If I’m understanding this correctly, Congress passed legislation in order to allow the federal courts to review the Terry Schiavo case.
Is this the first time in U.S. history that Congress has passed legislation specific to one living person? Let’s exclude censuring, impeachment, awarding of Medals of Honor/Freedom (or similar ceremonial legislation) or other “procedural” acts.
On NPR this morning they said it has been done several times, but only in immigration cases.
The Schiavo case sets a precedence.
It even sets a precedent.
My bad. Thanks for the correction.
That’s about the only thing I can say about this situation in a non Pit situation.
This sort of thing isn’t unusual with businesses and tax law. What happens is the company persuades legislators to add to the tax code a provision that is so narrowly written there is only one company that this applies to. IOW, they don’t specifically mention XYZ Corporation, but only XYZ can take advantage of this.
In one example, Congress passed a law in 1963 making Winston Churchill an honorary American citizen.
Congress passes a limited number of private relief bills each year. It is not rare, per se, but just infrequently successful to pass a bill that only relates to one person.
Prior to 1971, there were literally hundreds, perhaps more than 1,000 private relief bills passed by Congress. Grover Cleveland vetoed nearly 500 private relief bills. The number of private bills passed by Congress in the last few decades probably amounts to several dozen.
The main reason that private relief bills are rare now is that Congress has given more leeway to the Executive Branch to make decisions on unusual circustances, whereas in the past, Congress demanded that it be the artiber of special circumstances.
Nowadays, private relief bills almost always relate to immigration cases and the late award of the Medal of Honor to a soldier. There are other types of private bills, however, such as those that relate to vessel documentation, copywright and patents, claims against the government, and other matters.
And in reference to rfgdxm, the tax breaks or government spending directed to a single company in a tax or appropriations bill is not the same as a private bill. Private bills specificly relate to one person or company only, but an earmark for a certain tax break is written to as to apply to an extremely limited circumstance that, just by chance (yeah right), only one company happens to meet.
Plus Congress has waived sovereign immunity in many circumstances now, whereas in the old days if you wanted to sue the government you needed to get a private bill passed merely to file suit.
–Cliffy