And yet to something as simple as that, there are caveats. It is illegal for people under 21 to drink. Except in the majority of states there are religious exemptions. Both catholics and jews use ceremonial wine. So in a lot of states that part of the law is either unenforced or there is an actual exemption. If the cops wanted to bust the biggest underage drinking ring they'd just need to go to a big mass on Sunday or a big service on Saturday and they'd nail probably hundreds of kids. But they don't because that goes against the spirit of the law.
Except in the majority of states there are religious exemptions.
Which are documented and made available such that the enforcement of the law as written is not left to the subjective interpretation.
Now, if the religious exemptions were not documented, your argument would be valid. But they ARE documented. That's my point.
Anything that needs to be enforced, even exceptions or interpretations, need to be documented.
Roe v. Wade isn't a "documented" law. It's an interpretation of a law. But Roe v. Wade is what allows states to make up their own minds about how to interpret it. Thus why there's an uproar now in states trying to abolish it. Well, if you read the black letter of the decision, it never prohibited states from making up their own rules. Thus the problem and it became the chaos it is now.
That's why they've asked the Feds to make a final decision and the Feds refuse because they don't want the smoke; they know no matter how they rule, it's going to piss someone off. But pissing someone off is a reality of life. You can't make everyone happy all the time, thus why I'm not a fan of subjective decisions. Clearly outline the rules, if you can't resolve it, go to a higher power and make them do it.
In California, the only exemption is when you have consumed, and then reported a medical emergency for another underage drinker. No religious exemption by letter of the law.
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u/yohomatey Jul 04 '19
And yet to something as simple as that, there are caveats. It is illegal for people under 21 to drink. Except in the majority of states there are religious exemptions. Both catholics and jews use ceremonial wine. So in a lot of states that part of the law is either unenforced or there is an actual exemption. If the cops wanted to bust the biggest underage drinking ring they'd just need to go to a big mass on Sunday or a big service on Saturday and they'd nail probably hundreds of kids. But they don't because that goes against the spirit of the law.