Legal Environment of Business Mondays 6 35 9 20pm Professor Ludick notes by Tyler Moses based on audio recordings of lectures April 13 2015 The Constitution and Criminal Law Rights Before the Constitution was approved it had to be changed by the Bill of o The Bill of Rights gave us rights that cannot be taken away from us The Constitution called for a form of govt that had never existed before o We have a representative republic not democracy some aspects of democracy though around the world o Other forms of govt at the time of Constitution were mostly Monarchy s o Fear to use the term democracy at the time because there was a great difference in the experience and education levels in the individuals who lived in America there was still a belief that the ability to access power in govt would be with a very small elite group of people you had to be white male and had to own property in order to have the right to vote or hold office o Democracy was used synonyms with mob rule they wanted to keep power away from majority because there was a fear that they didn t have an understanding of what was needed to rule the country The Constitution provides for the rule of law o Majority is not always right or fair or unbiased o The Constitution sets up various basic principles that nobody can take away from us The world in 1787 was a world with religion in it o Rulers of every country had a mandated religion that their people should practice leaderships would change and sometimes the religion would change as well o The Consititution respects that there are a multitude of religions none of which are superior requires that govt stay out of individuals religious beliefs o We are a Christian religion in practice but there are no laws saying anyone must be any religion The Constitution stands for a proposition that govt be limited and that means that govt cannot be all things for all people o The requirement that there be certain dispersion of power among the 3 branches of govt the point of the Constitution is to disperse power Articles stood for strong central govt and it failed Very unique thing 235 years ago Full Faith and Credit Clause if a court decision is obtained in one community that judgment is taken to another jurisdiction that jurisdiction must honor that decision articles of confederation failed to do this When we go to war with another power it s not the states that are filing declarations of war it s the federal govt o Legislative branch Founders wanted it to be the most powerful branch in the Articles of Confederation it was The Constitution created 2 branches of legislature Senate and House Separation of power House does budgeting but everything must be approved by Senate o Executive branch The Articles of Confederation provided a very weak president Constitution makes each branch pretty equal in power For the first time the Constitution recognizes the importance of judiciary branch o Judiciary branch Protecting the rule of law Have the ability to determine if legislative enactments are Courts would decide trials but the Constitution gave Judiciary constitutional or not much more power o Constitution is the supreme law of the land Any laws that are passed by other laws of govt that are contrary to Constitution are not enforceable The C carves out various activity that fed govt can participate in and state govt as well The Articles weakness the feds had very little ability to raise No fed national tax law until 1913 o Businesses were not thriving due to inflation and chaos after the revolutionary war The Commerce clause fancy word that stands for the fact that the founders understood the importance of the 13 colonies and that they needed to work together they needed uniform laws to promote business in respect to their geography The recognition of commerce clause and federal supremacy clause Preemption Doctorate taxes o If the fed govt has passed a law if that law has specifically preempted or excluded the other legislatures then any state or local laws are passed as null and void o Even if the fed govt hasn t preempted certain matters are of national importance Treaties monies immigration policies o Every community can pass laws can regulate business in their community cannot create favoritism regarding local business out of their community o Interstate Commerce any business that would be more than local the community cannot pass any laws that would impact businesses outside of the community Barber shop in Kent local but most other businesses will have more than a local impact o Privilege Immunity living A lot of drugs in Ohio are coming from Detroit Ohio cannot stop every Michigen plate that comes across the border has to be neutrality in laws that would be violation of equal protection clause under the privilege immunity section of the 14th amendment Stop favoritism of local businesses Protects us in our rights to travel and earn a Ohio has a law that says if you are in a motor vehicle accident and crash into someone and you don t have insurance and the person you hit is not compensated your license will be suspended we have the right to filing bankruptcy more than 1mil Americans every year Ohio cannot suspend your driver s license if you file bankruptcy and the debt from the accident is forgiven o The Constitution created a strong Executive branch Within the Executive branch for the first time in the world the president had a limited term of office King and Queens ruled until their died or overthrown they typically kept the rule in the family 8 years is the longest an executive can be in office o The Constitution was not the document it is today the day it was proposed The only reason it was passed was because there was a promise of recognition of individual rights Expostfacto prohibits legislature from making laws that make something that was criminal retroactive Some type of business activity is permissible but legislature wants to add restrictions on that activity so they reach back in the past and make some past activity criminal Legislature has changed drunk driving laws but from then on can t reach back into past The legislature makes a law that even if it was criminal at that time increases the penalties in retroactive can t do Bill of attainder law that seeks to punish person by the fact that they are a member of a group KKK American Nazi party We operate in America in the freedom of ideas a bill of attainder is illegal The United States does not treat all individual
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