America has some pretty strange laws, like the fact that in Mobile, Alabama, it’s illegal for anyone to possess confetti, or that in Detroit, Michigan, you may not tie an alligator to a fire hydrant.
Last February, Business Insider performed a community service by collecting some of the most absurd laws on the books in the various states:
In Arizona, you must first obtain a permit to feed garbage to pigs.
Californians aren’t allowed to eat frogs that have died during a frog-jumping contest.
If you live in Florida, you should know that dwarf-tossing has been outlawed since 1989.
In fact, there is an international human rights movement to rid the world of dwarf-tossing.
For fear that an outbreak of cannibalism might happen, the Idaho legislature has banned the “willful ingestion of flesh and blood of a human being” except in life-or-death situations.
In other words, you can only eat your neighbor if the zombie apocalypse actually happens.
Non-latex condom vending machines are illegal in Maryland.
You can be jailed in Michigan for cheating on your spouse.
Montana residents may not guide sheep onto a railroad track with intent to injure the train.
Malicious sheep herding will cost you: the penalty is a $50,000 fine and five years in the state pen.
When in New Hampshire, do not under any circumstances collect seaweed at night.
In Pennsylvania, bartering a baby is considered a misdemeanor.
Vermont legislators have prohibited themselves from outlawing clotheslines and solar collectors.
Because the people must, by all means, be allowed to use renewable energy sources.
Weird laws passed in 2013 and 2014
If you think that strange and obscure laws are a thing of the past, then you aren’t paying close enough attention to your state legislators. Here are some of the more recent state laws that will have you scratching your head.
According to HB 542, you’ll be penalized in Virginia if you wear a mask with intent to conceal your identity. But if you wear a mask for any other purpose, you’re well within the confines of the law. The law is unclear whether or not attending a masquerade party constitutes “intent to conceal your identity,” so Virginians should think twice before dressing up for Halloween.
Oregon mothers won a victory when the state legislature allowed them the freedom to carry their placentas home with them. Evidently, they make fine cuisine.
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, recently took up a resolution to make it illegal for homeless people to own property. Proponents of the law say it stems from “an interest in aesthetics,” which roughly translates to “the big businesses behind the law think the homeless population looks bad.”
And in Oklahoma, lawmakers recently — and accidentally — approved a law that penalizes people for generating solar or wind energy. The ultra-conservative advocacy group ALEC snuck the rider into another unrelated bill at the last minute, and vows to do the same in other states that promote alternative energy production.
For those who can’t get enough, don’t worry — there’s no shortage of strange state laws.
