Self-study
Judge: The defendant admits noncompliance with national building codes but asks that penalties not be imposed because he was confused as to whether national or local building codes applied to the area in which he was building. ████ ██████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ███████ ████ █████████████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ █████████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████
Summary
The author concludes that the defendant’s excuse of being confused between national and local codes is not valid. Why? He was charged with breaking national codes rather than local ones.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that national codes are more lenient than local codes. If national codes are the absolute bare minimum and local codes only add on top of them, then the defendant breaking a national code would guarantee he also broke a local code. As such, claiming to be confused between the two would be a terrible excuse.
16.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████████
a
Local codes and ████████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██████
(A) weakens the argument. If the two codes have separate requirements, then it makes sense to get confused between the two.
b
Local codes may ██ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██████
(B) is backwards. If local codes are less strict, then being confused is a valid excuse. The defendant could have thought a weaker local code applied, and accidentally broken a stronger national code.
c
Any behavior required ██ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████
If (C) is true, then breaking a national code guarantees breaking a local one as well. As such, the defendant’s excuse falls apart, as he would have known he was breaking national code either way.
d
Ignorance of the ██████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████████
(D) runs counter to the judge’s reasoning. If ignorance of the differences between the two codes is not a good excuse, then why would this excuse be acceptable if the defendant broke local code?
e
A behavior that ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████████
(E) tells us that obeying one law does not guarantee that you are obeying another. This would slightly weaken the argument, if anything, as we want to prove that compliance with local codes does guarantee compliance with national codes.