# Stupid laws you have encountered that are actually enforced? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984 "2004-10-01T03:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/61 "2004-10-07T11:48:59Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > Most liquor laws are pretty absurd.In Kansas (until recently) you couldn’t buy on Sundays. Then you couldn’t buy in a liquor store on Sundays, but you could at grocery stores. > > Grocery stores aren’t allowed to sell hard liquor or beer with more than 3.2% alcohol. Liquor stores (who can now sell on Sundays) can’t sell beer with 3.2% alcohol but can sell beer with more. > > There are two different kinds of most beers for sale in Kansas. Take, Bud Light, for example. The 5% kind is available for certain hours at liquor stores. The 3.2% kind is available for certain hours in grocery stores. Why? The reasoning used to be: less alcohol means people won’t get as drunk on Sundays. Now, 5% is available on Sundays, so why the restriction? > > You can’t sell anything that isn’t liquor or beer or wine (like mixers) at a liquor store. You can’t sell ICE out of the same register as the beer. But, you can have a party shop that has ice in it and the same person can take your money, but you can’t put it in the register. > > You can’t sell liquor in Oklahoma without putting it in a bag first. In Kansas, a six pack holder with fewer than six beers in it is considered an open container and can subject you to fines and arrest. > > Also, people of the same sex aren’t allowed to marry each other. :eek: Also, people cannot marry members of other species, or their own family or have more than one wife… how dumb is that? ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/62 "2004-10-07T18:53:43Z")
> [@Iceland\_Blue](#): > > Also, people cannot marry members of other species, or their own family or have more than one wife… how dumb is that? Aw, and I used to like you. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/63 "2004-10-07T19:53:34Z")
> [@clayton\_e](#): > > I don’t have any stupid laws to add to this thread, but reading through this I gotta wonder… Why exactly is it illegal to sell books on Sunday in some places? “No no no… You can’t buy a book! Go home and watch some TV!” It’s not books, specifically, it’s that you can’t sell _anything_. (but there are exceptions). They’re called “blue laws” and the reasoning I was taught is to encourage small businesses, as opposed to the big corporations. The thinking is that Mom & Pop’s clothes shoppe has to close on Sunday so Mom and Pop can go to church and observe the sabbath, so if Walmart is allowed to be open on Sunday, Mom & Pop will lose business, and inevitably close. At least, that’s what my dad told me when I was young. But I guess for emergency purposes, food is exempt, so in the supermarket you can buy food, but not, say, a knife or eggbeater. I guess periodicals are exempt too, because otherwise there would be no way to buy the sunday paper, since it would be replaced bythe monday paper the next day. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/64 "2004-10-07T20:00:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, that’s the place they were talking about, and according to many callers, the cops actually do ticket folks for it. > (anything north of Trenton is “North Jersey” in my book ) And I’ve talked to people who think of Trenton as North Jersey. Green Brook is more east than north of Trenton. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/65 "2004-10-07T22:46:53Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > Visited NYC a couple of years back, traveling with some musician friends. They played at a club, but there was no room to dance while the band was playing. I asked a waitress about it, and she said they weren’t licensed for dancing. > > Or did I hear her wrong? Dunno about NYC, but San Francisco has a “cabaret” license classification for establishments that wish to allow live music, dancing and drinking. They’re neither cheap nor easy to obtain. And like NYC, I have seen bars with DJs and large enough floor space where people could dance, but signs boldly proclaiming “NO DANCING” > [@Odinoneeye](#): > > I was living in Des Plaines at the time. I grew up there. Ever go to Ponderosa on Lee St. and have a teen-aged cashier ask you to press the “beer” button on the cash register since they couldn’t legally sell you a bottle of beer to go with your steak? IIRC, a bit down the road at Jewel, they’d have the same problem now and then at the “food” checkouts. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/66 "2004-10-08T00:00:52Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > **bouv** , I couldn’t get either link to work. But I lived there from 2000-2002 and honestly now that you ask maybe I’m thinking of Colorado with the closed on Sunday thing(?) But I do know that I had to go to the state liquor store for sherry because I needed it to cook with. They did not sell it at the grocery store. You might be thinking od Colorado. As for the Sherry thing, maybe it was just that grocery store? Did they sell wine at all? I know that if O go to my hometown I can go to the Shaw’s and get a bottle of wine. But maybe cooking Sherry is under a different regulation? ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/67 "2004-10-08T10:16:12Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > Aw, and I used to like you. ☹ I’m sorry about that.Which one of the three laws I cited would you wish to be changed? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/68 "2004-10-08T14:47:21Z")
I had family in Vermont for several years…and to echo the alcohol weirdness: Vermont alcohol regulations varied by county I believe, with some counties still being “dry”. One weird regulation was that a person could not have more than one open unfinished glass/bottle in a bar, i.e. you could not order a beer and shot. I had a couple of awkward times where I wasn’t allowed to buy a beer for a friend to take back to the table, they made each person physically buy their own drink. Oddly, you could buy a whole bottle of wine for yourself or a quintuple-shot-margarita, but the glasses on the table had to match the number of persons at the table. There were a couple of restaurants/bars that were unable to sell alcohol to non-Vermonters (not sure what regulation it was), really put a squelch on tourism, with a place or to that simply wouldn’t card people just so that they could sell to out-of-state people. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/69 "2005-10-20T17:16:01Z")
> [@frenetic amnesic](#): > > Well here in Texas bars can sell drinks until 2:00 a.m., whereas stores stop selling beer and wine at 12:00 p.m. and liquer stores usually close at around 9:00 p.m. I don’t see the logic since at bars most people have to drive home after drinking so they should stop selling earlier while people usually go to stores to buy beer for drinking at home! I guess Texas is telling you that if you’re going to drink that late, the least you can do is help them make their quota of DWI stops. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/70 "2005-10-20T17:43:30Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > **bouv** , I couldn’t get either link to work. But I lived there from 2000-2002 and honestly now that you ask maybe I’m thinking of Colorado with the closed on Sunday thing(?) But I do know that I had to go to the state liquor store for sherry because I needed it to cook with. They did not sell it at the grocery store. Thought that I would chime in, as I lived in Burlington, VT from 1988 to 2001. Can’t say that I ever encountered the conditions that you mentioned with respect to the booze on Sunday thing or the dancing with a drink in hand. The sherry thing, I couldn’t comment on, as it never came up although I will say that it would surprise me. Now that I think of it, the grocery store in Williston has a liquor sore inside it. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/71 "2005-10-20T18:01:35Z")
> [@Iceland\_Blue](#): > > Also, people cannot marry members of other species, or their own family or have more than one wife… how dumb is that? Well, I think the not allowed to have more than one wife law is kind of stupid. We’ve got lots of immigrants here from countries where polygamy is permitted. But because the US doesn’t allow anyone to have more than one spouse, we’ve got lots of cases where some poor woman and her kids are stuck back in, oh, say, the Sudan, while some guy had the horrible dilemma of which of his wives and kids he could bring to the US with him. Besides, what about other, non-immigrant communities here in the US that allow polygamy? Isn’t a law prohibiting polygamy infringing on those communities’ freedom of religion? And what business of the government’s is it, anyway, who marries who, as long as the spouses or spouses-to-be are adults? ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/72 "2005-10-20T18:04:08Z")
> [@Iceland\_Blue](#): > > I’m sorry about that.Which one of the three laws I cited would you wish to be changed? 🙂 Just to clarify, because I am trying to quit coffee and may not be as sharp as a tack at the moment, but it is my impression that your post was equating same sex marriage to bestiality, incest and polygamy. As this is offensive in the extreme, I welcome any clarification that you wish to offer. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984/73 "2005-10-20T18:12:33Z")
Zombie thread. Killed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-laws-you-have-encountered-that-are-actually-enforced/266984.md?page=3)