Florida's Strangest Laws Still on the Books
Luana B. Gann, Editor
6/27/2026
Still on the Books: Florida's Strangest Laws — Real, Repealed, and Flat-Out Made Up
Quick Answer: Florida does have genuine strange laws still on the books — including a constitutional amendment protecting pregnant pigs, a city ordinance against singing in public in a swimsuit, and a state statute that still classifies open adultery as a criminal misdemeanor. But the internet has also gifted Florida with a sprawling collection of fabricated "weird laws" that have no basis in any actual statute. This article covers both — confirmed real ones with sources, recently repealed ones worth knowing, and a few myths it's time to retire.
In This Article
Why Florida Accumulates Strange Laws
Recently Repealed: Laws That Were Real Until Surprisingly Recently
Why Florida Accumulates Strange Laws
Every state has outdated laws moldering somewhere in its statutes — but Florida's collection is particularly robust, for a few reasons that make complete sense once you think about them.
Florida's legal system layers municipal codes on top of county ordinances on top of state statutes on top of the state constitution — and all of it is subject to amendment by public ballot initiative. That last part is critical. Florida voters can and do write things directly into the state constitution that would never survive a normal legislative process, which is how the Sunshine State ended up with specific pig husbandry rules embedded in its foundational governing document. More on that shortly.
Add to that Florida's history as a tourism-driven state that has spent decades trying to regulate the enthusiastic intersection of sunshine, swimwear, and occasionally questionable public behavior, and you get a legal code with some genuinely memorable entries.
One important caveat before we dive in: the internet loves fake "weird laws." A rotating collection of fabricated statutes gets shared endlessly without anyone actually looking at a statute book. The full 2025 Florida Statutes are publicly searchable at leg.state.fl.us — and not everything you've seen in a Facebook meme is in there. We'll cover the myths too, because Florida Current tells the real story.
The Real Ones: Verified, Sourced, and Genuinely Bizarre
Pregnant Pigs Have Constitutional Protection in Florida
This is not a joke, and it is not a myth. Article X, Section 21 of the Florida State Constitution prohibits confining or tethering a pregnant pig in a manner that prevents her from turning around freely. Violations carry a first-degree misdemeanor penalty and fines of up to $5,000 per pig.
Florida voters passed this as Amendment 10 in 2002, with more than 2.5 million votes in favor — a ballot initiative driven by the animal welfare group Floridians for Humane Farms. The law took effect in 2008 after a six-year grace period. It was the first farm animal welfare protection written directly into any state constitution in the United States.
The full text of Article X, Section 21 is available via FindLaw if you want to confirm for yourself that yes, Florida's constitution contains specific provisions about gestation crates. It does. Florida: never a dull moment.
Open Adultery Is Still a Criminal Misdemeanor
Florida Statute 798.01 — which has been on the books for over a century — states that any person "living in an open state of adultery" is guilty of a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. If one party is married, both are guilty under the statute.
Is it enforced? Almost never. Has it been used in legal proceedings in creative ways over the years? Yes — occasionally in divorce proceedings or custody disputes where one party wanted to establish moral unfitness. The statute is real, it is current, and it technically makes a meaningful percentage of Florida's population criminals.
The Florida Legislature has shown little urgency to clean this one up, possibly because anyone who votes to repeal it becomes the politician who "legalized adultery" in their next campaign ad. Legislators are human.
Sarasota's Singing-in-a-Swimsuit Ordinance
This one shows up on virtually every "weird Florida laws" list, which is usually a red flag — but in this case, the Sarasota ordinance appears to be genuine, rooted in a public conduct section of the city's code aimed at disruptive public behavior. The ordinance has been widely cited by Florida attorneys, local news stations, and is referenced in the Sarasota municipal code archive.
The specific language addresses noise disturbances and public conduct, and singing loudly in a swimsuit in a public area falls within its reach. It was almost certainly written during an era when Sarasota was managing the friction between its arts-focused downtown and its beach-going population — a very Florida tension that apparently required specific legislation.
Is it enforced? Essentially never. Is it real? By all available evidence, yes. Sarasota's full municipal code is searchable at Municode for the particularly motivated reader.
Key West's Feral Chickens Are Legally Protected
If you've spent any time in Key West, you've met the chickens. They are everywhere — on sidewalks, in parking lots, outside bars, occasionally inside bars. They are not strays. They are not someone's escaped livestock. They are, by city ordinance, a protected cultural heritage species.
Key West's Code of Ordinances formally recognizes the feral chicken population as part of the city's heritage and character, and harming, removing, or killing them without authorization is a violation. The city even employs an unofficial "Chicken Store" relocation service — the Florida Keys tourism authority notes the chickens as a genuine local landmark. Residents who cannot coexist with a particular chicken can request relocation rather than removal.
This is not a quirk of forgotten legislation. It is an active, maintained, genuinely enforced community policy. Key West's chickens have more legal protection than a lot of things.
Driving With Your Hazard Lights On in the Rain Is Illegal in Florida
Most Floridians do this. Almost all of them are technically breaking the law.
Florida Statute 316.2397 restricts the use of flashing or oscillating lights on moving vehicles. Hazard lights — officially called "four-way flashers" — are classified as warning devices intended for stopped or slow-moving vehicles, not for use while driving at normal speed in rain. The statute is not widely publicized, but it is real, and it generates genuine debate among Florida drivers every rainy season. The full statute is viewable on the Florida Senate's official site.
The reasoning is actually sound: hazard lights while driving can confuse other drivers about your intentions, obscure your brake lights, and create ambiguity about whether you're stopped or moving. Florida's Department of Highway Safety recommends slowing down and pulling over if visibility is that poor — rather than proceeding at highway speed with hazards blinking. Nobody does this. Everyone should know the law exists.
Florida Has a Law Against Dwarf-Tossing at Bars
In 1989, Florida passed a law prohibiting bars and other establishments with alcoholic beverage licenses from hosting "dwarf-tossing" contests — events in which a person with dwarfism is thrown at a padded target, typically for entertainment. The law is tied to beverage license regulation and carries real penalties for license holders who violate it.
The law gained renewed attention in 2011 when a Florida state representative introduced a bill to repeal it — arguing that adults with dwarfism should have the right to participate if they choose to. The repeal effort failed. The law remains in effect. Florida's Legislature has made its position on this particular activity clear.
Recently Repealed: Laws That Were Real Until Surprisingly Recently
It Was Illegal for Unmarried Couples to Live Together Until 2016
Florida Statute 798.02 — originally enacted in 1868 — made it a second-degree misdemeanor for unmarried couples to live together in a "lewd and lascivious" cohabitation arrangement. Penalties: up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
This was not a dormant antique. Between 2005 and 2010, approximately 700 people were actually charged under this statute, according to data reviewed during the repeal effort. Florida was one of only three states that still had such a law, alongside Michigan and Mississippi.
After multiple failed attempts spanning years, TIME magazine reported in 2016 that Florida finally repealed the 148-year-old statute. The repeal removed a misdemeanor classification that technically applied to millions of Floridians living with partners they weren't married to — including, one assumes, a significant number of Florida legislators.
⚖️ Why Do These Laws Stick Around So Long? Repealing a law requires time, political will, and the willingness to cast a vote that could be taken out of context. Many legislators quietly know a law is outdated but prefer not to be the sponsor of the "Adultery Legalization Act." Old statutes also accumulate legal sediment — sometimes other laws reference them, custody agreements invoke them, or attorneys use them in creative ways. The path of least resistance is often to leave things exactly where they are and pretend no one remembers they exist.
The Myths: Popular "Florida Laws" That Simply Don't Exist
Florida Current tells the real story — which means we also have to address the fictional ones. Here are three "Florida laws" that appear on every clickbait list and have no basis in any verifiable statute, municipal code, or county ordinance.
"It is illegal to fart in public after 6 PM on Thursdays." No such law exists in any Florida statute, municipal code, or county ordinance. No citation for this has ever been produced because there is no citation. It is a complete fabrication that has been recycling on the internet for years. We looked. It is not there.
"Unmarried women cannot parachute on Sundays." This one is particularly persistent. No county has ever been identified, no ordinance number has ever been cited, and no legal source has traced it to an actual code section. It appears to have originated from an early-internet "weird laws" list and has been repeated without verification ever since. If you can find the actual statute, we will update this article — but no one has in the decades it's been circulating.
"Eating cottage cheese after 6 PM on Sundays is illegal in Tampa." This is also not a real law. Tampa Bay has many genuine quirks; a municipal prohibition on late-night dairy consumption is not among them. This one joins the "farting after 6 PM" entry in the category of laws so specific and absurd that their fictional origin should be obvious — but somehow isn't.
Florida's Strange Laws FAQ
Are Florida's strange laws actually enforced? The genuinely real ones range from actively enforced (Key West's chicken ordinance, the pregnant pig statute) to technically valid but practically dormant (open adultery, Sarasota's singing ordinance). A law being on the books and a law being actively enforced are very different things in Florida. That said, "rarely enforced" is not the same as "cannot be enforced" — which is why the cohabitation statute, for example, generated real misdemeanor charges for hundreds of people even in the 2000s before it was repealed.
How did Florida end up with a pig protection law in its constitution? Through Florida's ballot initiative process, which allows citizens to write constitutional amendments directly. In 2002, the group Floridians for Humane Farms collected enough signatures to place the pregnant pig gestation crate ban on the statewide ballot. More than 2.5 million Floridians voted for it — and it passed. Florida's constitution can be amended by citizen initiative, which is why it's among the longest and most specific state constitutions in the country. It now contains provisions about pig housing that no legislature ever voted on.
Is adultery really still a crime in Florida? Technically, yes. Florida Statute 798.01 classifies "living in open adultery" as a second-degree misdemeanor. It is extraordinarily rarely enforced — prosecutors have far better things to do — but it has not been repealed, and it can theoretically be invoked. The statute has appeared in custody and divorce proceedings in limited contexts. It exists in the same category as the cohabitation law before its 2016 repeal: real, technically enforceable, and awkward for everyone involved.
Why are there so many fake Florida laws circulating online? "Weird state laws" lists became a staple of early internet content, and the same fabricated entries have been recycled without fact-checking for decades. Florida is a particularly easy target because the state has so many genuine quirks that false entries blend in easily. The absence of actual citations — no statute number, no county code, no source — is the reliable tell. Florida Current checks sources before including anything as a real law.
What happens if you harm a Key West chicken? Key West's ordinance protecting feral chickens means that harassing, harming, or removing them without city authorization is a code violation. The city maintains a relocation program for residents who need a specific chicken moved. The chickens have been part of Key West's landscape since Cuban immigrants brought fighting roosters to the island in the 19th century — the birds outlasted the practice and became part of the city's identity. Interfering with them is, in the most literal sense, illegal.
Is it really illegal to drive with hazard lights on in Florida rain? Under Florida Statute 316.2397, yes — using flashing lights on a moving vehicle is prohibited with narrow exceptions. Hazard lights while driving at normal speed in rain technically violates the statute. The law's intent is road safety: hazards while moving can obscure brake lights and confuse other drivers. Florida's DHSMV recommends pulling over if visibility is poor enough to warrant hazards. This is one of those laws that would generate enormous public pushback if actively enforced — but it is the law.
Sources
Florida Constitution, Article X, Section 21 — Pregnant Pig Amendment (2002, effective 2008); FindLaw: codes.findlaw.com
Florida Statute 798.01 — Open Adultery; Florida Senate: flsenate.gov
Florida Statute 316.2397 — Restrictions on Flashing/Oscillating Lights; Florida Senate: flsenate.gov
The 2025 Florida Statutes — Online Sunshine: leg.state.fl.us
TIME Magazine — Florida Law: Unmarried Couples Can Now Live Together (2016): time.com
CageFreeLaws.com — Florida Gestation Crate Law
Animal Rights Foundation of Florida — Florida's Historic Ban on Gestation Crates: arff.org
Sarasota, FL — Municode Library: library.municode.com
SEM Law Group — Will Florida Finally Repeal FS 798.02?
Florida Keys Tourism Authority: fla-keys.com
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Information current as of June 2026.
Florida Current covers lifestyle, weather, outdoor life, and everything that comes with living in the Sunshine State. Browse our Florida Living section for regional guides, seasonal activity calendars, retirement guides and practical advice from people who actually live here.
Florida native Luana B. Gann brings more than 30 years of publishing, editing, and journalism experience to Florida Current. With a deep appreciation for the Sunshine State's culture, lifestyle, and ever-changing landscape, she is dedicated to helping readers discover what's new, noteworthy, and uniquely Florida.
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