"Man Challenges Ban on Fortunetelling" -

Man Challenges Ban on Fortunetelling
By Rick Rojas

Nick Nefedro didn't need to have his palm read or look to Tarot cards to know that his plan to work as a fortuneteller in Bethesda would fail. His fate was already written: Montgomery County says it is illegal to make money from forecasting the future.

But Nefedro, who says he is a Gypsy, is determined to change that. He has enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union in his year-long fight to overturn the law that calls his livelihood fraudulent. He argues that fortunetelling is part of his heritage and that prohibiting him from working as a fortuneteller amounts to discrimination.

"I really want my business here, and I feel like they don't have the right to discriminate against me," Nefedro, 40, said.

He said the law is nothing more than persecution of Gypsies, who have long been stigmatized as nomadic thieves and con artists.

"Gypsies do exist, and they are not criminals," he said, adding that fortunetelling is "something we've been doing for thousands of years."