We often discuss regulation-via-litigation, but usually there’s at least a little bit of metaphor in that phrase. But apparently some people might be taking it entirely too literally. Eugene Volokh points us to this story in the Philadelphia Daily News, in which a City Councilman named Darrell Clarke has come up with a new strategy to pass gun-control laws, despite the fact that the state legislature won’t allow him to do so:
What’s different is that he says Council also is preparing to file a legal complaint related to the Legislature’s inaction.
[…]
Asked how Council can move forward on the bills without a state enabling law, Clarke said, “We think that with our complaint, we will show in our theory that the state has been negligent in terms of enacting good-sense legislation. We think we have a compelling case.”
Indeed, why bother with state legislatures at all? Just let lawyers decide what laws would be “reasonable,” and then get courts to pass those laws.
(Think of all the time and money we could save by abolishing elections.)
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