Does Massachusetts still have laws against witchcraft? If not when were they repealed? What about the anti-blasphemy laws? I know they couldn’t be enforced nowdays (atleast I hope not!) but were they ever repealed? Do any other states have similiar laws on the books? I know alot of states still have laws banning abortion and some still have ones against inter-racial marriage but they aren’t enforcable.
I don’t know if MA has current laws against witchcraft, but I do know that there are several openly operating ‘witchy’ stores and covens (is that the right word?). One of my co-workers laments that if she lived in MA instead of RI that she could practice Wicca more expediently.
Just so’s you know, the court that condemned the Salem witches back in 1692 apologized for it the next year.
There are plenty of Wiccan stores/shops/ practicing groups, not onl in Salem, but all over the state. Trying to enforce any laws against these folks would, I suspect, run into problems with Freedom of REligion and Freedom of Expression, etc.
It’s entirely possible that there might exist local or state laws against witchcraft, somewhere, somehow, but if they do, they must fall into that category of obscure and obsolete laws like the ones forbidding eating peanuts in church.
I would guess that the reason such obscure/obsolete laws are still on the books is precisely because they are ignored.
Correct me if I’m wrong…Laws are overturned ONLY when they are declared unconstitutional, or are superseded by a new law. If no official attempts to enforce a law everyone ignores, they stay. :dubious:
Then Gov. Michael Dukakis (Democrat) sponsored a bill that repealed the witchcraft laws in 1981. This was one of his crowning achievents…that and his creation of the Massachusetts compulsory automobile insurance system (which plagues us till this day). Maybe the witches had something to do with it!
Really, the American legal system is like a swamp…laws get written, and added to the pile…the MASS general Laws now run over 46 volumes! Nobody ever reviews old laws to see if they make sense…they just keep piling up.
Dukakis also did a number of photo ops with Laurie Cabot, the “Official Witch of Salem.” Either Laurie or her daughter is still running a shop there, IIRC.
[ hijack ] That’s why I favor having laws expire after a reasonable period (20 years or thereabouts). [ /hijack ]
Anyhoo, there are all sorts of laws on the books that are universally ignored because they would obviously get thrown out in a court challenge or are just plain not worth the trouble when the police have real criminals to catch. They’re still a problem on occasion when the people in power want to engage in “gotcha” harassment.