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It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. -- James Madison
I took exactly one law class in college. It was business law, intended for non-lawyers, especially engineering students. It was supposed to introduce us to the principles of law. One of the things that stuck was the reasonably prudent person standard. In tort cases, determining whether a defendant’s conduct met the expected level of responsibility starts by asking what a sensible, cautious individual would have done under similar circumstances. In other words - what the average person would have done. Not an expert, a normal person.
That was nearly 50 years ago. I suspect that standard is followed more in the breach than the observance today, because laws have multiplied and grown in complexity since the 1970s. This is good for lawyers, especially since ignorance of a law is no excuse for not following it. Today that reasonably prudent person needs to hire a lawyer for countless activities to ensure they are not violating the law. It is great for the legal business. Since legislatures are mostly made up of lawyers, it only makes sense they wish to drum up work for their profession by passing a blizzard of laws so voluminous they cannot be read, or so incoherent they cannot be understood.
This tendency needs to be addressed and corrected. Brevity and clarity in legislation are not merely desirable. They are essential. When laws become too complex, they serve as a hidden tax on business, forcing excessive spending on non-productive activities - compliance and legal services expenses. (Productive defined as producing goods or services to customers.)
What can be done about this? I have a modest suggestion. No law can be considered to be passed by the legislature until after it has been voted upon, it has been read aloud in its entirety, orally, on the steps of the building wherein the legislature meets, by voting members who have voted on the legislation. The bill may not be passed to the executive for signature until this has been completed. If the oral recitation of the legislation is not completed by the time the legislative term expires, it is to be considered null and void. It must be read outside the legislature building, exposed to the weather, whether Alaska winter cold or Texas summer heat.
Think of the merits of this. Lawmakers would have an incentive to make legislation straightforward. No more 900+ page "we have to pass the bill to understand it" legislation. No more last-minute bills snuck in at the dead of night. Tag teams of voting members of the body are allowed to read the bill, but it must be completely read aloud before it can be passed to a president or governor for signature. It would even have the virtue of creating a younger, healthier body of legislators. (Imagine Mitch McConnell reading a law on the steps of the Capitol. Darwin in action.)
My recommendation is that this standard not be passed as common legislation but as a constitutional amendment at the federal and state levels. It will never happen, but think how legislation would be improved if it were.
Discussion (36)
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@Seawriter You got this right.
When America opted for independence and national sovereignty, the Founders had some understanding of how Great Britain had sustained its influence historically and they recognized that Great Britain was still the preeminent political and military power in the world. I believe the white-moneyed-overclass derivative influence of that origin has continued for most of two and a half centuries and that President Trump has now posed the greatest threat ever to its continuance.
Jefferson and Madison and maybe even Monroe had a clear vision that a new direction was called for but such a vision does not yield much in the way of details. Four major things happened to constitute the first major phase of the vision, (1) the Louisiana Purchase, (2) the War of 1812, (3) the Mexican-American War, and (4) the American Civil War. These events spanned the first 80 years of America's existence, accomplished what many call our Manifest Destiny, and closed the period of what may be called Anglo-America.
The next period spans from the 1870s to the 1960s where America's growth and immigration posture changed so that the leading factions need to be renamed to Euro-American. Great Britain's world political and military leadership yielded to America and America led a transformation in the advanced nations into the industrial age. Along the way America had some very significant domestic changes in geographical political influence. Industrial monopolies arose as an issue while agricultural influences diminished. Movement westward was a big part of American life with little visible influence from foreign powers. But the moneyed-overclass was still at work. The now impoverished white-populous South joined northern progressives to support the 16th and 17th Amendments to the Constitution. The income tax was sold as applying only to those earning high incomes and the popular election of Senators was sold to prevent corruption by state elected legislators. The now poor still vote-controlling southern white male voters got these adopted.
The last period changes manifested in the 1950s-1960s period with the civil rights laws and the feminists movement. These should have finished the tasks of creating the American nation as it was always envisioned but the introduction of preferences for minorities and females in employment and education gave us today's disaster. Government has always used its influence to convey a message of helping the poor and disadvantaged along this path to the present day and the federal bureaucracy has grown accordingly. It is no surprise then that we have an overabundance of laws and regulations requiring a range of experts we refer to as lawyers and accountants. This is how the moneyed class protects and sustains its power. And it is used domestically and internationally.
Until Trump. And we are still working on getting America right.
Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,
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Bravo!
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Agreed.
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Technically that’s already the in the rules of both the House and Senate. It almost always plays out like this:
Chair: The clerk will now proceed with the reading of the bill.
Clerk: (Reads a really stupid title that makes up a really stupid acronym)
Member: Mr. President (or Speaker) I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered as read.
Chair: Without objection so ordered.
*crickets*
Since constitutional amendments begin in the hands of Congress and end in the hands of state legislators it ain’t never no way gonna happen.
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The only modification I might offer is that the bill has to be read aloud by the sponsor(s).
Perhaps, just maybe, the legislation must also read aloud by the President and/or the VP before signing.
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