History Main / ThereShouldBeALaw

* A wide amount of real world examples of this trope stem from Freedom of Speech laws (chiefly the first amendment of the United States constitution and laws like it elsewhere). Simply put, having the freedom to express one's opinion regardless of its content as loud as you want creates something of a mess when what you're saying offends any appreciable number of people.

** The mother of the former friend has since been charged under Federal law in connection violating the terms of service for MySpace (which she certainly did). Her legal council has contended this is an attempt by the government to "do something" in the face of no real illegality, and such interpretation of the law threatens to make felons out of anyone who violates a website's terms of service. Also, the state is now passing laws to make this illegal, although it can only apply to future cases, because the USA does not permit ex post facto (after the fact) laws. In the end, Lori Drew was convicted of the three misdemeanors that the charges were eventually reduced to, with a possible maximum jail sentence of three years.

* Search your state's criminal code. Chances are, there's some apparently oddball provision in there that is a result of exactly this line of thinking. For example, in Illinois there is [[http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/072000050K12-21.7.htm a law]] which prohibits the sale of Yo-Yo Waterballs. (This was apparently the result of a campaign by a mother whose child had nearly been strangled when the toy's cord wrapped around his neck, an apparently not uncommon complaint with the toy.)

See also AndThatsTerrible. In sports, this is the sadistic version of LoopholeAbuse.

** TruthInTelevision, [[strike:unfortunately]]. GeorgeHWBush proposed such an amendment, and American conservatives are still kicking it around in some circles.

** Well, they started it.
** We did not start it!
** [[FawltyTowers Yes you did, you invaded Amalek!]]
* In many places where it's considered obscene for women to show their breasts in public, the local government has ruled it illegal to pass a law that only applies to one gender, so women are allowed to go topless in public so long as men are. So someone visiting a beach in Ohio or Quebec might see a woman they think is being indecent but who isn't actually doing anything illegal.

* In 1874, it was discovered that Mary Ellen Wilson, a small girl living in New York City, was being horribly abused by her foster parents. Unfortunately, there were no child welfare laws at the time. In fact, her case was taken by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ''Animals''. Her case established the first legal precedent for child abuse in the U.S. and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded soon after.

* ''[[LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit Law & Order: SVU]]'' does this quite a bit, naturally. The most ridiculous case was probably the one in which a 17-year-old girl had a disease which made her [[OlderThanTheyLook look perpetually 10]]. The only men who would date her were pedophiles, and the officers kept trying to arrest her boyfriends for enjoying dating a girl who only ''looked'' underage. The writers seemed to think it was a better idea for people who age slowly to remain celibate for their entire lives rather than engage in a relationship with someone who might enjoy it, while simultaneously finding a harmless outlet for urges that could have led to something horrible.
** ''SVU'' ran this into the ground. One example deals with a grown woman having an Elektra Complex affair with her father; when one of the detectives fights to get them arrested for the relationship, she learns...

** The SVU officers also have problems with victims of '''''statutory''''' rape being in love with, and wanted to be with, their rapists, even after said "victim" becomes an adult and can make such decisions as whom they fall in love with for themselves. The issue of consensuality seems to escape them at such times.

* In the early '90s Justice Society miniseries, BlackCanary wisecracks while fighting some thugs that "Handguns are just too easy to get these days! There oughta be a law!" This annoyed a letter-writer who took it as social commentary, but it was meant as a knowing wink at the existence of gun-control laws in later decades.

* In the UK, when banker Fred Goodwin [[CorruptCorporateExecutive helped further ruin an already-ruined economy and then awarded himself a huge pension]], the Government tried to find a way of calling him out on it but failed because everything he'd done was perfectly legal. This caused much public outrage, to the extent where some people apparently thought the Government should just [[CrowningMomentOfFunny temporarily pass a law that being named Fred Goodwin was illegal]]. It was further conflicted by the fact that Parliament do have the powers to confiscate his pension, but doing so would either violate contract law, or be a passing bill of attainder, which, while actually legal in the UK (and was actually one of the reasons for TheAmericanRevolution), is seen as immensely improper to do in any advanced democracy.

** There now exists [[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ228/html/PLAW-109publ228.htm a federal law forbidding folks from "[protesting] at funerals at cemeteries under control of the National Cemetery Administration and at Arlington National Cemetery",]] likely directed at the WBC.

** In his book ''I'm a Stranger Here Myself'', BillBryson talked about American politician Newt Gingrich calling for the ''death penalty'' for pot users, then followed it up with a proposal for a law making it a crime to be Newt Gingrich.

** In the UK, some enterprising "common prostitutes" (as opposed to "uncommon" ones) tried to get around a ban on soliciting in the street by shouting from windows or balconies. It didn't work. Similarly, the law makes it illegal to be a pimp, to run a brothel, to use a prostitute subjected to force (whether the client is aware is irrelevant), to solicit on the street, to live from the proceeds of prostitution (except your own), but not to actually ''be'' a prostitute. This is deliberate In other words, the law bends over backwards to try to stop the practice and still avoid criminalizing the vulnerable individuals at the centre of it.

** Troi defends Barclay's unusual characters, since they a part of his own personal fantasy life into which they were (justifiably) intruding, until she recoils at seeing her own doppelganger. Riker seizes the opportunity to [[TakeThat get back at her]] for chiding him earlier.

->Nobody ever came out and said, "Please pass a law so [[NoMatterHowMuchIBeg I can be forced to stop doing something I shouldn't be doing]]," no, it's always "Please pass a law to [[CulturePolice force]] ''[[ActivistFundamentalistAntics them]]'' [[MoralGuardians to stop doing something that I don't like]]."

->Nobody ever came out and said, "please pass a law so [[NoMatterHowMuchIBeg I can be forced to stop doing something I shouldn't be doing]]," no, it's always "please pass a law to [[CulturePolice force]] ''[[ActivistFundamentalistAntics them]]'' [[MoralGuardians to stop doing something that I don't like]]."
-->-- '''Mannie Garcia''' in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''

* "The Opinion Card" is a spin doctor slang term for protecting oneself from prosecution for stating untrue facts (which is slander) by claiming it's just your opinion. The alternate version is packaging an untruthful claim as a question for the same purpose.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' plays this as a joke, constantly. Adrian Monk tries to get police officers to arrest people for doing things like not washing their hands. The biggest example is in "Monk and the Naked Man", where Monk goes absolutely crazy and comes up with insane reasons as to why a nudist is the murderer. Towards the end of the episode, some of his theories basically accuse nudists of being a different species.

*** In another, he brings a senior executive that wouldn't promote his female employees unless they slept with him up on extortion charges, arguing that his behavior is the same as if common mobsters were shaking someone down for protection. The defense is livid at the notion, and TheJudge admits that this is an unorthodox reading of the law, but is willing to allow it anyway and let the jury and/or appellate courts deal with the fallout, because the guy was just ''that'' much of a sleaze.

*** An insurance company that failed to notify a man that his coverage was rejected because he had syphilis, resulting in his going insane and stabbing people some twenty years later.
*** A doctor running a fertilization clinic was found to be using his own sperm, as opposed to "anonymous donors" as he'd been telling his patients. [=McCoy=] is morally outraged, but finds that he can't prosecute him as no law has been broken. Strictly speaking, the doctor himself ''was'' an anonymous donor, so he didn't technically lie to anyone. The best that can be hoped for is ethics charges as criminally, there is no case.

* In [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]], there is the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyleigh%27s_Law Kyleigh's Law]], whose namesake, 16 year old Kyleigh D'Alessio, died when the 17 year old driver of the vehicle she was in lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree. The two other passengers in the car were 16 and 19 years old and the accident happened at 3 am, past the then-midnight curfew and it was rainy besides. So what kind of law does Kyleigh D'Alessio's mother try to get passed and succeed in getting passed? Maybe a law mandating extra emphasis in New Jersey driver's education courses about it being dangerous to drive in bad weather or late at night, let alone a combination of the two? Nope. It upped the curfew from midnight to 11pm, increased restrictions on under-21 provisional drivers as well as changing the name "provisional" to "probationary," and mandated that all probationary drivers under 21 have a red decal on both license plates. That's not even the full list of restrictions. And to make things worse, the teenagers and adults who are on their side about the injustice of the increase in age-based restrictions, especially the red decals that make it so that teenage and 20 year old drivers can be profiled based on their age, are mostly being ignored in favor of [[AdultsAreUseless the politicians and such who are saying to repeal the decal restriction]] [[PaedoHunt because it could make teens vulnerable to predators]].

* Most all European constitutions expressly forbid ex post facto laws but the UK and Australia laws are allowed to be retroactive, so once there is a law, they can prosecute. It's not common for your average law to do such, but not unheard of either.

*** In BostonLegal's defense, it was actually entertaining when they did it.

* In 1874, it was discovered that Mary Ellen Wilson, a small girl living in New York City, was being horribly abused by her foster parents. Unfortunately, there were no child welfare laws at the time. In fact, her case was taken by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ''Animals''. Her case established the first legal precedent for child abuse in the U.S. and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded soon after.

->Nobody ever came out and said, "please pass a law so [[NoMatterHowMuchIBeg I can be forced to stop doing something I shouldn't be doing]]," no, it's always "please pass a law to force ''them'' to stop doing something that I don't like."