'Girls State' Bill

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by anna~marie

Section 4: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed.

In real law, I could see this being a massive headache. They cite changes pedantically, down to the word, if necessary, to avoid surprises being discovered later. (And possibly overturned in their entirety—after all, which is it, laws, or parts of laws?) But I doubt that you've got enough laws to make it difficult to check beforehand. Just don't try writing that into the U.S. Code....

Also, not to rain on your parade—because I know you want to exercise the newfound governmental authority—but sometimes too many laws can be a bad thing. I'm not saying this law is bad, and I'm not saying that we should operate with a minimalistic set of laws (that is a view held by more than a few people), but I do think you need to consider whether or not this should be a law, or just a policy, to be handled by an appropriate department of the government. Remember that if you make it law, you're on the hook for its consequences, good or bad. (If it's policy, you're on the hook too, but at least it's easier to change if it goes badly.)

With respect to wording, section 3 effectively belongs in the preamble, since it has no effects. Typically (with the exception of proclamations and the like), you would state facts in the supporting paragraphs, then state the effects in the body. You might also want to include definitions, simply because you might be surprised what can happen when you introduce a new term into a law (e.g. "FRC team"), and don't define it. All of a sudden, you'll have a situation which you didn't intend, and limited legal recourse to fix it. For example, a private "school" (i.e. shell corporation) starts an "FRC team" by contacting FIRST, and asking to register. (One might consider this to be the "inception".) Before paying, they ask the County for the $1000. Does the County have to pay them, even if they don't later compete, for lack of funds, or lack of interest, or whatever? Can they pocket the money and run? Can they do it again, and run again?

Think like a criminal, and write the law to foil them!