The full handbook in alphabetical order, across every subject.
Instream flow rights protect water left in a channel for fish, wildlife, recreation or water quality. Because the classical doctrine required a diversion, these rights exist only by statute. Most states allow only a designated agency to hold them, cap the quantity at the minimum needed, tie the right to a defined reach, and forbid injury to existing appropriations.
Rivers crossing state lines are divided in three ways: a compact negotiated by the states and consented to by Congress, an equitable apportionment decreed by the Supreme Court, or an apportionment enacted by statute. A consented compact becomes federal law and cannot be altered by one state. Enforcement lies in the Court's exclusive original jurisdiction over controversies between states.
An irrigation district is a special-purpose political subdivision formed by landowner petition and election, governed by an elected board, and financed by assessments levied on land within its boundaries and collected with the force of a tax lien. The district ordinarily holds the water right and owes landowners ratable delivery of available supply rather than a guaranteed quantity.
Where the employer has laid off workers in the area of intended employment, in the occupation for the job opportunity or in a related occupation, within a defined period before filing, it must document that it notified and considered all potentially qualified workers who were laid off, and the result of that consideration. A layoff means an involuntary separation other than for cause. A related occupation is one requiring a majority of the same essential duties.
On a set-aside or socioeconomic program contract, a prime may pay no more than fifty percent of the amount the government pays it to firms that are not similarly situated for services or supplies, eighty-five percent for general construction, and seventy-five percent for special trade construction. Cost of materials is excluded outside services. Amounts paid to a similarly situated first-tier subcontractor are excluded to the extent that subcontractor performs with its own employees.
An employer may withhold work to bring economic pressure in support of a legitimate bargaining position, and members of a multiemployer unit may lock out in answer to a strike against one of them. Lawfulness is judged by separating conduct inherently destructive of employee rights from conduct excused by a substantial business justification. Temporary replacements are generally permitted; permanent ones are not.
Federal good conduct time is awarded under 18 U.S.C. 3624(b) at up to fifty-four days for each year of the sentence imposed. A disciplinary finding may disallow credit for the year in which the violation occurred or forfeit credit already vested, according to the severity of the act. Disallowed credit is generally not restorable; forfeited credit may be restored on application after a period of clear conduct.
An unqualified Made in USA claim requires that the product be all or virtually all made in the United States: final assembly or processing here, and all significant processing and virtually all ingredients or components of domestic origin. The Made in USA Labeling Rule at 16 CFR Part 323 applies the standard to labels and to online descriptions, and 15 U.S.C. 45a authorizes penalties. A qualified claim may describe the domestic content accurately without asserting complete domestic origin.
Turner v. Safley holds that a regulation impinging on the rights of a confined person is valid if reasonably related to legitimate penological interests, assessed through four factors: a rational connection to a neutral objective, alternative means of exercising the right, the cost of accommodation, and the absence of ready alternatives. Procunier v. Martinez applies a stricter test to outgoing mail, and legal mail has separate handling rules.
Section 8(d) makes wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment the mandatory subjects of bargaining. A party must bargain over a mandatory subject on request and may insist on its position to impasse. A permissive subject may be proposed but never made a condition of agreement, and insistence to impasse on one is itself a refusal to bargain. An illegal subject may not be agreed to at all, and a clause containing one is unenforceable however freely it was accepted.
A marketing order is issued by the Secretary of Agriculture after a hearing and a producer referendum, and binds every handler of the regulated commodity in the defined area. Orders may impose grade, size, quality and maturity requirements, volume controls, container and pack rules, reporting and assessments, and research and promotion. Handlers may challenge an order or an obligation under it by petition to the Secretary, followed by review in district court.
An amended petition is required where there is a material change in the terms and conditions of employment or in the worker's eligibility. A move to a place of employment outside the area of intended employment is a material change and requires a new certified application filed before the move. A move inside the area requires a fresh notice but no new petition. Certain corporate successions require only a documented statement assuming the predecessor's obligations.
