An investigation into nearly 1 million bills across all 50 US states showed a high proportion of proposed US laws being written by lobbyists. The investigation was based on computer analysis of the similarities in language used in the bills. Additionally, copycat legislation is a problem. That is where states copy-paste key parts of proposed legislation from each other, and often the original is can be traced back to lobbyists. Many tricks are used to increase acceptance of these bills such as use of deceptive titles, misleading endorsements, copied bills to override locally sourced bills, and more. The article includes several graphics showing the distribution of bad practices across the states.
A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation.
USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 15 2019, @01:37AM (2 children)
I watched a crack dealer's lawyer run circles around the city attorneys for 10 years. He ran drugs and prostitutes out of his house all that time, 25 arrests a month, and they never managed to shut him down.
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(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday April 15 2019, @04:42AM (1 child)
Do you have some case numbers for this?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 15 2019, @05:18PM
Smatt vs City of Miami - 1990 through 2000.
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