Many Quirky Ordinances Unenforced or Repealed
By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005
You can't dye rabbits in Prince George's County, play football on the streets of Washington or cheat on your spouse in Virginia.
It's against the law.
Watch your tongue in Rockville: Cursing is punishable by a fine or 90 days in jail, or both. Whistling -- loud enough for someone 50 feet away to hear it -- is unlawful in Greenbelt between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. And leave your cow at home when passing through Bowie; it's illegal to lead or ride one on the sidewalks.
Legislation -- the lifeblood of the wonkish Washington region -- is usually humorless stuff. But time does funny things to laws.
Prohibitions that once made perfect sense can spoil with age. Long forgotten, they linger for decades on the pages of law books from Anaheim, Calif., to Gaithersburg, restricting everything from trick-or-treating to mule riding to bowling. They are signposts to a long-lost era, when it was necessary to regulate the washing of horses on sidewalks and to set penalties for speaking falsely of a woman's chaste character. In these litigious times, more and more of these laws are being wiped off the books by lawmakers seeking a clean, modern and embarrassment-free code of ordinances.
But many codes remain quirky. High heels are banned in Carmel, Calif., unless you get a permit to wear them. It's a misdemeanor to call to an animal at the zoo in Idaho Falls, Idaho. And it's illegal to sell gasoline to a drunk person in Fresno, Calif.
Closer to home, a Prince George's ordinance prohibits anyone from operating a bowling alley on Sundays from 2 p.m. to midnight, one of a handful of "blue laws" limiting Sunday activity still on the books in the region. Offenders risk a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.
This was news to John Tolbert, assistant manager of Suitland's Parkland Bowl, which is open Sundays from noon to 11 p.m. "Yup," Tolbert said with a laugh, "we're in violation."
County officials said bowling operators shouldn't worry -- the law is not being enforced. "There is no sunset to most of these laws," said Tom Matzen, associate director of the county's Licenses and Inspection Division. "They last forever unless you deal administratively to remove them."
Matzen wasn't aware of anyone having been cited for violating the Sunday bowling ordinance. And he wanted to assure movie theater owners that Section 14-138 of the county code is no longer a priority for his inspectors. That law requires a permit to show movies on Sundays.
Other county restrictions include a ban on the sale of pet turtles and an ordinance making it illegal to dye or change the natural color of ducklings, chicks and rabbits. "Prince George's County code," explained Ralph Grutzmacher, the county's legislative officer, "has three holes punched in it and it fits in a binder, so we can take the pages out. It's not written in stone."
Elsewhere in Maryland, fortunetelling is illegal in Gaithersburg "by cards, palm reading or any other scheme, practice or device," the city code states.
In Virginia, you can't frequent a poolroom in Vienna if you're younger than 18. It's against the law in Norfolk to trick-or-treat after 8 p.m. or to do it if you're older than 12. Violations are Class 4 misdemeanors, punishable by a fine of up to $250.
Fairfax County ordinances prohibit certain behavior on public transportation, such as using pogo sticks.
"This is a most effective ordinance," county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said of the 1975 law. "When was the last time you saw a pogo stick on the bus?"
And it's a misdemeanor under Virginia law to have premarital sex or commit adultery.
In Washington, it's unlawful to "set up or fly any fire balloon or parachute," according to the city law book. It's also illegal to play bandy, an old field-hockey-style game, football and "any other game with a ball" on the streets or alleys, under penalty of up to $5 for each offense.
The District, like other cities and states, recently cleaned its code of many obsolete restrictions. In 2003, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) signed the Elimination of Outdated Crimes Amendment Act. It repealed about two dozen statutes, including an 1895 law that required shops and factories to provide seats to female help. The Maryland General Assembly also has repealed old laws in recent years.
In Fayetteville, Ark., it had been illegal for anyone to sell milk without a cow permit. "Nobody bothered, nobody complained," City Attorney Kit Williams said of the law, which was repealed last year along with other old ordinances. "City attorneys nationwide are up to our eyeballs doing other stuff."
Until recently, Chicago's municipal code had authorized police officers to dump confiscated weapons in Lake Michigan at least five miles from the shoreline. It had also prohibited carrying a dead body on public transportation unless the body was that of a child younger than 8. Those and 33 other laws considered obsolete, unconstitutional or redundant were repealed last year.
But unusual statutes survive around the nation.
In the Georgia city of Kennesaw, population 26,000, every head of household is required to maintain a firearm, along with ammunition, in the name of security. Exemptions include the disabled and those convicted of a felony.
Police Chief Tim Callahan said the law isn't enforced. But he added: "If it gives criminals pause, if they think, 'This is Kennesaw, everybody's got a gun here,' so be it." The City Council passed the law in 1982 as a response not to high crime but to a ban on handguns in Morton Grove, Ill.
The origin of other laws is murkier. In the Shenandoah Valley city of Waynesboro, Va., no one is sure what incident sparked Section 50-2 of the city code, which prohibits dropping "advertising matter" from airplanes.
Unusual laws don't just languish; sometimes, they're actually enforced.
A Manassas law requires beggars and panhandlers to get a city-issued permit, valid for three months, at a cost of $25. In 2002, one person who filled out a permit application was denied because of several convictions.
Decades ago, officials in Ocean City hoped to restore the resort's family image by cracking down on topless vacationers. Topless men, that is. A 1933 indecent exposure ordinance prohibited anyone older than 10 from going shirtless west of the beach.
"I can remember as a kid, 12, 13 years old, walking the boardwalk without a shirt, and the police telling me to get back on the beach," said Dale R. Cathell, a former city attorney who is now a judge on the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals. Looking back, Cathell said the ordinance, which was eventually taken off the books, didn't seem that unreasonable.
"We were ugly," he said. "There's some merit to it."