On 2 Sep 2010 at 12:49, M. Warner Losh wrote: > I'd wager that UTC, whatever its realization, would likely trump any > locally written laws. After all, UTC has been a widely accepted > approximation of the local laws that's attained the force of law > through repetitive use
They can get away with that now, as the difference between the two is too small to matter except to some highly specialized professions whose issues haven't happened to come before the courts. If the difference is allowed to drift unlimitedly, the conflict would become obvious, and if your side wins, it will be a case of "bait and switch", as you've gotten the public to think your scale is "close enough for government work" to solar time, then you yank the rug from under it. One can never predict, however, which way courts will end up going on that; the Supreme Court in the US in the 1940s found a farmer growing crops to feed to his own animals to be "affecting interstate commerce" and hence subject to Federal regulation even though none of it ever left the state, and a few years ago they reiterated this decision with regard to Federal bans on medical marijuana grown, sold, and used within a state that allows it by state law. Now they're wrestling with whether or not the Constitution protects the right to gay marriage even though marriage of any sort is never mentioned in the document. (I support it myself, but I'm not sure how good an idea it is to be "finding" rights out of nowhere in 200- year-old documents.) So it's always a crapshoot. -- == Dan == Dan's Mail Format Site: http://mailformat.dan.info/ Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/ Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/ _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list LEAPSECS@leapsecond.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
