Also known as: legislates · legislated · legislating · legislation · legislative · legislator · legislators · legislature · legislatures · legisprudence · legist · legists · lawmaking · law-making
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
To create, modify, or repeal binding rules of conduct through the formal lawmaking process vested in a governmental body. The process follows the procedures prescribed by the Constitution for the exercise of legislative power. It supplies the mechanism for enforcing constitutional commands.
After the Nineteenth Amendment barred denial of the vote on account of sex, Congress enacted a statute requiring states to register women on the same terms as men. State election officials who refused to comply faced federal enforcement actions. The legislation directly implemented the amendment's command.
State legislators considered but ultimately omitted any provision excluding the necessity defense from reckless-endangerment prosecutions. When Lars Lindstrom later drove through a barricade to escape a wildfire, the court applied the justification because the legislature had not plainly excluded it. The statute's text reflected that deliberate legislative choice.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The state legislature enacted a statute providing that contingent-fee agreements to secure passage of bills are unenforceable. Legacy Motors had promised such a fee to a lobbyist. When the lobbyist sued after the bill failed, the court refused enforcement because the legislation had declared the contracts void.
The state legislature passed an environmental statute establishing maximum emission levels for industrial plants. Lakeshore Industries operated a plant that exceeded those limits. A neighboring homeowner sued in negligence, and the court treated the statutory limits as the standard of reasonable conduct.
The state legislature enacted a redistricting statute that created malapportioned districts. Voters sued state officials claiming vote dilution. The court rejected a political-question defense and allowed the case to proceed because no factor in the six-part test barred judicial review of the legislative districting.
The legislature of State B enacted a statute that formed the basis of a judgment in State A's courts. When the prevailing party sought enforcement in State C, the court authenticated the State B statute by seal and gave it the same effect it would receive in State B's own courts.
Congress enacts statutes that enforce the amendment's prohibition on denying the vote on account of sex. Those statutes bind state officials and create federal remedies when states fail to comply.
Supporting sources
A court may treat the requirements of a statute or regulation as the standard when the enactment's purpose is found to be exclusively or in part to protect the class of persons injured and the particular interest invaded.
Supporting sources
The duty to perform and the duty to pay damages for an earlier repudiation are both discharged once the statute takes effect and makes the promised performance unlawful.
Supporting sources
…jurisdiction and may declare a mandamus to be one. The power does not depend on implication alone; it has been recognized by legislative provision and in judicial decisions. Congress, by a law passed at the first session after the adoption of the Constitution (the Judiciary Act), expressly gave the Supreme Court the power…