13-07-2025
From sleeping in cars to selling alcohol: Strange Delaware laws you may not know about
You may have heard of some strange state laws throughout the United States. In New Jersey, you can't pump your own gas. In Tennessee, password-sharing is illegal. But does Delaware have laws of its own that are like that?
Below are some of Delaware's weirdest laws that you may not know exist:
Once upon a time, Delawareans could not work or play sports on Sunday.
Laws known as "blue laws" prohibited state citizens from "worldly employment, labor or businesses" on Sundays from 1795 to 1941. These laws may seem hard to enforce, but people still faced consequences. In 1911, 11 Arden residents, after being caught playing baseball and selling ice cream on Sunday, were sentenced to "the workhouse" for 18 hours after refusing to pay a $4 fine.
More: Delaware's wild history of 'blue laws' has modern-day lessons (opinion)
Now, fewer Sunday restrictions exist. But the legacy of the blue laws still somewhat lives on.
Alcohol sales were banned on Sundays up until 2003. Now, alcohol can be only sold for off-premises consumption on the same day from 10 to 8 p.m. (compared with 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. the day after on other days of the week). "Adult entertainment establishments" such as bookstores and theaters that showcase "sexually oriented material" must also close on Sundays. And the state now allows limited deer, waterfowl and gamebirds hunting on Sundays, but you cannot fish with a drifting gillnet after 4 p.m.
If you're making a beach trip in Delaware, you may want to change at home, as areas like Fenwick Island, Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach have restrictions on where you can change.
At Rehoboth Beach, you aren't allowed to change in boardwalk "comfort stations" (restrooms), under the boardwalk and in vehicles at public parking spaces. Similarly, Bethany Beach doesn't let you change in comfort stations, public areas and vehicles.
More: Another Delaware beach town just adopted a youth curfew
Vehicle laws in particular expand beyond changing. Alongside not being allowed to change, you also cannot sleep, live, dwell, cook or use toilet facilities in vehicles while at Fenwick Island or Bethany Beach.
Most people go to watch movies at indoor theaters nowadays. But if you want do things the old-fashioned way and go into a drive-theater, there's restrictions on what you can watch.
Under state law, outdoor motion picture theaters showing films "not suitable for minors" are guilty of class A misdemeanor -- up to one year in prison and up to an $2,300 fine. Those films include ones rated "R" or "X" by the Motion Picture Association of America.
More: Get your popcorn ready: Bear's first drive-in theater to debut in a few weeks
That said, this law is a non-issue in Delaware, as the state's last operating drive-in theater closed in 2021.
In Delaware, pawnbrokers – individuals who shops that loan money in exchange for items – cannot accept artificial limbs or wheelchairs. So if you happen to be selling prosthetics, don't go to a pawn shop.
Yanyan Li is a news intern at Delaware Online/The News Journal. Please reach out to her at YLi1@ or @yyanyanli1 on X with any tips or story ideas.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Strange Delaware laws you may not know about
