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I read once in a book of weird facts heard that slurping soup is technically illegal in New Jersey, and, looking it up, have found a ton of lists of "wacky laws" saying that this is true. Nothing I have found so far actually mentions the specific statute, though.

There are so many things unequivocally saying that this is true that I would like something clearly saying whether it is or (more likely) isn't true.

Is it true or was it ever true that slurping soup in New Jersey is illegal? If not, is it known how this claim originated?

Stormblessed
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    For notability: [a Google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=slurp+soup+new+jersey) gets a ton of results for this. – Stormblessed Apr 23 '20 at 18:17
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    Yeah I think the notability on this is pretty good. When I typed "slurp soup i" into the search bar, it auto suggested "slurp soup in New Jersey" as the top suggestion (and that was the only thing I tried). Also the results were obviously about it being supposedly illegal. – JMac Apr 23 '20 at 19:40
  • @DanielRHicks the alleged law is mentioned in the 1949 *American Magazine* in Dick Hyman's "It's the Law" series. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Magazine/DsdZAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22illegal%20in%20new%20jersey%22 – DavePhD Apr 23 '20 at 21:12
  • @DavePhD: `No results in this book for "illegal in new jersey"` – Nate Eldredge Apr 24 '20 at 00:05
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    @NateEldredge `slurp soup` has a result https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Magazine/DsdZAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=slurp%20soup – Stormblessed Apr 24 '20 at 04:19
  • How would an answer to this question look? A list of all the laws in NJ? – pipe Apr 24 '20 at 09:25
  • thanks @Stormblessed I was having trouble making a good link – DavePhD Apr 24 '20 at 10:36
  • @pipe: Either a link to the specific law, with some legal expert saying it would apply, or a link to a legal expert saying that they had searched the law and found it was not present. (Yes, the appeal to authority in that situation isn't ideal, but that's the best we can hope for.) – Oddthinking Apr 24 '20 at 19:30

2 Answers2

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This nj.com article implies that it is a legal myth

In 228 years, New Jersey's racked up 100 printed volumes of law. Unfortunately, "the bizarre laws are not all in one volume," said Laura Tharney, executive director of the New Jersey Law Revision Commission, so old ones that seem strange today linger. Even more enduring? Our legal myths. "You can slurp soup and you can frown at a police officer," said Tharney.

And searching the New Jersey constitution and historical laws reveals no references to soup slurping.

Oddthinking
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Markko
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No.

It is very difficult to prove a negative, but if it is a law, it must be written down. If it is written down, one of the hundreds of websites claiming that this is a law could easily point to either the exact law, or the interpretation of a law by a judge. No one ever has.

pipe
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    LOL - It must be illegal to slurp soup in New Jersey. I read it on the internet. Don't try to confuse me with facts. – MaxW Apr 23 '20 at 21:07
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    I just realized I wrote the generic answer to every single one of those _lol crazy old law_ questions. – pipe Apr 23 '20 at 21:28
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    But it is logically flawed. This is an answer based purely on a theoretical model. We expect answers to be based on empirical evidence rather than speculative predictions. Who says those sites *want* to link to the laws, or would if they could, or that the original claim was written after about 1998? Who says "No one ever has." - perhaps dozens of people have. – Oddthinking Apr 24 '20 at 04:41
  • @Oddthinking Then let's hope a someone can find a way to prove that something is _not_ written in to the law. It would be trivial for an attorney in NJ to find it, they have excellent search engines. – pipe Apr 24 '20 at 07:44
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    I have searched the *current* NJ law, and it doesn't contain soup in this sense, but that still leaves old law, regulations and, most likely, that the law isn't specific to soup - it is about being offensive in public or similar. – Oddthinking Apr 24 '20 at 08:40
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    It's also possible that "in New Jersey" is not intended to mean by New Jersey law, but in a local bylaw somewhere in New Jersey. – gerrit Apr 24 '20 at 09:13
  • @gerrit some versions specific Ocean City, New Jersey, but those versions aren't the oldest as far as I see. – DavePhD Apr 24 '20 at 13:22
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    "one of the hundreds of websites claiming that this is a law" - This might be compelling evidence if there is no website that cites a source. But that doesn't really seem to be established here. The mere existence of unsourced claims, more copious and popular than any reliable sources, isn't really unusual even for true claims. – Ian D. Scott Apr 25 '20 at 01:37