b'Special Edition:The Construction ConversationOhio?s Legislative, Administrative, and Judicial Two-Way NewsletterA Service of Luther L. Liggett, Attorney at LawLLiggett@columbus.rr.comcourts, amended by future legislators, and built How DOES a Bil l upon by administrative action through executive agencies.In this manner, proper legislation is a Become Law? slow and deliberate process, of many persons? ideas, and requiring patient work.Overview."Laws are likeDraft ing a Proposed Law. Imagine cooking a sausages, it is better not to seegreat dinner, but without choosing any them being made," claimed Ottoingredients.Imagine suing in court, but without von Bismarck (1815-1898), firstwriting anything for the judge to consider. Imagine imperial Chancellor of thewanting to turn your idea into a new statute, German Empire.[i]Yet, the rightwithout drafting the provisions you want.Luther L. Liggett to advocate to our American government is a two-centuryTo argue in court for anyone other than oneself, right found in the Firstthe person requires a license as a lawyer, Amendment of the United States and Ohiobecoming an ?officer of the court.? There is no Constitutions,[ii]no matter how messy. requirement or restriction for any person to draft a Athens, Greece is recognized as the first historicproposal for a new law.democracy, where every citizen might exercise aThe Legislative Service Commission is an agency direct vote on everything. Talk about chaos! Platoof the Ohio General Assembly, charged with in his book the ?Republic?[iii]disdained democracy,drafting a bill in the specific form necessary for where voters choose only in their self-interest.introduction. Any legislator can request LSC to When that fails, citizens vote to destroy (so as todraft any idea into bill form. LSC drafting rules are get a second chance.) We see this dynamic everyas unique as the Civil Rules of Procedure in Ohio day in current voting at the polls and in thecourts. And anyone can follow that recipe in the legislatures. Plato preferred an oligarchy offirst instance, allowing LSC to finalize the bill for disinterested ?scientists? (philosophers) to chooseintroduction.what is best for the people, a dictatorship in essence. No politics in that, right? Each sentence of a new law draws on two-hundred Today, the United States is a ?representativeyears of American legal precedent, including democracy? with full discretion vested in elected officials only during their term of office, limited by separation of powers among the legislature, courts, and executive agencies. But, because of the historic beginning of slavery economics, the individual states remain the primary unit of government.The federal government only operates within the constrains of Constitutional authority expressly granted by the states, all other authority reserved locally to the people.Former U.S. House Speaker Tip O?Neill (D, Massachusetts) maintained that, ?All politics is local,?[iv]reflecting the power of local statehouse governance, and the variety of legal solutions across our nation.Success in legislating involves building ?consensus? among all affected participants.This differs from ?compromise?.The discussion process is critically important. Legislation enacted by cutting corners or slipping a provision into a lengthy bill seldom survives the passage of time.Those laws of longevity are interpreted byContinued on Page 8www.ohioroofing.com 7'