When a law is passed - how it works in a nutshell

[#1]

The authors of the law have already conceded they intended for it to be applied to imports mainly, not small home businesses in this country.

Plus just because something is law, doesn't mean anyone is APPLYING the law. It has to then go to its regulatory agency, which in this case might be the FDA. But that also hasn't been decided yet. Then the FDA(whoever) decides how and to whom this will apply. So the law has no body of jurisdiction until it is assigned to a regulatory body.

This agency publishes rules in the Federal Register and then those can be challenged under the Adminstrative procedures Act. Under the APA, the rules are often challenged for being "overburdensome". This probably won't even get challenged because legislators will fix it.

It takes time. And the legislators are already discussing the need to rewrite or amend what they've written because of crafters' concerns.

I wish everyone would just continue to give legislators input regarding the ill-fitting language of this law and let them fix it without creating all this fear.

It's very unhealthy and really creates an unnecessary Us and Them mentality.

A good junior high school civics class will help all the fear-mongerers here understand how law is made and applied. And then a nice lunch with a lawyer friend who can read the law to you and interpret it for you and tell you how fast a judge would throw out a case against a small time crafter will ease your mind.

Please stop worrying. It's heart-breaking.

[Former_Member]

Thanks, HipMelon. Good information.

[Former_Member]

And because I think it's important to understand this:

RabbitHorn gave people advice they may well construe to be legal advice. She has claimed to be a lawyer, and on the second page of this thread she promised to act as a lawyer to represent HipMelon pro bono (though she didn't use that term) if the CPSC hauled her into court::
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6011520&page=2
"HipMelon, if you get hauled off to court I will represent you for free. (depending on what state you're in - I can't practice everywhere because that's the law...)"

That's certainly saying she can practice law in some states. And she gave incredibly bad and uninformed advice in this thread:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6011520
Telling people the law couldn't possibly be enforced because nobody had yet determined the regulatory agency.

But the regulatory agency is specified *in the body of the law itself,* proving she was giving legal advice (that people were and are relying on) when she was totally ignorant of the law she was purporting to explain. None of us here caught that and pointed out. Grim Reader did.

If you look at her comments in his post:
http://www.zianet.com/ehusman/weblog/blogger.html
You see that she admits she gave that advice without being informed (but she thinks that's okay):

"I am rabbithorns and I didn't know at the time who the regulatory agency was for the CPSIA. I did find out it is the CPSC.
... I didn't know who the regulatory agency was because I've paid this law absolutely no notice since I read it months ago."

She goes on to call Grim Reader a moron and a yahoo and say other ugly things to him on his own blog, and the only reason I can see is that he pointed out how foolish and ill-informed her advice was.

And here's another troubling point- she's known now since 01.26.09 - 12:01 am (when she admitted she'd not read the law, didn't know it said the CPSIA was the regulatory agency, and called GR a moron) that her advice was bad and based on completely erroneous information. Did she come back here to correct it? No, she only called the person who pointed it out rude and unprofessional names.

I do not believe she's a lawyer.

I wouldn't rely on her for legal advice.

Or any other sort.

[Former_Member]

marking...

[LaurieRyan]

that is what I've been trying to say all along just didn't have the right words for it thank you OP

[Former_Member]

This is a great post, thanks very much! Information is key.