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You have just been sworn into office as a newly-elected
representative to the Minnesota House of Representatives.
After the ceremony you received a large packet of materials
that is provided to every new legislator and asked to
review them before tomorrow's orientation session conducted
for all newly-elected representatives.
READ EACH OF THESE:
As you read through ALL of
these materials, pay careful attention to how the Minnesota
legislature handles many of the small drafting "details"
and common drafting errors that may be anticipated in
the enactment of any legislation.
After you have carefully reviewed these
statutory drafting materials, try a few "Questions"
to test your understanding of what you have read.
.
Question No. 1.
"Ambiguous" words
are those that can be interpreted in more than one
way. By contrast, a word is "vague" when
there is doubt as to the precise boundaries of its
meaning. Words are "over-general" when they
simply cover too broad a scope of meaning.
Consider the following statutory language and indicate
which of the these statements is LEAST accurate regarding
the use of the word "range" as contained
within the definition of an "endangered species."
Section
3(6) of the U.S. Endangered Species Act states that
the "term 'endangered species' means any species
which is in danger of extinction throughout all or
a significant portion of its range...."
Question No. 2.
Section 9(a)(D) of the Endangered
Species Act makes it unlawful, in relevant part,
"for any person subject
to the jurisdiction of the United States to—
* * *
(D) possess, sell, deliver, carry, transport, or
ship, by any means whatsoever, any such species
taken in violation of subparagraphs (B) and (C)....
As written
in the statutory language, supra, to what specifically
does the phrase "by any means whatsoever"
refer?
Select the statement that is MOST appropriate from the
following choices:
Problem No. 1.
By statute in your state,
the Department of Natural Resources is presently required
to promulgate rules to regulate the recreational and
supplemental feeding of wild animals for purposes other
than hunting. Specifically, the current statute reads:
"Feeding wild animals for
nonhunting purposes. The Department shall
promulgate rules to regulate the recreational and
supplemental feeding of wild animals for purposes
other than hunting"
The Wildlife Federation, a local lobbying
group, has come to you asking that you sponsor their
proposed new bill to re-write this statute. Concerned
by the recent appointment of an anti-environmental director
as the new head of the Department, the Wildlife Federation
fears that the new Director will use the existing statutory
mandate under the current statute, supra, to
create rules that will be harmful to their goals of
encouraging private landowners to feed (and thereby
attract) wild animals on their property. They want to
remove the current statutory directive requiring
the Director to promulgate rules to regulate the recreational
and supplemental feeding of wild animals for nonhunting
purposes. Instead of the current statutory mandate,
they want to eliminate the Director's authority
to issue any such rules at all. You were elected to
the legisature in part due to active support for your
campign that you received from the Wildlife Federation,
and you personally believe in and support their cause,
so you agreed to help them re-write the current statute.
They have proposed the following bill to incorporte
the changes that they desire.
"Feeding wild animals for
nonhunting purposes. The department
may not promulgate rules
to regulate the recreational and supplemental feeding
of wild animals for purposes other than hunting.
Any rules promulgated by the
department before October 30, 2005, the effective
date of this section which are prohibited by this
section are void." (Changes
marked in red).
What, if any, word usage or grammar problems
does the Wildlife Federation's proposed bill present?
Explain your answer thoroughly in an e-mail response
designated as "Sample Lesson Problem No.
1" and submitted to Professor Martin at
esaprof@gmail.com.
Continue
with Part I
Introduction | Begin
Part I | Part II
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