50 verified laws from United States, each checked against the statute and sourced.
Utah law explicitly prohibits the use of any explosive, chemical, or other destructive method to take fish or crayfish from state waters. The restriction is codified in the Utah Administrative Code and actively enforced by the Division of Wildlife Resources.
A federal law (18 U.S.C. § 700) makes it illegal to burn, mutilate, or desecrate the American flag — but two landmark Supreme Court rulings have rendered it nearly unenforceable as political protest, finding that such acts are protected symbolic speech under the First Amendment.
Generations of Texans have grown up believing it is illegal to pick the state flower, the bluebonnet — but no such law exists. The Texas State Law Library, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Snopes have all confirmed this is a persistent folk myth.
Despite widespread belief, card counting is not illegal under any federal or state law in the United States. Casinos can — and do — ban counters from their private premises, but no law criminalizes the mental skill itself.
It is illegal in New York State to declaw a cat for cosmetic or convenience reasons. The state became the first in the U.S. to enact such a ban when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the legislation on July 22, 2019.
There is no federal law making dumpster diving illegal in the United States. The 1988 Supreme Court ruling in California v. Greenwood actually established that discarded trash in public spaces has no privacy protection — but local ordinances in certain cities and counties can and do restrict the practice.
It is a federal crime to intentionally destroy U.S. currency under 18 U.S.C. § 333, which prohibits mutilating or defacing banknotes with the intent to render them unfit for reissue. However, the popular claim omits the crucial legal element of intent — accidental destruction is not a crime.
Despite being one of the most widely believed driving myths in America, it is perfectly legal to drive barefoot in all 50 U.S. states. No federal statute, state traffic code, or DMV regulation bans shoeless driving of a passenger vehicle.
Colorado's notorious Prior Appropriation doctrine once made almost all rainwater collection illegal without a water rights permit. Since 2016, most residents can collect up to 110 gallons in two rain barrels — no permit required — but large-scale collection without authorization remains prohibited.
It is not illegal to talk to wild dolphins in the US: the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 contains no ban on verbal communication. What it does prohibit is feeding, chasing, touching, or using sounds to lure them, all of which count as harassment. NOAA recommends watching wild dolphins from at least 50 yards.
It is NOT federally illegal to collect rainwater in the United States — there is no national ban. However, some Western states, particularly Colorado and Utah, impose strict volume caps rooted in 19th-century water rights law, giving the claim a kernel of truth that gets wildly overstated online.
Vermont does have a real law requiring employers to give workers opportunities to eat during shifts, but it doesn't mandate 'one meal per day' for shifts over 6 hours — instead, it requires 'reasonable opportunities' to eat at the employer's discretion, with no fixed duration, frequency, or shift-length trigger for adult workers.