{"id":260667,"date":"2026-08-06T23:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/260667\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T23:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:36:21","slug":"york-county-lawsuit-challenges-pennsylvanias-165-year-old-fortune-telling-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/260667\/","title":{"rendered":"York County lawsuit challenges Pennsylvania\u2019s 165-year-old fortune-telling ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

York County lawsuit challenges Pennsylvania\u2019s 165-year-old fortune-telling ban<\/p>\n

\"Morrissey<\/a>HANOVER, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

A York County lawsuit is challenging a 165-year-old Pennsylvania law that bans fortune-telling for profit, with the case now moving forward in court.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"ImageHanover business owner seeks to abolish law<\/p>\n

Beck Ravenswood, owner of The Serpent\u2019s Key in Hanover, is suing Hanover police and the borough to overturn the 165-year-old statute.<\/p>\n

“The goal of the lawsuit that we filed against the Hanover borough and the police simply is to abolish the law,” said Ravenswood, owner of the Serpent’s Key.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n

Ravenswood said a visit from Hanover police in 2023 brought the obscure law to light, along with the realization that jail time and fines could be possible if the law is enforced.<\/p>\n

“They continued citing the law to me and basically said that, if they got any reports that I was continuing to do tarot reading, they would be back to arrest me for up to a year in jail or charge me $2,500 per person. So, this is definitely something that could stop me in my tracks, much less my small business,” Ravenswood said.<\/p>\n

Lawsuit moves into discovery<\/p>\n

Ravenswood said the case is moving forward after the state\u2019s appeal to dismiss it was denied. The next major step is discovery, which is due at the end of November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean the ability to run my business without fear of going to jail over something that is over 150 years old,\u201d Ravenswood said.<\/p>\n

First Amendment questions at center of case<\/p>\n

Ravenswood said the lawsuit is about more than one business and could affect others in spiritual or metaphysical communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first hurdle is getting all of the discovery submitted as to why this law violates the First Amendment,\u201d Ravenswood said. \u201cIt is a law that prohibits freedom of speech and freedom of religion.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"York County lawsuit challenges Pennsylvania\u2019s 165-year-old fortune-telling ban HANOVER, Pa. \u2014 A York County lawsuit is challenging a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[110533,110534,19096,110537,14968,2676,28,30,29,110535,1386,110536],"class_list":["post-260667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-165-year-old-ban","tag-beck-ravenswood","tag-first-amendment","tag-fortune-telling-ban","tag-hanover","tag-lawsuit","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-the-serpents-key","tag-york-county","tag-york-county-lawsuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}