20 U.S.C. § 4516: Constitutional Law Resource…

Summary

Creates four centers where top constitutional law experts will write short articles about the U.S. Constitution for James Madison scholars, schools, law reviews, bar groups, and the news media. Each center gets an $800,000 endowment to help pay for a Professor of Constitutional Law. The federal money must be used only for the professor’s salary and related support, like secretarial and research help. The university must provide office and classroom space from other funds. The professor must send each article to the Library of Congress, and the university must make copies available on request to accredited schools, bar groups, and the news media without charging royalties—only printing, handling, or mailing costs. The federal portion must be invested in U.S.-backed securities and may be audited by the Government Accountability Office to check that funds are used correctly. If a university ends the chair, the federal part of the endowment returns to the U.S. Treasury. Grants are offered to Howard University School of Law (Washington, D.C.), Drake University School of Law (Des Moines, Iowa), University of Akron School of Law (Akron, Ohio), and University of South Carolina School of Law (Columbia, South Carolina).

Title 20, §4516

Education, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Establishment

It is the purpose of this section to establish four centers where nationally recognized distinguished experts in Constitutional law will produce, on a periodic basis, articles of current interest relating to the Constitution of the United States which are suitable for use by James Madison scholars, educational institutions, law school reviews, bar associations, and the news media.

(b)Endowments

In order to encourage recipient universities to provide such a continuing service, four endowments shall be established with funds from appropriations provided herein and such other amounts as may be contributed from other sources.

(c)Chair for Professor of Constitutional Law

The income from each endowment shall be used to help support a chair for a Professor of Constitutional law. Each endowment shall be held in trust with the income from the portion provided herein used exclusively to contribute toward the salary and related costs of the professor filling the chair and for services directly related to the support of such professor such as secretarial and research services. The recipient university shall from sources other than that portion of the endowment funded herein furnish the office, classroom and related services suitable to such a member of the faculty. The professor holding each chair shall file a copy of such articles with the Library of Congress, which shall make them available to libraries in the usual manner and the recipient of the endowment shall also make a copy available upon request by accredited educational institutions, bar associations, and general news media without royalty or charge other than the costs associated with printing or reprinting, handling and distribution.

(d)Investment of endowment

That portion of each endowment provided by this chapter and any accumulations attributable to such grant shall be invested by the recipient university in interest bearing obligations of the United States or in obligations guaranteed both as to principal and interest by the United States and shall be subject to audit by the Government Accountability Office for the sole purpose of determining that such funds are accounted for or have been used as provided herein. If a grantee university elects to discontinue such chair and support services, the corpus of the endowment attributable to the Federal grant shall revert to the Treasury of the United States.

(e)Application for grant of endowment

The application for the grant for an endowment shall require only such information and supporting material as is reasonably necessary to assure that the funds will be used for the purposes described herein. Acceptance of the grant by each university shall constitute an agreement and obligation of that university to fulfill the obligations set forth in this section.

(f)Amount of grant of endowment; recipients of offer

The grants for each endowment shall be for $800,000 and shall be offered to Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa, the University of Akron School of Law in Akron, Ohio, and the University of South Carolina School of Law at Columbia, South Carolina.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (d), was in the original “this Act” and was translated as reading “this title” meaning title VIII of section 101(b) of Pub. L. 99–500 and Pub. L. 99–591 which enacted this chapter, to reflect the probable intent of Congress. Codification Pub. L. 99–591 is a corrected version of Pub. L. 99–500.

Amendments

2004—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 108–271 substituted “Government Accountability Office” for “General Accounting Office”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Temporary Authority To Receive, Review, and Certify for Payment Grant Applications Pub. L. 100–202, § 101(a) [title V, § 501], Dec. 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 1329, 1329–29, provided in part: “That until the Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation is appointed, the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution is authorized to receive, review and certify for payment the applications for grants of endowment funds for the establishment of Constitutional Law Resource Centers as provided and appropriated under the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Act, title VIII, section 817 and 818, Public Law 99–500 and Public Law 99–591 [20 U.S.C. 4516, 4517]”.

§4516 Constitutional Law Resource Centers