A few years back a woman in Connecticut had the police arrest and jail her husband for adultery. The law dating back a century had never been repealed and the police acted under it.
In today's New York Times, http:://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/us/jury.html?_r=18oref=slogin, the headline read Grand Juries Become
Latest Abortion Battlefield.
Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice is immaterial to the point of this blog. Congress,
state legislatures, counties, and municipalities pass hundreds of laws during each session.
The problem is that rarely does anyone go back and look over the laws on the books
to see if they still represent current beliefs. Laws should change as society changes. The obvious example is Prohibition which became part of the United States Constitution until it was repealed by another amendment.
In Texas we had a community that until a few years ago prohibited dancing: there could be no senior prom in that town. It might prove informative to contact your city council and ask if there are any laws that date back more than 3 decades (or whatever time frame suits you) and look them over.
Remember that any law still on the books can be used to prosecute you. Does it matter that the case will more than likely be thrown out of court? NO because you might have had to spend a night in lockup and spend money to get things resolved. Since most of the archaic laws are at the municipal or county level, getting them changed should not be all that difficult.
Finding them might be more of a challenge.
There are web sites that list silly laws in Texas, Maryland and other places. Using ask.com with silly laws as the query turned up some good chuckles: law in Georgia that prohibits folks from saying "Oh boy" in public -- I kid you not.
Respect for the law is important.
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