James Madison foresaw our current condition, in which laws are “so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood,” and “undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow.” Hence, Madison’s paradox: The multiplication of laws undermines the rule of law. “Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?”
