On his syndicated radio program Culture Shocks, Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, examines the law banning fortune telling in Montgomery County, Maryland.

“Is an anti-fortune telling rule discriminatory or protective? Pagan witch and shamanic healer, Caroline Kenner joins us…”

Lynn interviews local Pagan activist and organizer Caroline Kenner, and “dirt worshiper” and diviner Diotima Mantineia about the law and its arbitrarily discriminatory nature. They also discuss the current lawsuit against the law brought by Nick Nefedro, who claims the law violates his rights.

“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.”

You can listen to the program online, here, or download the entire program. Lynn seems very interested in this case, and promises to write about it at length over at his new blog at Beliefnet. Something tells me we aren’t so far away from some planned civil disobedience and Americans United getting into the legal fray.

Tags: AU, discrimination, law, litigation, Maryland, Montgomery County, psychics, Rev. Barry Lynn