Btukfyl

This question originated from the Australian encryption debate, but I am mainly asking about the US. Just to keep things simple (if a bit absurd), suppose the US passed a law that says, "Every citizen is required `to provide the government with a valid solution to the equation 0x=50, and will otherwise be jailed."

I'd like to think this would simply never happen, but the reality is that the US government has already done various other things that I would have hoped would be in the "never ever" category.

Although it probably wouldn't be as blatant as the above example, it seems to me that it is possible the US could pass a law that is literally impossible to comply with. What would happen if it did?

it seems to me that it is possible the US could pass a law that is
literally impossible to comply with. What would happen if it did?

The court would need to ascertain (1) the legislative intent, (2) whether it or the statutory language is unconstitutional, and/or (3) whether it is enforceable.

Apropos of unenforceable laws, see In re Initiative Petition No. 364, 930 P.2d 186, 201 (1996)

Unenforceable law is the very antonym of an initiative-authorized legal product. Proposing for adoption (through the initiative process)
a measure that is facially incapable of application as a state law is as much an oxymoron as "gentle cruelty" or "deft clumsiness."

(italics in original)

A scenario of the sort of "solving" the absurd equation 0x=50 ought to be held unconstitutional insofar as it would be "nothing more than a state-compelled false statement" (see Entertainment Software Ass'n v. Hatch, 443 F.Supp.2d 1065 (2006), which was affirmed) with obvious infringements of people's First Amendment rights. The only possibility of survival of that requirement would be if it were evident that legislative intent contemplated a special arithmetic where the zero-element differs from the role that number 0 has in traditional arithmetic.

Firstly, all laws passed by congress are done for public policy reasons. Therefore, for your hypothetical, assuming that Congress knew that it was impossible for some citizens to answer the question, there must be a public policy reason to make it impossible to comply. Perhaps they are trying to get rid of the mathematically illiterate? The thing is that impossible to follow laws have been passed and defended in court in the past. Below is a link to one such incident.

https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/29/californias-top-court-impossible-laws-no

There is nothing wrong with making impossible to follow laws. There are laws that get passed that make businesses go bankrupt because they cannot take the heat. The question is: are these impossible to follow laws constitutional? If they are then they stand in court. If they are not then they fall apart in court. I would argue that in the case of your hypothetical it would be unconstitutional. It would deprive the mathematically literate of rights granted to other citizens. It would also not be ADA (americans with disabilities act) compliant. Many disabled people are by nature of their disability mathematically illiterate. There are probably other reasons why it would be unconstitutional but nothing comes to mind.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that the equation is literally impossible to resolve. I suppose the article is less applicable as a result. However my point stands. Being impossible to follow changes nothing. All that matters is the intent behind the policy. In the hypo Congress intends to imprison everyone. I'm sure the courts would find that unconsitutional. On the other hand, suppose Congress were to pass a law saying "Peanuts are banned unless they were acquired from the core of the sun". That is impossible. Congress' intent would be to simply ban peanuts outright. Sounds pretty constitutional to me. Therefore it will stand in a court of law.