The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. Designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act sought to secure the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. The National Archives and Records Administration stated: "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the most significant statutory change in the relationship between the federal and state governments in the area of voting since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War".
Ronald Lee Wyden is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until 1996. He is the dean of Oregon's congressional delegation and chairs the Senate Finance Committee.
Shelley Wellons Moore Capito is an American politician and retired educator serving in her second term as the junior United States senator from West Virginia, a post she has held since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Capito served seven terms as the U.S. representative from West Virginia's 2nd congressional district from 2001 to 2015. The daughter of three-term West Virginia governor Arch Alfred Moore Jr., she is the dean of West Virginia's congressional delegation.
Virginia Brown-Waite is an American politician who served as U.S. Representative for Florida's 5th congressional district from 2003 until 2011. She is a member of the Republican Party and a founder of Maggie's List.
The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, is the United States federal freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information and documents controlled by the U.S. government upon request. The act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures, and includes nine exemptions that define categories of information not subject to disclosure. The act was intended to make U.S. government agencies' functions more transparent so that the American public could more easily identify problems in government functioning and put pressure on Congress, agency officials, and the president to address them. The FOIA has been changed repeatedly by both the legislative and executive branches.
The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – formerly known as the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) – is a program administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides matching funds to states for health insurance to families with children. The program was designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid. The program was passed into law as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and the statutory authority for CHIP is under title XXI of the Social Security Act.
James Stuart Gilmore III is an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and former attorney who served as the 68th Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002. A member of the Republican Party, Gilmore also chaired the Republican National Committee in 2001 and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe during the Trump administration.
The domestic policy of the George W. Bush administration was the domestic policy of the United States from 2001 to 2009 while George W. Bush was president. Bush's main domestic policy advisors include Chairman of the Council of Economic Affairs Edward Lazear, Rob Portman, director of the Office of Management and Budget; U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Vice President Dick Cheney; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson; U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez; U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt and Allan Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council.
The PROTECT Act of 2003 is a United States law with the stated intent of preventing child abuse as well as investigating and prosecuting violent crimes against children. "PROTECT" is a backronym which stands for "Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today".
The 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act is a United States law authored by Representative Christopher Cox and Senator Ron Wyden that established national policy regarding federal and state taxation of the internet, based upon its unique characteristics as a mode of interstate and global commerce uniquely susceptible to multiple and discriminatory taxation. The law prohibits state and local governments from imposing taxes directly on the internet or online activity, such as email taxes, internet access taxes, bit taxes, and bandwidth taxes. It categorizes taxes targeted specifically to the internet itself or to online commerce as “discriminatory.” Discriminatory taxes are outlawed.
Internet tax is a tax on Internet-based services. A number of jurisdictions have introduced an Internet tax and others are considering doing so mainly as a result of successful tax avoidance by multinational corporations that operate within the digital economy. Internet taxes prominently target companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Uber.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA prohibits gambling businesses from "knowingly accepting payments in connection with the participation of another person in a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any federal or state law." The act specifically excludes fantasy sports that meet certain requirements, skill games, and legal intrastate and intertribal gaming. The law does not expressly mention state lotteries, nor does it clarify whether interstate wagering on horse racing is legal.
The history of the USA PATRIOT Act involved many parties who opposed and supported the Patriot Act, which was proposed, enacted and signed into law 45 days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The legislation, though approved by large majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative, was controversial, and parts of the law were invalidated or modified by successful legal challenges over constitutional infringements to civil liberties. The Act had several sunset provisions, most reauthorized by the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act. Both reauthorizations incorporated amendments to the original USA PATRIOT Act, and other federal laws.
James M. LeMunyon is an American entrepreneur who has co-founded and managed several technology businesses. From January 2010 to January 2018, he served four terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 67th district in the Fairfax and Loudoun County suburbs of Washington, D.C. LeMunyon served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1989-1993. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Digital goods are software programs, music, videos or other electronic files that users download exclusively from the Internet. Some digital goods are free, others are available for a fee. The taxation of digital goods and/or services, sometimes referred to as digital tax and/or a digital services tax, is gaining popularity across the globe.
The Marketplace Fairness Act was a proposed legislation pending in the United States Congress that would enable state governments to collect sales taxes and use taxes from remote retailers with no physical presence in their state.
Victor John Wolski is a senior judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, appointed to that court in 2003 by President George W. Bush.
The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act is a bill that would amend the Internet Tax Freedom Act to make permanent the ban on state and local taxation of Internet access and on multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.
The Taft Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1921 to 1930, when William Howard Taft served as Chief Justice of the United States. Taft succeeded Edward Douglass White as Chief Justice after the latter's death, and Taft served as Chief Justice until his resignation, at which point Charles Evans Hughes was nominated and confirmed as Taft's replacement. Taft was also the nation's 27th president (1909–13); he is the only person to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice.
