The Heritage Foundation Papers: Legal Issues

Another Sarbanes-Oxley: Threatening Small Businesses with the 'Beneficial' Ownership Bill

The Heritage Foundation - Hans A. von Spakovsky and Andrew M. Grossman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:15:00 EST

The Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (ITLEAA)--currently under consideration in Congress--would subject small businesses to a series of complicated and burdensome reporting requirements. These new requirements are reminiscent to those imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley, and would have similarly negative consequences: increased costs and reductions in business activity and job creation. Furthermore, the ITLEAA would do little to actually reduce the use of LLC forms for criminal activity--the purported goal of the legislation.

Defunding ACORN: Necessary and Proper, and Certainly Constitutional

The Heritage Foundation - Hans A. von Spakovsky — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:03:26 EST

Barring ACORN from receiving federal funds through the Defund ACORN Act is perfectly constitutional.

President Obama's Medical Liability Reform Proposal: No Silver Bullet

The Heritage Foundation - Randolph W. Pate — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:51:50 EST

In an apparent concession to Republicans on health care reform,
President Obama broached the topic of medical liability reform Wednesday
night in his health care speech before Congress. Upon analysis, however,
the President's medical malpractice proposal is meaningless in the
context of the health care reform debate and does not affect the
trajectory of Democrat health care reform bills currently before
Congress in any way.

Defending Those Who Serve: Paying the Legal Costs of CIA Officers

The Heritage Foundation - Edwin Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:03:17 EST

CIA Director Leon Panetta's decision to use agency funds to pay for the legal defense of case officers targeted by President Obama and Attorney General Holder is not only legal under the CIA’s authorizing statute, but it is the correct position to take from a moral, public policy, and national security point of view.

The Trial Lawyers' Earmark: Using Medicare to Finance the Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous

The Heritage Foundation - Edwin Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:06:32 EST

A proposed amendment to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 would have generated abusive Medicare litigation on a massive scale to benefit plaintiffs' lawyers at the expense of the American taxpayer and Medicare beneficiaries. It is bad public policy that would increase health care costs and endanger the health and privacy of Medicare beneficiaries, and it should not be revived in the Senate or in committee.

A CIA Special Prosecutor: A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

The Heritage Foundation - Todd Gaziano and Robert Alt — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:56:42 EST

Even assuming a criminal investigation of CIA interrogators is warranted, Attorney General Holder most definitely should not appoint a special prosecutor.

Democracy in Danger: What States Can Do to Safeguard America's Election System

The Heritage Foundation - Hans A. von Spakovsky — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:27:11 EST

In order to have an election process in which we can be confident that everyone who is eligible gets to vote, the vote is counted, and the vote is not diluted by fraudulent votes, we have to have security and integrity throughout the entire process, from voter registration to the casting of the actual votes and the counting of ballots. Unfortunately, because of various problems with election laws and procedures in many states, we cannot currently ensure that such security is in place. State legislators can take several steps to safeguard America's election system and to improve the integrity of the election process.

Killing Americans by Stifling Medical Innovation: The Medical Device 'Safety' Act of 2009

The Heritage Foundation - Hans A. von Spakovsky — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:10:00 EST

The misnamed Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 would gut the carefully crafted regulation of medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration, exposing developers to the conflicting laws and regulations of 50 different states and subjecting them to abusive and punitive tort litigation.

America's Military Voters: Re-enfranchising the Disenfranchised

The Heritage Foundation - Hans A. von Spakovsky and M. Eric Eversole — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:08:39 EST

In recent elections, only 5 to 20 percent of eligible military voters cast absentee ballots that were counted. This shockingly low participation rate is as severe as any in our nation's history, including that which resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to strike down barriers to voting for black Americans.

Legal Authorities in the Long War

The Heritage Foundation - the Honorable Kenneth L. Wainstein — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:42:26 EST

The three counterterrorism authorities that are scheduled to sunset this year have proven to be invaluable in our counterterrorism efforts. They are subject to careful oversight, and they should be made permanent. Though sometimes cumbersome and often frustrating, oversight often makes the difference between passage and non-passage of national security legislation and is therefore a relatively small price to pay for an effective counterterrorism authority.