[LEAPSECS] LEAPSECS Digest, Vol 45, Issue 1

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On 2 Sep 2010 at 12:49, M. Warner Losh wrote:


> I'd wager that UTC, whatever its realization, would likely trump any

> locally written laws.  After all, UTC has been a widely accepted

> approximation of the local laws that's attained the force of law

> through repetitive use


They can get away with that now, as the difference between the two is 
too small to matter except to some highly specialized professions 
whose issues haven't happened to come before the courts.  If the 
difference is allowed to drift unlimitedly, the conflict would become 
obvious, and if your side wins, it will be a case of "bait and 
switch", as you've gotten the public to think your scale is "close 
enough for government work" to solar time, then you yank the rug from 
under it.

One can never predict, however, which way courts will end up going on 
that; the Supreme Court in the US in the 1940s found a farmer growing 
crops to feed to his own animals to be "affecting interstate 
commerce" and hence subject to Federal regulation even though none of 
it ever left the state, and a few years ago they reiterated this 
decision with regard to Federal bans on medical marijuana grown, 
sold, and used within a state that allows it by state law.  Now 
they're wrestling with whether or not the Constitution protects the 
right to gay marriage even though marriage of any sort is never 
mentioned in the document.  (I support it myself, but I'm not sure 
how good an idea it is to be "finding" rights out of nowhere in 200-
year-old documents.)  So it's always a crapshoot.

-- 
== Dan ==
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