Tue - July 13, 2004 at 09:32 PM in

The Anti-Shenanigan Ammendment


Minnesota's concealed-carry law just got struck down today, not based on any fundamental constitutional problem with the law, but because it violated what I call the Anti-Shenanigan Clause of Minnesota's state constitution.

Our constitution has an interesting bit which requires that all laws passed by the state legislature be about exactly one topic. As it turns out, concealed-carry was not passed on its own merits, but as a rider to an unrelated technical corrections bill for the state Department of Natural Resources. In other words, a very controversial new law was passed through the parliamentary trick of attaching it to a completely noncontroversial bill to fix mistakes in earlier laws.

Whatever you think of Minnesota's concealed carry law (I opposed it because it took the discretion away from local law enforcement where it belongs), you have to admit that this anti-shenanigan clause can prevent a lot of, well, shenanigans. Legislators shouldn't be forced to vote for a controversial law simply because it is tied to something unrelated which everyone admits is needed.

Now if we could only get this passed on the federal level....

Posted at 09:32 PM   Permalink      

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