By Tim Binnall
After tangling with local police over tarot card readings, the proprietor of a Pennsylvania metaphysical shop has filed a lawsuit in the hopes of overturning the state's 163-year-old ban on fortune telling. The curious case began last October when The Serpent’s Key Shoppe and Sanctuary in the community of Hanover was visited by police chief Chad Martin, who warned owner Beck Lawrence that they could run afoul of the law should someone report them for illegal divination. The strange story spawned national headlines and led the shop owner to consider filing a lawsuit over the archaic ban, which they did last week.
The lawsuit, which is against Martin as well as the town of Hanover, reportedly argues that the 1861 prohibition on soothsaying "by cards, tokens, inspection of the head or hands of any person, or by the age of anyone, or by consulting the movements of the heavenly bodies, or in any other manner" is an unconstitutional restriction of Lawrence's right to free speech. To that end, it posits that tarot reading and other forms of divination are "a form of entertainment," while observing that the law is "unprincipled," since forecasting 'devices' like Magic 8 Balls and fortune cookies are legal in Pennsylvania.
Reflecting on their decision to file the lawsuit, Lawrence told a local TV station "I want to see this all taken off the books or at least amended to make sure that this doesn't ever happen again." In a testament to the shop owner's determination, they declared "I'm willing to take this fight up to the Supreme Court if I have to." Perhaps hoping to give their case something of a magical boost, Lawrence indicated that the 19-page lawsuit was officially filed "under the full blue moon on the 19th." While time will tell how the matter will ultimately be decided, the show owner's legal action is noteworthy in that many communities have recently begun to repeal their respective fortune-telling bans out of concern that they could wind up being sued under similar circumstances.