In a rare instance of law getting repealed, the Michigan House of Representatives wants to update the legal code to eliminate the outdated, redundant, and ridiculous.
About 80 laws are getting thrown out as part of a push for criminal justice reform.
In the Detroit Free Press, state Representative Chris Afendoulis asked, “Are we overcriminalizing behavior?”
“Getting rid of 80 laws is worth two years of new laws,” he said.
It’s an encouraging sign that state officials take the criminal justice system, and the need to re-examine it, seriously.
It doesn’t take superhuman ability to build support for removing a law that makes it illegal to swear around women and children or dance to the national anthem. Yet inertia takes over and keeps bad or silly laws in effect. While those rarely get used, the risk for arbitrary enforcement remains.
Ridiculous laws are scattered among the states. The Daily Beast notes that “under North Carolina law, Bingo games cannot last over five hours unless taking place at a fair” and “state-certified cheese in Wisconsin must be ‘highly pleasing.’”
Respectable law and an eye to keeping laws in line with modern society keep a legal code useful and less punitive, and Michigan’s step in this direction is encouraging.
