WEIRD LAWS

Crimes change over time . . .
Weird laws don't last long in 'proper' Minnesota 


Growing a barberry bush -- even for recreational use -- is a
crime in Minnesota. Possession could land you in jail for up to
90 days, and the flatfoots would probably confiscate your bushes
as well.

Ever think about tossing a turkey in the air and giving chase?
Plan on a trip to the hoosegow if you're caught. 

Likewise, harboring a dirty threshing machine, impersonating a
straw inspector, or wearing a mask in public are verboten. And
selling a car or making too much noise on the Sabbath could give
you a month of Sundays behind bars to think about it.

At last count, there are 21,292 state laws or statutes plus
another 19,024 agency rules on the books. But like
38-cents-a-gallon gasoline or human telephone operators, most of
the weird or quirky laws belong to another age.

In fact, one could say Minnesota, which is sometimes derided as
the Land of 10,000 Laws, now has a law outlawing silly laws.

"You won't find a lot of the old horse and buggy laws on the
books anymore," says Steve Cross, revisor of statutes for the
Minnesota Legislature. "There's no such animal anymore."

Since its creation in 1939, the revisor's office has regularly
drafted legislation to update state laws. Archaic laws -- such as
those making it a crime for anyone except a licensed pharmacist
to sell liquor to known spendthrifts or prostitutes -- are
routinely submitted for revision or outright repeal.

Cross says many people have a mistaken belief that once a law is
passed, it's on the books forever. He adds some people will swear
they know of seemingly weird laws, like prohibitions against
giraffes in a ninth floor apartment, when in fact they are just
wild extrapolations of municipal ordinances.

"You can go through all of the law books you like and you'll
probably not find anything pertaining to giraffes and tall
buildings," Cross says. "You will, however, find most cities have
ordinances dealing with keeping wild or undomesticated animals
inside the city limits.

"You can see how that may pertain to giraffes or zoo animals, but
there usually isn't anything written in law specifically
mentioning 'giraffes,'" he says.

Most state departments and agencies with enforcement authority
also routinely ask the Legislature to strike old laws they
consider obsolete. 

"Having a bunch of laws that we can't enforce reduces the effect
of the good laws we should enforce," explains G.E. Gramse, former
assistant chief of the Minnesota State Patrol.

But Gramse says some seemingly archaic laws sometimes find new
life. For example, he says regulations setting the size and
number of lights drivers can use on automobile running boards are
again being enforced after being ignored for nearly 40 years.

The reason was that running boards simply went out of style with
car manufacturers after World War II and didn't reappear until
vans and customized trucks started sporting them about 10 years
ago.

With light-rail transit a perennial issue at the Legislature, the
save-it-because-we-may-need-it rationale could explain why
lawmakers seem reluctant to strike some of the old rules
regulating street cars, he says.

Under state law, conductors still have the authority to arrest
intoxicated passengers. They also are prohibited by law from
allowing a drunken passenger to detrain unless a sober passenger
can be found to accompany him home. Of course, street cars
vanished from Minnesota in the 1950s, but the old laws are still
on the books just in case.

New applications for old laws are not restricted to trains and
automobiles. Animal rights activists successfully halted repeal
of the pig-greasing and turkey scramble statutes several years
ago, arguing contests involving live animals are just as inhumane
today as they were when the laws were originally adopted.

And there are venerable laws that likely will remain in force
forever. They're written to forbid acts so despicable, so
heinous, so un-Minnesotan that anyone calling for its repeal
could well be accused of high state treason.

Hold a circus or other public celebration anywhere in the state
in August that competes with the Minnesota State Fair, and you're
asking for trouble. Not even a pardon from the governor will save
you.

-- Dave Price



Originally published in 1991 in the Session Weekly, a weekly
newsmagazine published by the Minnesota House Public Information
Office.

***Last Update 8/5/94 (jtt) Last Review 8/5/94 (jtt) ***