Hamilton creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, to highlight the need for this legislation. Schumer said that, most recently, cyber scalpers have been using online computer programs, known as “bots,” to purchase Hamilton tickets and reselling them anywhere between $500 to upwards of $2,000/ticket, up from approximately $189/ticket. Schumer’s legislation would help fix the broken system of ticket purchasing. Now that the bill has passed the Senate, Schumer is calling on the House of Representatives to act before the end of this year. “No ifs ands or bots about it, now that the ‘BOTS Act’ has passed the Senate, it’s up to the House to sweep the stage of bots so that actual fans can enjoy Hamilton, other hit Broadway shows and major concerts,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer. “These bots have gotten completely out of control and their dominance in the market is denying countless fans access to shows and concerts and driving prices through the roof. This legislation will finally crack down on online hackers and scalpers that use ‘bots’ to purchase thousands of tickets in a matter of milli-seconds, and then sell them at outrageously-inflated prices. Schumer continued, “By eliminating ‘bots’ and slapping hackers with a hefty fine, we can better ensure those who want to attend shows in the future will not have to pay outrageous, unfair prices. I hope that the House will pass this legislation before the end of the year so that Broadway and concertgoers in New York and across the country have equal access to these tickets.” According to the New York Times, between 2012 and 2014, just three scalpers bought more than 140,000 tickets to New York shows using bots. Scalpers using bots have purchased more than 20,000 tickets to Hamilton. According to the New York Times, scalpers earned more than $15.5 million from the 100 Hamilton performances before Lin-Manuel Miranda’s final performance. Schumer said cyber scalpers are making millions of dollars each year using bots to rip off fans, while also keeping millions of dollars in ticket revenue away from artists and performers and all those work on these live productions. Schumer explained that “bots” are sophisticated computer programs often used by nefarious scalpers and brokers that plague the online sale of concert tickets. According to a 2013 New York Times report, while bots were once merely a nuisance to the live music industry, they have now become arguably its most reviled foe, as they are able to snatch up popular tickets within a matter of seconds, leaving fans with no choice but to buy tickets through derivative sites at much higher prices. Schumer said this practice leaves frustrated fans ticket-less and drives a resultant secondary ticket sale market, where tickets are sold at astronomical prices that most fans cannot afford. In New York alone, hundreds of thousands of tickets are purchased any given day by scalpers using bots. For instance, at a U2 concert at Madison Square Garden, one scalper used a bot to buy more than one thousands tickets in the first minute after tickets went on sale, even though there was a four-ticket per fan limit. Between 2012 and 2014, just three scalpers bought more than 140,000 tickets to New York shows using bots. According to Ticketmaster, an estimated 60 percent of the most desirable tickets available for sale are purchased by bots. Schumer said there is no fair way for a consumer to purchase a ticket online if they have to compete with bots that are capable of navigating through online ticket websites and purchasing tickets in the matter of seconds, jamming up the online ticketing system, and thereby leaving an unfair playing field for fans looking to purchase seats to an event or concert at the face value price. Schumer’s legislation would prohibit the unfair and deceptive act of using mechanisms such as bots in order to scoop up tickets before consumers are given a fair chance to buy them. Schumer said this legislation would help ensure consumers are given equitable access to tickets for events in the future and are not precluded from purchasing tickets at a fair price. Now that the bill has passed the Senate, Schumer is pushing the House of Representatives to pass theBetter On-line Ticket Sales Act of 2016, or the BOTS Act, in order to increase fairness for consumers in the ticket-purchasing industry. Artists, musicians, theater owners and concert promoters alike have led the charge against the bots used by online hackers and scalpers in an attempt to improve the ticket-buying experience for customers and guarantee increased transparency for fans. Schumer explained that many ticket reselling companies are hurt by bots, as frustrated consumers are often directed to their websites to purchase tickets from the online scalpers at overly inflated prices. In fact, in a 2012 post by Ticketmaster, the company stated that bots “hammer our system and website, they substantially increase our technology costs, they anger our customers and they keep us from building a direct relationship with fans.” Schumer said his legislation would help crack down on this practice, which hurts both concertgoers and ticket companies.]]>
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Trump Supreme Court battle could be dismantled by Congress members’ own history
New evidence is emerging that could deal a major blow to President Donald Trump's case for stripping birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants.
The president has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to restore “the original meaning” of the 14th Amendment, which his lawyers argued in a brief meant that “children of temporary visitors and illegal aliens are not U.S. citizens by birth," but new research raises questions about what lawmakers intended the amendment to do, reported the New York Times.
"One important tool has been overlooked in determining the meaning of this amendment: the actions that were taken — and not taken — to challenge the qualifications of members of Congress, who must be citizens, around the time the amendment was ratified," wrote Times correspondent Adam Liptak.
A new study will be published next month in The Georgetown Law Journal Online examining the backgrounds of the 584 members who served in Congress from 1865 to 1871. That research found more than a dozen of them might not have been citizens under Trump’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, but no one challenged their qualifications.
"That is, said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia and an author of the study, the constitutional equivalent of the dog that did not bark, which provided a crucial clue in a Sherlock Holmes story," Liptak wrote.
The 14th Amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside," while the Constitution requires members of the House of Representatives to have been citizens for at least seven years, and senators for at least nine.
“If there had been an original understanding that tracked the Trump administration’s executive order,” Frost told Liptak, “at least some of these people would have been challenged.”
Only one of the nine challenges filed against a senator's qualifications in the period around the 14th Amendment's ratification involved the citizenship issue related to Trump's interpretation of birthright citizenship, and that case doesn't support his position.
"Several Democratic senators claimed in 1870 that their new colleague from Mississippi, Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first Black man to serve in Congress, had not been a citizen for the required nine years," Liptak wrote. "They reasoned that the 14th Amendment had overturned Dred Scott, the 1857 Supreme Court decision that denied citizenship to the descendants of enslaved African Americans, just two years earlier and that therefore he would not be eligible for another seven."
"That argument failed," the correspondent added. "No one thought to challenge any other members on the ground that they were born to parents who were not citizens and who had not, under the law in place at the time, filed a declaration of intent to be naturalized."
"The consensus on the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause has long been that everyone born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen with exceptions for those not subject to its jurisdiction, like diplomats and enemy troops," Liptak added.
Frost's research found there were many members of Congress around the time of the ratification of the 14th Amendment who wouldn't have met Trump's definition of a citizen, and she said that fact undercuts the president's arguments.
“If the executive order reflected the original public meaning, which is what the originalists say is relevant,” Frost said, “then somebody — a member of Congress, the opposing party, the losing candidate, a member of the public who had just listened to the ratification debates on the 14th Amendment, somebody — would have raised this.”
