Hotly contested congressional statutes prove highly durable once enacted as permanent law.
Evidence
For the history of acts of Congress which deal with major issues of social polioy and which have been well hammered out on the anvils of public and Con- gressional debate is that they are durable. Constitutional provisions aside, they are the most durable form of official settlement that the American system knows. Try to think of a hotly contested act of Congress which was enacted as permanent law but proved not to be. There are not many. Like its predecessor, the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 will no doubt some day be amended. But it would be astonishing if it were repealed. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 4340
Categorization
- QUESTION: Claim invites testing against counterexamples — worth chasing to see which acts of Congress did not prove durable.
- SEED: An essay angle testing this durability thesis against specific repealed acts (e.g., Prohibition-era statutes, antitrust overrides).
- XREF: connects to: U.S. environmental law has survived every political assault and grown stronger after each — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 21; A concept’s very contestedness is what keeps it politically alive. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 310
Broader Connections
- A concept’s very contestedness is what keeps it politically alive.
#qualifies(0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 310