Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 3 P12 doc

Congressional 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 members, or its committees. Congress or its committees may not indiscriminately examine private citizens in order to learn valuable information or t o 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’sprocedure.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 the FIFTH AMENDMENT to 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 generall y determined by the majority party, and thus the Speaker is always a leading member of that party. The Speaker ’s broad powers and privil eges allow the majority to control the House’s legislative agenda. The significanc e of the office cannot be under- estimated. The Sp eaker is in a position to set the rules of the House and to adjudicate w hen procedural conflicts arise. The Speaker’s rulings can be challenged, but rarely are; traditionally, they are final. Behind the scenes, the office’spoweris 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 c ampaigns for p arty loyalists in election years. Depending on which p arty 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 government 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 w as elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, where he s erved for six years. He was elected to Congress in 1986. Hastert retained a relative ly 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. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 98 CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES Committees and Staff The work of preparing and considering legislation 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 legi slative timetable, and directing debate. Notabl y, in the Senate, these duties usually involve consultation with the leadership of the minority party. The comparatively diminished proced ural 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 influence over political debate, and certain unique duties of the Senate itself len d extra i nfluence 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 b oth parties’ leaders have agreed to schedul e them. The majority leade r can speed up t he process for certain bills but requires the unanimous consent oftheSenatetodoso. However, the majority leader exercises influence 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 b y 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’swishesthusplays a crucial role in shaping domestic and foreign policy as well as the composition of the federal judiciary. The national i mportance 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 beginning 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 S trom 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 followe d 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 B arack Obama’s econo mic 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. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 99 party 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 ame ndments; 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 the FEDERAL 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 C ongressional 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 e mployees. 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 congressional action on individual authorization, appropriation, and revenue bills against the targets that are specified in the CONCURRENT resolutions. 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 projections on the costs of continuing current federal spending and taxation policies. An Annual Report on the Budget The Congressional Budget Office is responsible for furnishi ng the House and Senate Budget GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 100 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE Committees (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 functional categories, all in light of major national 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 agreement already negotiated, as when a multilateral agreement establishes an international organi- zation such as the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. Congress sometimes has approved presidential agreements by l egislation 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 comment s 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 committees, 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 GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE 101 automated legislative information systems, including 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 researchers, and outside experts to exchange ideas on timely issues. The CRS has produced programs on the congressional CABLE TELEVISION system, and it provides language service support and transla- tions for members of Congress. The CRS is governed by a director, a deput y 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, Oper ations, Policy, and Rese arch 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 tremendous growth as Congress sought to respond to the in creasing 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 approximately 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 considered 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. v CONKLING, ROSCOE ROSCOE CONKLING was 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, and JAMES 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 of SLAVERY into the territories and new states of the U.S. West. After the Civil War was over in 1865, Conkli ng served on the Committee of Reconstruction, and on the Committee of GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 102 CONJUGAL Fifteen, 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. Conkli ng never forgave him, and when Blaine ran for the Republican presidential 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 resignation 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 Roscoe Conkling 1829–1888 ❖ ❖ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ 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 ▼▼ ▼▼ 19001900 1825 1825 18501850 18751875 1888 Died, New York City GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION CONKLING, ROSCOE 103 presidential 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 leade r 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 and CHESTER A. ARTHUR, an ally of Conkling’s, became the Republican nominees, and Conkling reluctantly supported them during the election. Conkli ng provided crucial campaign support to Garfield and believed that he would be rewarded for his help, but those hopes were dashed when Garfield nominated 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 imp ortant 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’s ASSASSINATION 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 nomination 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 the SLAUGHTER-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 GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 104 CONKLING, ROSCOE corporations as well as natural persons. Conkling’s arguments therefore influenced the later development of the doct rine of SUBSTANTIVE 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 surrounding a brain abscess. Despite his political stature, Conkling had sponsored relatively little sign ifi- cant legislation during his career. Though he did help create the Fourteenth Amendment, he played a fairly peripheral role in Reconstruc- tion legislation. 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 See SHERMAN 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 becom e 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 create d 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 par t 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 which MARRIAGE is prohibi ted 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, fath er, grandfather—or downward—as in son, grandson, great-grandson. Collateral consanguinity is a more remote relationship describing people who are related by a common ancestor but do not descend from GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION CONSANGUINITY 105 each 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 conscientious scruple against war in all forms to obtain conscientious objector status. A conscientious scruple against war is an OBJECTION to war based on moral beliefs. A conviction that war is wrong, arrived at solely on intellectual and r ational grounds, does not entitle one to exemption as a conscientious objector. Under prior draft laws, conscientious objectors 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 noncombatant duty, such as in the medical corps. In the early twenty-first century there is no draft law; howev er, 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 organized RELIGION. The test of a religious belief is not measured by traditional religious concepts 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 duty IN LIEU OF military 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 the ARMED 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 conscription itself was suspended in 1973. Conscription first came into use as a legal term in Fra nce in 1798. It derives from the Latin conscriptionem, which refers to the gathering of troops by written orders, and conscri bere, 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 GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 106 CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR times, however, governments have in stituted 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 volu ntary enlistment of soldiers fails to meet military needs. Conscrip- tion by national 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 into WORLD WAR I, Congress passed the Selective Draft Act (40 Stat. 76). The act created a government office to oversee conscription. 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 w ith 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 Number of Personnel (in thousands) 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. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics annual. 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. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION CONSCRIPTION 107 . 2001. The Dance of Legislation. Seattle: Univ. of Washington. CROSS REFERENCES Congress of the United States; Senate. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. inducted 22 13 46 30 7 0 4 735 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. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF. Press. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 98 CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES Committees and Staff The work of preparing and considering legislation is done largely by committees of both houses