Registration is mandatory. Disclosure of details of personal abilities is voluntary.
(It would help to be able to see the actual bill to confirm that this is what’s intended. For some reason, thomas.loc.gov doesn’t bring it up).
FYI, there is no way to detect a mutant gene technologically until it activates If I’m remembering correctly from my many years of reading comi…I mean research, nearly every human has some sort of latent mutational gene. Only a few of them ever activate, and even rarer are those with large scale destructive capabilities. For every Magneto, you will have many more Doug Ramseys, whose only ability is to speak and understand any language (he helped me get through spanish class in school 
).
Then, as has been pointed out, there are the garden variety super humans: Spider Man, the Fantastic Four, Doc Savage, the Hulk, even the famed Captain America. Their powers are as dangerous (except for stretchy boy) as most mutants. Would they have to register also? Would we need periodic checks for every lab accident or experiment to make sure that nothing bad happens.
I haven’t even gotten into the magic users. Find a cane on the ground? Better turn it in to the government. Wouldn’t want ya turning into some kind of norse god. Returning from a trip to the mystic east? Please step through the metal detector and sir, you will have to leave your Iron Fists on the tray.
Why single out mutants when there are so many other super beings out there?
Why?
Pyrokinesis is a perfectly apt description of her ability. (And I must disagree: she had no particular immunity to heat.) The details are interesting, but for purposes of the registry, the fact that she’s a firestarter is sufficient information.
My understanding is that the MRA defines “mutant” on the basis of the existance of the so-named “X Chromosome”. It is also my understanding that the MRA requires the testing of people for the presence of said chromosome. As such, I think the MRA should be found, not just unconscionable, but also unconsititutional.
As the U.S. Supreme Court stated in Hewitt v. SAF:
I think it is clear that requiring genetically-based “mutants” to register would result in discrimination on the basis of an “immutable personal characteristic.” Although, given the complete lack of a history of discrimination against “mutants”, whose identity has only recently come to the attention of Congress, and the world, it would be difficult to see mutants as the subject of invidious social discrimination. As such, the determination of whether the MRA would be subject to rational basis, intermediate scrutiny, or strict scrutiny is not an easy determination to make. My feeling is that since it is a immutable characteristic, like gender, genetic mutancy should be subject to intermediate scrutiny.
I think the proper determination would be that, since the MRA discriminates on the basis of an clearly immutable, clearly biological difference, that it should be found to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the constitution. Although Bricker offers some reasons for the MRA, I would have a difficult time finding that it is substantially related to an important governmental interest.
I cannot support the MRA, as it is, in my opinion, against not only the words, but also the spirit of our great Constitution.
Not necessarily. If you want to know the threat possessed and the destructive capabilites, you would have to have some sort of measure of her powers. There are those who can burn down buildings and those who strain to light a birthday candle. If you are looking to arrest a pyrokinetic, it would be more efficient to round up…oh let’s call them the “alpha level” pyros than grabbing the whole lot.
You know, in the interest of an informed debate, I don’t think this bill can be properly considered without knowing all the stuff that’s well in the future of Senator Kelly’s proposal. Where’s Dr. Manhattan? Or Kang, even? Really, that the timebound are allowed to make their own decisions is shocking to me.
I liked your post. However, this isn’t breaking any rules. Say all you want to about comics. It is canon that the lives of many vigilantes are published, save for the fact that the hero’s identities are concealed, and sometimes, I hear they don’t tell what really happened. In the She-Hulk series, it was told that they count in court, what with the government’s seal of approval on them, at least till recently.
Hamlet, in your own quote you destroy your argument:
The specific biological differences between the average schmoe & say, Jamie Madrox, are more significant than those “between men & women.” By analogy, the suspicion may be even more easily overcome.
This may have been true at one time, but not any more.
That is one of hypotheses. It does explain why the Fantastic Four, Bruce Banner etc didn’t just get cancer.
Again, this one of many credible hypothese. All have some evidence behind them. None has been conclusively proven however.
[sub]ixnay on the amseyRay. We’re trying to only use comic stuff the general public would know, or we could reasonably find out. Magneto, being publiclly known in the films and even more publiclly known in the comics is fine. But the general public has never heard of Doug Ramsey.[/sub]
Then, as has been pointed out, there are the garden variety super humans: Spider Man, the Fantastic Four, Doc Savage,
[/QUOTE]
Doc Samson. A psychiatrist who gave himself a blood transfusion from the Hulk. As a result he has abilities equal to 75% of the Hulk’s. He also has green hair.
Doc Savage was the Man Of Bronze of pulp magazine fame.
[QUOTE=DocCathode]
[sub]ixnay on the amseyRay. We’re trying to only use comic stuff the general public would know, or we could reasonably find out. Magneto, being publiclly known in the films and even more publiclly known in the comics is fine. But the general public has never heard of Doug Ramsey.[/sub]
No risk there. He’s been dead for years.
You would never even round up “the whole lot” of alpha pyros. You would simply interview them and employ basic police work to see if you could establish a connection between any one of them and the place that burned. It’s an investigatory tool, nothing more.
Very good point. Although the mutant/non-mutant distinction would still be subject to intermediate scrutiny, the fact it is gentically based would seem to make the distinction more rational and the court would be more deferential to Congress. Now, if the MRA included, not a genetic basis, but rather a “power-based” (such as the prementioned Hulk, etc.) then there would be a less deference.
Seeing as how we’re completely making stuff up, I still think there are arguments to be made that distinctions based on chromosomal makeup would count as distinctions based on “race” also, and thus subject to strict scrutiny.
As an aside: I can easily envision a future where, rather than legislation identifying people on the basis of race, alienage, or gender, they do so on the basis of genetic makeup. I think there’d be a good law review article concerning this. Too bad I don’t have the time.
That’s defensible, I suppose, and in line to some degree with O’Connor’s commentary on intermediate scrutiny. I think rational basis is the appropriate standard of review, simply because while the characteristic is immutable, the variance of possible significant and relevant differences is dramatic. But reasonable minds may differ.
If intermediate scrutiny is the test, how could you NOT find that registration is substantially related to an important government interest? I assume you don’t reject the idea that the various powers manifested by person with the “X-factor” are serious and severe enough to warrant a legitimate governmental interest in tracking and control, for public safety purposes? So I imagine you reject the idea that registration is substantially related to that goal.
But as I’ve outlined registration, with voluntary reporting of powers and abilities, the impact on privacy seems minimal, and the potential for the government to identify individuals that would benefit from counselling and assistance in managing their unique powers seems high. How is it NOT substantially related to that goal?
Well, as a voter, or a legislator, you are of course welcome to that determination. But suppose the law passed as I’ve outlined it. As a judge, would you invalidate based on an EP violation?
Thinking out loud about it some more, I’d also point out that the genetically based determination of the necessity to register would not be influenced by whether or not the mutant has powers, or whether or not those powers are dangerous. As such, the MRA may be subject to challenges as being overbroad and vague. Although I’d also note that, IIRC, the government would not be required to have a hearing on whether or not a mutant was a danger before legislating in this area.
Ahhh for a few extra months to really sink my teeth into this issue.
Another anti-mutant organization, called “The Right”, apparently has weapons and anti-mutant technology and intends to kill at least some of them They also subsidize anti-mutant experiments.
Enjoy,
Steven
OK, here’s the problem with the MRA: Senator Kelly is a hothead, & it’s a badly worded law. The basic idea isn’t the problem, but the details of its execution.
That said, Sen. Kelly is partly right. The world needs the Sentinels now more than ever. What it doesn’t need is concentration camps & witch-hunts.
We exist at a point in time which can diverge into two very different realities. The passage or failure of the MRA will not in itself guarantee either one; instead the way the government, the media, & the culture deal with the paranormal is key.
In one reality, people with weird but benign powers are welcomed as part of the marvelous beauty of nature. People will ask “superheroes,” many of them mutants, for their autographs. Parents will be proud of their extraordinary children. The world will marvel at the blessings of the X-gene, while seeking, rightly, to contain & counter the truly dangerous. Let’s call this the World of Marvel.
In the other reality, the idea that the mutants are a race (which is demonstrably not true) & that they are not human (patently false) breeds a sort of contempt for “mutantkind”–by looking at powered mutants as a class instead of as individuals. Some of the powered will in turn become alienated from “mere humans” & a wholly unnecessary pseudo-racial division will develop, with all manner of bad nastiness breeding in the public consciousness. Terror will result. I call this the World of Mutant Ghettoization. And I have seen it, & good lord, it’s drek. I mean, it’s grim. It’s bad.
Yes, we should oppose the MRA in favor of a better written law. There is too much anger & fear in Kelly’s draft, as in his rhetoric, & that will breed more of the kind on all sides. We also should maintain vigilance against all Hulk-class threats to our welfare, whether spontaneously mutated terrorist or misconceived product of Advanced Idea Mechanics. A properly run Sentinel agency can be part of this, & groups like the Avengers can be consulted.
But mostly, we must understand, there is no mutant race as a single actor. We are all individuals. Jamie Madrox is only responsible for Jamie Madrox, not for Magneto.
This has already happened, in New York City. Unless, of course, I am being whooshed.
Then again, as I explore in this thread, maybe the Sentinel program was doomed all along & the illusion of continued successful operation is being maintained by those trying to drive a wedge between the mutant-powered & the rest of us. But that’s its own thread.
[sup]“Mutant Ghetto” has referred for years to the weird little subset of mutant titles Marvel publishes. They seem more pessimistic & single-concept than the mainline Marvel Universe.[/sup]
It would seem to me that the basic idea of the registration act is contrary to the fundamental assumptions the constitution is based on. This country’s founding fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence that they believed all men to be created equal. The MRA holds by its basic premise that all men are not created equal; that some have, through no fault of their own, a hidden quality that makes them deserving of differential treatment by the government. I just don’t see any way to reconcile this with our constitution.