Weird US Laws

While doing some research, I came across these weird laws listed in the US. Now, I don’t know if they still exist but…

Weird US Laws

Alaska
In Fairbanks, it is illegal to feed alcoholic beverages to a moose. While it is legal to shoot bears, waking sleeping bears for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited. A law in Fairbanks, does not allow moose to have sex on city streets.

Colorado
In Durango, it is illegal to go out in public dressed in clothing “unbecoming” one’s sex. In Logan County, it is illegal for a man to kiss a woman while she is asleep. In Pueblo, it is illegal to let a dandelion grow within city limits.

D.C.
The only acceptable sexual position in Washington D.C. is the missionary-style position. Any other sexual position is considered illegal.

Georgia
All males in the state between the ages of 16 and 50 are required to work on public roads. In Columbus, it is illegal to sit on one’s porch in an indecent position. In Quitman, it is illegal for a chicken to cross a road. It is illegal to change the clothes on a storefront mannequin unless the shades are down.

Illinois
In Chicago, people who are diseased, maimed, mutilated, or deformed to the point of being “an unsightly or disgusting object” are banned from going out in public. In Chicago, it is illegal to fish in one’s pajamas. In Chicago, it is illegal to take a French poodle to the opera. According to state law, it is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is “American.” In Guernee, it is illegal for women weighing more than 200 pounds to ride horses in shorts. In Joliet, it is illegal to mispronounce the name Joliet. A state law in Illinois mandates that all bachelors should be called master, not mister, when addressed by their female counterparts. In Oblong, it’s punishable by law to make love while hunting or fishing on your wedding day.

Maine
In Portland, it is illegal for men to tickle women under the chin with feather dusters. The most money one can legally win gambling is three dollars. In Rumford, it is illegal for a tenant to bite his/her landlord. In Waterville, it is illegal to blow one’s nose in public.

Maryland
In Baltimore, it is illegal to wash or scrub sinks, no matter how dirty they get. Every person who has bowled since 1833 may be fined $2 for each offense. In Halethorpe, it is illegal to kiss for more than one second. It’s illegal to mistreat oysters. It’s illegal to play Randy Newman’s “Short People” on the radio.

Massachusetts
In Salem, even married couples are forbidden from sleeping in the nude in rented rooms. It is illegal to wear a goatee without a license. North Andover prohibits its citizens from carrying “space guns.” State legislation forbids dueling with water pistols. In Boston, it is illegal to take a bath unless one has been ordered by a physician to do so. In 1659, the state outlawed Christmas.

Michigan
In Clawson, it is legal for a farmer to “sleep with his pigs, cows, horses, goats, and chickens.” A state law stipulates that a woman’s hair legally belongs to her husband. In Detroit, it is illegal to make love in a car unless it is parked on your property. In Detroit, it is illegal to “ogle” a woman from a moving car. In Port Huron, the speed limit for ambulances in 20 m.p.h. Under state law, dentists are officially classified as “mechanics.” In Detroit, couples are not allowed to make love in an automobile unless the act takes place while the vehicle is parked on the couple’s own property. In Michigan, a woman isn’t allowed to cut her own hair without her husband’s permission.

Missouri
In Saco, women are forbidden from wearing hats that “might frighten timid persons, children or animals.” In St. Louis, it is illegal for an on-dutyfirefighter to rescue a woman wearing a nightgown; in order to be rescued, a woman must be fully dressed. While children may purchase shotguns in Kansas City, they are not allowed to buy toy cap guns. Missouri considers drunkenness an “inalienable right.” In Merryville, women are prohibited from wearing corsets because “The privilege of admiring the curvaceous, unencumbered body of a young woman should not be denied to the normal, red-blooded American male.”

Nebraska
It is illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license. In Waterloo, barbers are forbidden from eating onions between 7am and 7pm. In Omaha, barbers are forbidden from shaving their customers’ chests. If a child burps during a church service in Omaha, his or her parents may be arrested. It is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup. The owner of every hotel in Hastings, is required to provide each guest with a clean and pressed nightshirt. No couple, even if they are married, may sleep together in the nude. Nor may they have sex unless they are wearing one of these clean, white cotton nightshirts.

North Carolina
In Charlotte, women must have their bodies covered by at least 16 yards of cloth at all times. In Ashville, it is illegal to sneeze on city streets. Ironically, Hornytown has banned all massage parlors. State law mandates that all couples staying in rooms for one night must be kept in room with double beds, kept a minimum of two feet apart, and making love on the floor between the beds is strictly forbidden. It is illegal to have sex in a churchyard.

Ohio
In Cleveland, women are forbidden from wearing patent leather shoes, lest men see reflections of their underwear. In Columbus, it is illegal for stores to sell cornflakes on Sunday. In Oxford, it is illegal for a women to disrobe in front of a man’s picture. In Youngstown, it is illegal to run out of gas. Catch 22 is banned in Strongville. In Oxford, it’s illegal for a woman to strip off her clothing while standing in front of a man’s picture.

Oregon
One may not bathe without wearing “suitable clothing,” i.e., that which covers one’s body from neck to knee. The town of Hood River prohibits the act of juggling without a license. Salem has barred women’s wrestling. In Marion, ministers are forbidden from eating garlic or onions before delivering a sermon. In Willowdale, no man may curse while having sex with his wife.

South Carolina
Every citizen is obliged to carry his gun to church. No horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants. In Charleston, all carriagehorses must wear diapers.

Texas
The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home. A recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed. In El Paso, churches, hotels, halls of assembly, stores, markets, banking rooms, railroad depots, and saloons are required to provide spittoons “of a kind and number to efficiently contain expectorations into them.” It is illegal to milk another person’s cow.

Vermont
Women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth. It is illegal to deny the existence of God. It is illegal to whistle underwater.

Washington
In Seattle, women who sit on men’s laps on buses or trains without placing a pillow between them face an automatic six-month jail term. In Auburn, men who deflower virgins, regardless of age or marital status, may face up to five years in jail. Seattle residents may not carry concealed weapons longer than six feet. It is illegal to pretend that one’s parents are rich. In the state of Washington there is a law against having sex with a virgin under any circumstances. (Including the wedding night.)

Updated: August 29, 2002 — 4:33 am