create their own law. In addition to model acts it also publishes uniform acts, which are meant to be enacted exactly as they are written across the United States. Other organizations (e.g. the American Law Institute and American Bar Association) also publish model acts. The ULC and NCCUSL are non-profit, advisory bodies that recommend uniform legislation to the states. They do not enforce or empower legislation. Neither a model act nor a uniform act has the force of law unless it is enacted by a state legislature.

American Legislative Exchange Council
Main article: American Legislative Exchange Council

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) an American nonprofit organization—whose members include conservative state legislators and private sector representatives—drafts model state-level legislation intended for state governments in the United States.[3][4] SPN is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that drafts and shares state-level model legislation for conservative causes,[5] and ALEC is an associate member of SPN.[6] The State Policy Network (SPN) an umbrella organization for a consortium of conservative and libertarian think tanks that focus on state-level policy,[7] is among the sponsors of ALEC.[8] Many SPN members are also members of ALEC.[9]

ALEC model bills were increasingly introduced in state legislatures and enacted into law. With their success came media scrutiny and criticism.[10][11][11][12][13][14] including a collaborative two-year investigation by a team of thirty reporters from the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), USA TODAY, and The Arizona Republic into model laws which they called copycat bills, and fill-in-the-blanks laws.[15] The investigation raised concerns about the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), in the American legislative process.

Joe Walsh, a former data scientist at the University of Chicago, created the Legislative Influence Detector, which detects similarities between model bills and enacted legislation, using the Smith-Waterman algorithm Reporters from all over the United States used Walsh's algorithm to find model bills.[15]

According to the report, from 2010 through 2018, in many states, the use of model bills had supplanted the traditional way of writing legislation "from scratch".[16]:110[15]

Mississippi—with a total population of less than three million—has had more "model bills", that were written outside Mississippi, introduced into its Legislature than in any other state".[17]

Example model acts

One of the earliest examples of a model law, was the Model Eugenical Sterilization Law which Harry H. Laughlin, included in his 1922 book entitled Eugenical Sterilization in the United States.[18] The influential eugenics law, the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924 was based on Laughlin's model legislation. In 1927, the Supreme Court upheld Buck v. Bell[19], a case that challenged the constitutionality of the law.[20] As a result, Virginia's Sterilization Act became the model law for sterilization laws in other states.[20] More than seven thousand individuals in Virginia were sterilized because of the law between 1924 and 1979.[21] In 2015, the State of Virginia agreed to compensate individuals sterilized under the act.

The New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee was established on April 23, 1940 and the soil and water conservation districts were authorized with the enactment of the Soil Conservation District Law that was based on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Standard State Soil Conservation Districts Law—a model law that he submitted to the states.[22][23]

The American Bar Association (ABA) has provided the Model Airspace Act, the Model Business Corporation Act the Model Procurement Code for State and Local Governments, and the Model Code for Public Infrastructure Procurement. The National Association of Civil-Law Notaries (NACLN) drafted the Model Civil Law Notary Act. The Martindale-Hubbell, an information services company to the legal profession,[24] provides the complete texts of four Model Acts including the Revised Model Business Corporation Act.[25]

National Notary Association (NNA), provided the draft for the Model Notary Act. The American Law Institute (ALI) provided the draft for the Model Penal Code. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed the Revised Model Tribal Sex Offender Registry Code/Ordinance.

The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) drafted the Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act (MTSTA) in 2005. MISTA served as a template for tribal legal infrastructure on American Indian reservations to provide consistency and greater accessibility in lending and credit transactions.[26]

In 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act required states to enact model laws based on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners's (NAIC) Uniform Health Carrier External Review Model Act.[27] use an alternative federal appeal process.

ALEC's model bills include Stand Your Ground, Voter ID laws, the 2010 Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (Arizona SB 1070)—the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure passed in the United States.[28] the Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act, truth in sentencing, three strikes laws,[29] right to know,[30] and the Kansas Senate Bill Substitute HB 2117.[31] ALEC has drafted and distributed state-level legislation to limit[32] the creation or expansion of municipal broadband networks.[33][34][35]

The 2013 and 2014, the collection of state legislation covered in the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, that were proposed in Utah,[36] Washington, Arizona, or prevent the provision of services such as water to NSA facilities.[37] Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and California, were based on a model bill drafted by an activist group called the Tenth Amendment Center, that promote strictly limited government. The bill was drafted to prevent state governments from co-operating with the National Security Agency's mass surveillance projects by requiring a warrant before information could be released, by forbidding state universities from doing NSA research or from hosting NSA recruiters, or preventing the provision of water to NSA facilities.[38][36][39][40]

In 2014, New Jersey Speaker, Paul D. Moriarty introduced legislation that "included a fine for failing to disclose open recalls to customers."[41] The bill that he introduced was based on model legislation that had been crafted by a lobbyist who heads the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers. The lobbyist said that their "model legislation" provided "suggested language" and was never intended to be a copy-and-paste exercise."[41][42] Similar model legislation was drafted by the Washington, D.C.-based Automotive Trade Association Executives (ATAE), representing over 100 "executives from regional auto dealer associations".[41] The bill allows dealers "to continue selling recalled used cars, so long as they disclosed open recalls to customers."[41] The dealers worked with over 600 lobbyists in 43 states to assist in getting the legislation passed.[41] From 2014 through 2019, eleven states had passed similar bills—California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.[41]

In 2015, Illinois and South Carolina became the first states to adopt measures to curb the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiative. The BDS movement seeks to frustrate further Jewish development on land occupied by Palestinians.[43] In South Carolina, the anti-boycott bill sponsor—lawmaker Alan Clemmons—said that he worked with the Israeli-American Coalition for Action's (AIC) Joe Sabag, his "buddy and wordsmith-in-chief", to prepare the bill.[43] Eugene Kontorovich, a George Mason University law professor, assisted in drafting the legislation. Kontorovich also helped "other states with their anti-boycott measures and frequently defends the laws’ constitutionality in the news media."[43] By May 2019, twenty five other states adopted similar measures. Many of the bills "shared their exact wording".[43] The anti-boycott initiatives, undertaken by activist groups concerned about the rise of antisemitism, such as the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the Israeli-American Coalition for Action, have been largely successful in pushing the anti-boycott legislation through state legislatures, according to a two-year collaborative investigative journal report. A JFNA lobbyist wrote the "anti-boycott executive order and news release" for the governor of Louisiana.[43] A pro-Israel lobbyist closely helped edit the bill and guided the lawmaker who introduced and supported the anti-boycott legislation in Nevada.[43]

In 2015, ALEC model bills were reflected in about 172 measures introduced in 42 states, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of the ALEC Exposed series.[44]

The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, an affiliate of the State Policy Network (SPN), drafted the "right-to-try" legislation that was signed into law in Ohio in 2016 by then-Governor John Kasich, allows patients with terminal illnesses to try drugs that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved.[45]

See also

References
  1. "ULC Constitution & Bylaws". Uniform Law Commission. 8 Jan 2019. Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  2. "About Us". Uniform Law Commission. 8 Jan 2019. Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  3. May, Clifford (1987-08-30). "Transportation Chief Attacks Congress on Safety". The New York Times.
  4. Griffin, Marshall (January 14, 2014). "'Right-to-work' bill praised and blasted in House committee hearing". KBIA.
  5. Cohen, Rick (November 14, 2013). "Corporate Money in Network of Right-Wing State Policy Think Tanks". Nonprofit Quarterly. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  6. Kopan, Tal (November 13, 2013). "Report: Think tanks tied to Kochs". Politico. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  7. Fund, John (September 28, 2000). "Forget Washington". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
  8. Abowd, Paul. "Koch-funded charity passes money to free-market think tanks in states". NBC News. Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  9. Blumenthal, Paul (November 14, 2013). "Meet The Little-Known Network Pushing Ideas For Kochs, ALEC". The Huffington Post.
  10. Pilkington, Ed (November 20, 2013). "Obamacare faces new threat at state level from corporate interest group Alec". The Guardian.
  11. Greeley, Brendan (May 3, 2012). "ALEC's Secrets Revealed; Corporations Flee". Bloomberg Businessweek.
  12. Greenblatt, Alan (October 2003). "What Makes Alec Smart?". Governing.
  13. Greenblatt, Alan (December 2011). "ALEC Enjoys A New Wave of Influence and Criticism". Governing.
  14. Wisconsin: Labor Unions Protest Anti-Union Bill Copied from ALEC. Democracy Now! February 24, 2015.
  15. O'Dell, Rob. "How we uncovered 10,000 times lawmakers introduced copycat model bills — and why it matters". Center for Public Integrity and The Arizona Republic. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  16. Schweiger, Larry J. (November 15, 2019). The Climate Crisis and Corrupt Politics: Overcoming the Powerful Forces that Threaten our Future. Universal Publishers. p. 362. ISBN 162734280X.
  17. Bologna, Giacomo (April 4, 2019). "How copycat bills become your laws". Clarion Ledger. Mississippi. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  18. Laughlin, Chapter XV Archived 2011-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
  19. Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 206, 47 S. Ct. 584, 584, 71 L. Ed. 1000 (1927)
  20. Antonios, Nathalie (April 14, 2011). "Sterilization Act of 1924". The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. ISSN 1940-5030. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
  21. Lutz Kaelber. "Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States". University of Vermont.
  22. New Employee Orientation, New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee, retrieved 2017-01-22
  23. Phelps, Jess R. (2006). "A Vision of the New Deal Unfulfilled? Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Land Use Regulation" (PDF). Drake Journal of Agricultural Law. 11: 353. SSRN 979108.
  24. Artley, Meredith (2004-10-23). "Finding legal information online". The New York Times. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
  25. LexisHub Staff (2009-10-09). "Press Release: Martindale-Hubbell Law Digests Now Available For Your Free Use". LexisNexis.com LexisNexis® Legal Newsroom Lexis Hub. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  26. "Piikani Money Campaign". The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
  27. "Understanding Independent Medical Review and Utilization Review Services" (PDF). NAIRO.
  28. Archibold, Randal C. (April 24, 2010). "U.S.'s Toughest Immigration Law Is Signed in Arizona". The New York Times. p. 1.
  29. Beall, Pat (November 22, 2013). "Big business, legislators pushed for stiff sentences". The Palm Beach Post.
  30. McIntire, Mike (April 21, 2012). "Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist". The New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  31. Rothschild, Scott (December 17, 2013). "Brownback says perception of ALEC influence is 'overblown'". Lawrence Journal-World.
  32. Farivar, Cyrus (29 June 2012). "South Carolina passes bill against municipal broadband". Ars Technica. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  33. John, Eggerton. "NTIA's Strickling Touts Success of BTOP". Multichannel. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  34. "Fact check: Truth-testing Fort Collins broadband ads". Coloradoan. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  35. "Is municipal broadband more important than net neutrality?". Fortune. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  36. Ackerman, Spencer (2014-02-12). "Utah lawmaker floats bill to cut off NSA data centre's water supply". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  37. Madison, Tiffany (2013-12-11), Arizona senator moves to ban unconstitutional NSA spying, Washington Times, Arizona Sen. Kelli Ward announced Monday that she will act to ban the National Security Agency from unconstitutional operations in her state. Ward describes her nullification legislation, the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, as a pre-emptive strike against the embattled agency.
  38. Vijayan, Jaikumar (2014-01-07), California lawmakers move to bar state help to NSA, Computer World, The Utah bill aims to prohibit state and local agencies from providing water to a giant new NSA data center near Salt Lake City.
  39. Vijayan, Jaikumar (2014-01-07), California lawmakers move to bar state help to NSA, Computer World, The Utah bill aims to prohibit state and local agencies from providing water to a giant new NSA data center near Salt Lake City.
  40. "California Lawmakers Introduce Fourth Amendment Protection Act, push back against NSA spying" (Press release). 2014-01-06. Archived from the original on 2014-01-09. Retrieved 2020-01-14. Blocks public universities from serving as NSA research facilities or recruiting grounds.
  41. Kaneya, Rui (April 4, 2019). "The multistate push to let dealers get away with selling you a defective car". Center for Public Integrity, USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  42. LaForme, Ren (January 8, 2020). "This tool illuminates the hidden hands of special interest groups in legislation across the U.S." Poynter. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  43. Essley Whyte, Liz (1 May 2019). "One way to silence Israel boycotts? Get lawmakers to pass anti-BDS bills". USA Today and Center for Public Integrity (CPI). Copy, Paste, Legislate. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  44. Fischer, Brendan; Peters, Zachary (March 8, 2016). "Cashing in on Kids: 172 ALEC Education Bills Push Privatization in 2015". Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) via PR Watch. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  45. Borchardt, Jackie (April 4, 2019). "Copycat bills: How Ohio compares". Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.