It’s July 1, and you know what that means — there’s a whole raft of new state laws going into effect across the country. Some are sensible, some not so much.
In California, schools are now barred from serving food containing transfats. But car buyers will get a break, with California becoming the first state in the nation to give buyers of used autos that cost less than $40,000 the option to return vehicles to the dealer after two days with no questions asked.
Florida will no longer force its schools automatically expel or arrest kids who misbehave in insignificant ways — such as bringing plastic butter knives to school or drawing pictures of guns.
In one of the weirder laws, the face of Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich will be banned from state tourism ads. The Republican governor has played a number of roles in public-service commercials, including a hotel desk clerk, a handyman and a gardener, to promote tourism in the state. But the Democratic-led General Assembly slipped language into the state budget cutting off state money for any ads that feature a candidate for public office until Jan. 10.
Georgia’s new law to keep convicted sex offenders from getting out of prison and re-settling near children is already under attack in the courts. The law copies other states’ bans barring sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of places such as schools, parks and churches, but also extends the no sex-offender zone to within 1,000 feet of one of the state’s 150,000 school bus stops. That would make most residential areas, and even entire counties, off-limits to sex offenders.
Some of the other new laws:
Global Positioning System devices are now being used to monitor sex offenders in four more states — Georgia, Kansas, Virginia and Indiana.
Alabama mothers can breast-feed their babies in public without being accused of indecent exposure.
In Georgia, winners of lottery prizes of more than $2,500 may see their winnings withheld or reduced if they’re behind on child-support payments.
Virginia school bus drivers are now being allowed to drive 10 miles per hour faster. Because impatient drivers would zip around the slower buses, leading to abrupt and dangerous cutoffs, the buses are being allowed to speed up a bit.
Last but not least, local governments in Georgia now will be allowed to post the Ten Commandments in public buildings, as long as they are hanging alongside historic documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. However, if any local governments do post the Commandments, the American Civil Liberties Union has promised to sue them.
