Good Laws and The Jews In The Attic Test




Law Library of Congress Reading Room Copy of the U.S. Statutes at Large
Law Library of Congress Reading Room Copy of the U.S. Statutes at Large

In my article The Excessive Proliferation of Criminal Laws I expressed my opinion that Congress passes an egregiously excessive number of bad Federal criminal laws each year.

In that post I did not claim that I had read every one of the laws, so how would I know that most are bad? Simple:


  • When no one knows what is in a new law until after it is passed, it is a bad law.

  • When a law requires more than a thousand pages to explain it, it is a bad law.

  • When a law can be broken accidentally, that is, without intent, it is a bad law.

  • When a law is passed without a single vote from the opposition party, it is a bad law.

  • When a law requires hundreds of exclusions, exemptions, waivers, and postponements, it is a bad law.

  • And finally, when more than 40,000 laws are passed in one year which an ordinary citizen cannot possibly read in more than a few lifetimes in order to avoid breaking any of them, then a priori, the majority of them are bad laws.

But blogger Joe Huffman has the ultimate test to determine whether a law is good or bad:

The Jews In The Attic Test

I looked at all laws that restricted freedom with a view to the impact it would have in a worst case scenario of our government run amok. Will this law make it difficult or impossible to protect innocent life from a government intent on their imprisonment or death? Although I pretty much made everything up on the spot I told them I called this test my "Jews In The Attic Test". Furthermore I told them that if it fails this test no further discussion is really needed, the law must be opposed in the most vigorous manner possible.

Some laws that fail the test and why:

  • Government mandated ID cards and the authority to demand them at any time. The oppressed class will be unable to masquerade as a member of the neutral or oppressor classes.
  • Government monopoly on medical care. This is a bit surprising -- isn't it? If it is illegal for you to pay someone for anonymous health care then how can your "Jews in the attic" receive health care?
  • Elimination or severe restriction of anonymous financial transactions. The purchase of food and other supplies for your "Jews in the attic" would show up in the records as being excessive compared to what your needs were. Just as power consumption records are used today to catch home marijuana growers.

Too many laws are the greatest danger to our liberty - more perilous than foreign invasion or terrorism - we have a military to counter those threats - what we do not have is a force to counter the ever more numerous passing of new laws.

How Many Federal Laws Are There? That is a frequently asked question that even the Library of Congress is unable to answer:

Law Librarians of Congress, Frequent Reference Question: How Many Federal Laws Are There?

At the reference desk, we are frequently asked to estimate the number of federal laws in force. However, trying to tally this number is nearly impossible.

...

In an example of a failed attempt to tally up the number of laws on a specific subject area, in 1982 the Justice Department tried to determine the total number of criminal laws. In a project that lasted two years, the Department compiled a list of approximately 3,000 criminal offenses...

... Mr. Gainer characterized this fruitless project: “[y]ou will have died and [been] resurrected three times,” and still not have an answer to this question.

So it took two years to compile a list of 3,000 criminal offenses and Ronald Gainer, a Justice Department official, gave up because there are not enough lifetimes to answer the question. Sadly, the Library of Congress does not even offer a wild guess or estimate. Less than a million, more than a million? No one knows.

I have no doubt that posting this article violates at least a dozen Federal or state laws. Writing this has made me feel like a criminal.



### End of my article ###

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