My new essay for The Hill is more explanatory than opinionated, as I figured everyone could use a break from the raging political disputes (and because syndicated columnists are already covering pretty much anything I have to say about the flood of SCOTUS opinions).
Here is the gist:
Why are laws so long and complicated?
by Steven Lubet, Opinion Contributor - 06/29/22 8:00 AM ET
It is certainly true that legislators tend toward verbosity, but there are often good reasons for laws to be as long as they are. A recent example is the 81-page Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, just signed by President Biden, which, among other things, closes the notorious “boyfriend loophole” in the law limiting gun possession by convicted domestic abusers.
As originally written, a federal law prohibited access to firearms by a person who had been “convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,” but only if they were a “current or former spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim [or] a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim,” or with whom they have a child. That left a glaring exception for certain domestic abusers who had never married, parented with or lived with their victims. (A different law makes it illegal for any convicted felon to possess a firearm.) Although expanding the law might seem like an easy fix, it turns out to be not quite so simple.
Marriage, parenthood and cohabitation all have plain legal meanings, but less determinate relationships can be just as abusive and therefore in need of protection. The drafters of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act settled upon “current or recent former dating relationship” as the operative term to plug the loophole, but that was only the beginning. After all, what constitutes a “dating relationship”?
Consequently, closing the boyfriend loophole required two pages of definitions, explanations and limitations.
Eliminating the boyfriend loophole is only one part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Some of its more extensive provisions include funding for states to establish crisis intervention orders and violence prevention initiatives, additions to the Instant Criminal Background Check System, improved classification of federally licensed firearms dealers, access to juvenile court records for firearms purchasers under 21, new penalties for “straw purchasers,” incentives for state “red flag” laws, funding for 11 different community-based mental health services and funding for improved school safety measures.
Because they were the product of intense negotiations between Republicans and Democrats, each of these provisions had to be set out with great specificity, describing the programs, goals and limitations for funding, penalties for violations, lines of authority, means of implementation and, of course, definitions for dozens of terms.
It can be frustrating even for lawyers that statutes are so long and complex. But shorter statutes would inevitably result in additional gaps, ambiguities and unintended consequences — such as the one that led to the boyfriend loophole in the first place.
You can read the entire essay at The Hill,
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