The strangest laws still enforceable in Virginia include a flat ban on radar detectors, a criminal adultery statute, Sunday hunting restrictions tied to churches, a state monopoly on liquor sales, and local Halloween ordinances in Hampton Roads that set age limits on trick-or-treating. A few other weird laws in Virginia that get passed around online, like a supposed ban on tickling or on driving barefoot, aren’t real. Here’s what each of the genuine ones actually says, plus the myths worth putting to rest.
Radar Detectors Are Illegal, Even Turned Off
Virginia is the only state, along with the District of Columbia, that makes it illegal to use, possess, or even have a radar detector mounted in your car. The statute prohibits operating a vehicle equipped with any device designed to detect or interfere with law enforcement speed-measurement tools, whether the device uses radar, laser, or any other technology.1Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 46.2-1079 – Radar Detectors; Demerit Points Not To Be Awarded The device does not need to be powered on. If an officer spots one on your dashboard during a traffic stop, that alone is enough for a citation.
The offense is a traffic infraction, not a criminal charge, so there’s no jail time and no demerit points. The fine runs around $100, and law enforcement can seize the detector as evidence. Once your case is resolved you can request it back at your own expense, but unclaimed devices are destroyed by court order after six months.1Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 46.2-1079 – Radar Detectors; Demerit Points Not To Be Awarded Selling radar detectors anywhere in the Commonwealth is also illegal. If you’re passing through on I-95 or I-81, stow the device out of sight and out of reach before you cross the state line.
Adultery Is a Class 4 Misdemeanor
Virginia is one of a shrinking number of states where adultery remains a criminal offense. Any married person who voluntarily has sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse is guilty of adultery, classified as a Class 4 misdemeanor.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Title 18.2 Crimes and Offenses Generally 18.2-365 That carries a maximum fine of $250 and no jail time.3Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia – Article 3 – Classification of Criminal Offenses and Punishment Therefor
Prosecutions are essentially unheard of in modern practice. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas struck down laws criminalizing private sexual conduct between consenting adults, making enforcement of adultery statutes constitutionally questionable. The statute stays on the books partly because no one is being prosecuted under it, so no one has standing to challenge it, and the legislature has not prioritized repeal. Related morality offenses have been cleaned up: Virginia repealed its fornication statute in 20204Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 18.2-344 – Repealed and its cohabitation statute in 2013.5Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 18.2-345 – Repealed The adultery provision is the last of that cluster still standing.
Sunday Hunting Near Churches
Sunday hunting was flatly prohibited statewide for centuries as a colonial-era blue law. The General Assembly began loosening the rule in 2014 and has since opened Sunday hunting across Virginia with two restrictions that remain in force: you cannot hunt within 200 yards of a place of worship or its accessory structures, and you cannot use dogs to hunt deer or bear on Sundays.6Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. General Information and Hunting Regulations
Violating either restriction is a Class 3 misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $500.7Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 29.1-521 – Unlawful To Hunt, Trap, Possess, Sell, or Transport Wild Birds and Wild Animals Except as Permitted; Exception; Penalty The 200-yard church buffer reflects the compromise with religious communities that made broader Sunday legalization politically possible.
Halloween Ordinances in Hampton Roads
Several cities in the Hampton Roads region, including Chesapeake, Newport News, and Portsmouth, impose age limits and time curfews on trick-or-treating. The specifics vary. Chesapeake raised its age cutoff from 12 to 14 in 2019, while other municipalities in the region still set the threshold at 12. Across the board, trick-or-treating must end by 8:00 p.m.
Violating these ordinances is technically a misdemeanor. In Chesapeake, a teenager over the age limit who goes door to door for candy faces a Class 4 misdemeanor charge with a fine of up to $250, and anyone caught trick-or-treating after the 8:00 p.m. cutoff faces the same charge regardless of age. Older versions of the ordinances were harsher, with some originally authorizing up to six months in jail for overage trick-or-treaters. In practice, police focus on warnings rather than citations. The ordinances exist at all because of Virginia’s Dillon Rule, which limits cities and counties to the powers the state legislature specifically grants them;8City of Williamsburg, Virginia. Dillon Rule the Hampton Roads cities adopted these rules decades ago as public-safety measures and have never cleaned them off the books.
You Cannot Buy Liquor Outside State-Run Stores
You cannot buy a bottle of whiskey, vodka, or any distilled spirit at a grocery store or gas station in Virginia. The Commonwealth operates a state monopoly on spirits through the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, which is the exclusive wholesaler and retailer of liquor in the state.9Virginia Code Commission. Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, Virginia Beer and wine are sold through private retailers with the right licenses, but anything distilled flows through government-run ABC stores.
The system dates to the repeal of Prohibition, when Virginia chose the most restrictive model available: the state itself buys, imports, warehouses, and sells spirits rather than licensing private businesses to do it. The ABC Authority decides which localities get stores and where they go, and residents of any county or city can petition for a referendum on whether to allow ABC stores at all.9Virginia Code Commission. Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, Virginia Residents who want a bottle of rum after 9:00 p.m. are usually out of luck.
Public Profanity Was a Crime Until 2020
For most of Virginia’s history, swearing in public was a crime. The statute lumped profane cursing in with public intoxication as a Class 4 misdemeanor, carrying a fine of up to $250.3Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia – Article 3 – Classification of Criminal Offenses and Punishment Therefor The General Assembly removed the profanity language in 2020, striking the words “profanely curses or swears or” and leaving only the public intoxication offense in place.10Virginia Legislative Information System. Bill Tracking – 2020 Session – Chapter 160 Courts had long held that profanity without a direct threat or incitement is protected speech, but the provision sat on the books for decades as a colonial-era decency rule before the legislature got around to it.
Myths: Tickling and Barefoot Driving
Online lists of weird Virginia laws reliably include a few entries that are made up.
Virginia does not have a law against tickling. No section of the Virginia Code mentions it. The myth appears to come from a misreading of the sexual battery statute, which criminalizes non-consensual sexual contact as a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.11Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 18.2-67.4 – Sexual Battery3Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia – Article 3 – Classification of Criminal Offenses and Punishment Therefor Unwanted physical contact of any kind can potentially be charged as assault or battery under Virginia’s general criminal statutes, but there is no special tickling prohibition.
Driving barefoot is also legal in Virginia. No traffic statute addresses what a driver wears on their feet. Safety advocates sometimes recommend against it because wet or sweaty feet can slip off the pedals, but going shoeless behind the wheel carries no risk of a citation.