The USA PATRIOT Act was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, and the commonly used short name is a contrived acronym that is embedded in the name set forth in the statute.
The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States. It contains 53 titles, which are organized into numbered sections.
In the United States, Social Security is the commonly used term for the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program and is administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The Social Security Act was passed in 1935, and the existing version of the Act, as amended, encompasses several social welfare and social insurance programs.
The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The law created the Social Security program as well as insurance against unemployment. The law was part of Roosevelt's New Deal domestic program.
The Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of President Harry S. Truman, becoming law on June 23, 1947.
The Fair Deal was a set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in 1945 and in his January 1949 State of the Union Address. More generally, the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administration, from 1945 to 1953. It offered new proposals to continue New Deal liberalism, but with a conservative coalition controlling Congress during most of Truman's presidency, only a few of its major initiatives became law and then only if they had considerable Republican Party support. As Richard Neustadt concludes, the most important proposals were aid to education, national health insurance, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, and repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act. They were all debated at length, then voted down. Nevertheless, enough smaller and less controversial items passed that liberals could claim some success.
The following is a section summary of the USA PATRIOT Act, Title II. The USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the United States Congress in 2001 as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures gave increased powers of surveillance to various government agencies and bodies. This title has 25 sections, with one of the sections containing a sunset clause which sets an expiration date, of 31 December 2005, for most of the title's provisions. On 22 December 2005, the sunset clause expiration date was extended to 3 February 2006.
The Controlled Substances Penalties Amendments Act of 1984, 98 Stat. 2068, generally enhanced the penalties for violations of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The 1984 legislation removed an ambiguity in the then-existing law by providing that a State drug felony conviction would trigger the provisions enhancing penalties for recidivists; it went further by providing that a Foreign drug felony conviction would have the same effect. Finally, the 1984 legislation doubled the penalties for distribution of controlled substances where the offense is committed on or within 1,000 feet of school property.
The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974(RPA) (16 U.S.C. §§ 1600 et seq.) is a United States federal law which authorizes long-range planning by the United States Forest Service to protect, develop, and enhance the productivity and other values of forest resources. RPA requires that a renewable resource assessment and a Forest Service plan be prepared every ten and five years, respectively, to plan and prepare for the future of natural resources. RPA was reorganized, expanded, and otherwise amended by the National Forest Management Act of 1976.
Richardson v. Perales, 402 U.S. 389 (1971), was a case heard by the United States Supreme Court to determine and delineate several questions concerning administrative procedure in Social Security disability cases. Among the questions considered was the propriety of using physicians' written reports generated from medical examinations of a disability claimant, and whether these could constitute "substantial evidence" supportive of finding nondisability under the Social Security Act.
The Windfall Elimination Provision was a statutory provision in United States law which affects benefits paid by the Social Security Administration under Title II of the Social Security Act. It reduced the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) of a person's Retirement Insurance Benefits (RIB) or Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) when that person is eligible or entitled to a pension based on a job which did not contribute to the Social Security Trust Fund. When it was in effect, it also affected the benefits of others claiming on the same social security record. It was repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act in 2025.
The Symington Amendment is legislation introduced by Stuart Symington, a Democratic senator from Missouri, authored to strengthen the US position on nuclear non-proliferation.
The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, or FERA, Pub. L. 111–21 (text)(PDF), S. 386, 123 Stat. 1617, enacted May 20, 2009, is a public law in the United States enacted in 2009. The law enhanced criminal enforcement of federal fraud laws, especially regarding financial institutions, mortgage fraud, and securities fraud or commodities fraud.
Califano v. Webster, 430 U.S. 313 (1977), was a case before the United States Supreme Court that was decided per curiam.
The Investor Protections and Improvements to the Regulation of Securities is a United States Act of Congress, which forms Title IX, sections 901 to 991 of the much broader and larger Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Its main purpose is to revise the powers and structure of the Securities and Exchange Commission, credit rating organizations, and the relationships between customers and broker-dealers or investment advisers. This title calls for various studies and reports from the SEC and Government Accountability Office (GAO). This title contains nine subtitles.
The Riegle–Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 (IBBEA) amended the laws governing federally chartered banks in order to restore the laws' competitiveness with the recently relaxed laws governing state-chartered banks. The goal was the return to a balance between the benefits of a state bank charter versus a federal bank charter. Among other notable changes, the Act stipulated that a federally chartered bank wishing to expand must first undergo a review of its Community Reinvestment Act compliance. Congress approved the bill by September 14, 1994. The bill was signed by Bill Clinton on September 29, 1994.
The Child Protection Restoration and Penalties Enhancement Act of 1990 , Title III of the Crime Control Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101–647, 104 Stat. 4789, enacted November 29, 1990, S. 3266, is part of a United States Act of Congress which amended 18 U.S.C. § 2257 in respect to record-keeping requirements as set by the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988, also establishing prohibitions. The Act also amended 18 U.S.C. § 2243 and 18 U.S.C. § 2252 establishing and increasing penalties for sexual abuse of a minor. Also see Child Protective Services, for global practices and the approach of US.
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) was a statutory provision in United States law which affected benefits paid by the Social Security Administration. It was repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, which President Biden signed on January 5, 2025. It reduced spousal and widow(er) Social Security retirement benefits in situations where the spouse did not pay Social Security taxes on their employment earnings. Many state and local government employees and other non-covered pension recipients do not contribute to the Social Security system. One exception to this provision occurs when the spouse is receiving a foreign pension for a different country, in which case the Government Pension Offset is not applied. This is in contrast to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which reduces Social Security benefits of the actual number holder on whose Social Security record the claim is filed.
Lockhart v. United States, 546 U.S. 142 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court decision concerning whether the United States government can offset Social Security benefits to collect on student loan debt over 10 years old. In a unanimous decision, the Court affirmed the lower court's decision that allowed the offset by the government.
Califano v. Goldfarb, 430 U.S. 199 (1977), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the different treatment of men and women mandated by 42 U.S.C. § 402(f)(1)(D) constituted invidious discrimination against female wage earners by affording them less protection for their surviving spouses than is provided to male employees, and therefore violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case was brought by a widower who was denied survivor benefits on the grounds that he had not been receiving at least one-half support from his wife when she died. Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the court, ruling unconstitutional the provision of the Social Security Act which set forth a gender-based distinction between widows and widowers, whereby Social Security Act survivors benefits were payable to a widower only if he was receiving at least half of his support from his late wife, while such benefits based on the earnings of a deceased husband were payable to his widow regardless of dependency. The Court found that this distinction deprived female wage earners of the same protection that a similarly situated male worker would have received, violating due process and equal protection.
