Many of us grew up watching the Schoolhouse Rock! series of short films on Saturday mornings. The peppy tunes taught us about mathematics ("Three Is a Magic Number"), grammar ("Conjunction Junction"), and science ("Electricity, Electricity").
They also taught us about history and civics, with hits like "Sufferin' Till Suffrage" and, of course, "I'm Just a Bill."
Turns out that the judges at the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remember those songs, too. Because they cited one in a recent opinion:
Hat tip: Legal Blog Watch
They also taught us about history and civics, with hits like "Sufferin' Till Suffrage" and, of course, "I'm Just a Bill."
Turns out that the judges at the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remember those songs, too. Because they cited one in a recent opinion:
To establish standing, plaintiffs must demonstrate that it is “likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision,” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561 (internal quotation marks omitted), but here, State Petitioners simply hypothesize that Congress will enact “corrective legislation.” State Pet’rs’ Timing & Tailoring Reply Br. 15. We have serious doubts as to whether, for standing purposes, it is ever “likely” that Congress will enact legislation at all. After all, a proposed bill must make it through committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and garner a majority of votes in both chambers—overcoming, perhaps, a filibuster in the Senate. If passed, the bill must then be signed into law by the President, or go back to Congress so that it may attempt to override his veto. As a generation of schoolchildren knows, “by that time, it’s very unlikely that [a bill will] becomeThe full opinion is here.
a law. It’s not easy to become a law.” Schoolhouse Rock, I’m Just a Bill, at 2:41, available at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7266360872513258185# (last visited June 1, 2012).
Hat tip: Legal Blog Watch