“You can die for your country, but you can’t buy a beer at a bar.” This classic example of incoherence in laws surrounding adult milestones has been the subject of many a rant from teens who consider themselves ready to join the ranks of the legally mature. (Probably a few drunken rants, even.) But the age cutoffs for alcohol and military service \u2014both functionally set at the federal level<\/a>\u2014are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the utterly confusing mess of state laws governing teens and young adults.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A new study from Bellwether<\/a>\u00a0pulls together age cutoffs in the 50 states for 36 different “adulting” variables, from work to guns to sex to school. The results are a fascinating window into the incoherence<\/a> of American laws\u2014and offer a look at our changing attitudes about maturity and individual responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly absent are any clear patterns based on partisan affiliations. While there were some correlations\u2014on abortion, for instance\u2014in most cases permissiveness or restrictiveness did not align with blue states or red states in a meaningful way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The case for coherence in laws governing teens is the same as it is for legal coherence generally: Forcing citizens to live under a complex patchwork of rules and regulations not unified by a logical or intuitive principle makes compliance more difficult and undermines respect for the law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the rise of interest in restrictions on social media, for example, there may soon be states where teens could legally own a gun, get an abortion, or have a full-time job, yet not be permitted to do a little dance on TikTok or send a spicy text.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As lawmakers become increasingly eager to play the role of parents, teachers, and bosses for teens and young adults, it’s worth taking a closer look at how well they’ve done in those roles so far.<\/p>\n

Check out these striking examples of incoherence<\/a> around the U.S.<\/p>\n