A fortuneteller is suing Montgomery County after he learned he would not be allowed to open a shop in Bethesda because the county bans the business of forecasting the future.
Attorneys for Nick Nefedro, previously of Key West, Fla., say county officials violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and discriminated against his “Roma,” or Gypsy, culture when they refused to give him a business license. Montgomery code dating back to the early 1950s prohibits collecting cash for predicting the future.
“The underlying purpose is to prevent people from being taken advantage of, because it’s a scam,” Clifford Royalty, a lawyer in the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, said.
In the Washington suburbs, however, Montgomery County is on its own — all other counties contacted by The Examiner allow fortunetellers to operate. The District does not even require a business license, but most other counties ask fortune-tellers to follow the same regulatory practices as other service providers.
Nefedro’s attorney Ed Amourgis said the county must show there “is a need for protection” rather than simply putting a “blanket ban” over the whole industry.
“This legislation, this policy is focused really on the Gypsies,” Amourgis said. “How is what he’s doing different than running a horoscope? Who are they to say that is not fraudulent but my client is?”
Montgomery County Council members met behind closed doors last week to discuss the lawsuit.
Council Members Nancy Floreen and Marc Elrich, who both sit on the economic development committee, said there did not seem to be support for repealing the measure.
“There are a lot more important things for us to worry about,” Floreen said. Elrich said the county should not encourage businesses “that take advantage of people.”
The penalty for fortunetelling in the county is a $250 fine.
A federal judge upheld a similar ban in Harford County in 2002, deferring to the county’s assessment of fortunetelling as “inherently deceptive” and citing a 1976 Supreme Court decision, albeit not in a fortunetelling case, that said “untruthful speech” is not protected.
Arthur Spitzer, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, said Nefedro had a “good case” and that very recent challenges to similar measures across the country have succeeded in overturning bans.
“Many churches say, if you do this you can reach the hereafter, if you don’t you’ll go to hell,” Spitzer said. “If that’s not predicting the future, what is?”
