Skip to main content

Laws of Mardi Gras

By Anonymous

Today, on March 4, 2014, the Mardi Gras festival is occurring across the state border in Louisiana.  For any of our neighbors interested in the laws applicable to their celebration, for any Houston residents planning to travel to New Orleans to join in, or far anyone simply interested in the law as it relates to Mardi Gras, the following legal resources may be of interest:

Mardi Gras is a state holiday in parts of Louisiana as per La. Rev. Stat. § 1:55(A)(3).

To celebrate Mardi Gras, the normal rule against wearing festival masks in public is waived by La. Rev. Stat. § 14:313(C)(2) (except for sex offenders).  Setting up ladders to get a better view of passing parades is permissible, but for the first time this year ladders must remain at least six feet from the curb and may not be chained together to reserve sitting room; to find out more, read Chapter 34 of the New Orleans Municipal Code, the entirety of which is devoted to regulating the Mardi Gras celebration.

Anyone hoping to catch beads thrown from parade floats should be aware that under Louisiana law (specifically La. Rev. Stat. § 9:2796) parade spectators assume most of the risk of being struck by thrown trinkets during the Mardi Gras parade; if you attend, please remember what others have already written by keeping an eye out for flying bags of beads[1] or painted coconuts[2]. 

A few legal references for canon lawyers: while most Christian denominations have their own Lenten schedules and observances, the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans is based on the French Catholic tradition under which eating meat was prohibited from Ash Wednesday until Easter; Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday,” was the settlers of New Orleans’ last change to eat meat for forty days (not counting Sundays).  Today, this practice is governed by §§ 1249-1253 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.  In New Orleans, and the rest of the United States, the discretionary authority of § 1253 was invoked to permit the eating of meat during most of Lent as per Parts 12 and 13 of a 1966 Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence.

And finally, for those attending the Mardi Gras celebration, please remember §§ 54-403 through 54-407 of the New Orleans Municipal Code and celebrate responsibly.

[1] See Isidore v. Victory Club, Inc., 2005-0291 (La. App. 4 Cir. 11/30/05); 923 So.2d 747.

[2] See Pierre v. Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Inc., 2004-0752 (La. App. 4 Cir. 9/29/04); 885 So.2d 1261, Brown v. Lee, 04-1302 (La. App. 4 Cir. 4/5/06); 929 So.2d 775, and Palmer v. Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Inc., 2009-0751 (La. App. 4 Cir. 3/1/10); 63 So.3d 131.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Amazing, but True, Deportation Story of Carlos Marcello

By
Earlier this week, the University of Houston Law Center was fortunate to have as its guest Professor Daniel Kanstroom of Boston College of Law. An expert in immigration law, he is the Director of the International Human Rights Program, and he both founded and directs the Boston College Immigration and Asylum Clinic. Speaking as the guest of the Houston Journal of International Law’s annual Fall Lecture Series, Professor Kanstroom discussed issues raised in his new book, Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora . Professor Michael Olivas introduced Professor Kanstroom to the audience, and mentioned the fascinating tale of Carlos Marcello, which Professor Kanstroom wrote about in his chapter “The Long, Complex, and Futile Deportation Saga of Carlos Marcello,” in Immigration Stories , a collection of narratives about leading immigration law cases. My interest piqued, I read and was amazed by Kanstroom’s description of one of the most interesting figures in American le...
1 comment
Read more

This Day in Legal History -- Roy Cohn

By
Big lawyers have big personalities, and few had as big a personality as Roy Cohn who was born on this day in New York City in 1927. Cohn’s career was spent in the Washington DC—New York axis, famous in the press for his legal and social exploits, his list of famous and infamous clients, and as the poster-boy for every stereotype of the dishonest grasping lawyer. The legal career of Roy Cohn is an object lesson on the use, and abuse, of the lawyer’s power. Roy Cohn was born on February 20, 1927 in New York City. His father was a justice in the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court and was well connected politically. These connections, along with a precocious intelligence which allowed him to graduate from Columbia law school at age 20, paved the way for a bright legal career. Cohn’s first job (after waiting until he turned 21 to be admitted to the bar) was as an assistant U.S. Attorney in New York. He first came to prominence in his role as a prosecutor in the Rosenberg espi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lessons for Today from the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda

By Anonymous
“Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.” –Martin Luther King Jr.   Last week, I had the pleasure of attending  Professor Zachary D. Kaufman ’s presentation on  Lessons for Today from the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda  hosted by the  Johannesburg Holocaust & Geno cide Ce ntre . Among the many takeaways highlighted by Professor Kaufman and drawn from  Lessons from Rwanda: Post-Genocide Law and Policy   were ten simple yet profound lessons:   Lesson #1: Hate speech is dangerous.   To illustrate the role that hate speech played in the Rwandan genocide, Professor Kaufman discussed multiple forms of  propaganda , such as Kangura, Radio Rwanda, and RTLM “hate radio.”   He concludes that we must have limits, including with respect to social media, and further asserts that social media must do a better jo...
Post a Comment
Read more