There Oughtta Be A Law
How often do we hear the lament,
“There oughtta be a law,” about some perceived wrong
or societal need? But, one of the major problems in
A recent assault on common sense
occurred in
Not to pick on Kentucky but, like
most states, they have a number of crazy laws: Throwing eggs at a public
speaker is punishable by up to one year in jail; it is illegal to dye or color
a baby chick, duckling or rabbit unless six or more are for sale at the same
time; if a horse dies in front of a residence, the owner (of the horse, that
is) must remove the dead animal within 12 hours. If it is not done, then it
becomes the homeowner’s responsibility. That may have made sense in the 1800s,
but it hardly seems necessary today. One city had an ordinance that required
the sheriff to shoot dogs whose owners did not pay a local tax on their
animals.
How Many Jurisdictions Pass Laws?
Consider the number of jurisdictions
with boards, councils or commissions that legislate and the number of laws they
adopt annually. There are over 3,000 counties in the U.S., ranging in size from
41.6 square miles (Arlington, Va.) to 141,398 square miles (North Slope
Borough, Alaska), along with almost 19,500 municipalities, in addition to the
50 states. That adds up to some 22,500 entities in addition to the federal
government, all putting laws on the books, presumably to correct problems or to
influence or regulate behavior, that is, make people do things the legislators
want. In
Obviously, a certain amount of this
is necessary, for example, local ordinances for such purposes as regulating
traffic, land use, or taxation. In addition, advances in technology bring new
problems and with them the need for new laws. The rapid development of
computers and the Internet have brought new opportunities for mischief, such as
Internet fraud and identity theft. And bio technology is presenting society
with moral and ethical challenges that never would have occurred to earlier
generations. Who knew?
However,
No One Is Ever Satisfied
Furthermore, peoples’ wants are
insatiable. They never seem to be able get enough of whatever it is they think
will satisfy them. Sometimes it’s strictly for personal advantage, sometimes
for the greater good, or so they seem to believe. Environmental activism or
unbridled business practices are good examples. Whatever the reason,
legislators respond to special interest groups that want to impose their
particular need or desire on the rest of society, which results in thousands of
new laws and regulations to implement them.
“For the people in government,
rather than the people who pester it,
“Ignorance of The Law Is No
Excuse”
Furthermore, we can be prosecuted
for breaking laws we don’t even know exist. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”
has always been a traditional mantra, but it has been reported that Americans
are now subject to over five million laws. How can anyone possibly know and
obey them all? And, they keep piling up. Every legislative body, municipal,
county, state and federal, is constantly making new laws, and nothing ever
seems to be taken off the books.
So, if ignorance of the law is
really no excuse, then we are all charged with specific knowledge of the millions
of laws that regulate us. That’s impossible and is undoubtedly one of the reasons
why many Americans have grown increasingly cynical about the law and justice in
this country.
How Many Laws Must We Obey?
And, if five million laws are not
enough, there are also hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of rules that
are superimposed on top of them – by OSHA, EPA, IRS, HUD, EEOC and a host of
other alphabet soup agencies. The Internal Revenue Code is a perfect example.
The plethora of tax laws and regulations that have been adopted by Congress and
the IRS and interpreted by the courts requires over 66,000 pages to codify and
interpret. No one, not even the most brilliant CPA or tax attorney, knows or
understands all these laws and rules. They can’t even agree on what various
provisions may mean, yet it is possible to be prosecuted for fraud for
violating them.
Legal precedent has also added to
the burden of excessive control and regulation that are strangling our society.
Hundreds of thousands of court cases are used to interpret the laws and
comprise entire libraries of additional rules we are expected to abide by in
our daily lives. The sheer weight and complexity of all this
breeds contempt for the law, evasion and deliberate lawbreaking.
Ronald Reagan is credited with
having said, “I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would
have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress?”
How much longer can we continue to
function under this burden before the system ultimately grinds to a halt?
Chances are it will end only when
But, that’s just my opinion.
© 2007 Harris R. Sherline,
All Rights Reserved