This site is a shameless advertisement for a book, but entertaining none the less. Two guys travel across the country, for the sole purpose of break absurd laws, such as:
- Drinking beer from a bucket is illegal in St. Louis
- Whale hunting is illegal in Utah
- Fishing in your pajamas is illegal in Chicago
They have pictures of many of their law breaking activities.
There is a whole site dedicated dumb laws here, though they don’t have citations of where one can find these laws, so the accuracy is questionable.
This leads me to a question I’ve had for a long, long time. Where can I find “the law”? Really. What is legal and what is illegal? Basically every law I know, I know because someone told me, and they know because someone told them, and so on (with the exception of traffic laws, which the DOT puts out quite pleasant and clear books about). Is there any place you can actually find all the laws that are governing you at any point? How can you obey the laws when you don’t know what they are? And pleading ignorance is never a valid defense – you’re legally obligated to know the laws, but you can’t find where “the laws” are to know them to obey them.
Especially with all the different layers of laws -international laws, federal laws, state laws, county laws (pretty sure there are county laws), and city laws. And which take precedence in any given situation, especially if they contradict one another? And what about “temporary” laws, such as the exception Minneapolis and St Paul will be having to the 2:00 am bar close law for the RNC.
For another example, I know that it’s illegal to drink alcohol in public, and you can get ticketed for it, and I’ve seen this one enforced on many occasions. However, there also seems to be exceptions, such as tailgating before sporting events, or restaurants that have sidewalk cafes and serve alcohol, or while you’re in any sort of watercraft but not driving said watercraft. I would think maybe you can drink on private property that is in public view, but not on government owned property (sidewalks for instance), but this doesn’t fit with tailgating at college football games, which usually takes place on parking lots owned by the college, which is owned by the state.
Does anyone know where I can find “the law”?