« Ind. Law - Expired FSSA provisions now added back to online Indiana Code | Main | Ind. Decisions - "School shooter awaits sentence 16-year-old confesses to attempted murder, faces 20-50 years in adult prison" »
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Ind. Law - More on “Today’s headline is tomorrow’s legislation”
Updating this ILB entry from July 8th, Ilya Somin had a worth-reading post yesterday on The Volokh Conspiracy. A few quotes:
The recent controversial acquittal of Casey Anthony has stimulated efforts in many states to enact “Caylee’s Law” as a response. The law would require parents to report a missing child to the authorities within 24 hours, and the death of a child within 1 hour. If they fail to do either, they would be guilty of a felony (a federal one if the law is enacted by Congress). * * *This is not the first time that a highly unusual but much-publicized case has led to this kind of overreaction. Consider the dubious “zero tolerance” policies enacted after Columbine or Megan’s Law, enacted in reaction to a rare case of child rape by a stranger. * * *
It seems likely that political ignorance is an important part of the story here. The public sees the high-profile case, and has a knee-jerk desire to “do something about it.” Most voters don’t realize how rare such cases are, and also know very little about the potential downsides of proposals like these. And, because political ignorance is rational, few will take the time and effort to investigate the evidence and deliberate carefully before forming an opinion. For their part, politicians hungry for votes and activists hungry for media attention are more than willing to cater to the public’s demands.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 12, 2011 10:18 AM
Posted to Indiana Law