PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
404-445-2005 www.balamslaw.com 310 Maxwell Road, Suite 500 Alpharetta, GA 30009 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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Your Guide to a Perfect Summer by the Water
Know Your Rights: Get Your Security Deposit Back
2
Summer Chicken Salad
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3 Easy Father’s Day Ideas
Odd Laws Protect Salamanders and Seaweed
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WEIRD STATE LAWS SAFEGUARD SALAMANDERS AND SEAWEED WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
Ignorance about the law is usually not a defense if you’re caught in a violation. Some oddball state laws, however, are so strange that they could only be described as booby traps for the unknowing. Here are two legislative oddities sure to surprise any hapless offender. 76 Salamanders A popular YouTube commentator has called out the state of Illinois for barring anyone from owning more than 75 salamanders. Why? Several salamander species are classified as endangered in Illinois, and the state regulates the commercial trade of these amphibians. The law assumes any resident who possesses salamanders valued at $600 or more intends to market them commercially — illegally. The law estimates the value of a salamander at $5, suggesting it actually prohibits owning 120 salamanders. But who’s counting? Nighttime Seaweed From the annals of lawmaking history, a 1973 New Hampshire law banned any effort to “carry away or
collect for the purpose of carrying away any seaweed … between evening and daylight.”
The backstory: Farmers in New Hampshire once collected seaweed from the beaches to use as fertilizer, leading at least one town to ban nighttime harvesting to “give everyone an equal chance” at stocking up on seaweed. However, after a group of high school students singled out the law as the state’s dumbest, lawmakers repealed it in 2016. Not all states with stupid laws are culpable. Internet jokesters questioned South Dakota about a law supposedly barring people from falling asleep in a cheese factory. The actual law makes a lot more sense: It bans setting up your bedroom in a space used to prepare food for the public. Noting the error, a Sioux Falls radio station, Hot 104.7, fired back at critics, creating their own new category of missteps: “Stupid questions people ask about South Dakota.” Fair enough!
404-445-2005
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