By the above title the characterization of stupid refers to laws which are unconsititutional at the time of signing. This doesn’t include long standing laws which are later revoked by another law or judicial decision. But laws which are struck down on the first court decision. Such laws have only one purpose to make the signatories look good. At a later time they can blame others for a failure to act on such a law. It’s an easy game to play. There have been some examples recently. The flag burning amendment, which never seems to pass. In Illinois, a video game law was struck down as unconstitional less than a year after it was passed.
The law itself is not my concern. It’s the blatant and wanton waste of money and resources for these provisions. As is usual in these cases the state pays the court costs for the winning party, the losing party (itself), the legislature, judiciary and perhaps the enforcement. To guage the scope of this waste the above law paid $510,000 to the winning party. The actual costs for this one instance are over a $1 million.
The problem with this system is there is little or no feedback mechanism. The legislature gets elected based on passing this law. Some time after the election it’s reversed. The only negative fallout to come on the instigators of this proccess would come some years later, assuming voters remember or care enough. The delays in the system are easily exploited.
My solution is to provide a feedback mechanism directly to the legislature. Simply divide the bill and charge the members who voted for the law. This may sound a little extreme, but think about it a little more. They already recommend the same for teachers. The teachers do not pay for poor performance, but they get paid more for better than average performance. This is simply the converse. I strongly suggest we hold our legislatures accountable. A very popular phrase these days. Make the people who cause the expense pay for it. I know I don’t want to. And I don’t feel that I should have to.