...Are Ethics Laws in the Federal Government a Violation of Constitutional Rights? Abstract The paper explores the United States Government’s efforts to put in place laws that guide the ethical behavior of its civil service employees. From the founding of the nation, ensuring ethical behavior by government employees has been a recurring theme, and legislation, laws, and executive orders have been implemented at each stage of our government’s growth to guide federal employees in the ethical administration of their duties. However, at what point do the laws become too restrictive on the very citizens who have sworn to uphold our nation’s democratic values? A history of legislation, laws and executive orders is given along with the eventual backlash of court cases and demands for reform based on constitutional rights. For purposed of brevity, this analysis will focus on federal employees. Are Ethics Laws in the Federal Government a Violation of Constitutional Rights? Over two hundred years ago, with regard to ethics in the federal government, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following words “The right of any officer to give his vote at elections as a qualified citizen is not meant to be restrained, nor, however given, shall it have any effect to his prejudice; but it is expected that he will not attempt to influence the votes of others, nor take any part in the business of electioneering, that being deemed inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution and his duties...
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...III.Role of government in controlling what information was released (WWII) The Federal government in World War II needed to silence any anti-war reporting in order to rally up the citizens to support the war. To do this, President “Roosevelt established the Office of War Information (OWI) by Executive order 9182 on June 13, 1942.” (Archives.gov reel story WWII). The OWI was the main Federal government agency in charge of censoring all non-pertinent information about the war, that could give the enemy an advantage. To this end, it was in control of many things, the most significant of which was newsreels. “[It] not only told Hollywood what should be excluded but what should, in fact, be included.” (Thomas Doherty Radio goes to war) This proves...
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...Cost Accounting and the Federal Government Washington will spend $782 billion more from 2000 to 2003 than it did between 1996 and 1999--an increase of $5,000 per household. With public demand to reduce federal spending, the Federal Government is rethinking the way that it provides goods and services. In order to cut spending the Federal Government is looking for new approaches to old problems. The biggest problem being, accountability. One approach to the accountability problem is to implement managerial cost accounting practices throughout the Federal Government and it’s programs. Cost accounting would help the government focus policy and funding decisions around relevant information. It would help program managers in monitoring performance and in reporting results to Congress and the taxpayers. The five standards for managerial cost accounting that have been suggested are: 1. Accumulating and reporting costs of activities on a regular basis for management information purposes. 2. Establishing responsibility segments to match costs with outputs. 3. Determining the full cost of government goods and services. 4. Recognizing the costs of goods and services provided by one federal entity to another. 5. Using appropriate costing methodologies to accumulate and assign costs to outputs. The costs in a federal government cost accounting system would be divided into two categories: program costs and costs not assigned. Each of these has sub-categories. Program...
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...University of Phoenix Material Foundations of the U.S. Federal Government Worksheet Complete the chart below by identifying the three branches of government and their entities. U.S. Constitution 1. Legislative 2. Legislative 3. Judicial 3. Judicial 2. Executive 2. Executive | 6. Supreme Court 6. Supreme Court 5. President 5. President 4. Congress 4. Congress | 9. Vice President 9. Vice President | House of Representatives House of Representatives 8. Senate 8. Senate | True or False 1. The Tenth Amendment limits the power of states. FALSE 2. The Constitution signed in 1787 contained the Bill of Rights. FALSE 3. The Constitution created a system of dual sovereignty, meaning the federal government has exclusive power in interstate commerce. True 4. The president and vice president are part of the legislative branch. FALSE 5. Congress can impose federal mandates, which require the state government to comply with its orders. True or False Multiple Choice 6. The concept of dual federalism D: viewed federal and state power as fixed d. The Bill of Rights is C: the first 10 amendments to the Constitution e. The legislative branch is composed of which of the following: ...
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...Political and legal history has long involved conflicts between that of the national government and the desire of the states to preserve their sovereignty. The states gain their power in that anything power not delegated to the national government by the Constitution and not prohibited to the states by the Constitution are reserved to the states respectively. Granted formally by the Tenth Amendment, state governments “regulate commerce within their borders and the power to maintain a state militia,” (Sidlow, 2017). The supremacy clause of The Constitution “states that the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the federal government “shall be the supreme Law of the Land,” (Sidlow). This translates to the states not being able to counter...
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...There are many differences and similarities between state/local governments, and federal governments. The federal government is superior to the state and local governments. State governments do basic things such as licensing professionals, while federal governments do advanced things such as declaring war. The state governments make decisions that have an impact on the states, while federal governments decide the fate of the country. Both state/local governments and federal governments have the same structure. They have the three branches, the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. The judicial branch interprets the law/oversees the courts, the executive branch executes the law, meanwhile, the legislative branch...
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...The U.S. Constitution and government possesses qualities from both federalism and republicanism. A federal government combines a federal government (central government) with regional government (state government). Federalism created a relationship between national government and state government, splitting the power and abilities also while sharing them. The national government has abilities such as coining money, starting war, and regulating trade. While the state government has the abilities of building roads, collecting taxes, and setting street signs. The two also share powers such as borrowing money, establishing courts, and creating laws. Federalism is active in the United States style of government because of the separation of powers,...
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...Running Head: THE MAINLEVELS OF THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT The Main Levels of the U.S. Federal Government Lynn Todd Colorado Technical University Online PBAD200-0904A-13 American Government Professor Jamie Boyd October 12, 2009 The U.S. Government is composed up of three key branches, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. Each branch has its own powers, functions, checks, and balances. First, we will look at the history of the Constitution. During the 1600’s many Europeans left Britain in search of economic, political, and intellectual freedoms. However, they remained under the power of Britain, which functioned under a unitary system of government with one national power that permitted it to take action against any individual. During the Revolutionary war, the states battled with Britain, and won their freedom from the unitary system of government of Britain (CTU online, 2008, phase 1 multimedia presentation)....
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...All In: The Federal Government’s Potential Jackpot In recent years, internet gambling, specifically online poker, has boomed. Large sums of money are being wagered everyday on peer to peer gambling websites. The battle wages on in the United States whether or not this activity should be legalized and taxed. It would seem that with an estimated 15 million Americans taking their virtual seat at the poker table coupled with America’s obsession with gambling in general would make the revenue generated from legalization of internet gambling a slam dunk. Unfortunately, while the revenue gained from taxation would introduce a new source of relief, there is a greater fear of societal issues this may cause. The debate on the social part of legalizing online gambling has been ongoing for over a decade now. It hasn’t been until recently that there has been more of a focus on what positives can come from legalizing, regulating, and taxing Internet gambling. With the budget deficit growing even larger in the midst of an economic downturn, there aren’t many areas where you can increase taxes, let alone tax something that hasn’t been previously taxed. What is great about poker and other online gambling is the demand is there, has been there, and will be there for the foreseeable future. If taxation were to occur now, the federal government would be getting in on the ground floor. As the country re-emerges from the economic downturn, Americans will have a greater disposable income...
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...America’s federal government has attempted to find a strategy to enter into the lives of the American people. Cognizant Americans are unaware to crestfallen facts of government. In this matter, religion is a big target of the government. When the first settlers arrived in North America and settled into the thirteen colonies they were very afraid of the idea of government. Great Britain's corrupt ruler and government frightened colonists from being under control of an untrustworthy government. They did not want their faith to be controlled as it had once before. Even though protecting religious freedoms is important, the federal government of the United States should not be forced to protect religious liberty through laws and programs because the Constitution protects us from government involvement in religion; also if the government were to gain this power, they would be able to authorize the religious system of many Americans, and this aspect leads to the...
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...The federal government would swallow up the states because different states need different laws for their people to be successful, only a few people would be representing an entire state, and the chances of the selected representatives understanding the issues of the people they represent, are very low. According to this Constitution, laws decided on by the Senate and House of Representatives will supersede all state laws, even if the law would have a negative effect on the state’s people. According to Robert Yates in the Anti-Federalist papers, “There is no way… of avoiding the destruction of the state governments, whenever the Congress please to do it.” Yates asserts that congress will have the power to control the state governments by creating rules that could slow growth and create an economic standstill. It is an undisputed and proven fact that the states have different needs to drive their economies. For example, a major driver of New York’s economy is based off of manufacturing goods and raw materials. South Carolina’s economy is driven by farming and cotton production. In order for the people of those states to be successful, they would need to make laws specific to the needs of their industry....
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...Introduction Organizations need to make sure that their employees follow the laws and guidelines in order to avoid being involved in legal battles. Organizational leaders can direct their managers and employees to follow the requirements by taking several steps. These steps include motivating employees, developing and maintaining programs as well as encouraging diversity. Xerox is one of those companies that strongly believes in diversity and have received positive rapport from top business magazines, news broadcasters and other corporations. The organization has made significant changes to accommodate minorities and women. Including these changes into their organization had resulted in promoting many women and minorities into higher positions. Discuss how human resources professionals can ensure that top organizational leaders encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines. A corporation can reap the negative effects when employees fail to abide by the laws and guidelines. To encourage employees to follow the laws and guidelines, the corporation can initiate several steps. It is very important that the employees are made aware and to do so, the corporation must make available the necessary information to inform these employees. During the recruitment and selection process, human resources management should let possible and selected candidates know about the laws and guidelines that must be followed. This will ensure that employees are knowledgeable. Managers...
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...Branches of the Federal Government Name Institution The US federal government constitutes three arms namely: the legislature, executive and justice. The executive constitutes of the president and about 5000 workers, the legislature constitutes the representatives and the judicial is made up of both the Supreme Court and lower courts. (Truman, 1993) The legislative arm of the government is also called Congress. It is divided into the senate which has 100 senators and 435 representatives. The number of representatives’ is determined by the population of people in a given state. The senators and representatives are elected by eligible voters in their states (Truman, 1993). It is charged with the making of national laws and allocation of funds that will assist in running of the federal government. They also provide assistance to the 50 US States (Truman, 1993). Members of the congress should vote according to the views of the constituents who elected them. Members of the congress should therefore visit their home districts and keep in touch with their constituent views. They should also be in good communication terms with their local political leaders. Some congress men pay attention more than others but they all at one point will go back to their homes. If one hopes to be elected again then they ought not to ignore their own constituency. People will always vote for a candidate who cares for them all the time and not one that just rushes to his people...
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...Assess the claim that the federal government was more of a hindrance than a help to the development of African American civil rights in the period of 1865 to 1992- Ellen Purse. The Federal government was not more of a hindrance than a help, but they weren’t explicitly helpful either. There was an issue of it being rare for congress, the supreme court and the presidency to all be equally liberal meaning that it was difficult for there to be significant prolonged help, but correspondingly it was rare for there to be a supreme court, congress and presidency that was equally conservative. Restoration was the time with the most cooperation between all parts of the federal government which then led to what is possibly the most significant progress...
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...To what extent was federal government responsible from improving the status of black people in the US in the years 1945-55? The status of black people living in America had changed incredibly in the years 1945-55. This is because of the different presidents, congress, and the Supreme Court. Although I believe that the federal government was highly responsible for improving the status of black people in the years 1945-55, this essay will also be examining other factors that may have helped; factors such as Martin Luther King, other groups, and the media. To a certain extent, the Supreme Court played a considerable part in improving the status of black people in the US in the years 1945-55. For example, court cases such as Brown vs Topeka (1954), Browder vs Gayle (1956), and Morgan vs Virginia (1946) were all very important in improving the status of black people. This is because the Topeka case argued that the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine was a contradiction in terms, that is to say they believed that it was impossible for citizens to receive services that were both ‘separate’ and ‘equal’, The Browder case decision ruled that segregation of buses was illegal and the Morgan case ruled that segregation on interstate buses was illegal which meant that on buses both black and white people had the same status. This is why the Supreme Court played a considerable part in improving the status of black people in the years 1945-55, because all of these cases picked apart the legal...
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