Down in the mists swirling through the crystal ball - we can see the judge saying something - saying - saying - "The Salt Lake County fortunetelling ordinance is unconstitutional."
That is the result fortunetellers are hoping to detect after their attorney Brian M. Barnard filed suit in U.S. District Court. The action challenges the Salt Lake County ordinance against fortunetelling on the ground that it interferes with a constitutional right - the freedom to follow a system of personal beliefs."The practice of astrology is an ancient art and science," Barnard wrote.
"Although astrology is not a religion it has many of the attributes of a religion. Astrology is based upon shared beliefs of a large number of people, the beliefs are related to certain overriding and controlling principles and the interpretations of those principles," he wrote.
On Feb. 2, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department vice squad Detective Mark Chidester visited The 9th House Book Store, 3443 S. State No.4, where the plaintiff, Carol N. Green, has been selling books dealing with metaphysical subjects, including astrology and tarot cards, for more than a decade.
Chidester "informed her that she was guilty of the crime of `fortunetelling' under the Salt Lake County ordinance," the suit says. "He wrote her a misdemeanor citation and charged her with that criminal violation."
Soon after, he altered the citation so that it became only a warning, the suit says. He told Green that if she continued in astrology, reading tarot cards or fortunetelling, he'd launch a criminal prosecution.