Unusual U.S. State Laws Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alabama

The strange prohibition against playing dominoes on Sunday was enacted in the "Offenses Against Public Health and Morals" of the Alabama Criminal Code. The section also forbids actions like shooting, hunting, card playing, and racing on Sunday. Violators are at risk of a fine or imprisonment! Oddly enough, that same section of the criminal code also bans bear exploitation, as in promoting bear wrestling matches.

These days, of course, police officers have discretion when enforcing the laws and are unlikely, one would think, to punish someone in Alabama who likes to play dominoes on Sunday.

Answer: Mississippi

Chapter 29 of the Mississippi Criminal Code makes it unlawful to keep a "stallion or jack" within 100 yards of a church, as well as in public inclosures bordering roads or highways. The offense carries a fine of at least $25. The statute also imposes liability for any damages caused by these animals when kept at such a distance or who run at large, which may explain the reason behind the law.

Answer: West Virginia

The state of West Virginia has a law since 1998 that allows someone who accidentally kills wildlife on the road to keep it, as long as the person tells law enforcement about it within 12 hours of the accident and gets a non-hunting game tag within 24 hours. WOWK and the Associated Press report that this statute became part of the West Virginia State Code in 1998, when Republican Governor Cecil Underwood failed to veto it before the deadline. The measure does not apply to certain species like protected birds, elk, or bear cubs.

States like Texas or Louisiana are on the other end of this prohibition, with those states banning the act of collecting roadkill so as to discourage people from deliberately targeting animals as they drive.

Answer: California

The origin of this peculiar California law that no vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour is unclear, though it is apparent that legislators foresaw the technological advancements that would one day make driverless cars possible. While this used to be considered an unusual law 10 or 20 years ago, the advent of self-driving cars has made this law more relevant. Only time will tell what future legislation in this regard will look like.

Answer: Maryland

Thistles have prickly-edged leaves. Maryland classifies Canada thistle as a "noxious weed", Title 9 of the Maryland Code on Agriculture specifies that thistles of the asteraceae or compositae family (which include Canada, musk, and bull thistle), are noxious plants and are therefore prohibited. The Maryland Department of Agriculture continues to enforce these laws, with the justification that these thistles could threaten local agriculture. The prohibition dates back as far as 1984.

The DMV Area is an alternative name for the Washington metropolitan area, which encompasses the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (hence the acronym DMV).

Answer: Hawaii

The motivations behind this odd law predate the admission of Hawaii into the United States. Apparently, some on the tropical island wanted to make currency illegal to fight off the 1894 industrialist coup and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii to the U.S.

As a result, residents would allegedly push coins into their ear canals to prevent them from being destroyed, hence the enactment of this law. Other sources claim that King Kamehameha enacted the law as early as 1847.

Answer: Virginia

Section 521 of the Wildlife and Fish Laws chapter in the Virginia Code makes it illegal to hunt or kill any wild bird, wild animal, or deer under certain circumstances on a Sunday. There was an exception on the books that allowed people to kill raccoons on Sunday between midnight and 2:00am. In 2018, the section was amended to permit killing raccoons at any time on Sunday.

Queen Elizabeth I of England was known by some as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married. The story goes, according to the Commonwealth of Virginia's official website, that King Charles II named the now U.S. state "Virginia" in appreciation for Elizabeth's loyalty to the Crown during the English Civil War.

Answer: Vermont

This one stands out because it places a restriction on local governments, rather than on their residents. 24 V.S.A. § 4413, a statute in the chapter entitled Municipal and Regional Planning and Development of the Vermont Statutes, limits municipalities in their ability to prohibit the installation of "clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources." Due to the second clause, the legislature likely had environmental concerns in mind.

Vermont, which means "green mountain in French", is a New England state in the very north of the U.S. It is one of the coldest states in the country and receives a substantial amount of snowfall each year.

Answer: Tennessee

The strength of this law is arguably more powerful than any other in this quiz, because it is codified not in the state's statutes, but in the Tennessee constitution! Article IX, section 3 of that document, which refers to disqualifications, deprives anyone of the right to hold public office if they fight a duel. The prohibition also extends to those who "send or accept a challenge for that purpose", or who aid and abet the fighting of a duel. The section makes clear that such consequences only apply to those who partake in a duel after the adoption of the Tennessee constitution (1796), surely to comply with the ban on ex post facto laws in the federal Constitution.

The southern state of Tennessee is home to the cities of Nashville and Memphis, both of which are known for the development of musical movements like country and soul.

Answer: Oklahoma

Privacy law has gained traction since technology began to take a more prominent role in our daily lives. The U.S. Supreme Court created a test in Katz v. United States (1967) that interprets the 4th Amendment's expectation of privacy as both an objective one and a subjective reasonable expectation of privacy. From there, Congress and state legislatures have tried to find the right balance between privacy and security.

This Oklahoma law, however, seems to predate all of this discussion. Section 1202 of Title 21 of the Oklahoma Statutes penalizes a very specific set of actions that amount to eavesdropping: "secretly loitering about any building, with intent to overhear discourse therein, and to repeat or publish the same to vex, annoy, or injure others". This misdemeanor is categorized as a specific intent crime (as opposed to a general intent crime) because it requires both an intent to perform an act and an intent that certain consequences result from that act.