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by duxup 1434 days ago
> What's the functional difference between in an en-wombed child and a recently released one in this situation?

What is the difference between a 20 and 21 year old?

Just a dividing line that is easy to understand.

I’m ok with that. Laws should be easy to understand even if they include lines that seem arbitrary immediately on one side or the other.
2 comments
ALittleLight 1434 days ago
Sure, but in this case there is no easy to understand clear line. The law doesn't say anything about having to be a person outside of a body or whatever. There is no clear line and there is no functional difference, therefore the woman isn't breaking the law and should not be ticketed.

Looking further into it Texas Transportation Code Title 6 Chapter 224 subchapter F section 224.151 says:

"(3) 'High occupancy vehicle' means a bus or other motorized passenger vehicle such as a carpool or vanpool vehicle used for ridesharing purposes and occupied by a specified minimum number of persons."

You can download the Texas Transportation Code here: https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Download.aspx and if you do that and grep for what "person" might mean anywhere in the transportation code, like so:

    grep -io '"person" means [^.]*.' *
You get...

    tn.394.htm:"Person" means an individual, association, or corporation.
    tn.397.htm:"Person" means an individual, corporation, or association.
    tn.472.htm:"Person" means an individual, firm, association, or corporation and includes an officer, agent, independent contractor, employee, or trustee of that individual or entity.
    tn.52.htm:"Person" means an individual, association, organization, trust, partnership, or corporation.
    tn.541.htm:"Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation.
    tn.601.htm:"Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation.
    tn.680.htm:"Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, association, or other private entity.
    tn.730.htm:"Person" means an individual, organization, or entity but does not include this state or an agency of this state.
I don't see any reason to think that the Transportation Code requires that person not contain another in order to qualify for the HOV lane. I think the police officer in this story made that up. I actually think that the law is 100% on this woman's side and her ticket should be dismissed. This is not a case of ambiguity, it is the case of the law clearly and explicitly stating that she is correct.
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fundad 1431 days ago
Does that apply to maximum ages for drinking, voting, signing contracts and driving? No, we have no maximum ages because older people are a more powerful constituency than 20 or 17 year-olds. Pregnant people are not a powerful enough constituency for these laws to provide them leniency. It's not about the life of the fetus either the movement limiting or banning abortion is out to change culture such that people are more afraid to wait to have children.
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