The Hilarious Story of New Mexico’s Infamous “Pointy Hat” Amendment
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, former Duncan Scott quickly learned that an “educated monkey” could have occupied his New Mexico Senate seat with little effect on the direction of state politics. So instead of writing another bill destined to die in committee, Scott decided to make his point another way. The result was the infamous “Pointy Hat Amendment,” one of the funniest, strangest, and most bizarre proposed amendments in American political history.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.8 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show. And we love your story. Send them to Our American Stories and we tell stories about everything here on this show and we love |
| 0:22.5 | your story. Send them to Our American Stories.com. Everyone has that one funny friend, the wise guy, |
| 0:30.1 | the one that's mastered pranks, has clever comebacks or pulls humor out of the strangest situations. |
| 0:35.6 | Maybe, well, just maybe if you're lucky, you're one of them. |
| 0:38.9 | But we all know at least one, and they have the best stories. Today's wise guy, Duncan Scott, |
| 0:45.4 | hails from the great state of New Mexico. When I was elected to the state Senate in New Mexico in |
| 0:52.7 | 1992, I was on a path of politics, but after I served |
| 0:57.8 | four years in the state senate, I concluded while it was an incredible honor to represent the |
| 1:05.3 | people who were in my district, it was an absolute waste of my time. I was a Republican. New Mexico is a heavily blue |
| 1:12.8 | democratic state. So whatever Republican principles or philosophy I brought to the state Senate, |
| 1:20.5 | it was dead on arrival. An educated monkey could have sat in my chair and it would have made |
| 1:26.6 | no difference whatsoever for the |
| 1:29.6 | arc of New Mexico history. |
| 1:35.6 | When I did the pointy hat bill, it was obvious to me that if I proposed serious legislation, |
| 1:43.9 | it wasn't going anywhere. |
| 1:46.0 | And the pointy hat bill was really to address the insanity defense plea. |
| 1:50.6 | So I thought that satire and humor was a better form for getting out the idea that the insanity defense is way overused and inappropriately |
| 2:06.4 | than drafting some technical change on the rules of evidence that nobody would see and would |
| 2:11.7 | follow Silibe if they read. Your listeners will have to go back to the summer of 94, and some will be alive. |
| 2:22.8 | And my story with the pointy hat bill starts with O.J. Simpson. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.