Is this true? In Nebraska, it is illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license? How do "crazy" laws come about? I suppose, they all have their own story. Mind you, like every other country, the US may have some "crazy" laws, but it certainly is not a nation of crazy laws.
And even among the "crazy" laws below not all are quite that crazy: in Ohio it is illegal to get a fish drunk, and in Oregon it is illegal to go hunting in a cemetery.
The Source.
I think most states have a few of those strange laws on the books. I suspect that a lot of them (as with the Nebraska perming statute) are related to poorly written licensing regulations.
Others are related to bygone days, or a failure to "harmonize" all references to laws that have been changed in other chapters of statute already.
I have two bills this year which were aimed at some of these types of laws. One, a provision in the licensing of funeral directors/embalmers, states that negative licensing action may be taken if an embalmer "curses or utters profanity" in the presence of a dead body. Aside from reporting issues, that seems to me to be kind of silly. Profanity in the presences of the next of kin--maybe one could argue, but as one of my constituents pointed out, an embalmer could bang his shin on the corner of a table while preparing a body, let out a singular "damn", and (if there was someone to report it) lose his license. We seek to take out just the "dead body" portion of the law.
Another is related to an old statute which says that no one shall be married if they have a venereal disease. That bill goes back to the 30s, I believe, and a fear for children who might contract syphilis if their parents aren't infected. Nebraska stopped doing blood tests or enforcing that for marriage licenses back in the mid-80s (pregnant mothers are now routinely tested, and administered antibiotics prior to birth if they test positive, to protect babies); but the law remains on the books.
Posted by: Laura | 01/31/2016 at 01:38 PM