The Canadian government warns that some US states have enacted laws that may affect LBGT people.
  • cynetri (he/any)English
    10•1 year ago

    You say that like it’s explicitly allowed by the state.

    It is. Keeping it a valid legal defense is a policy choice. Some states banned it, they chose to. Other states have not, they decided not to. That’s politics.

    • @HughJanus@lemmy.ml
      0•1 year ago

      But it’s not a valid legal defense. You cannot ban a lawyer from putting it forward as a legal defense.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]English
        11•1 year ago

        You literally can, just like any number of other valid bases for objections to arguments put forward. If the judge rules it to be such a defense, it would be struck from the record and the jury instructed to disregard it, and if the lawyer keeps on it, they would be held in contempt of court. Furthermore, if it is plainly a case of such a defense and the judge lets it fly, the prosecution can claim mistrial.

        Perhaps there are other ways of banning it, but that is the obvious one in the American framework.