Repealing More Archaic Laws

1. Perfectly stated.

2. Great to hear modern values are getting codified in our law. Very important work. Thank you!

3. Thank you Sen. Brownsberger.

   There are a lot of other anachronisms in the law that need to be looked at as well. I heard that there is still a Puritan law on the books that makes it a crime to do any physical activity/sports on a Sunday.

   1. There are definitely other anachronisms. FWIW, I’m not aware of a law limiting physical activity on Sundays — but there are a lot of laws on the books. That’s why the law creates a study committee.

   2. Good work, goddammit! (no longer a punishable comment.)

4. Thank you Will! Keep up the good work!.

5. Thanks, Will. Well said! I appreciated the history lesson (didn’t know how archaic some of our laws are). Building ‘a more perfect union’ regarding human rights takes work.

6. I’m not sure there is a real problem in this State with persecution or discrimination of an individuals sexual preference. Of course there should not be and in fact there is no discrimination, particularly at the State level.. Good to take archaic laws off the books even if just a symbolic. curiosity. However, I should point out your rank hypocrisy as you fully supported discrimination and exclusion when it comes to the State forcing medical interventions on it’s citizens. If I recall you fully supported Mayor Wu, excluding patrons from dining in restaurants, attending museums, ball games, library, attendance at school, being fired from jobs, etc. Here you have no issue with the State forcing your beliefs on other individuals. Nobody should be forced to take drugs or have medical interventions because of your beliefs. I thought this was settled at Nuremberg, but I guess we never really learn from History.

7. Wait! So it was the Puritans who gave us the weekend and not the unions?

8. This is good to remove de-humanizing language from the law. (That at the time was meant to make life more godly and thus humane.)

   So our entire body of MA law is under review by an appointed committee and all future law must pass through the same ideological filtration process?

   Doesn’t the existence of some archaic artifacts such as man needing a day off anchor us to a moral bedrock?

9. Thanks for this update. Does the bill go to House Ways & Means now? Is the next step moving it from there to a floor vote in the House?

   1. Next step is House consideration. Not sure by what steps they will move the bill.

      1. It looks like the companion bill is H.1640. Is that the one I should be contacting my House representative to ask him to support?

10. The law books are full of obsolete laws that need review. Gender preference is a big one but not necessarily the only view. How about marital status. Look at property ownership Tenancy in common V/S joint tenancy with rights of survivorship.

11. This is a good project!

    Having archaic laws on the books makes criminals of us all and undermines all laws that protect society.

    Having certain archaic/anachronistic language on the books creates an environment where moral authority is undermined and the multitudes can choose which laws for follow with the confidence of living in new norms or the churlishness and wink and a nod.

    What is off limits?

    Does this circumvent any constitutional powers?

    (Like the MA Hands-Free Law which the people chose by lawful vote, but is unlawfully not enforced because of the confluence of the pandemic temporarily emptying the roads and the manifold changes following the BLM protests and maybe the corrupt pressure from the tech sector)

    Will there be public review of the words going under the knife? Will that be in the OpenSource?

    How will it be decided between what’s archaic in one man’s opinion and still morally sound -if only the deeper jist of it by another’s man’s opinion?

    Are there any laws on the books that may be clumsily worded, but still protect the Commonwealth?

    Will the all the excisions and replacements be debated fairly and meaningfully before the common people and subject to objection?

    With the committee undertake and enter into the record an academic review of the archaic laws and society and differentiate between type, substance, norms and so on?

    1. The MA Hands-Free comment is meant to follow “churlishness of the wink and nod.”

    2. The power of the new committee would be to study the law and recommend sections for repeal. The authority to change the law would continue to reside in the legislature.

       And the process for doing so would be through the normal legislative process.

       1. Thanks Senator!

       2. So is this a straight forward process of good legislative practices in rewording archaic and anachronistic laws where the committee works in good faith and in accordance the “committee shall” items without contention not putting forth a partisan product to be rubber-stamped?

12. Bravo, Bill! It’s important that these archaic laws are struck off so they can’t present opportunities to be used as stalking horses by bad actors.

13. Cleaning up the MGL by ridding it of archaic laws such as these is important as it makes it very clear to all where we stand on these issues. Keep up the good work!

14. It’s essential to strike while the iron is hot (and the time is auspicious and propitious and otherwise advantageous!)

    So by changing “common nightwalker,” to “person,” are we blinding law enforcement to prostitution and human trafficing?

    What were some of the other archaic laws? Like protecting our weakest and poorest citizens from the sucker’s bet of lotteries? Now we’re all riding the backs of the poor instead of the better off being held to pay full freight.

    1. Prostitution remains illegal under other laws.

       1. Thank you Senator!

       2. Prostitution would not exist if for sexism, and sadly neediness (poverty in this… No less there’d be greed, but by whom..exploitative people? Think about it..It’s complicated

          1. I’d like to add, that a lot of workers are asked to compensate in wages “to keep the economy going”. So let’s acknowledge that prostitution might be an alternative to those corporations that give minimal, nearly homeless type wages..but, can there be a little bit of Diginity here?

             You’re homeless..we just passed a bill that prostitution is legal, so you can whore yourself out to avoid slave wages..nice deal..

             Maybe pass a bill for universal income?

             I will look for the 2 bills on this universal income in house and pass on to you..soon as I find them..

             Thank you!

          2. Ok, maybe bill h.3598..there maybe more. Why Markie hasn’t co sponsored, I don’t know. Warren was on the financial committee , what is she doing on this?

             Maybe call Warren and Markie on this important bill. Also, there is an SSI bill to up the amount of money one can have in their account. This is important, because if you are frugal and need to save for security deposit on an apt. You can be penalized and lose your benifents.. please, address this!

15. So this is gone even though we all take ot with a grain of salt:

    Section 36: Blasphemy

    Section 36. Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.

    1. So, over 250,000 of “God’s creation” dead thanks to the Sackler’s unlawful and evil actions we’ve got politicians across the country giving these slaughterers and dealers of largesse a blasphemous slap on the wrist under protection of the holy shield of populism and the corporate monopolized media.

16. Thank you!

17. Reword Section 36: Blasphemy don’t erase history by striking it because of a narrow-minded few.

    There are believers and atheists and humanists alike who cherish, study, meditate and reflect on mankind’s relationship with “God.” Expand 36 to include native spirits, Catholics and other Christian sects, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, Mohammedans, Wiccans, humanists and the whole panoply of humanity’s seemingly hard-wired wonder about the universe and creation.

    1. …narrow-minded and intolerant few.

       Inclusion is the order of the day and it’s righteous and moral, but power corrupts.

       As a white straight-ish male over 50 I admit some trepidation about the (Western?) Civilization baby being thrown out with the “white power structure” bathwater.

       1. Just as the abused becomes the abuser and those fleeing from persecution became the persecutors, so too shall the newly included become excluders.

18. Thanks Will, for addressing these icky archaic laws, still on the books! What can I say, but I’m proud also, that you are in State senate..

19. Well researched, well presented.
    A reflection of good intentions and good leadership.
    Thank you

    1. Ah, yes, I see that in the text. What’s vague to me is the committee process and the political dynamics. That’s not part of my day-to-day. I see where the appointments are distributed and staggered in time and thus representation and if that created a founder effect that carries forward as the committee matures through rounds of appointments and political changes. I don’t know if the that creates a hierarchy in that body that develops an inertia and authority which subverts its majority, minority, executive structure of the committee.

       Ya, I need to tale Gov’t 101 and 102 I don’t mind saying, bec. my knowledge is patchy.

20. Thank you!

21. Thank you for working so hard and long to get rid of these archaic laws. Everyone should be protected by equal rights.

22. 3. If any person shall Blaspheme the name of God, the father, Sonne, or Holie ghost, … he shall be put to death. lev. 24.15.16

    “Don’t you blaspheme in here, don’t you blaspheme in here!”
    – Aretha Franklin, in “The Blues Brothers”

23. Thank you for adding the new resources this afternoon. It’s interesting to see how thoroughly Massachusetts was founded on principles of justice, fairness, equity (even though the times weren’t amenable to homosexuality and gender equality) by enshrining our civilization’s moral code (and operating manual) the Old Testament so deeply in our laws.

    How thorough and widespread are these historical expungements going to be? Are there any limitations?

    I get #8 and gender equality but isn’t there a risk of a wholesale assault on the character of the Commonwealth?

24. What is the utility in removing archaic language from our laws if most of them are sitting there harmlessly marking the passage of time and reminding us where we came from?

    I get that it’s hard to abide the knowledge of the past and past harms these laws caused as values changed, but these archaic words no longer have the power to exclude only offend.

25. I get that these archaic laws are stupid now hand have been stupid for a very long time yet we kept them and kept unbroken communion with our fore-bearers and honored the words that shepherded them through the millennia. To them we owe our existence. Are people really and truly wounded by some of the archaic words in our law today? What is the nature of this pain? Power held at bay? Is it an act of love to erase these words? I don’t want one person to be wounded by them, but before make this most profound and perhaps profane cut from our ancestors we should put before ourselves a test of purity of motive.

26. It takes over 300 years to update our obsolete laws. Not sure if they are enforceable. How many have been executed under these laws? The last executions (I can recall) Sacco & Vanzetti. With the repeal of the death penalty I would think these laws by reference would be repealed by the fact they are no longer enforceable. Is such a process constitutional to automatic repeal? The state law books are likely to be full of dangling chaff. The legislature has it’s hands full just doing law book janitorial tasks. No time to do the important stuff. Is that how governments fail?

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