The Utah Parks Company , a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad , owned and operated restaurants, lodging, and bus tours in Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, the north rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and Cedar Breaks National Monument from the 1920s until 1972. Operating as a concessionaire of the National Park Service , the company operated from a base in Cedar City, Utah . The company's bus tours connected there with Union Pacific trains as well as tour buses from Los Angeles, San Francisco and other west coast cities, and offered a loop tour of the region's parks and monuments, escorted by a Utah Parks Company driver/guide.
90-555: Shortly after the National Park Service was created through the 1916 Organic Act , the brothers Gronway and Chauncey Perry applied for a transportation concession to take tourists from Cedar City to Mukuntuweap National Monument (later Zion National Park), incorporating as the National Park Transportation and Camping Company with William Wylie in 1917. The Parry brothers had previously operated
180-401: A jury , and aggressive pretrial "law and motion" practice designed to result in a pretrial disposition (that is, summary judgment ) or a settlement. U.S. courts pioneered the concept of the opt-out class action , by which the burden falls on class members to notify the court that they do not wish to be bound by the judgment, as opposed to opt-in class actions, where class members must join into
270-548: A British classic or two, a famous old case, or a nod to Blackstone ; but current British law almost never gets any mention." Foreign law has never been cited as binding precedent, but as a reflection of the shared values of Anglo-American civilization or even Western civilization in general. Federal law originates with the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to enact statutes for certain limited purposes like regulating interstate commerce . The United States Code
360-452: A court as persuasive authority as to how a particular statute or regulation may be interpreted (known as Skidmore deference), but are not entitled to Chevron deference. Unlike the situation with the states, there is no plenary reception statute at the federal level that continued the common law and thereby granted federal courts the power to formulate legal precedent like their English predecessors. Federal courts are solely creatures of
450-581: A final version is published in the Federal Register. The regulations are codified and incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is published once a year on a rolling schedule. Besides regulations formally promulgated under the APA, federal agencies also frequently promulgate an enormous amount of forms, manuals, policy statements, letters, and rulings. These documents may be considered by
540-597: A handful of areas like insurance , Congress has enacted laws expressly refusing to regulate them as long as the states have laws regulating them (see, e.g., the McCarran–Ferguson Act ). After the president signs a bill into law (or Congress enacts it over the president's veto), it is delivered to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) where it
630-438: A legislative branch which enacts state statutes, an executive branch that promulgates state regulations pursuant to statutory authorization, and a judicial branch that applies, interprets, and occasionally overturns both state statutes and regulations, as well as local ordinances. They retain plenary power to make laws covering anything not preempted by the federal Constitution, federal statutes, or international treaties ratified by
720-426: A lesser form of judicial deference known as Skidmore deference . Many lawsuits turn on the meaning of a federal statute or regulation, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force under the principle of stare decisis . During the 18th and 19th centuries, federal law traditionally focused on areas where there was an express grant of power to the federal government in the federal Constitution, like
810-409: A matter of fundamental fairness, and second, because in the absence of case law, it would be completely unworkable for every minor issue in every legal case to be briefed, argued, and decided from first principles (such as relevant statutes, constitutional provisions, and underlying public policies), which in turn would create hopeless inefficiency, instability, and unpredictability, and thereby undermine
900-478: A medical issue and others categorizing the same offense as a serious felony . The law of criminal procedure in the United States consists of a massive overlay of federal constitutional case law interwoven with the federal and state statutes that actually provide the foundation for the creation and operation of law enforcement agencies and prison systems as well as the proceedings in criminal trials. Due to
990-521: A number of civil law innovations. In the United States, the law is derived from five sources: constitutional law , statutory law , treaties, administrative regulations , and the common law (which includes case law). If Congress enacts a statute that conflicts with the Constitution, state or federal courts may rule that law to be unconstitutional and declare it invalid. Notably, a statute does not automatically disappear merely because it has been found unconstitutional; it may, however, be deleted by
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#17327798753421080-481: A shuttle service from the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad to St. George, Utah which started in 1915; the new transportation concession operated with a fleet of used vehicles: one seven-passenger Hudson, a Ford Model T, and three Cadillacs. The shoestring operation was run entirely by the two brothers, who were often so busy running the company they enlisted their younger brother, Whit, to drive tourists when he
1170-649: A small number of important British statutes in effect at the time of the Revolution have been independently reenacted by U.S. states. Two examples are the Statute of Frauds (still widely known in the U.S. by that name) and the Statute of 13 Elizabeth (the ancestor of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act). Such English statutes are still regularly cited in contemporary American cases interpreting their modern American descendants. Despite
1260-529: A subsequent statute. Many federal and state statutes have remained on the books for decades after they were ruled to be unconstitutional. However, under the principle of stare decisis , a lower court that enforces an unconstitutional statute will be reversed by the Supreme Court. Conversely, any court that refuses to enforce a constitutional statute will risk reversal by the Supreme Court. The United States and most Commonwealth countries are heirs to
1350-400: A willingness to reconsider others. And that willingness could itself threaten to substitute disruption, confusion, and uncertainty for necessary legal stability. We have not found here any factors that might overcome these considerations. It is now sometimes possible, over time, for a line of precedents to drift from the express language of any underlying statutory or constitutional texts until
1440-427: A year or less in jail and a substantial fine. To simplify the prosecution of traffic violations and other relatively minor crimes, some states have added a third level, infractions . These may result in fines and sometimes the loss of one's driver's license, but no jail time. On average, only three percent of criminal cases are resolved by jury trial; 97 percent are terminated either by plea bargaining or dismissal of
1530-441: Is no general federal common law . Although federal courts can create federal common law in the form of case law, such law must be linked one way or another to the interpretation of a particular federal constitutional provision, statute, or regulation (which was either enacted as part of the Constitution or pursuant to constitutional authority). Federal courts lack the plenary power possessed by state courts to simply make up law, which
1620-526: Is assigned a law number, and prepared for publication as a slip law . Public laws, but not private laws, are also given legal statutory citation by the OFR. At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the United States Statutes at Large , and they are known as session laws . The Statutes at Large present a chronological arrangement of the laws in
1710-462: Is not repugnant to domestic law or indigenous conditions. Some reception statutes impose a specific cutoff date for reception, such as the date of a colony's founding, while others are deliberately vague. Thus, contemporary U.S. courts often cite pre-Revolution cases when discussing the evolution of an ancient judge-made common law principle into its modern form, such as the heightened duty of care traditionally imposed upon common carriers . Second,
1800-423: Is permitted in some states but not others. Three strikes laws in certain states impose harsh penalties on repeat offenders. Some states distinguish between two levels: felonies and misdemeanors (minor crimes). Generally, most felony convictions result in lengthy prison sentences as well as subsequent probation , large fines , and orders to pay restitution directly to victims; while misdemeanors may lead to
1890-460: Is responsible for supervision, management, and control over the national parks and monuments, in addition to reservations under the control of the Department of Interior or created by Congress. The secretary of the Department of Agriculture may cooperate with the National Park Service with permission from the secretary of Interior. The secretary of Interior must make rules deemed necessary for
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#17327798753421980-460: Is the most prominent of the small number of remaining equity courts. Thirty-five states have adopted rules of civil procedure modeled after the FRCP (including rule numbers). However, in doing so, they had to make some modifications to account for the fact that state courts have broad general jurisdiction while federal courts have relatively limited jurisdiction. New York, Illinois, and California are
2070-571: Is the official compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal statutes. Many statutes give executive branch agencies the power to create regulations , which are published in the Federal Register and codified into the Code of Federal Regulations . From 1984 to 2024, regulations generally also carried the force of law under the Chevron doctrine , but are now subject only to
2160-540: Is usually expressed in the form of various legal rights and duties). (The remainder of this article requires the reader to be already familiar with the contents of the separate article on state law .) Criminal law involves the prosecution by the state of wrongful acts which are considered to be so serious that they are a breach of the sovereign's peace (and cannot be deterred or remedied by mere lawsuits between private parties). Generally, crimes can result in incarceration , but torts (see below) cannot. The majority of
2250-799: The Ahwahnee Hotel (1925) in Yosemite National Park , and Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park .) Underwood's surviving Utah Parks Company buildings are considered exceptional examples of the Rustic style of architecture, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The company also owned the landmark El Escalante Hotel in Cedar City where visitors intending to take
2340-620: The California constitutional convention was already complaining: "Now, when we require them to state the reasons for a decision, we do not mean they shall write a hundred pages of detail. We [do] not mean that they shall include the small cases, and impose on the country all this fine judicial literature, for the Lord knows we have got enough of that already." Today, in the words of Stanford law professor Lawrence M. Friedman : "American cases rarely cite foreign materials. Courts occasionally cite
2430-452: The Erie doctrine is that federal courts cannot dictate the content of state law when there is no federal issue (and thus no federal supremacy issue) in a case. When hearing claims under state law pursuant to diversity jurisdiction , federal trial courts must apply the statutory and decisional law of the state in which they sit, as if they were a court of that state, even if they believe that
2520-486: The Federal Arbitration Act (which has been interpreted to cover all contracts arising under federal or state law), arbitration clauses are generally enforceable unless the party resisting arbitration can show unconscionability or fraud or something else which undermines the entire contract. Tort law generally covers any civil action between private parties arising from wrongful acts that amount to
2610-484: The Judiciary Acts ), and the beginning of regular verbatim publication of U.S. appellate decisions by West Publishing . The rule gradually developed, case-by-case, as an extension of the judiciary's public policy of effective judicial administration (that is, in order to efficiently exercise the judicial power). The rule of binding precedent is generally justified today as a matter of public policy, first, as
2700-769: The United States Department of the Interior . The Act was signed into law on August 25, 1916, by President Woodrow Wilson . It is codified in Title 54 of the United States Code . The National Park Service established by the Act "shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to
2790-538: The military , money , foreign relations (especially international treaties), tariffs , intellectual property (specifically patents and copyrights ), and mail . Since the start of the 20th century, broad interpretations of the Commerce and Spending Clauses of the Constitution have enabled federal law to expand into areas like aviation , telecommunications , railroads , pharmaceuticals , antitrust , and trademarks . In some areas, like aviation and railroads,
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2880-451: The rule of law . The contemporary form of the rule is descended from Justice Louis Brandeis 's "landmark dissent in 1932's Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co .", which "catalogued the Court's actual overruling practices in such a powerful manner that his attendant stare decisis analysis immediately assumed canonical authority." Here is a typical exposition of how public policy supports
2970-440: The 50 U.S. states and in the territories. However, the scope of federal preemption is limited because the scope of federal power is not universal. In the dual sovereign system of American federalism (actually tripartite because of the presence of Indian reservations ), states are the plenary sovereigns , each with their own constitution , while the federal sovereign possesses only the limited supreme authority enumerated in
3060-635: The American Civic Association, and the few Washington staff members of the Department of the Interior responsible the National Parks. The act was sponsored by Representative William Kent (I) of California and Senator Reed Smoot (R) of Utah . First NPS Director Stephen Mather was put in charge of supervising and maintaining all designated national parks, battlefields, historic places, and monuments. The secretary of
3150-461: The Constitution. Indeed, states may grant their citizens broader rights than the federal Constitution as long as they do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights. Thus U.S. law (especially the actual "living law" of contract , tort , property , probate , criminal and family law , experienced by citizens on a day-to-day basis) consists primarily of state law , which, while sometimes harmonized, can and does vary greatly from one state to
3240-400: The Department of Interior, to oversee the nation's national parks. At the time there were 11 national parks, with a new one being added soon. Within his 1910 annual report, secretary of the Department of Interior at the time, Richard Ballinger, argued that congress needed to develop a bureau to oversee these national parks. Ballinger stated that the goal was to ensure future generations could use
3330-412: The Department of the Interior is in charge of choosing high-level employees within the National Park Service. This includes: one director, one assistant director, one chief clerk, one draftsman, one messenger, and any other employees seen necessary by the secretary of the Department of Interior The director of the National Park Service works under the supervision of the secretary of Interior. The director
3420-532: The Grand Canyon as well. After Wylie left the company, Chauncey invited Gronway to rejoin and Chauncey served as a guide during President Warren Harding 's trip to Zion in 1923. Union Pacific acquired the Los Angeles & Salt Lake in 1921 and extended a branch of the line from Lund to Cedar City in 1923, incorporating its Utah Parks Company subsidiary that year; the railroad-backed company bought out
3510-588: The National Park Service started entirely or in part from the Antiquities Act. By the time of the Organic Act, the Department of Interior was managing 14 national parks, 21 national monuments, and one archaeological reservation. The first mention of the creation of the Park Service started in 1910, with the American Civic Association declaring the need for a special bureau, probably within
3600-586: The Parry brothers in 1926 and installed them as company superintendents. The typical route to Zion from the southwest was a dead-end at the time; tourists going in were forced to take the same way out until the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway and Tunnel was completed in 1930. The tunnel was not initiated until it was apparent that Bryce Canyon would be added to the National Park System. After it was completed,
3690-535: The Union Pacific's interest in supporting National Park tourism correspondingly lessened. The railroad ended passenger train service to Cedar City in 1960, and in 1972 the Union Pacific donated its concession-related infrastructure to the National Park Service. The facilities at Cedar Breaks were razed, as were some of the developments at Bryce and Zion, but the remaining lodge facilities remain in use today. In March 2007, Xanterra Parks and Resorts took over
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3780-466: The United Kingdom lacked a coherent court hierarchy prior to the end of the 19th century. Furthermore, English judges in the eighteenth century subscribed to now-obsolete natural law theories of law, by which law was believed to have an existence independent of what individual judges said. Judges saw themselves as merely declaring the law which had always theoretically existed, and not as making
3870-583: The Utah Parks Company set up the "Grand Loop Tour" for tourists taking buses through Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Cedar Breaks ; the tunnel cut travel time to Bryce Canyon by half and reduced the distance from 149 to 88 miles (240 to 142 km). After 1936, bus tours were offered on the National Parks-standard White Model 706 . As the twentieth century progressed, railroad passenger traffic declined and
3960-406: The average American citizen is subject to the rules and regulations of several dozen different agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, depending upon one's current location and behavior. American lawyers draw a fundamental distinction between procedural law (which controls the procedure by which legal rights and duties are vindicated) and substantive law (the actual substance of law, which
4050-484: The book also explored the efforts to restore and manage the ecosystems within national parks after the accident which complies with The NPS Organic Act's mandate. United States federal law This is an accepted version of this page The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law , of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution , which prescribes
4140-405: The charges. For public welfare offenses where the state is punishing merely risky (as opposed to injurious) behavior, there is significant diversity across the various states. For example, punishments for drunk driving varied greatly prior to 1990. State laws dealing with drug crimes still vary widely, with some states treating possession of small amounts of drugs as a misdemeanor offense or as
4230-473: The class. Another unique feature is the so-called American Rule under which parties generally bear their own attorneys' fees (as opposed to the English Rule of "loser pays"), though American legislators and courts have carved out numerous exceptions. Contract law covers obligations established by agreement (express or implied) between private parties. Generally, contract law in transactions involving
4320-405: The common law legal tradition of English law. Certain practices traditionally allowed under English common law were expressly outlawed by the Constitution, such as bills of attainder and general search warrants. As common law courts, U.S. courts have inherited the principle of stare decisis . American judges, like common law judges elsewhere, not only apply the law, they also make the law, to
4410-408: The concession at the former Utah Parks Company locations. In March 2014, the concession inside Bryce Canyon National Park was taken over by Forever Resorts . The Utah Parks Company constructed rustic -style, stone-and-log lodges at each of the Park Service locations it served. Most of the major buildings were designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood , a noted period architect. (Underwood also designed
4500-460: The courts' decisions establish doctrines that were not considered by the texts' drafters. This trend has been strongly evident in federal substantive due process and Commerce Clause decisions. Originalists and political conservatives, such as Associate Justice Antonin Scalia have criticized this trend as anti-democratic. Under the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938), there
4590-542: The crimes committed in the United States are prosecuted and punished at the state level. Federal criminal law focuses on areas specifically relevant to the federal government like evading payment of federal income tax, mail theft, or physical attacks on federal officials, as well as interstate crimes like drug trafficking and wire fraud. All states have somewhat similar laws in regard to "higher crimes" (or felonies ), such as murder and rape , although penalties for these crimes may vary from state to state. Capital punishment
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#17327798753424680-613: The exact order that they have been enacted. Public laws are incorporated into the United States Code , which is a codification of all general and permanent laws of the United States. The main edition is published every six years by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives , and cumulative supplements are published annually. The U.S. Code is arranged by subject matter, and it shows
4770-412: The extent that their decisions in the cases before them become precedent for decisions in future cases. The actual substance of English law was formally "received" into the United States in several ways. First, all U.S. states except Louisiana have enacted " reception statutes " which generally state that the common law of England (particularly judge-made law) is the law of the state to the extent that it
4860-607: The federal Constitution and the federal Judiciary Acts. However, it is universally accepted that the Founding Fathers of the United States , by vesting "judicial power" into the Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts in Article Three of the United States Constitution , thereby vested in them the implied judicial power of common law courts to formulate persuasive precedent ; this power
4950-450: The federal Senate. Normally, state supreme courts are the final interpreters of state constitutions and state law, unless their interpretation itself presents a federal issue, in which case a decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by way of a petition for writ of certiorari . State laws have dramatically diverged in the centuries since independence, to the extent that the United States cannot be regarded as one legal system as to
5040-439: The federal government has developed a comprehensive scheme that preempts virtually all state law, while in others, like family law, a relatively small number of federal statutes (generally covering interstate and international situations) interacts with a much larger body of state law. In areas like antitrust, trademark, and employment law , there are powerful laws at both the federal and state levels that coexist with each other. In
5130-672: The foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as various civil liberties . The Constitution sets out the boundaries of federal law, which consists of Acts of Congress , treaties ratified by the Senate , regulations promulgated by the executive branch , and case law originating from the federal judiciary . The United States Code is the official compilation and codification of general and permanent federal statutory law. The Constitution provides that it, as well as federal laws and treaties that are made pursuant to it, preempt conflicting state and territorial laws in
5220-488: The fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations". The Act, which is reinforced by complementary legislation such as Endangered Species Act , Clean Air Act , and National Environmental Policy Act , serves as
5310-409: The issue, but has signaled in dicta that it sides with this rule. Therefore, in those states, there is only one federal court that binds all state courts as to the interpretation of federal law and the federal Constitution: the U.S. Supreme Court itself. The fifty American states are separate sovereigns , with their own state constitutions , state governments , and state courts . All states have
5400-433: The latter are able to do in the absence of constitutional or statutory provisions replacing the common law. Only in a few narrow limited areas, like maritime law, has the Constitution expressly authorized the continuation of English common law at the federal level (meaning that in those areas federal courts can continue to make law as they see fit, subject to the limitations of stare decisis ). The other major implication of
5490-428: The law. Therefore, a judge could reject another judge's opinion as simply an incorrect statement of the law, in the way that scientists regularly reject each other's conclusions as incorrect statements of the laws of science. In turn, according to Kozinski's analysis, the contemporary rule of binding precedent became possible in the U.S. in the nineteenth century only after the creation of a clear court hierarchy (under
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#17327798753425580-1139: The majority of types of law traditionally under state control, but must be regarded as 50 separate systems of tort law, family law, property law, contract law, criminal law, and so on. Most cases are litigated in state courts and involve claims and defenses under state laws. In a 2018 report, the National Center for State Courts ' Court Statistics Project found that state trial courts received 83.8 million newly filed cases in 2018, which consisted of 44.4 million traffic cases, 17.0 million criminal cases, 16.4 million civil cases, 4.7 million domestic relations cases, and 1.2 million juvenile cases. In 2018, state appellate courts received 234,000 new cases. By way of comparison, all federal district courts in 2016 together received only about 274,552 new civil cases, 79,787 new criminal cases, and 833,515 bankruptcy cases, while federal appellate courts received 53,649 new cases. States have delegated lawmaking powers to thousands of agencies , townships , counties , cities , and special districts . And all
5670-424: The management of properties under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Violation of any rules and authorizations under this act may result in a fine and/or imprisonment. The secretary may also sell or dispose timber when they deem it necessary to stop insects or diseases, or to preserve the parks, monuments, and reservations. The secretary may also destroy plants or animals that are determined to be harmful to
5760-462: The mid-19th century. Lawyers and judges used English legal materials to fill the gap. Citations to English decisions gradually disappeared during the 19th century as American courts developed their own principles to resolve the legal problems of the American people. The number of published volumes of American reports soared from eighteen in 1810 to over 8,000 by 1910. By 1879 one of the delegates to
5850-542: The most famous is the Miranda warning . The writ of habeas corpus is often used by suspects and convicts to challenge their detention, while the Third Enforcement Act and Bivens actions are used by suspects to recover tort damages for police brutality. The law of civil procedure governs process in all judicial proceedings involving lawsuits between private parties. Traditional common law pleading
5940-664: The most significant states that have not adopted the FRCP. Furthermore, all three states continue to maintain most of their civil procedure laws in the form of codified statutes enacted by the state legislature, as opposed to court rules promulgated by the state supreme court, on the ground that the latter are undemocratic. But certain key portions of their civil procedure laws have been modified by their legislatures to bring them closer to federal civil procedure. Generally, American civil procedure has several notable features, including extensive pretrial discovery , heavy reliance on live testimony obtained at deposition or elicited in front of
6030-664: The next. Even in areas governed by federal law, state law is often supplemented, rather than preempted. At both the federal and state levels, with the exception of the legal system of Louisiana , the law of the United States is largely derived from the common law system of English law , which was in force in British America at the time of the American Revolutionary War . However, American law has diverged greatly from its English ancestor both in terms of substance and procedure and has incorporated
6120-558: The park loop on a Utah Parks Company bus were required to stay their first night in Cedar City, which became known as the "Gateway to the Parks". The venerable El Escalante was especially well known to escorts in the 1960s, many from Greyhound Bus Lines, arriving via bus for a tour of the Parks. With up to 39 travelers per tour, the groups took over the El Escalante, which offered only 23 rooms, and some were forced to share bathrooms. It
6210-461: The parks. Beginning in 1911, Smoot and Representative John E. Raker of California had submitted bills to establish the National Park Service to oversee the management of all these holdings. The bills were opposed by the director of the U.S. Forest Service , Gifford Pinchot , and his supporters. The Forest Service believed that a National Park Service would be a threat to continued Forest Service control of public lands that had been set aside for
6300-416: The perennial inability of legislatures in the U.S. to enact statutes that would actually force law enforcement officers to respect the constitutional rights of criminal suspects and convicts, the federal judiciary gradually developed the exclusionary rule as a method to enforce such rights. In turn, the exclusionary rule spawned a family of judge-made remedies for the abuse of law enforcement powers, of which
6390-591: The presence of reception statutes, much of contemporary American common law has diverged significantly from English common law. Although the courts of the various Commonwealth nations are often influenced by each other's rulings, American courts rarely follow post-Revolution precedents from England or the British Commonwealth. Early on, American courts, even after the Revolution, often did cite contemporary English cases, because appellate decisions from many American courts were not regularly reported until
6480-567: The present status of laws (with amendments already incorporated in the text) that have been amended on one or more occasions. Congress often enacts statutes that grant broad rulemaking authority to federal agencies . Often, Congress is simply too gridlocked to draft detailed statutes that explain how the agency should react to every possible situation, or Congress believes the agency's technical specialists are best equipped to deal with particular fact situations as they arise. Therefore, federal agencies are authorized to promulgate regulations. Under
6570-487: The primary foundation of all management decisions. National parks began to be designated in the second half of the 19th century, and national monuments in the early part of the 20th century. Each park or monument was managed individually or, alternately in some cases, by the United States Army , each with varying degrees of success. The first National Park in the world was Yellowstone National Park , which
6660-544: The principle of Chevron deference, regulations normally carry the force of law as long as they are based on a reasonable interpretation of the relevant statutes. Regulations are adopted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Regulations are first proposed and published in the Federal Register (FR or Fed. Reg.) and subject to a public comment period. Eventually, after a period for public comment and revisions based on comments received,
6750-507: The purpose of the parks, monuments, or reservations. Nothing shall be leased from parks in a way that interferes with free access for the public. The secretary may also approve grazing on any of these lands, except for Yellowstone National Park. Jordan Fisher Smith's book, Engineering Eden , follows the story of a fatal bear attack in Yellowstone National Park that sparked a subsequent federal trial. The book addressed
6840-580: The relevant state law is irrational or just bad public policy. Under Erie , such federal deference to state law applies only in one direction: state courts are not bound by federal interpretations of state law. Similarly, state courts are also not bound by most federal interpretations of federal law. In the vast majority of state courts, interpretations of federal law from federal courts of appeals and district courts can be cited as persuasive authority, but state courts are not bound by those interpretations. The U.S. Supreme Court has never squarely addressed
6930-473: The rest were unpublished and bound only the parties to each case. As federal judge Alex Kozinski has pointed out, binding precedent as we know it today simply did not exist at the time the Constitution was framed. Judicial decisions were not consistently, accurately, and faithfully reported on both sides of the Atlantic (reporters often simply rewrote or failed to publish decisions which they disliked), and
7020-453: The rule of stare decisis . This is where the act of deciding a case becomes a limited form of lawmaking in itself, in that an appellate court's rulings will thereby bind itself and lower courts in future cases (and therefore also implicitly binds all persons within the court's jurisdiction). Prior to a major change to federal court rules in 2007, about one-fifth of federal appellate cases were published and thereby became binding precedents, while
7110-422: The rule of binding precedent in a 2008 majority opinion signed by Justice Breyer : Justice Brandeis once observed that "in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right." Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co. [...] To overturn a decision settling one such matter simply because we might believe that decision is no longer "right" would inevitably reflect
7200-609: The sale of goods has become highly standardized nationwide as a result of the widespread adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code. However, there is still significant diversity in the interpretation of other kinds of contracts, depending upon the extent to which a given state has codified its common law of contracts or adopted portions of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts . Parties are permitted to agree to arbitrate disputes arising from their contracts. Under
7290-426: The specific circumstances of the death regarding the legal accountability, as well as explored border themes relevant to The NPS Organic Act. Both Engineering Eden and the Act have strong ties to conservation, restoration, and the management or the natural and cultural resources for future visitors. While Engineering Eden delves into the trial which followed the legal framework established through The NPS Organic Act,
7380-448: The state constitutions, statutes and regulations (as well as all the ordinances and regulations promulgated by local entities) are subject to judicial interpretation like their federal counterparts. It is common for residents of major U.S. metropolitan areas to live under six or more layers of special districts as well as a town or city, and a county or township (in addition to the federal and state governments). Thus, at any given time,
7470-633: The timber trade. Beginning in 1910 the American Civic Association with the support of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the Sierra Club had led the call for a federal service to manage the parks. The noted landscape architect and planner Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was also a booster of a single national organization to manage the National Parks. Successful and influential industrialist Stephen Mather
7560-535: Was a common joke among escorts that if you could survive that first night at the El Escalante with a full tour, you could survive most anything. National Park Service Organic Act The National Park Service Organic Act , or the Organic Act as referred to within the National Park Service, is a United States federal law that established the National Park Service (NPS), an agency of
7650-477: Was challenged by Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane to lobby for legislation creating a bureau to oversee the National Parks. Mather accepted pro bono (accepting a perfunctory salary of $ 1) and with assistance primarily by a young lawyer named Horace Albright , a campaign was begun. By 1915, regular meetings were occurring at Kent's home in Washington. The group’s regulars were Kent, J. Horace McFarland of
7740-561: Was established by the Yellowstone National Park Act of 1872. This act set aside over 2 million acres that were prohibited from settlement, occupancy, or sale. The park was dedicated to be for the enjoyment of the public. The secretary of the Department of Interior was put in charge of preserving all timber, mineral deposits, geologic wonders, and other resources within Yellowstone. The Antiquities Act of 1906
7830-556: Was just 13 years old. When the United States entered World War I, the two older brothers joined the Army and turned over their proxies in the company to Wylie; upon their return in 1920, they discovered that Wylie had forced them out. After a court battle, Chauncey Perry and Wylie reconciled and restarted the company in 1921, now renamed to the Utah—Grand Canyon Transportation Company since they now provided trips to
7920-616: Was replaced by code pleading in 27 states after New York enacted the Field Code in 1850 and code pleading in turn was subsequently replaced again in most states by modern notice pleading during the 20th century. The old English division between common law and equity courts was abolished in the federal courts by the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938; it has also been independently abolished by legislative acts in nearly all states. The Delaware Court of Chancery
8010-404: Was signed as part of a movement to preserve prehistoric cliff dwellings and pueblo dwellings. It allowed the president to designate objects of historical and scientific significance on lands designated as national monuments. It denied the ability to appropriate or excavate any of these antiquities on federal land without permission from the department with jurisdiction. Nearly 1/4 of everything under
8100-516: Was widely accepted, understood, and recognized by the Founding Fathers at the time the Constitution was ratified. Several legal scholars have argued that the federal judicial power to decide " cases or controversies " necessarily includes the power to decide the precedential effect of those cases and controversies. The difficult question is whether federal judicial power extends to formulating binding precedent through strict adherence to
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