I am looking for a step by step book or guide that answers the
question of how to effectively, ethically, and successfully challenge
and eliminate bad laws.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 03 Oct 2003 11:55 PDT

Are you interested in a book or guide for a particular state or country?

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Clarification of Question by federal-ga on 03 Oct 2003 12:21 PDT

for both, thanks for the quick response!

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 03 Oct 2003 12:29 PDT

So what you're saying is, you want a guide (or guides) to changing bad
laws on both the state and federal levels in the United States, and
that a guide just for federal laws or just for state laws would be
insufficient.  Is that correct?

Also, is there a specific state that you are most interested in, for
instance, New York?

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Clarification of Question by federal-ga on 07 Oct 2003 05:20 PDT

Yes, I am looking for a guide or guides to successfully challenging
and changing bad laws for all levels of government in the United
States. This would include the federal, state, county and local level.
The guide would have to be applicable to my state, Minnesota. I live
in Hennepin County near Minneapolis. Thanks!

Hello federal-ga,

From my research on the Web and Minnesota library catalogs, it seems
that the best guides to changing bad laws in Minnesota, and the
Minneapolis area in particular, come from the League of Women Voters
(LWV) of Minnesota and the LWV of Minneapolis.

The LWV of Minnesota publishes the following guide:

"How to Make a Difference: A Citizen's Guide to State Government"
The League of Women Voters of Minnesota
http://www.lwvmn.org/PubsMakeADifference.asp

The LWV of Minneapolis has this handy web page, which includes a link
to an "Action Directory", with information about local agencies and
officials and about a handbook called "Our Local Government and How it
Works".

"Take Action!"
The League of Women Voters of Minneapolis
http://www.lwvmpls.org/voterinfo.htm

Another possibilty is the following book, which does not explicitly
relate to Minnesota, but which is written by a professor from St.
Paul:

"The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations"
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
http://www.wilder.org/pubs/lobbying_handbook/index.html

That book was the most popular result for "lobbying" when I searched
on Amazon.com.  The second most popular result seems like a good
choice for a guide to changing laws on the federal level.

"Most popular results for lobbying"
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/ref=dp_sr_00/104-9933267-7004766

"The Citizen's Guide to Lobbying Congress"
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1556521944/104-9933267-7004766?v=glance

I hope that these guides are helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


I used the following search terms, alone and in various combinations,
on Google, Minnesota and Minneapolis libraries, and Amazon.com:

minnesota
hennepin
minneapolis
local
"citizen action"
"political participation"
lobbying
"citizens in action"
"how to make a difference"
"citizen participation"

I also browsed the LWV sites.

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Request for Answer Clarification by federal-ga on 08 Oct 2003 05:29 PDT

Would it be possible to find anything more specific on lobbying/legal
reform in Minnesota? How about advice from successful reformers?
Thanks.

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Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 08 Oct 2003 16:04 PDT

I could do some more research, but it would primarily involve the type
of networking that you might want to do yourself in challenging the
law.  (After all, to challenge the law, you'll certainly want contacts
and connections to assist you.)

Specifically, I would contact the LWV of Minnesota and the LWV of
Minneapolis, as well as Marcia Avner of the Minnesota Council of
Nonprofits ( http://www.mncn.org/ ), the author of the "The Lobbying
and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations".  They would surely
have better information than most if not all web pages as to lobbying,
legal reform, and reformers in Minnesota, or could at least direct you
to the right people to talk to.

Another reason you might want to contact them is that you may have a
specific issue in mind, or a specific way that you want to raise the
issue.  Contacting them personally might help them to provide guidance
for you.

But if you would like me to contact them, please let me know.

about a 10 dollar answer. Thanks Scott.

You might be interested in the Law Reform Database and the Law Reform Network:

http://www.bcli.org/pages/database/

http://www.lawreform.net/