Court says prospective jurors can't be removed because they are gay

[Redfairen]

Source: LA Times

A federal appeals court decided Tuesday that lawyers may not exclude a potential juror solely because he or she is gay, extending a protection once reserved in federal courts for race and gender to sexual orientation.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a jury verdict in a federal antitrust trial that involved an AIDS medication because a gay prospective juror was struck.

Gays and lesbians have long suffered discrimination and should be given the same constitutional protections long accorded to race, the panel said.

“Strikes exercised on the basis of sexual orientation continue this deplorable tradition of treating gays and lesbians as undeserving of participation in our nation’s most cherished rites and rituals,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the court.



Read more: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-78983441/

[closeupready]

1. Very fair ruling.

K&R

[shenmue]

4. Yes.

Thank goodness.

[LeftishBrit]

2. I'm shocked that anyone in the 21st century thought they could be!

[theHandpuppet]

10. Oh you might be surprised at the crap gays have to deal with here

Even most folks who live here have no idea.

[Swede Atlanta]

3. This is good news....brick by brick we are bringing down institutional discrimination.......

and little by little internalized discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Unfortunately just as there will always be racists, there will be homophobes.

For many homophobes it is a claim to Biblical moral authority although what the Bible has to say about homosexuality is NOTHING.

The Bible's proscription is against man on man sexual acts, especially sodomy. Many Biblical scholars believe this proscription was against custom in the Levant at the time of male rape on the defeated after a battle. There was no concept of or understanding of sexual orientation.

[murielm99]

5. It surprises me that

this needs to be discussed at all. It would never occur to me to worry about the sexual orientation of prospective jurors.

[progressoid]

6. No kidding

I have to keep reminding myself how backward so many people in this country are.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. I'm surprised that it came up at all ...

... I've been on a few juries, been excused from a few more, and never heard a juror asked about orientation.

Can attorneys ask anything they want to?

[Herself]

9. Lawyers are trained to get more than a yes or no answer

Laywers are trained to ask questions that will give them more insight than a yes or no answer.

Juror's are instructed to be truthful.

It depends on the questions that the juror was asked as to why the juror mentioned his "partner" and spoke of he, him.

The questions have to be relevent, but it is the lawyers job to excavate more info.

[happyslug]

7. Here is the actual opinion

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2014/01/20/11-17357.pdf