Another Law Gone Wrong
I’m not sure if this meets the precise definition of a “law gone wrong,” but in my home state of Virginia it is illegal “to hunt or kill any wild bird or wild animal, including any nuisance species, with a gun, firearm or other weapon on Sunday, which is hereby declared a rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life.”
Although I was born into a family of church-going hunters, I was always more sympathetic to the church part than to the hunting part. Consequently, I have no problem whatsoever with Sunday, or any other day for that matter, being declared a day of rest for wild animals (or at least a day on which they cannot be killed).
What I find peculiar (and wrong) is the statute’s one exception: day of rest notwithstanding, raccoons can be hunted and killed in Virginia on Sundays, so long as the hunting is done between midnight and 2:00 a.m. (I am not making this up. If you doubt this, check out Va. Code § 29.1-521(A)(1).)
Because of their semi-domesticated qualities, especially when young, raccoons have always been my favorite wild animals. But even without this affection, I would like to think that I would find it unfair, and maybe even unconstitutional in some sublime sense, that one species of woodland animal would be deprived of 1/12 of its statutory day of rest.
Can such a classification purport to have a rational basis? After Romer v. Evans and United States v. Virginia, I think not.