If you go through your daily routine in any of the 50 US states, you may break the law by jaywalking or doing something equally innocuous. You’re also breaking the law if you exceed the speed limit while driving by as little as one mile per hour.
Even if you feel you’re mostly a law-abiding citizen, you might technically violate one or two laws daily.
However, you may also violate a law without knowing about it because you never knew it existed. That’s because, in virtually any US state, you’ll probably find some laws on the books that seem so bizarre that you might hardly believe they’re real.
Strange and archaic laws do exist in the US, though most courts never enforce them. In this article, we’ll talk about some of the weirdest laws on the books in any of the 50 US states.
Why Do Strange Laws Exist?
Before we talk about some of the specific strange laws on the books in the US, we should discuss why many of them exist at all. Many of them go back to extremely rare or even one-time incidents that took place.
In many cases, a state will pass a law to theoretically stop something from happening that logic dictates should not occur in the first place. If you go back to read about the origins of such a law, you will probably find that the state passed it after some strange event occurred.
If that event had a victim in one end of it, then maybe that victim made such a fuss that the state decided to act. That is why you might learn that one state won’t allow ducks to wear shorts or that another one won’t let you purchase shellfish on Tuesdays.
Now, let’s talk some of the oddest laws that you’re likely to find on the books in America.
You Can’t Legally Sell Cat or Dog Hair in Delaware
If you’re in Delaware, and you’re trying to sell cat or dog hair, you’d better do it in a back alley and watch for the cops the whole time. It’s an illegal action in that state.
The state considers this a class A misdemeanor. That means, if the police catch you doing it, you could face a stiff financial penalty. You might have to do some community service as well.
It’s not likely you will see any jail time, unless you have some prior criminal offenses on your record. If you have an extensive criminal background, though, you might actually end up in jail for trying to sell someone a bag of car hair. Imagine trying to explain to your cellmate the reason why you’re in there with them.
You Can’t Eat Ice Cream at a Counter in Winona Lake
If you live in Winona Lake, Wisconsin, you can’t legally eat ice cream at a counter. Most people don’t know about that law, but it does still exist.
If you didn’t know anything about it, though, and an eagle-eyed police officer spotted you doing this, can you imagine the possible results? Maybe you’re sitting at the counter in a diner eating your dessert one moment, and the next, you have a cop writing you a ticket.
This law does have an explanation that goes along with it, even if the reason behind it makes little sense by today’s standards. Many decades ago, Wisconsin had a great deal of legal prohibitions centered around religion.
You could not do many things on the Sabath, including anything that the population felt affronted or angered God. That involved doing pleasurable things, like eating ice cream. The population of Wisconsin called these “Blue Laws.”
You would think that with a more secular society today, that law would come off the books. It still exists, though, even if no police officers regularly enforce it.
You Can’t Legally Impersonate a Clergyman in Alabama
To this day, you can’t legally impersonate a clergyman in the state of Alabama. While that sounds a little strange, this law does actually make a bit more sense when you take the time to examine its background.
If you go far back enough in Alabama’s history, you will see that this state also had some very strict religion-related prohibitions and behaviors at one point. Even in the present day, Alabama has many more fundamentalist religious sects than most others.
At one point, there was a rash of individuals going around the state who would set up revival-style tents and sermonize for anyone passing by who would come in and sit down. These hucksters would then pass around collection plates and urge the congregants to give generously.
Obviously, some residents felt anger when they learned that they gave their hard-earned money to individuals who didn’t actually represent their faith. They swiftly enacted these laws that remain in place in the modern era.
Other Strange Laws
In Arizona, donkeys can’t legally sleep in bathtubs. In Alabama, you can’t wear a fake mustache in church if it causes laughter.
In Alaska, you can’t legally push a live moose out of an airplane. This makes sense in the abstract, though it raises a logical question. If so inclined, could you get around this law by pushing a dead moose out of an airplane instead?
In Arizona, you can’t legally cut cacti. This one’s actually not as strange as it might seem. Saguaro cacti have protected states in the state, so letting the law extend to cover all other varieties doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch.
If you look into the background of your own home state, don’t let it surprise you if you turn up some old laws that seem so bizarre that it seems like a foregone conclusion that there’s an equally odd story behind them. Sometimes, you can learn that story by doing a little research. On other occasions, time has lost the reason why a law exists.
