March 20th, 2011 § § permalink
Carroll County Seal
Some follow-ups in fortune-telling legal news …
It looks like the 38 year-old ban on fortune-telling in Carroll County, Maryland is about to end.
Last week, the repeal measure won approval from the Senate and House of Delegates.
It’s next step is to be reviewed by Governor Martin O’Malley.
Since the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled last year that bans on fortune-telling businesses violate the First Amendment, such laws have been facing opposition across the country.
Harford County, Maryland repealed its 31-year old prohibition just last week.
And Meridian County, Mississippi is likely to follow suit.
The City Attorney’s office has been asked to draw up a repeal motion to be presented to Council in April.
And in Pompano, Florida, City Council is considering changing their law to allow fortune-telling businesses to operate in the general business districts.
Presently, such establishments are relegated to light-medium industrial areas, alongside strip clubs and pet hotels.
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December 17th, 2010 § § permalink
Senator Joseph Getty, R-District 5, intends to introduce legislation to repeal Carroll County Maryland’s ban on fortune tellers.
Presently, Carroll’s code says, “a person may not demand or accept payment or gratuity to forecast or foretell, or pretend to forecast or foretell the future of another person by: 1. reading a card; 2. reading the palm of a hand; or 3. any other scheme, practice or device.”
Violators could face a $100 fine and/or up to six months in the Carroll Detention Center.
The prohibition on accepting payment for divining and/or pretending to divine, was put into the Carroll County Code in 2002, after the state removed it from the criminal code. In Maryland, both Caroline and Talbot Counties also specifically ban payment for divination.
A decision by Maryland’s Supreme Court this past June determined that a similar prohibition in Montgomery County was an unconstitutional restriction on protected speech.
Citing this case, Getty said a prohibition on fortune telling in Carroll County is a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
According to the Carroll County Times, neither the Carroll County Board of Commissioners nor the delegation of the General Assembly had any objections to changing the county code through legislation.
Power to you Senator Getty. And thank you to Ariel Harper Nave, the astrologer who brought this issue to his attention.
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