A lot of our posts/e-mails are based on questions from readers like you.
This is especially true when I get the same question over and over again.
And that’s true with today’s topic. It’s what I like to call “The Legislative Black Hole”.
The black hole happens something like this: the legislature meets, particularly in a rush fashion, and reaches a conclusion. The courts then have hearings and rely on the legislative conclusions. Long story short in most cases courts don’t want to question what the legislature (or administrative agencies) say.
And if you look at a lot of the cases you’ve heard about in the news the courts are usually more concerned with legislative and administrative process than the validity of their conclusions.
Most of the wins have been because a legislative body or administrative agency hasn’t followed their own rules.
For the common person this is very frustrating. Why doesn’t the court just throw our erroneous findings?
This is particularly frustrating because while the courts have detailed rules of evidence on what can come in and how the legislature doesn’t always follow those same procedures. In fact the legislature often makes decisions based on media accounts which, most people would admit, don’t have the same rigor as admitting evidence in court.
And the courts will tell you what to do in cases like this. In general they’ll say if you don’t like the legislative work being done, get a new legislature.
But would else could be done?
One option would be to change a law about how laws are upheld. How about if ordinary citizens could challenge a legislative conclusion if it was clearly erroneous or not based in fact?
That would put a lot of accountability into the legislature.
Of course you would need the legislature to agree (or a constitutional amendment) to take away their power.
But there are answers to fix these issues that often frustrate citizens.
This is why it may be important to look at the whole system - not just the individual laws that come up each session.
What do you think? Does the system need to change?
Shawn
NOTE: While legal issues are discussed this is education and is not legal advice. It is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Please consult your own attorney on your situation and to get legal advice about your circumstances. Courts are unpredictable may disagree with the author’s opinions.
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