I am not convinced that there has ever been a de facto HN policy of flagging threads about proposed laws. I don't see it in the guidelines or in the historical actions of the moderators or community.
It all depends on how close it is to becoming a real law. If it's an official policy of the party that's in government and the bill is a complete piece of legislation [1] whose passage is inevitable and imminent, then it can be considered an "interesting new phenomenon" and warrants a discussion.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. As far as I can establish, the bill's sponsors don't have any leadership roles in the state legislature and it's not an official policy of the party's leadership. It looks every bit like routine activism and headline-seeking by low-ranking members of the legislature.
Dang has commented about this routinely over the years.
That makes sense, but it’s not what you said (“HN has always preferred to wait until something is actually passed into law before…”) Hence my response.
OK fair enough. There will always exceptions when we use absolutist language like that, but "actually passed into law" and "certain to be passed into law" can be considered the same thing.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256984
Or more generally, just search for HN threads about 'proposed laws':
https://www.google.com/search?q=hn+%22proposed+law%22+ycombi...
I am not convinced that there has ever been a de facto HN policy of flagging threads about proposed laws. I don't see it in the guidelines or in the historical actions of the moderators or community.