40,000 New Laws

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40,000 new laws will go into effect, this year.

Really.


Should someone be arrested for trimming shrubbery?

Or keeping a tackle box in his truck?

Of course not-- but they are.

Keep reading.



When Ignorance Is an Excellent Excuse

It's time for our lawmakers to end overcriminalization.


In the wake of media reports that 40,000 new federal, state, and local laws will go into effect this year, there's no better time for Americans to revisit the old maxim that —ignorance of the law is no excuse.?? ...

Overcriminalization strikes at the heart of our constitutional order.

... Some overcriminalization incidents can sound amusing until we remember that they involve real people whose lives can be ruined.

Last year police charged 46-year-old Ocean Beach, Calif., resident Juvencio Adame with —defacement, damage and destruction?? of public property in excess of $ 400 — charges that could have resulted in significant prison time.

His crime? Trimming shrubbery next to his home.

Then there's 17-year-old Cody Chitwood of Cobb County, Ga. Police charged him with a felony for bringing weapons into a school zone.

The —weapons?? were fishing knives, and they were in a tackle box in Cody??s truck.

Georgia law states that any knife —having a blade of two or more inches?? is a weapon, and that anyone who carries a weapon onto school property is by that very act guilty of a crime.

—Ignorance of the law is no excuse— Spare us....

What should we do about this grave threat to our liberties?

We can start by addressing the inadequate mens rea (guilty mind) requirements in our criminal law.



Read the rest, here: LINK

good story, thanks for sharing.

Trimming bushes = DESCTRUCTION. This is absolute bullshit. Ridiculous.

Sometimes, ya just have to have some common sense.

Posted by djbuck1
Even if you work in the legal field, it is virtually impossible to keep up with all of this. That is one reason why the profession is becoming ever more specialized-- and costly. It's insane.

It is-- I think it's a ruse. 😐

I'm sure the evils of compartmentalization within the government are to blame for much of this.

Instead of streamlining, it creates the "need" for even more government to manage it all.



(excerpt)


In Bouie v. City of Columbia the U.S. Supreme Court explained the constitutional doctrine of —fair notice,?? which holds that a criminal law —must give warning of the conduct it makes a crime.??

Traditionally, this requirement was satisfied if (1) the prohibited act was inherently wrongful — such as murder, arson, theft, robbery, or rape — or (2) an individual did something that he or she knew was illegal, even if it was not inherently wrongful.

In recent years, though, federal, state, and local laws that do not meet either requirement but carry criminal penalties have proliferated.


Exacerbating the problem... —many modern statutes are exceedingly intricate?? and —even a person with a clear moral compass is frequently unable to determine accurately whether conduct is prohibited.??

As a result, ordinary Americans can be victimized by laws supposedly designed to protect them.



Legislators should also codify the —rule of lenity?? — a judicial rule of interpretation that requires courts to construe ambiguous criminal laws in favor of the accused.

Finally, legislators need to provide an escape hatch for those who were —rationally ignorant?? of the law: a mistake-of-law defense in which a defendant would have the burden of producing evidence that he did not know that his conduct was illegal (idk exactly how one would do this), nor would a reasonable person in his position have believed that the charged conduct was illegal.

~

Even if one is exonerated, how much time, money, and effort will have been wasted?


*disgusted*

Posted by Rabbit
Are these all Federal?

Or just in general?

If just in general, you could probably attribute at least 15-20k of those to California alone.

I believe he's referring to federal, state, and local.

So yes-- in general.


I've found this so far regarding California-- too many. o.O


LINK

Posted by geminiloveleo
good story, thanks for sharing.

You're welcome, Gem. 🙂

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