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Blasphemy Laws

Suddenly

No Punting
Suddenly
Joined
Jan 25, 2005
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Not In Follansbee
No... Not Denmark.


(Current as far as I know...)


Massachusetts General Laws Annotated 272 § 36

Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.
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Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated 750.102

Any person who shall wilfully blaspheme the holy name of God, by cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
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and 750.103

Any person who has arrived at the age of discretion, who shall profanely curse or damn or swear by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. No such prosecution shall be sustained unless it shall be commenced within 5 days after the commission of such offense.
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21 Okl.St.Ann. § 901

Blasphemy consists in wantonly uttering or publishing words, casting contumelious reproach or profane ridicule upon God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Scriptures or the Christian or any other religion.
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and...

21 Okl.St.Ann. § 903

Blasphemy is a misdemeanor.
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Code of Laws of South Carolina § 16-17-520

Any person who shall (a) wilfully and maliciously disturb or interrupt any meeting, society, assembly or congregation convened for the purpose of religious worship, (b) enter such meeting while in a state of intoxication or (c) use or sell spirituous liquors, or use blasphemous, profane or obscene language at or near the place of meeting shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, on conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than twenty nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year or less than thirty days, either or both, at the discretion of the court.
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I knew Massachusetts hated my freedom when I moved here.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
 
What happened to that nice talk about "freedom of speech" and "religious freedom" in the US?

:confused:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy

However, the US Supreme Court in Joseph Burstyn, Inc v Wilson 1952 held that the New York State blasphemy law was an unconstitutional prior restraint on freedom of speech. The court stated that "It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches or motion pictures."
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See, these laws are UNENFORCEABLE.
 
There are also archaic laws on the books in several states establishing the requirement that one be "godly" in order to hold office. They are, of course, also unenforceable. Finding old, usless laws still on the books could be a full time job - albeit totally worthless.
 
I see this has already been covered, but, yeah, there's no way any of those could be enforced under the current interpretation of the First Amendment. Of course, who knows what Alito, Roberts and Scalia may come up with?
 
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MWare said:
I've always enjoyed our law here in NY:

A person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in his/her pocket.

You can find many more at:
http://www.dumblaws.com/
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Reminds me of living in Europe and trying to go buy a drumstick from a gas station on Sunday. (A drumstick is a frozen ice cream cone bought singly, from a freezer.) They sold me one, but "weren't supposed to" since all stores must be closed on Sundays. Gas stations were allowed to be open, but weren't supposed to sell non-gas station items so as not to get an advantage over regular stores. (Gotta love socialist command and control of the economy.)

What was worse, though, was that the beach areas, being tourist places, were allowed to have stores open. So if it were Sunday and I didn't want to go to a restaraunt for dinner, and was out of food, I had to drive all the way to the beach area to go to a grocery store (and pay a rediculous premium on the goods, no coincidence there, I'm sure.)

This was 15 years ago in NL, don't know how things are nowadays. There's a lot of cool stuff in Europe, but business laws ain't one of 'em. :(
 
Beerina said:
Reminds me of living in Europe and trying to go buy a drumstick from a gas station on Sunday. (A drumstick is a frozen ice cream cone bought singly, from a freezer.) They sold me one, but "weren't supposed to" since all stores must be closed on Sundays. Gas stations were allowed to be open, but weren't supposed to sell non-gas station items so as not to get an advantage over regular stores. (Gotta love socialist command and control of the economy.)

...snip...
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Don't know what country you were visiting but the old (and current) Sunday trading laws in the UK are in place because the UK is a Christian country - they predate socialism.
 
Beerina said:
Reminds me of living in Europe and trying to go buy a drumstick from a gas station on Sunday. (A drumstick is a frozen ice cream cone bought singly, from a freezer.) They sold me one, but "weren't supposed to" since all stores must be closed on Sundays.
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All stores in "Europe" need to be closed on Sundays? Which Europe did you visit?

Beerina said:
Gas stations were allowed to be open, but weren't supposed to sell non-gas station items so as not to get an advantage over regular stores. (Gotta love socialist command and control of the economy.)
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Sweden, which is (supposedly) socialist, has no such requirement for shops of any kind. Thus, the reason is likely not due to socialism. As Darat mentions (above), the reason is probably religious.
 
Kotatsu said:
Sweden, which is (supposedly) socialist, has no such requirement for shops of any kind. Thus, the reason is likely not due to socialism. As Darat mentions (above), the reason is probably religious.
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It looks to be a touch of each. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal (which I hope is accessible to non-subscribers; my apologies if it's not), the Sunday-closing laws in France indeed started out as religious in nature but make little sense in a secular republic. Unions have picked up the slack left by the Church to defend the Sunday-closing laws. That's a little less harsh than attributing it to "socialism," but there you go.
 
How funny that you can't blaspheme but you can marry a person of the same gender.
 
Manny said:
It looks to be a touch of each. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal (which I hope is accessible to non-subscribers; my apologies if it's not), the Sunday-closing laws in France indeed started out as religious in nature but make little sense in a secular republic. Unions have picked up the slack left by the Church to defend the Sunday-closing laws. That's a little less harsh than attributing it to "socialism," but there you go.
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In Sweden there is no restrictions what can be bought on a certain day, exept Sundays - some minor shops and Systembolaget (where swedes buy their booze if they dont buy it in Denmark/Germany or make it themselves illegally) are closed.

In Norway though, all supermarkets and malls must be closed on Sundays, but kiosks and the like are allowed to be open. So you can buy a hot dog or a packet of cigarettes, but not ham or frozen TV-meals... Slightly weird in my humble opinion... This might have changed though.

In conclusion, these shopping restrictions seems to have more to do with old, lingering religious "habits" than unions and socialism (whatever that word means by todays standard).
 
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