More Silly Laws: The State of Oregon

The number of total laws in the United States is staggering. A lot of those laws serve a legitimate purpose. Many of them are quite silly, strange, or odd, though. It makes no difference where a person lives, either. Every state has those silly laws. Oregon is yet another example.

Here are some laws in Oregon that can make a person scratch their heads and say, “Huh?”

* According to a law in Oregon, a person who is deceased cannot be forced to serve on a jury. I’m thinking that they must have at one time had so much difficulty finding people to serve as jurors that perhaps they resorted to digging up anyone to serve. Either that or they took the term “hung jury” far too literally. Then there is also the question of how a dead person can be forced to do anything, in the first place.

* In Hood River, Oregon, it is against the law to juggle unless you have a license to do so. I didn’t even know that there was a juggling license.

* In Oregon, it is illegal to have a sexual relationship with a chicken unless both of the chicken’s parents have given prior consent, in writing. I assume that this law only applies to humans and not to other chickens.

* It is against the law in Oregon to park your car or pickup on top of another car or pickup. Okay, I’ll admit that I’m curious about what event occurred that prompted this law to be written.

* In Willowdale, Oregon, it is against the law for a man to cuss while having sex with his wife. Apparently, it is okay to cuss if the man is having sex with his mistress, though.

* According to the law in Oregon, a husband must close his eyes while the bride is removing her clothing on the wedding night.

* In Oregon, it is illegal for a driver to pump their own gas at a gas station. A lot of Oregonians think that the law is for safety reasons, but it isn’t. This law has been in place for a long time and was/is an effort to force businesses to create more jobs.

* According to Oregon state law, babies cannot be carried on the running boards of cars. This law is active and it rather makes sense, except that cars no longer have running boards and it is questionable how many people tried to carry babies on running boards even back when cars had them.

* In Oregon, it is illegal to eat ice cream on Sundays. I can testify that this one isn’t enforced very rigorously. It is likely that most Oregonians aren’t even aware of this law.

* In Oregon, it is against the law to buy, sell, or grow marijuana. Yet it is legal to smoke it on your own property. I’m thinking that the people who passed this law might have been smoking a bit of the wacky weed at the time. If the weed can’t be legally bought, sold, or grown, how can a person smoke it on their own property without breaking the law?

* This one is going to need a separate article to explain in more detail, but it is legal (provisionally) to swim naked (skinny dip) in Oregon. However, it is illegal to bathe in public without “suitable clothing”. This one makes sense, but only with the explanation that will be in another article.

* It is illegal in Oregon to use canned corn to lure or catch fish. This one actually makes sense. Canned corn is a powerful attractant for game fish, including trout, and it is felt that using corn, which is called “chumming”, gives fishermen an unfair advantage. Corn can also kill fish.

There you go; a dozen strange laws in Oregon. Again, that isn’t all of them. It is only 12 of the silly laws in the state of Oregon. As is the case with other states, there are many more.