Private bills are laws that affect only one person, group, or business, unlike public bills. While most US state constitutions prohibit private bills, Congress is not restricted. Private bills were historically used in divorce law and other special circumstances, but have become rare in the US since 1971 due to federal agencies having more discretion and the belief in equal application of the law. Private bills traditionally dealt with immigration, tax debt, military decorations, and government employment.
A private bill is legislation that specifically affects only a single person, an identifiable group of people, or a business entity, unlike public bills, which apply to all persons under the jurisdiction of the legislature. In the United States, most state constitutions specifically prohibit private bills, but the US Constitution does not similarly restrict Congress. Private bills are also part of the legislative history of other democracies and have been a last resort to obtain justice or equity in special circumstances.
One of the areas where private bills have historically been used extensively is divorce law. In Canada, for example, only the legislature could grant divorce until the Divorce Act was passed in 1968; similarly, divorce in the UK was available only by ecclesiastical annulment or Act of Parliament before the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. In the US, private laws were enacted by Congress to address issues where equity or relief were not available from anyone Other meanings; that is, enactment of a private bill was a last resort. However, private bills of exchange were used extensively in the United States until 1971, when the various federal agencies tasked with executing or enforcing the law were given greater discretion to fix inequities.
Private bills in the United States traditionally dealt with issues such as immigration issues, private tax debt, military decorations, and government employment. These matters were handled by Congress because they involved extraordinary circumstances not covered by established law, and there was no other mechanism for granting relief or equity than the passage of a private bill. For example, American troops often marry foreign spouses; one such marriage took place by proxy in 2008 between a US Marine and a Japanese woman who was already carrying her child. The Marine was killed in action in Iraq about a month later, but his widow was not allowed to remain in the United States due to a legal technicality – a technicality overcome by Congressional passage of a private bill (HR 3182) in December 2010 in particular by granting her the status of resident alien.
However, private bills in the US have become a rarity: HR 3182 was the only one passed in 2010 and this was the first since 2006, which also saw the adoption of only one private bill. There are two reasons for the paucity of private bills in the United States since 1971. First, Congress that year gave federal agencies more discretion to handle cases where strict enforcement of the law resulted in unfairness or injustice. Second, private legislation is seen as anathema in a democratic society, where the law is deemed to apply equally to all.
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