Wisconsin keeps a surprising number of weird laws still on the books, from a felony adultery statute and criminal penalties for serving the wrong spread at a restaurant to a rule giving cows the right-of-way over your car. Most are rarely enforced, but they remain part of the state code because repealing a law takes the same legislative effort as passing one.
Margarine Can Get a Restaurant Fined
Wisconsin was the last state in the country to lift its ban on selling yellow-colored margarine, finally doing so in 1967. The legislature didn’t exactly welcome it. Under current law, a restaurant cannot serve colored margarine as a substitute for butter unless the customer specifically asks for it.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 97.18 – Oleomargarine Regulations The statute even defines “colored oleomargarine” with scientific precision, referencing Lovibond tintometer readings to measure acceptable yellow tint.
The restrictions tighten inside state-run buildings. Margarine cannot be served to students, patients, or inmates at any state institution as a substitute for butter. The only exception is when a physician specifically orders it for a patient’s health.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 97.18 – Oleomargarine Regulations If you’re eating at a University of Wisconsin dining hall, the butter on the table is there partly because the law demands it.
The penalties are not symbolic. A first offense can mean a fine of $100 to $500, up to three months in jail, or both. A second offense carries $500 to $1,000 in fines and six months to a year in jail.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 97.18 – Oleomargarine Regulations Nobody is going to prison over margarine today, but the structure of the penalty shows how seriously the dairy state once took butter protection.
Adultery Is Still a Felony
Wisconsin is one of a handful of states where cheating on a spouse is technically a felony. A married person who has sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse commits a Class I felony, and the same charge applies to the other party if they know the partner is married.2Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 944.16 – Adultery A Class I felony carries a maximum penalty of three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine.3Wisconsin State Legislature. Statutory Felonies in Wisconsin
The irony runs deep. Wisconsin is a no-fault divorce state, meaning neither spouse needs to prove wrongdoing to end a marriage. The criminal code simultaneously treats extramarital sex as a serious crime punishable by years in prison. Prosecutors almost never bring these charges, and the statute dates back to 1849, surviving more as a historical curiosity than a working tool of law enforcement. Nothing, however, stops a district attorney from dusting it off.
Cows Have the Right-of-Way
If you encounter a herd of cattle crossing a Wisconsin highway, you are legally required to stop and wait. The state transportation code gives livestock being driven over or along any highway the right-of-way over motor vehicles.4Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 346.21 – Right-of-Way of Livestock Failing to yield can bring a traffic citation and, if a crash follows, civil liability.
The rule is not entirely one-sided. Whoever is driving the animals must use “reasonable care and diligence to open the roadway for vehicular traffic.”4Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 346.21 – Right-of-Way of Livestock A farmer who just parks a herd on a highway and walks away loses the protection the statute offers. The default still favors the animals, which made sense when cattle drives were routine and still matters in agricultural parts of the state.
Lighting Rules for Horse-Drawn Buggies
The state also keeps detailed equipment rules for animal-drawn vehicles sharing public roads. During hours of darkness or bad weather, a horse-drawn buggy must display at least one white light visible from 500 feet ahead, two red lights visible from 500 feet to the rear, and two yellow or amber strobe lights also mounted at the rear. A slow-moving vehicle emblem is required at all times, day or night.5Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Animal Drawn Vehicles on the Highway The specificity exists largely because of Wisconsin’s Amish communities, where horse-drawn transportation remains common.
Swearing Can Technically Be Disorderly Conduct
Wisconsin’s disorderly conduct statute casts a wide net. It covers “violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct” in any public or private place, as long as the behavior tends to cause or provoke a disturbance.6Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 947.01 – Disorderly Conduct The word “profane” is what catches people’s attention. Swearing in circumstances that provoke a disturbance could, on the text alone, qualify as a crime.
A conviction is classified as a Class B misdemeanor, with up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.7Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 939.51 – Classification of Misdemeanors Courts have significantly narrowed how the statute can be applied to speech alone, recognizing First Amendment protections. Officers today generally reserve these charges for actual threats to public order rather than someone cursing in a grocery aisle. The statutory language, though, hasn’t changed.
A Harassment Law Written for Rotary Phones
Wisconsin’s criminal code includes a statute specifically addressing “unlawful use of telephone.” The law makes it a Class B misdemeanor to use a telephone to threaten, intimidate, or abuse someone, or to call and use obscene or profane language with intent to frighten or abuse.8Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 947.012 – Unlawful Use of Telephone Repeated calls made solely to harass someone are treated as a civil forfeiture. The statute even holds you responsible if you “knowingly permit” a telephone under your control to be used for these purposes.
What dates the law isn’t the conduct it targets but its exclusive focus on telephones. The statute doesn’t mention text messages, emails, or social media. Broader harassment and cyberbullying statutes have filled some of the gaps, but this telephone-only law remains separately codified.
Local Ordinances Add Their Own Oddities
State law gives Wisconsin cities and villages authority to pass local ordinances for community-specific concerns, and that authority has produced some memorable rules. Wausau’s municipal code briefly became famous for prohibiting the throwing of “any object, arrow, stone, snowball or other missile or projectile” in public spaces. The ordinance was a general public safety measure, but listing “snowball” meant children having a snowball fight in a city park were technically breaking the law. After the story went viral, city officials revised the ordinance to remove the word.
These local rules exist because Wisconsin municipalities have constitutional home rule authority to regulate local affairs. Local ordinances cannot conflict with state law, and when a challenge arises, courts apply a “paramountcy test” to decide whether the subject is primarily a matter of statewide or local concern.9Wisconsin State Legislature. Home Rule Within those limits, individual cities create rules tailored to their own neighborhoods, which is how you end up with one town banning trick cycling on city streets and another requiring window screens from May through October.
Violating a municipal ordinance in Wisconsin typically brings a civil forfeiture rather than a criminal conviction. Fine amounts vary widely because local governing bodies set their own minimum and maximum amounts, and a municipal judge cannot impose less than the local minimum. Even a trivial-sounding violation can carry a meaningful financial hit if the municipality set a high floor.
Why These Laws Are Still on the Books
The most common question about odd laws is why nobody has bothered to repeal them. The answer is mechanical: removing a law takes exactly as much legislative effort as passing one. A bill must be drafted, introduced, referred to committee, debated, voted on in both chambers, and signed by the governor. That’s a lot of floor time for a law that isn’t causing active harm.
Wisconsin does have a cleanup mechanism. The Law Revision Committee, staffed by the Legislative Reference Bureau, periodically reviews the state code for obsolete, redundant, or internally inconsistent provisions and prepares draft bills to correct them.10Wisconsin State Legislature. Law Revision Committee Its work competes with every other policy priority in the state. A margarine penalty or a 19th-century adultery statute looks ridiculous but isn’t actively hurting anyone, so these provisions fall to the bottom of the list year after year and quietly stay in the code.