Special to the Daily Record
With the legal landscape being dominated by a glut of hard news, Americans are sorely in need of a quick chuckle on the “softer side of the law.” With this in mind, attorney Jeff Isaac offers this litany of laughable United States laws:
• In the city of Portland, people may not whistle underwater.
• In Norco, Calif., it is not permissible to carry a fish into a bar.
• In Wyoming, you may not take a picture of a rabbit from January to April without an official permit.
• In Los Angeles, it’s illegal for a man to beat his wife with a strap wider than two inches without her consent.
• In Nebraska, doughnut holes may not be sold.
• In Texas, when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
• In West Virginia, no children may attend school with their breath smelling of “wild onions.”
• In California, it is forbidden to spit on the ground within 5 feet of another person.
• In New Jersey, it’s illegal to slurp soup.
• In Los Angeles, it is against the law to complain through the mail that a hotel has cockroaches, even if it is true.
• In Ventura, Calif. it is illegal to make “ugly faces” at dogs that are found “freely roaming the community”
• In Nebraska, if a child burps during church, his parent may be arrested.
• In Oregon, drivers must yield to pedestrians who are standing on the sidewalk.