Posted on by Californiacontrarian

”26”

In a recent post, I satirically talked about some of the frivolous bills that took up the “valuable” time of the California Legislature. One of them was AB 1308 which increased the age under which first offenders could still be treated as juveniles. I suppose that the thinking went something like this, “Since young people, ages 18-24 have a rate of recidivism of >50%, it must be because they do not fully understand the consequences of their actions, and this lack of maturity might allow for a greater chance for successful rehabilitation.” Apparently this concept was strengthened by research in the past decade that shows that the brain is not fully developed until the mid-20s. So the liberal legislators in California naturally figured if their criminal behavior was “not really their fault” (due to a brain that is not fully developed), they should not be put into the adult criminal justice system, but rather into the juvenile justice system.Now just as night follows day, one could easily predict that there would be an “aha-moment” in the some other states with liberal policy makers and they would start to consider some of their young criminals might not be fully responsible for their actions either. At present, Illinois, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have considered legislation that would raise the age in the juvenile justice system, and in Vermont a new law allows anyone 21 or younger charged with a nonviolent crime to be eligible for juvenile offender status. “The 18th birthday is not magical; you do not suddenly become a full fledged adult,” said Lael Chester, director of the Emerging Adult Project at Columbia University’s Justice Lab. Although there is no data that this program works, I am willing to give it a shot – after all these misguided criminal folk might have a brain that is not fully developed.

Okay, okay, but what does all of this have to do with the title, “26?”

As many of you might already know, 26 is my favorite number, but that is irrelevant.
“26” has to do with the 26th Amendment.
Without looking it up, how many of you know what the 26th Amendment is?
Briefly, here is the definition as well as some of the history of the 26th Amendment.
The long debate over lowering the voting age in America from 21 to 18 began during World War II and intensified during the Vietnam War, when young men denied the right to vote were being conscripted to fight for their country. In the 1970 case Oregon v. Mitchell, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the right to regulate the minimum age in federal elections, but not at the state and local level. Amid increasing support for a Constitutional amendment, Congress passed the 26th Amendment in March 1971; the states promptly ratified it, and President Richard M. Nixon signed it into law that July.
To summarize, the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18.
Let me get this straight . . . young people, up until their mid-20s are not really fully responsible for their actions, because their brains may not be fully developed, but their brains are fully developed enough for them to vote in elections! Huh!? When one thinks about this logically, it makes no sense!
I say that a thoughtful decision has to reached with this conundrum. If you think it doesn’t really matter all that much, consider that the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama saw a voter turnout of some 49 percent of 18- to 24 year-olds, the second highest in history, and we know who all of these young people elected!
OMG! Obviously the “undeveloped brain premise” must be true!
Who wants to help me start a new movement: “Repeal the 26th Amendment”?

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