American lawmaking is fragmented across thousands of local special-purpose bodies, not just legislatures
Evidence
As with the courts, we can imagine them arranged in a kind of pyramid. At the base of the pyramid, in the typical state, are the lawmaking organs of local government. In California alone, there are more than five thousand local bodies with some lawmaking or rulemaking power. These include city councils, county boards, boards of supervisors, and thousands of special-purpose bodies. There are fifty- eight counties in California (San Francisco is specially classified as a “city-county”) and 448 cities. There is also a patchwork quilt of over a thousand school districts2 and, as of 2012, 4,711 special districts in charge of everything from parks, water, and power to mosquitoes, sewers, and cemeteries. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 440
Categorization
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
- XREF: connects to: Private laws still let Congress legislate for single named individuals — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 467; Courts do make law even though formal theory denies them that power — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 439; Fragmented U.S. lawmaking institutions structurally favor slow incremental change over sweeping reform — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 170 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Lawmaking is fragmented across many levels of government beyond just legislatures.
#corroborates(1.00) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 441