HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 81

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Eric A. Youngberg

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO APPOINT A RED RIBBON COMMITTEE TO REVIEW THE STATE'S LAWS AND RECOMMEND REPEAL OF OBSOLETE LAWS.

     WHEREAS, the state's citizen-legislators labor mightily and work diligently to enact laws that properly reflect the current state of affairs and that are relevant to the challenges, problems and conditions facing the public; and

     WHEREAS, over time, laws that were enacted may lose their relevance but are not repealed because legislators are necessarily more concerned with enacting new laws to address current issues than with repealing obsolete laws; and

     WHEREAS, examples of laws currently on the books in the state of New Mexico that might be considered by some to be obsolete include a prohibition against dueling, a requirement that communists register with the state and a law allowing those who lose a bet to recover their losses by suing the winner; and

     WHEREAS, the state also prohibits putting pictures of honeybees on imitation honey, dancing for more than twenty-four hours and selling used watches without a "secondhand" label; and

     WHEREAS, legislative bodies should periodically review the relevance of prohibitions against spitting on sidewalks, guarantees that women can hold public office and the statutory existence of bicentennial commissions; 

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico legislative council be requested to create a red ribbon committee of legislators to meet in the 2005 interim to review the state's laws and recommend to the second session of the forty-seventh legislature which laws, if any, may have outlived their usefulness or relevance; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the co-chairs of the New Mexico legislative council.

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