Several comments here have mentioned that this applies to pawn shops. It does not. The bill explicitly exempts them from the cash requirement. It's a little hard to notice, because it basically says something like "the provisions of section X do not apply to dealers operating under Y". Y is an existing section of Louisiana law that covers pawn shops, and X is the section of the new law that imposes the cash restriction.
This bill, like many, is written as a list of edits to apply to the existing law. If you don't read the existing law, you can get a very misleading idea of what the bill does. For example, there's one place where the existing law has a list of 4 categories of exceptions to the reporting requirements. The new bill modifies one of them, and adds a fifth. The other 3 are unchanged, and so are not mentioned at all in the bill, and remain in effect. Someone who doesn't read the original law might get the impression that there are only 3 exceptions in the list of exceptions (although the fact that they are numbered 1 and 5 hopefully would tip most people off...)
This is pretty clearly targeted at meth heads, auto thief rings, and the mob (there's a mob in LA?). It basically says if you're running any kind of scrap metal yard, auto yard or dealer, pawn shop, or similar business where you buy high value items from anybody who walks in off the street, stop giving people cash so we can track them down.
The law's so poorly written and overbroad (i.e. the definition of "junk" is "junk"; a single garage sale would seem to subject you to liability) that, even if it's legal for a state to ban the use of cash (almost certainly not), this thing will get thrown out anyway.
I don't know if the issue is as prolific in LA as it is here in Florida, but we're experiencing a huge number of thefts of air-conditioning "cores". The thief hits a sub-division that is largely vacant, pops the top off the A/C system, cuts the tubing and removes the largely-copper condenser coil. The thief then sells a truck load of these cores to a scrapyard for around $100 each. The owner of the unit is faced with a couple thousand dollars in repair bills. Thieves in this area have honed their core-lifting skills on unoccupied residential areas, and have moved on to hitting commercial properties late at night when no one is around to hear them. There were 7 homes hit in our neighborhood in the last 3 months, and at least one commercial business that made the papers because of the exorbitant cost of replacement ($15k).
There's a lot of pressure growing to enact policies that make it harder to traffic in the stolen materials, as well as providing a means to track down the sellers. This smells like the same thing.
http://legallad.quickanddirtytips.com/legal-tender.aspx I found this to be an interesting read. Particularly " In fact, as we discussed in our earlier episodes, courts in a number of states have dismissed challenges to various no-cash policies."
The law applies to 'second-hand dealers', and it's not clear whether this term is defined. Does it only apply to professional second-hand dealers, or to anybody selling anything?
Every person in this state engaged in the business of buying, selling, trading in, or otherwise acquiring or disposing of junk or used or secondhand property, including but not limited to jewelry, silverware, diamonds, precious metals, ferrous materials, catalytic converters, auto hulks, copper, copper wire, copper alloy, bronze, zinc, aluminum other than in the form of cans, stainless steel, nickel alloys, or brass, whether in the form of bars, cable, ingots, rods, tubing, wire, wire scraps, clamps or connectors, railroad track materials, water utility materials, furniture, pictures, objects of art, clothing, mechanic's tools, carpenter's tools, automobile hubcaps, automotive batteries, automotive sound equipment such as radios, CB radios, stereos, speakers, cassettes, compact disc players, and similar automotive audio supplies, used building components, and items defined as cemetery artifacts is a secondhand dealer. Anyone, other than a nonprofit entity, who buys, sells, trades in, or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a nonprofit entity, shall be deemed as being engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer.
I would hope that it applies to everyone or the law would be miss a portion of the illegal activity they are attempting to capture. Criminals will probably still operate in cash and those that are law-abiding now have to go through the hassle of documentation.
It's defined in §1861(A)(1) as "Anyone, other than a nonprofit entity, who buys, sells, trades in, or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a nonprofit entity, shall be deemed as being engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer."
The law seems targeted at pawn shops and the like, but is broadly worded enough to apply to some random person buying stuff off of Craigslist.
This law will only result in lost tax revenue as dealers keep cash transactions off of the books. Checks are worthless and there are no free electronic transfers in the States like in the EU.
Punishing the innocent by offloading law enforcement duties is not a good way to run a society, it just erodes respect for the law.
Eugene Volokh wrote about this law yesterday. He addresses whether this law is inconsistent with "legal tender", and notes that a recent district court decision ruled that a very similar law was upheld and ruled not to be.
Most sales don't involve debt, though. The law couldn't prevent you from using cash to pay off a loan you took out for the item, but it can prevent you from directly paying cash for the item (I think).
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
—31 U.S.C. § 5103
It seems unlikely that a prohibition on the use of cash in any transduction is likely to survive judicial examination.
There is a list in the law of things it does not apply to. One of them is "Private residential sales commonly known as 'garage sales' or 'yard sales' as long as such sales take place at a residential address".
[+] [-] tzs|14 years ago|reply
This bill, like many, is written as a list of edits to apply to the existing law. If you don't read the existing law, you can get a very misleading idea of what the bill does. For example, there's one place where the existing law has a list of 4 categories of exceptions to the reporting requirements. The new bill modifies one of them, and adds a fifth. The other 3 are unchanged, and so are not mentioned at all in the bill, and remain in effect. Someone who doesn't read the original law might get the impression that there are only 3 exceptions in the list of exceptions (although the fact that they are numbered 1 and 5 hopefully would tip most people off...)
[+] [-] ajkessler|14 years ago|reply
The law's so poorly written and overbroad (i.e. the definition of "junk" is "junk"; a single garage sale would seem to subject you to liability) that, even if it's legal for a state to ban the use of cash (almost certainly not), this thing will get thrown out anyway.
[+] [-] bradleyland|14 years ago|reply
There's a lot of pressure growing to enact policies that make it harder to traffic in the stolen materials, as well as providing a means to track down the sellers. This smells like the same thing.
[+] [-] jshort|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] famousactress|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hugh3|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajkessler|14 years ago|reply
Every person in this state engaged in the business of buying, selling, trading in, or otherwise acquiring or disposing of junk or used or secondhand property, including but not limited to jewelry, silverware, diamonds, precious metals, ferrous materials, catalytic converters, auto hulks, copper, copper wire, copper alloy, bronze, zinc, aluminum other than in the form of cans, stainless steel, nickel alloys, or brass, whether in the form of bars, cable, ingots, rods, tubing, wire, wire scraps, clamps or connectors, railroad track materials, water utility materials, furniture, pictures, objects of art, clothing, mechanic's tools, carpenter's tools, automobile hubcaps, automotive batteries, automotive sound equipment such as radios, CB radios, stereos, speakers, cassettes, compact disc players, and similar automotive audio supplies, used building components, and items defined as cemetery artifacts is a secondhand dealer. Anyone, other than a nonprofit entity, who buys, sells, trades in, or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a nonprofit entity, shall be deemed as being engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer.
[+] [-] jshort|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmh|14 years ago|reply
The law seems targeted at pawn shops and the like, but is broadly worded enough to apply to some random person buying stuff off of Craigslist.
[+] [-] sehugg|14 years ago|reply
Punishing the innocent by offloading law enforcement duties is not a good way to run a society, it just erodes respect for the law.
[+] [-] JoeAltmaier|14 years ago|reply
That seems at odds with a law preventing the use of legal tender for certain transactions.
[+] [-] hugh3|14 years ago|reply
http://volokh.com/2011/10/19/louisiana-bans-secondhand-deale...
[+] [-] mikeash|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drallison|14 years ago|reply
It seems unlikely that a prohibition on the use of cash in any transduction is likely to survive judicial examination.
[+] [-] torontos|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nobody314159|14 years ago|reply
So more than one Ebay a month and you are a dealer.
[+] [-] rick888|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzs|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gte910h|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fleitz|14 years ago|reply
This isn't to catch b&e artists it's to catch people not paying taxes.
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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