Weird Amendments that Actually Got Passed

The constitution of a country can and has been changed hundreds of times since the implementation of the original laws. Take for instance Alabama, who has amended a 1901 constitution exactly 977 times as of 2022. With that being said, these amendments aren’t always for the best; some inhabit this gray area of neither good nor bad, but total strangeness. Like these five weird amendments in this article that actually got passed.\r \r 1. The Weaponized Tick Amendment\r \r In 2019, an amendment was added to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require the Pentagon to investigate whether ticks were weaponized against United States citizens between 1950 and 1975. Chris Smith, a New Jersey representative who introduced the amendment, wanted to find out everything there was to know about the alleged biological weapons program, including who ran it and whether people were infected by the ticks. But as of 2022, the amendment never made it through the Senate, and has been dismissed by experts as a baseless conspiracy theory.\r \r 2. The Expert Wizard Amendment \r \r Believing that too many experts were being used in trials, Senator Duncan Scott came up with a  brilliant solution. In 1995, he presented an amendment to the New Mexico State Senate which specified that psychiatrists or psychologists testifying as expert witnesses could only do so while wearing a wizard outfit. And no wizard costume is complete without a two-foot-tall cone-shaped hat decorated with stars and lightning bolts, and an 18-inch-long white beard. And any important points they made on the stand must be accentuated by stabbing the air with a wand. The law was passed and the wizard portion eliminated, but it’s still amazing how everyone voted unanimously without any objections.\r \r 3. Canada’s Margarine Amendment\r \r Between 1886 and 1948, the Canadian dairy industry flat out banned margarine because they didn’t like that it was being colored to look like butter. Since margarine was the much cheaper alternative, people would often smuggle some out of the then independent Newfoundland, where it was still legal. When the Canadian government asked Newfoundland to officially join their country, they agreed, but only under one condition: that the ban against margarine was lifted. To no surprise, the law was amended accordingly, though other provinces still had their own laws in place which weren't amended until much later. \r \r 4. Putin’s Bribery Amendment\r \r Russians have a well-known reputation for being blunt and straightforward which foreigners often misinterpret as rudeness. And it seems that their president Vladimir Putin is no different as he introduced an amendment that reduced the penalties that could be levied against anyone caught giving or receiving bribes. According to Russian law, bribery is punished by paying back 25 times the amount accepted. This amendment lowered the charge to only 10 times. Likewise, giving a bribe went from paying 20 times the amount to 10 times. No one knows for sure why he did this, but there are a few theories out there.\r \r 5. Luxembourg Amended Their Monarch Out of Power \r \r Back in 2008, the Luxembourg government had been trying to pass a bill about euthanasia known as the “right to die” law. Although the government was fully supportive of it, their monarchy wasn’t and refused to sign off the bill. Intent on having their way, the legislature introduced a constitutional amendment that would remove the requirement for royal assent on bills being passed. The decision was a unanimous one, with the amendment being passed 56 to 0. And so, the Duke was stripped of any formal duties, rendering him a simple figurehead.