

Ask HN: If you could enact one Law, what would it be? - donohoe

With all the bickering in politics and inertia in many areas I've always asked myself what I would do in a position of power. How would I be different?<p>In that spirit, I would love to know what others here would do given the premise:<p><i>You find yourself in a position to enact one Law (or small number of related laws) - what would it be?</i><p><pre><code>  Without writing a thesis, being too legalistic, or being 
  too USA-centric, here is what I would do:

  Like paying taxes, jury duty, I would also make it a legal 
  obligation to vote. You can abstain if you wish, or spoil your 
  vote, but you need to turn up in person to do so. You don't vote, 
  you pay a fine (much like a traffic violation...)

  All those in office, or running for office, are forbidden from 
  any donations or gifts. Instead a legitimate candidate would 
  be given a set budget and a certain amount of ad and airtime in 
  the relevant locality - this would be reviewed every 2 years 
  to account for local costs (ex. New York versus Little Rock and 
  changes in pricing, inflation etc)

  With that in mind, voting would take place over a long weekend 
  which in itself would be a national holiday.

  Political candidates would be obliged to take part in publicly 
  accessible or viewable debates.
</code></pre>
Yes, there are a ton of holes in the above and ideas that need much explanation, but you get the idea.<p>Okay - your turn...
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mindcrime
<sigh /> My ideas about how our legal system should change are pretty radical
(anarcho-capitalist / libertarian here), so it's hard to say just one simple
law without making it either something that sounds glib, or something that I
actually consider fairly insignificant.

That said... As long as we have our more-or-less current government, I'd say
maybe more term-limits at all levels of government. Something to try and
prevent the existence of "career politicians." I'd like to cycle these folks
through quick enough that they don't have time to become totally corrupt.

Edit:

Oh, wait, here's one I'd like to go with that could actually help. Require
judges to inform all juries of their right to nullify based on finding the law
invalid, regardless of the facts.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification>

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ajuc
Any new law must wait 6 years after approving before going to production.

That way corruption and making holes in law on purpose will be less worth it,
and people would be sure law won't change under their business in short term.

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DarrenMills
I would enact a more strict system against those who attempt to create
regulations based on religious ideas. For example, trying to outlaw anything
on the basis of long-taught religious ideas would instantly be thrown out.
From a legal perspective this would push the first amendment under the
umbrella of stare decisis and allow a court to overturn any law found to be
based on those religious ideas.(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_decisis>)

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duck
A law is only good if you can enforce it... and I don't see anyway you could
enforce any of these. So what would be the point? And do we _really_ want
everyone to vote in the USA?

