Not happy with the way things are? Then why don't you try to change or modify the law by submitting bills to the State Legislature. No, I am not going to give you another rendition of "School House Rock"! I just want to give you a sense of what the political process is all about.
Here is an overview of information I obtained from the Office of the House Clerk of the CT General Assembly regarding the "Enactment of Bills." This is how it goes:
First, Members and Members-elect of the General Assembly file proposed bills either to the House or the Senate. This means that if you want to submit a bill to the State Legislature, you are required to find a Member or a Member-elect who would be willing to file the bill for you. You can have more than one representative sponsoring a bill if that works better for you.
At first, proposed bills are not written in statutory language. Instead, they usually consist of a single paragraph which states the substance of the bill.
Second, the Member or Member-elect will present the proposed bill to the Clerk of the House or Senate--whichever he belongs to--who will assign a number to the bill. Next, the bill is sent to the appropriate Committee depending upon the subject matter, and it is there that the bill is translated into legal language. Keep in mind that there are all sorts of Committees--Committees on Aging, Committees on Appropriations, Banks, Children, Education, etc. etc. The Committee where the bill ends up can also combine the contents of the bill with another bill, refer the bill to another committee, or let it fail.
Third, the Committee where the bill is under consideration will then make arrangements for public hearings on the bill and the representative who sponsored the bill will be informed of the date and time of the public hearings on the bill. Upon request, such notices are also provided to other interested persons. I'm not sure whose request, to be honest. Then the notice of the hearing is published in the Legislative Bulletin. This is the stage at which most of us, i.e. the public, stakeholders, advocates such as myself, etc., etc. will hear about the bill. The public hearing, which is ordinarily held at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, provides an opportunity for folks to speak to legislators about their opinions regarding the bill.
Four, after the public hearing, the Committee responsible for the bill will meet to decide what to do with it. This meeting is open to the public. The options the Committee has are 1) to provide a favorable report indicating that the majority of the committee approves of the bill; 2) to adjust the bill until it is acceptable and then provide a favorable report approving the bill; 3) to vote against the bill; 4) to provide an unfavorable report regarding the bill. It is unlikely that the General Assembly will vote for a bill that the Committee decides to reject. So, at this juncture, the representative (s) sponsoring the bill really has to work hard at eliciting support for the bill or else it won't pass.
Five, Once the bill has been passed by the Committee with a favorable report, then the bill is referred to the Legislative Commissioner's Office to be checked for constitutionality and consistency with other laws that are already on the books. Next, the Office of Fiscal Analysis has to evaluate the bill and report on how much money it will cost the State once it is passed. Finally, the Office of Legislative Research will add a plain English explanation of what the bill is all about. Then the bill is assigned a calendar number for either the House or the Senate, depending upon where the sponsor of the bill is located. If the bill passes in the House, then it sent on to the Senate for a vote, or vice versa depending. If the bill is amended at any point, it must go back to the Legislative Commissioner's Office to be reviewed again.
Six, if both the House and the Senate pass the bill, then it is sent to the Governor who can 1) sign the bill; 2) veto it; 3) take no action. If the bill is vetoed by the Governor, it can still become law if both Houses pass the bill by a 2/3 majority.
This is just a general overview and there are probably other steps which I have missed, but you can get the general idea.
Of course, the bottom line is, you can pass all sorts of bills, but what really counts is how are those bills going to be enforced?
One way such bills are enforced is when the bills translate into concrete changes in the Connecticut Practice Book. But even when bills are passed, and there are changes to the Practice Book as a result, if attorneys, judges, and court personnel choose to evade, bypass, or simply disobey the dictates of these bills, it won't matter at all that a bill has been passed. For example, the ADA is a federal law that was passed with great fanfare across the country but is frequently ignored, particularly in family court here in Connecticut.
The only way to make sure that the courts enforce the Connecticut statutes created by these bills is for advocates to monitor what is happening throughout the state, to keep citizens informed of what is going on through blogging and ongoing communication with the media, and for individual litigants to pursue their cases in court all the way up to the supreme court if necessary in order to make sure that the court system enforces the law.
What this adds up to is a slow pokey, creepy, crawly way of creating social change.
The downside of that is that citizens are forced to wait until our policitical and judicial systems are able to implement vital social reform, and as we well know, "justice delayed is justice denied"!
The upside is that all the various constituencies and interest groups throughout the State have the time and the opportunity to dialogue over the proposed changes and see that such changes are valid and useful and have broad based support before carrying them out.
And there is a lot to be said for that. In my view, changes that have been fully discussed, and where everyone has been thoroughly educated regarding the importance and necessity of those changes, have far more chances of succeeding.
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