Any legal professional who’s ever done even the smallest amount of law research has more than likely encountered a legal statute or two that seems devoid of any legislative intent at all. Unbelievably, the U.S. legal system is rife with laws that seem to lack any purpose, and perhaps most baffling of all, these laws are still on the books today.
To help give you a better idea of just how many of these weird laws there are and how silly they can be, here are a few examples.
Felons Cannot Conduct Games of Bingo.
Bensalem, Pennsylvania takes its Bingo so seriously that it has a law whose legislative intent is to ban people convicted of a felony from calling Bingo games. Perhaps the Bingo prizes there are simply too fabulous to risk being stolen.
Husbands Need to Warn Others That Their Wives Are Driving.
In Waynesboro, Virginia, husbands need to walk in front of the cars their wives are driving on Main Street, and wave a red flag to warn others. The legislative intent of such a law seems to be that women are bad drivers, but what’s more troubling about this law is that it also seems to imply that unmarried women can’t drive at all.
Roosters Cannot Crow Within 300 Feet of Any Residence.
The laws of man are not only limited to people, or so some in Kenilworth, Illinois seem to think. There, roosters aren’t allowed to crow within 300 feet of any residence. While the existence of such a law certainly raises questions about its legislative intent, it also leads one to wonder what exactly happens to a rooster who decides that 150 feet away from a house would be a good place to cock-a-doodle-doo.
And to think, these are just some of the laws without a logical semblance of legislative intent that are still on the books today. If you’ve ever encountered a weird law in your own legislative history research, please feel free to share in the comments.