Guide Collections Laws Updated July 7, 2026

Weird Delaware Laws Still on the Books

Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover under a clear sky

Weird Delaware Laws Still on the Books

Collection - Laws

Delaware's Legislative Hall in Dover, where a 1907 pawnbroker rule and a margarine disclosure law both remain active parts of the state code.

Quick Answer

Weird Delaware Laws Still on the Books

  1. 1

    Four Delaware weird-law claims check out: a margarine disclosure rule, a married-on-a-dare annulment ground, a pawnbroker prosthetic ban, and a ban on advertising for adoption.

  2. 2

    The margarine law isn't a full ban. Restaurants can still serve yellow margarine as long as a notice tells customers it isn't butter.

  3. 3

    A statewide car-changing-clothes law and a firm-fitting-pants ban are myths or unverified claims with no matching statute anywhere in Delaware code.

Unusual Laws in Delaware That Are Real

A restaurant disclosure rule about margarine and a genuine annulment ground for marrying on a dare anchor the Unusual Laws in Delaware that check out against the actual code. All four still carry real penalties today.

Restaurants Must Disclose Margarine

Restaurants Must Disclose Margarine

Law
Delaware requires any restaurant serving yellow oleomargarine to display a clear notice on the menu or on a placard saying so.
Meaning
Margarine itself isn't banned. Serve it without the required notice, and a restaurant owner can face up to a year in prison under the statute.
Reason
The rule traces back over a century to a period when dairy farmers pushed hard for laws protecting butter from a cheaper, yellow-dyed competitor, and Delaware never repealed the disclosure requirement.
You Can Get Your Marriage Annulled for Marrying on a Dare

You Can Get Your Marriage Annulled for Marrying on a Dare

Law
Delaware law lets a court grant an annulment when one or both spouses entered the marriage "as a jest or dare."
Meaning
A courthouse marriage made on a bet or a joke can be undone through annulment instead of a full divorce.
Reason
Annulment grounds generally target marriages that never had real consent behind them, and lawmakers apparently decided a dare belongs in the same category as fraud or duress.
Pawnbrokers Can't Accept Prosthetic Limbs or Wheelchairs

Pawnbrokers Can't Accept Prosthetic Limbs or Wheelchairs

Law
Delaware bans pawnbrokers from taking an artificial limb or a wheelchair as a pledge or pawn.
Meaning
A pawnshop that accepts one of these items as collateral is violating state law, regardless of how the deal was structured.
Reason
The rule dates to 1907 and was written to stop desperate people from losing essential mobility equipment to a pawnshop, protecting a narrow but especially vulnerable group of borrowers.
Advertising for Adoption Is Illegal

Advertising for Adoption Is Illegal

Law
Delaware makes it illegal to advertise for the adoption of a child outside of a licensed agency process.
Meaning
Placing a public ad offering a child for adoption, or seeking one directly through an ad, runs afoul of the statute regardless of good intentions.
Reason
Routing every adoption through a licensed, regulated agency closes off the kind of informal, ad-driven arrangements that have historically opened the door to exploitation and black-market placement.

Weird Laws in Delaware We Couldn't Verify

Not all Real Delaware Laws You Won't Believe hold up once you go looking for the actual ordinance. A Lewes clothing rule is the most repeated example, and it has never turned up in any current code.

Downtown street scene in Lewes, Delaware

Firm-fitting pants are illegal in Lewes

Claim
Lewes bans wearing firm-fitting pants around the waist.
Why We Couldn't Verify It
The claim's earliest known appearance is a 1967 magazine mention, and no ordinance number, date, or council record has ever surfaced to back it up. It is absent from Lewes's current code of ordinances, and researchers who have searched historical archives specifically for it have come up empty.
Grouped perfume bottles on display

A special license is required to sell perfume at a Delaware craft fair

Claim
Anyone selling perfume or cosmetics at a Delaware craft fair or farmers market needs a special state license.
Why We Couldn't Verify It
General cosmetics-sales licensing exists in many states, but no Delaware statute or regulation specific to craft-fair perfume vendors has been located. The claim circulates without a section number, an agency name, or an enforcement example attached.

Strange Delaware Laws That Are Myths

Search Strange Delaware Laws online and a supposed statewide ban on changing clothes in your car appears again and again, alongside a claim about pilots that has nothing to do with Delaware specifically.

Public sign prohibiting changing clothes

Delaware law bans changing clothes inside your car

Myth
A general Delaware statute makes it illegal to change clothes inside a parked car.
Reality
No such statewide law exists. The claim stretches two narrow local ordinances, one in Fenwick Island banning living or changing clothes inside a vehicle within town limits, and one in Rehoboth Beach restricting it in public comfort stations, into a rule that supposedly covers the whole state.
Small aircraft flying over open water

Pilots must carry food and water when flying over Delaware's water

Myth
Delaware requires pilots flying over water to carry enough food and drink for every passenger in case of a landing.
Reality
No Delaware aviation statute contains this requirement. The identical claim, often word for word, shows up attached to more than a dozen other states' "weird law" lists, which is the clearest sign it's a recycled internet template rather than a real rule tied to any one place.

Why Delaware's Small Legislature Leaves Old Rules Alone

Delaware Legislative Hall representing the state's small General Assembly
With only 62 total legislators, Delaware's General Assembly rarely finds time to repeal old rules like the margarine disclosure law.

Delaware's General Assembly is one of the smallest state legislatures in the country, with just 62 members covering the entire state. A century-old margarine disclosure rule or a 1907 pawnbroker restriction rarely reaches the floor because a small body with a packed modern agenda has little incentive to spend time repealing a law that almost never gets enforced against anyone.

Key Facts

1 Delaware also bans horse racing on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, a 1973 law that actually loosened an older rule banning racing on every Sunday of the year.
2 The pawnbroker statute originally also barred accepting workmen's tools as collateral. That part was dropped at some point, but the prosthetic-limb and wheelchair ban stayed on the books.
3 Delaware's General Assembly has only 62 members combined between its House and Senate, one of the smallest total legislatures of any state.
4 The margarine disclosure law has roots in an 1899 statute, meaning the current version has been amended and recodified across four different centuries of Delaware code.
5 Rehoboth Beach separately bans disrupting a church service by talking or whispering within 300 feet of the building, a real ordinance distinct from the car-changing myth.

Quick Answers

Is it actually illegal to serve margarine in Delaware restaurants?
No, but disclosure is required. Restaurants must post a clear notice when serving yellow margarine.
Can you really get an annulment for marrying on a dare in Delaware?
Yes. Delaware law lists marrying as a jest or dare as a specific ground for annulment, alongside fraud, duress, and lacking the legal capacity to consent.
Why can't pawnbrokers accept wheelchairs in Delaware?
A 1907 law stops pawnshops from taking essential mobility equipment as collateral. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor.
Is the Delaware car-changing-clothes law real?
Not as a statewide law. Fenwick Island and Rehoboth Beach each have narrow local ordinances touching on it, but no general Delaware statute bans changing clothes in a parked car anywhere in the state.
What is the weirdest real law still on the books in Delaware?
The ban on advertising for adoption surprises most people. It exists to keep adoptions moving through licensed agencies instead of informal ads, closing off a path that has historically enabled exploitation.
Is the tight-pants law in Lewes real?
No verified source has ever been found. The claim traces to a 1967 magazine mention with no ordinance number attached, and it isn't in the town's current code.

Sources

Information is cross-referenced with official state archives.
Found an error? Report it here.

You Might Also Like