Expiring Laws

Think about the value expiration dates for a moment. They are that bookend which protects you from spoiled milk, or doctors who have not maintained their education, or contracts you might get into that are not favorable. We put expiration dates in place to either protect us from things that will spoil or force a renewal on things we want to make sure continue to meet a certain standard. We put term limits on the president, senators, governors and representatives. My credit card has an expiration date as does my driver's license, so my bank or the state can choose not to reissue if I am too much of a risk.

Thomas Jefferson when writing about how he thought the federal government should work suggested that every generation, which he estimated at 19 years, the constitution should expire and a committee should be gathered so it could be rewritten. I can only imagine how long it would take our perpetually gridlocked statesmen to write a brand new Constitution, but there is a spark of truth worth noting. The reason he thought this was the government should be of the people and by the people and it doesn't make any sense for today to be handcuffed by people who are long dead. The last generation can not really know what the current generation is going to face.

We have not only not put an expiration on any laws. They stay on the books until a legislative decision is made to overturn them. Useless laws, out of touch, out of date laws can not just go away quietly. They spoil and remain in the refrigerator.

Did you know until 2006 Michigan was required to pay 3 cent bounty for each starling and 10 cents for each crow. The birds were to be delivered to the local clerk. Thank you 1941 for that

In Texas it is illegal to milk another person's cow.

In New York you can not gather with two or more people wearing masks. This is a result of the 1845 attacks on police by tenant farmers dressed as Indians, because they we unhappy with lowering wheat prices.

Think of the problems we have because laws have no expiration. Patient laws. Environmental laws. Drug laws. Tax law. Sure, there are plenty of laws we would keep, but everyday we are handcuffed by those who had no idea of what our society would look like, not because we agree, but because it has been that way, as if science and technology, culture and international understanding, would have no bearing on how we live.