There are more than 1,100 places in the federal statutes where rights or benefits are based on a person's marital status, according to one analysis by advocates for same-sex marriage.
"I think it's a bad development if they are not going to highlight for the nation in all these new statutes where they think there are problems," he said.
Employer groups and conservative legal organizations have recently taken aim at the disparate impact theory across a variety of civil rights statutes, where the theory was not explicitly provided by Congress but rather inferred by the Supreme Court in an earlier, more liberal day.
It is often said that this creates a marked contrast with statutes, where a canonical formulation of the legal rule being laid down is provided.
"There are other statutes where it's clear that it can't be used to do something like this.
If one accepts that statements by the executive can allow them to specify the meaning of particular laws without formally including them in statutes where they can be approved by Parliament, it violates this separation of powers, allowing the executive to make law.
In an attempt to address this, last month, two bills were introduced in the US House and Senate that would require prosecutors to prove a specific level of intent in trials involving federal criminal statutes where the text is silent on state of mind.
We contrast this with other environmental frameworks such as ambient air and water quality statutes where the concept of "shared commons" and the "polluter pays" is more robust.
If you can, it helps to research what laws and statutes apply where you live.[25].
